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“I do like auburn,” Ridge said tentatively. “With your complexion it’s...”
“Insanely pretty?” she tried and then nudged him in the ribs.
“Insanely, yeah. That, or a little more.” Raven smiled beautifully, shyly. Ridge found that he loved Raven’s cute half-confidence, her down-home ‘aw shucks’ pragmatism. Not to mention her invitingly curvy shape in that gorgeous purple dress.At ease, Petty Officer Dawson; just drive the damned car.
Both were aware, though, as the Pontiac was steered neatly into a parking spot behind the little restaurant, that their banter was a flirty façade to avoid talking about Hank, or Corbett, or goddamned drug gangs. This wasn’t the night for earthly cares, but for some heavenly Thai entrees and the chance to unselfconsciously laugh. Just to be together for a while.
If she had been a betting girl, Raven would have laid money on what happened next. “Mr. Dawson?” said the bubbly, animated proprietor as they were being seated. “You still fight MMA, yes?”
“I’m surprised you remember,” Ridge answered mildly. “Raven, I want you to meet Khun Klerkkiat,” he said, using the formal Thai moniker, “sponsor of Texas’s only Thai boxing team that actually hasThaiboxers in it.”
“Must be the best,” Raven said, extending her hand and receiving a kiss from Mr. K, as any non-Thai speaker knew him.
“No better than Mr. Dawson,” he said, waving a cautionary finger. His accent took a moment to grasp, infused as it was with the abruptly chopped word-endings of Thai English and the song-like, tonal style of Thai itself. “He beat many Thai boxer. You wan’ special shrim’ starter?” he said, waving to his staff without waiting for an answer. He then left the couple and effusively welcomed two more guests to his tiny eatery.
“What was that last thing he said?” Raven asked, finding Mr. K. and the restaurant just delightful.
“He said the shrimp would be on the house,” Ridge answered, somewhat embarrassed by the unavoidable attention his achievements so often brought.
“But didn’t he say you beat up his fighters?” Raven said.
“Beat,” Ridge corrected, “notbeat up. In Muay Thai you can win without really hurting the other guy. If you know what you’re doing.” He smiled as he remembered the wild party after the bout, some eight years ago now. “That was before I was a SEAL,” he recalled. “I thought those guys were going to take me apart.”
Their promised starter arrived sizzling, and Ridge politely slid several succulent shrimp off their skewer and onto Raven’s plate. “You seemed to understand his crazy accent,” she observed. “Have you travelled in Asia?”
Just give her the broad strokes and lie about the rest.“Yeah, a little. I did a circuit through South-East Asia when I was about 20, on leave after my first shipboard tour.”
“Wow, I’d love to travel like that,” Raven told him. “So much variety and local culture.” She ate a shrimp and was quiet for a moment as the fusion of chili, ginger and lemongrass elevated the shellfish beyond simply delicious. “Wow,” she murmured.
Ridge watched her enjoy the starter with evident satisfaction. “It’s just good to know,” she said, stabbing another shrimp with her fork, “that the whole world isn’t just like Illinois.”
“It sure ain’t just like Pendale, Texas, I’m glad to report.”
“I like it around here,” Raven countered. “It’s got charm. It’s not trying to be anything it’s not.”
Two beers appeared before them, a crisp Thai lager recommended by Mr. K. “It used to be a lot more,” Ridge told her. “Has anyone shown you the ruins of the old spa pools and the hotel?”
“Spa? Like healing baths?”
“The place was a tourist magnet for decades,” Ridge explained. “They ran a rail line through here and people from the east would come and bathe in the waters. Reckoned they cured most anything, but who knows for sure?”
“What happened to it all?”
“Well,” Ridge said as their plates were cleared, “a new rail line started to take people across country and they kinda stopped coming. Then there was a huge flood in 1913,” he said, “and it ruined the spa pools and just about decimated the town.”
“That’s a real shame,” Raven said genuinely. “It’d be good if there was a draw here for tourists these days.”
Ridge shook his head a little sorrowfully. “Not any more. But these are tough, honest people and they’ll make it work.”
A big bowl of pad Thai noodles and a green jungle curry arrived. “What about you? What brought you back here?”
Ridge shrugged. “Habit, I guess. My grandparents were born here, my parents, too. Aunt Kathy was on the town council for, I don’t know, most of my lifetime. I’ve always thought of Pendale as home, wherever I was based.”
“It must have been hard.” Raven imagined the insecurity of not knowing when you might be shipped off to the other side of the world. And not as a tourist, but as someone knowingly placed in harm’s way.
“I learned a lot,” he said simply. “Now, I have family as my excuse for being here. What’s yours?”
Raven finished her mouthful and sat back, as full as she planned to get. “My family sent me here, in a way. Maggie is the closest thing to a sister I have, and sometimes you just need that, you know?” Ridge nodded sympathetically. “I don’t want to bore you, though.”
