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CHAPTER10
- DAX -
“How well do you know Millie?”
I lean against my bedroom window, looking out. Darkness has already veiled the island and packed our skies with stars. I look downward to see if the streetlight might reveal Millie walking home from the diner because she usually comes home around now on nights she closes. But the street is still empty.
I’m taking a huge risk by asking Mason this.
As a rule, guys don’t talk to other guys about things like this, early on in a potential relationship. It’s practically Bro Code. Sure, there’s plenty of locker-room style bragging, but nothing that would reveal a connection with a woman any deeper than the puddle on Millie’s floor I cleaned up about an hour ago.
“How well do I know Millie?” Mason repeats and then pauses before specifying, “You mean, Apple Pie Millie?”
Before answering, I switch to speakerphone for a moment and then open my window.
The yard still smells like freshly mowed grass and the way the scent seems to combine with the salty air makes me want to live here forever. It’s dark enough that Millie might not even notice that I mowed her grass today after my time at the beach. And I’m sure she won’t notice that I cleaned her gutters.
It shouldn’t matter to me whether she notices or not. I’ve always loved yardwork, even as a kid, mowing all my neighbors’ grass for a little extra cash. I love the feeling it gives me—the satisfaction of a job well done.
So I did it for myself as much as for her.
Bullshit.
I totally did it for her. To earn a few more points in my favor. I can’t help it. Since that evening on the back porch eating burgers, all I keep thinking is how much I like this woman… this woman who has sworn off military guys.
“Yeah. Apple Pie Millie. Also, my housemate,” I tell him, stepping back from my window. “You can’tpossiblytell me that you know another woman named Millie.”
“No, but…” There’s a long pause. “So, you’re actuallyliving togethernow?”
“Well, yeah. Housemates,” I tack on again, because his intonation definitely suggests that something else is going on between Millie and me. “On the weekends. Didn’t you figure that out when she called you and Freya for a reference?”
“I knew you were thinking of renting from her. But figured you’d come to your senses. That’s a lot of money to spend just for a place to keep your surfboard, basically.”
I shrug as I sit on my air mattress. It makes a squeaking noise as I do which awakens Junie next to me. She lifts her lazy head and plops it on my lap, and I pet her automatically. Funny how the action of petting a dog is nearly instinctive. It makes me wonder how I’ve lived this long without getting one for myself.
“Well, some of us don’t have a wife and a kid and a college fund already on our minds yet,” I point out. “And how many times is my battalion actually going to be stateside all summer?” I furrow my brow, sensing that Mason is avoiding my initial question. “So… how well do you know her?”
“Uh, well...”
I frown at his hesitation. “It’s not a trick question.”
He pauses another beat. “I know her brother well. He was best man in my wedding.”
“But not her?”
“Well, I figured her brother would look better in a tux,” he jokes.
“I’m being serious here.”
“Okay, okay. Uh, Freya knows her better than I do. They talked at the wedding and the rehearsal dinner a lot. And I think they text every once in a while. Or email. Not sure. Why?”
“Because I—I like her,” I admit, even though as the words slip from my lips, I realize I sound like I’m sixteen and want to ask her to Homecoming.
“You like Millie?” His voice is deadpan.
“Yeah.”
The sigh he breathes out sounds very nearly painful. “She’s going to be relentless after this,” he mutters.
