The Last Santini Virgin

A bottom lip he suddenly wanted to kiss more than he wanted to draw his next breath. The other couples were driving away, and the flash of headlights skimmed across her face and faded again, leaving only the dim glow of the yellow fog lights in the parking lot. Streamers of gray, damp fog drifted in from the ocean and twined around their legs, linking them together in an otherworldly grip.

Seconds passed, ticking by as they stared at each other. She was so close. Close enough to kiss. To touch. He lifted one hand, and as she leaned in toward him a car horn sounded, shattering the weird spell that had been cast over them.

She shook her head as if coming up out of a dream. “I, uh, have to go.”

“Yeah. Me, too.”

She opened her mouth to say something more, but snapped it shut again a moment later. Then, without giving him another look, she turned around and marched off across the shadowy parking lot toward her car.

Nick watched her go and told himself he was only keeping an eye on her to see that she made it into her car safely. After all, a pretty woman, a deserted parking lot, it was the decent thing to do. But he was still standing there, staring after her, long after she’d pulled out of the lot and driven off.

The next day after work, Nick entered the Staff NCO club and headed down the wide hallway. Absently he took the short flight of steps, passed the small reception area and climbed five more steps to the darkened ballroom. As he stepped into the familiar club, he turned to his right and stopped just at the long mahogany bar. His gaze swept the shadow-filled room. A huge place, it looked nearly empty, with just a sprinkling of tables dotting the floor. But when the room was decked out for a ball or a party, the old club shone like a gem.

The few noncommissioned officers seated at the tables barely glanced his way. He recognized a few familiar faces in the bunch. But on a base the size of Pendleton, it wasn’t unusual to see a lot of strangers as well as friends.

He leaned his elbows on the bar, ordered a beer and, as he had been doing all day, relived those last few minutes in the dark with Gina. Gritting his teeth, he told himself for the thousandth time that he’d had no right to stomp on her feelings like that. So what if she irritated him? That didn’t give him leave to fire mortar rounds at her heart.

And, damn it, he was sure he’d seen her eyes go all teary.

Great, he thought as the bartender slid his beer in front of him. Big, strong Marine had made a woman cry.

He took a long swallow of beer and tried to rinse the taste of disgust from his mouth as another Marine entered the bar and walked up beside him. “Paretti?”

Half turning, he looked at the man, noted the insignia on his shirtsleeve and recognized him as another Gunnery Sergeant. “Yeah?”

The guy stuck out his right hand and said, “Thought it was you. I’m Davis Garvey.”

“I’ve seen you around,” Nick said with a nod as he shook the man’s hand, then turned to pay the bartender for his beer. Glancing back at Davis, he asked, “You want anything?”

“No, thanks,” he said, and waved the bartender off. “I’m on my way home. Just stopped in to look for you, actually.”

“Now why would you do that?” Nick asked, and took another sip of his drink, wishing the guy would leave so he could get on with torturing himself for picking on Gina.

The other man grinned and leaned one elbow on the bar. “Sort of promised my new sister-in-law I would.”

Nick looked at the guy, trying to figure out what was going on here. As far as he knew, he hadn’t dated any women lately who had brothers-in-law stationed at Pendleton. So it couldn’t be some defending-her-honor kind of thing. And if this was leading to a “shotgun wedding” scenario, the man would just have to go ahead and shoot him. No way was Nick Paretti getting married again. The phrase “been there, done that” roared across his mind.

“Okay,” he said after a minute or two of silence, “you have my attention. What’s up?”

Around them conversations flowed, Marines relaxed after a long hard day, and splashes of laughter shot through the air. But Nick wasn’t paying attention to any of it. Instead, he concentrated on the man now grinning like some damned fool.

“I hear,” Davis said, “you’ve been making Gina’s life miserable at dancing school.”

Panic, swift and sure, shot through him.

“Hey!” Nick spoke up quickly, then threw a fast glance at the Marines on either side of them to make sure they hadn’t been listening in. After all the trouble he’d been going to, to keep his dancing lessons a secret, he sure wasn’t about to stand there and let Davis Garvey announce it in the NCO club. Hell, the news would be all over base by morning.

He could almost hear the teasing and ribbing he’d be getting for the rest of his life if word got out. They would be calling him Sergeant Twinkle-Toes or something else just as humiliating. For Pete’s sake, he had to get Garvey out of there.

Wouldn’t you just know Gina would be involved in this? All of his guilty feelings melted away to be replaced by the irritation he usually felt for the woman.

“Why don’t we go outside to talk about this?” he suggested, and took a huge swallow of beer when he’d finished talking.

Davis’s grin broadened, and his eyes held a knowing gleam. Yep, he knew exactly why Nick was trying to get him to leave the club. “Oh, I don’t know. I’m happy right here.”

Scowling at his fellow sergeant, Nick muttered, “Look, I’m not going to talk about it in here, all right?”

Then he turned around, marched out of the room and down the first flight of stairs like a man on the parade ground. He never looked back, never checked to be sure Garvey was following him. Just kept walking, across the reception area, up the short flight of steps and out the doors into the late-afternoon gloom. Nick kept walking until he reached his car, and there he stopped, waiting.

In another minute or two Davis Garvey approached slowly, hands in his pockets, that damned smirk still on his face.

“All right, what’s this about?” Nick snapped.

“I told you. Gina.”

Figured. It wasn’t enough that she drove him crazy at class. Now she’d thought of a way to bother him at work, too. And to think he’d spent all day berating himself for hurting her feelings. “She’s your sister-in-law, you said?”

“Yep. I married her sister Marie a couple of weeks ago.”

“Congratulations,” Nick muttered, and silently wished the poor guy luck. He’d need it if his new wife was anything like her sister.

“Thanks.”

He didn’t want to insult the man’s family, but damned if Nick was going to stand there and not defend himself, either. “Since you’re related to her, you should know what Gina’s like.”

“Charming?” Davis suggested. “Beautiful? Funny?”

All of the above, Nick thought, and plenty more. “Don’t forget to add annoying, shrewish, bossy…” He paused, then asked, “Do I have to go on?”

“No,” Davis said on a laugh. Shaking his head slightly, he added, “I think I get the picture.”

“I’m not sure you do.”

“Look,” Davis said, “Gina said you’ve been giving her a hard time, so I thought I’d talk to you about it.”

Disgusted, Nick said, “Strange, she didn’t strike me as the kind of woman who needed someone else to fight her battles.”

“She isn’t,” Davis told him, and his smile was gone. “But she’s family now. And I look out for my family.”

Nick took the man’s measure and slowly nodded. He could understand family loyalty. “I’d do the same.”

“Then you’ll lighten up on Gina?”

“I’ll fire only if fired upon,” he said solemnly.

Davis smiled again. “Sounds fair enough to me.” He held out his right hand once more, and Nick took it in a firm shake. “Good to meet you, Gunny.”

“Same goes, Gunny,” Nick said.