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“Nah.”
“Why not?”
Jace shrugged. “Because as you pointed out in the beginning, this is a vacation fling. That’s all it is.”
“Yeah,” I murmured softly. Something in the pit of my stomach didn’t feel right. “Probably the most intense vacation fling ever, though.”
“Maybe,” he agreed. “But it’s not serious. You said it yourself: you’re unleashing sexual tension. Having fun wiling away the days with us until it’s time to go back to reality.”
The flowers faded and another series of images flashed before my eyes. I saw snow, darkness, my lonely apartment. My father’s garage. Brian’s betrayal.
Reality…
Did such words even hold meaning in a place like this? Everything here was so amazing I’d shoved the past into the nearest closet so I could focus on the present. But also, the future too.
What happens when I get home?
I hadn’t thought about my previous life for so many days it actually felt foreign now. Like it belonged to someone else, and that someone wasn’t me.
“Merrick joined the Air Force because he wanted to fly,” Jace said suddenly. “And Aurelius got recruited while working the shipyards as a kid.” One of his arms was still folded across his knees as his head swiveled to face me. “Know what made me want to serve?”
I tried to think; to remember back to when Jace first sat down and told us he’d signed with some Army recruiter. Slowly, I shook my head.
“It was your father, Dakota. He made me want this life.”
My lips parted as my mouth dropped slightly open. “Really?”
“Tyler and I used to hang around the garage a lot,” he went on, “and your father told us stories about being in Desert Storm. He used to fix tanks, Humvees, all kinds of things. He was a heavy equipment mechanic, but he was inserted into forward columns that also saw action. Lots of action.”
I nodded slowly. I knew all this of course, but I didn’t know that Jace knew it too.
“He inspired me to join the service, Dakota. To get out and see some of the things he did.”
“Wow,” I smiled. “He’d be thrilled to know that.”
“Yeah.”
“He’d also love to hear about some of the things you’ve seen.”
The smile on his face was genuine now, instead of forced. A step in the right direction.
“My father adores you, Jace,” I told him. “He always has. Out of all Tyler’s friends, you were the only one he considered… how do I put this…” I elbowed him and grinned. “Not a total fuckup.”
My words elicited a distant, hollow laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. “That’s your father, alright.”
I slipped my left arm from beneath the blanket and stared down at my beautiful rings. It had been a lot of fun, pretending to be married. Now that our time was almost over, I loathed the idea of taking them off.
I wish we really were married, I thought absently.
The thought flashed alarm bells in my head. Not because the idea was crazy, but for another reason entirely:
Actually, I wish I were married to all of them.
I swallowed hard, trying to keep my stomach in check while I searched my feelings. There was so much to process, so much to reconcile. I’d been pretending this whole time, but also not pretending. And maybe, just maybe, I’d been lying to myself about something really important.
Something to do with the word ‘fling.’
