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“So?” Rhett asks with a wide grin, and I laugh.
“Alright, this is a pretty good distraction,” I admit as I sink deeper into the sand.
The waves are crashing right in front of us, and I snuggle deeper into his suit coat as I lick my ice cream cone.
We’re currently sitting on the beach, eating ice cream even though it’s like fifty degrees out. Rhett insisted that ice cream could cure everything, and I had gone along with his crazy plan because I didn’t want the night to end on such a sour note. Actually, I didn’t want the night to end at all.
“Beach or mountains?” I ask him, and he hums as he licks his own ice cream cone.
I had gotten cookies and cream, but Rhett’s mint chocolate chip is looking better and better with every lick. My mouth waters as I watch his tongue swipe up more ice cream.
God, I wish that I was that cone.
“Beach, I think. The mountains in Afghanistan were pretty, but I don’t have the best memories tied to them,” he admits, and I nod.
“I think I’d choose the beach too.”
“Is that where you’re going to go first for your travel blog? Some beach somewhere?”
“Maybe. It would be cool to see the pink sand beaches in the Bahamas or the black sand beach in Iceland.”
“You could get a little jar of sand from each place you go to,” he suggests, and I smile.
“That would be cool.”
“I have one from Afghanistan and Iraq,” he says, and I smile.
“Really?”
“Yeah, it started as a joke with my unit, but I still have them.”
He shrugs, and I study him. He hasn’t really told me all that much about his time in the military, and I hate to pry, but it seems like he’s opening up a bit tonight. I wonder if he’s just doing that to distract me and make me feel better. It fits with who he is.
Rhett is the best person that I’ve ever met. He’s caring and sweet, patient, funny, generous, and smart.
“How the hell are you still single?” I blurt out, and he laughs.
“Well, we were deploying like every nine months or so. Being gone for so long wasn’t the best for starting a new relationship.”
“Still,” I say, and he smiles.
“Okay, the truth?”
“Please.”
“My parents weren’t the best role models for lasting love. I spent my entire childhood protecting Lottie and myself from them when they were on one of their tears. As soon as we got out, I joined the military with Anson, and things have kind of been a whirlwind since then. I just haven’t given dating much thought until recently.”
My heart skips when he says those last two words, and I look away from him so that he can’t see the hope and longing shining in my eyes.
“What about you?” He asks when I don’t say anything.
“Well, going to an all-girls boarding school limits the number of boys to date,” I try to joke, and he smiles. “Then, I don’t know. No one ever really interested me when I was in college.”
I want to tell him that no one has ever interested me before now, but what if I’m reading this wrong? I don’t want to make it awkward between us, and the truth is that I’m just not confident or bold enough to come right out and admit that I want him.
“Did you always want to join the military?” I ask him, trying to get us back into safer territory.
“No, not always. There weren’t a ton of options for us, though. Anson and I both grew up with next to nothing. We’ve been scraping by our entire life, and the military was just the best option to change that.”
