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She hadn’t gone to a therapist after what had happened but she had started reading a lot of self-help books. At first she kept waiting for him to walk back into her life and then after three months of that kind of hopelessness, she’d decided she needed to move on. All her life she’d had a plan for herself and it had always involved a white knight riding in and scooping her up on his horse. It was odd, but she’d always wanted to be lifted onto a horse by a big, strong warrior man and carried out of her dull ordinary life.
After Jay...it was clear that no white knight was coming and that her warrior man was just a man with issues and flaws. She’d also come to the realization that her man hadn’t had the same dream of a life together that she’d had. So she’d had to readjust. And baking, not to mention graduating from cooking school, had helped her do that.
Now, she was self-supporting and happy with her career. She could easily see herself owning Sweet Dreams and baking for the rest of her life. That thought often made her smile when she was feeling alone.
But Jay was back and he was offering her a chance to mend her broken heart and finally reclaim a little of her feminine pride. Though she’d never admit it out loud, having him leave her the way he had had made her doubt her own attractiveness to the opposite sex. Had made her wonder if she had some kind of flaw that she’d never noticed before.
“Alysse?” he asked in that deep voice, reminiscent of the way he’d sounded on the phone this afternoon when he’d pleaded with her to deliver the dessert.
“Hmm?”
“I asked if you were done with your salad. The waiter wants to clear our plates and bring out dinner,” he said.
“Yes, I am. Sorry about that,” she said. She really needed to stop daydreaming and pay attention. This was Jay Michener and he wouldn’t hesitate to use any weakness he spotted against her. She knew him well enough to know he was back here to win. “I was lost in the past.”
“I understand that,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the past.”
The waiter cleared the table and laid down the dinner plates. He removed the covers and she saw that there was a pan-seared tuna with a creamy risotto and asparagus. It smelled heavenly and she stared at her plate, trying to make the evening about food instead of about the past. But she knew that was a lie.
The waiter offered cracked black pepper and refilled their wineglasses before leaving. She stared at the empty beach. The sun still shone but it wasn’t very bright.
“Alysse?”
“Yes?” she asked. It was silly to still be wearing sunglasses, she thought as she focused on Jay’s face.
“Are you okay?”
“No,” she said. “I’m not. This is the most surreal night of my entire life and that’s counting the night I married a stranger.”
His mouth tightened but then he relaxed his shoulders. “I guess I’m glad it’s not boring for you.”
Just that one sentence shocked her and made her smile. Then she started laughing though it wasn’t that funny and she felt the sting of tears and the very real urge to start crying. Damn. She turned her head away from him, pushed her sunglasses up on top of her head and wiped her eyes.
“You do know how to show a girl an interesting time,” she said. “What have you been up to?”
“Fighting,” he said. “That’s what I do.”
She arched one eyebrow at him. That was almost too straightforward, especially for Jay.
“Sorry. It’s on a T-shirt that a guy in my unit gave me last Christmas.”
“Oh,” she said, realizing there was a possibility of him having a life outside the Corps. “I have one that says ‘I dream in dark chocolate.’”
He smiled and they started eating. She gave Jay props for keeping the conversation light and she found him charming. Too charming as he recounted some humorous pranks he’d played on his buddies. That was how he referred to them. No names or any other identifiers.
“Why don’t you call them by their name?” she asked as they were finishing up dinner.
“I don’t know why, I just think of them as they are, like sniper-scout. He’s the fourth one I’ve been paired with since I’ve been in the Corps.”
“What does he do exactly?” she asked.
“He’s my partner in the field. He helps me sight the target by gauging wind and other factors. He’s got my back, you know?”
She shook her head. “In the movies, snipers are always loners, but it doesn’t seem like you are.”
