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“This place has delicious food, and the view can’t be beat,” she explains as we wait for a hostess to seat us.
“I’m sure it’s not as good as your food at The Cellar, though.” I wink at her, and she almost appears to blush.
The hostess arrives and leads us outside to a table on the deck. Shawna was right. The view is spectacular! The sun hasn’t completely set, so there’s still enough light to see across Puget Sound, and the water and mountains in the distance are picture-perfect. We’re seated at the last table available on the deck. This place is popular, so I suppose we were lucky to get the last seat outside.
“I haven’t been here in a while,” Shawna says as she looks over the menu. “Their menu has changed a bit.”
“I hope that’s a good thing,” I say.
“I’m sure it is. I’ve never had anything bad here.”
After we finish looking over the menu and the server takes our order, Shawna leans in and asks, “Tell me about being in the Navy. You told me some things yesterday, but I’m curious to know more.”
“Well, where should I start?” I ask. I did tell her some surface-level things about my career yesterday, and then I lied a bit to match Rob’s and my cover story.
“How about what you like about the Navy? What tours have you done, or where in the world would you go back to if you had the chance?”
I chuckle. “Well, let’s see …” I think about her questions. I haven’ttalked about the specifics of my time in the Navy in a long time. Aside from telling her the basics when we were talking at her bar, I haven’t thought about all my tours in a while. “I guess I like the camaraderie best. When I was a teenager, my older cousin Liam would tell me all about the guys he was serving with, and it seemed like a brotherhood, you know? The thought of that was appealing to me, along with the fact that I’d be serving my country and helping others. Once I joined, I discovered how real that brotherhood is, and it’s what kept me going. The support of the guys I was serving with—and still am serving with—is strong. I’d do anything for those men, and I know they’d do anything for me.”
Shawna nods. “My dad felt the same way about the Navy. Even after he retired, his best buddies were the guys he served with. So I get it.”
“That’s great. I bet your dad was an amazing guy.”
“He was,” she says with a look of pride on her face.
The server delivers our drinks and lights the candle on our table. It’s getting darker, and the ambiance is—dare I say it—romantic.
Shawna takes a sip of her vodka lemonade. “Tell me more about your tours.”
I take a swig of my beer. Talking about my tours is not something I enjoy. “Well, as I told you before, I’ve been all over the world. I did a lot of time in the Middle East, but I also spent a little time in Spain, Italy, and Singapore. Obviously, the tours in the Middle East weren’t fun, but I enjoyed the others. I wouldn’t mind traveling back to Asia and Europe someday.”
“How long were you there for?” Shawna asks, taking another sip of her drink.
“Spain, Italy, and Singapore were all only six months each. Not as long as my times in the sandbox. Those were brutal.”
“How many times did you have to go to the Middle East?”
“Too many,” I say with a chuckle, then take another drink of my beer. I really don’t like to discuss this. I swallow, then add, “Altogether, my time in the Middle East was equal to about four years. Obviously, not all at once, but cumulatively.”
Shawna nods and must sense I don’t enjoy this topic. “Tell me more about the good tours. I’ve never been anywhere in Europe or Asia.”
I begin telling her about my good times abroad. It’s been so long since I’ve talked about this, and it brings back good memories. I actually find myself enjoying the conversation, and like always, it flows easily between us. Shawna has the best laughter, the contagious kind. I can’t help but feel happy and carefree when I’m with her, and it feels good to tell her about my time in the Navy. The good times, at least.
Once our food arrives, our conversation continues.
“How does Bremerton compare to the rest of the world?” she asks, resting an elbow on the table and her chin on her fist. I need to remember that according to my cover story, I’m still enlisted in the Navy.
“It’s beautiful here in Washington, both in Bremerton and here in Port Townsend. The mountains, the water, all the greenery … it’s just different from Europe and Asia. I can’t really compare them because they’re all amazing in different ways. Same with San Diego, where I was stationed before coming up here. I love sunny Southern California, but I’ve discovered things I like about Washington more.”
Shawna looks into my eyes as if she’s pondering what I’ve said. We just look at one another, holding eye contact. God, she’s beautiful. And I feel extremely guilty for having to lie to her. Not that everything I’m telling her is a lie, but I’m no longer in the Navy, I’ve never been to the Bremerton Naval Base, and I’m leaving out huge chunks of my life. She doesn’t know I was really a Navy SEAL or why I had to get out. She doesn’t know that I work for a private security company that’s looking for her domestic terrorist ex-boyfriend. It wasn’t by chance that Rob and I wandered into her bar that day and struck up a conversation with her. We knew who Shawna was and where she worked. I knew things about her from our research before we left San Diego.
I never expected to like her so much, though.
“Thanks for sharing all of that with me,” Shawna says, pulling me out of my thoughts. “You’ve had a really interesting life.”
Fuck, I’m a dick. I don’t feel good about lying to her.
I decide to turn the focus onto her. “Well, what about you? Where have you traveled in your life?”
