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“They’ll be alright,” he whispered. “They’re O’Neals.”
When they came home for good, Eagle was happier than he’d been in years. His boys were back where they belonged, and nothing was better than that. With Benji married, it wouldn’t be long, and the others would follow suit. They always did. If one joined baseball, the others joined. If one wanted to go to the movies, the others did.
For Ty, now using his call name from the Corps, Bone, he was just happy to be home with family and friends. Being a part of RP was the only thing he’d ever dreamed of. He never lost his insatiable curiosity, always asking more questions than most people cared for.
He remembered being at a bar in LaJolla when a young woman approached him. They were there training Marines at Camp Pendleton and decided to go out for the evening. The woman was pretty enough and definitely had a body meant for sin, but she was evasive with his questions, and that made him uncomfortable.
“Why the twenty questions?” she laughed, wrapping a leg over his thigh at the table. “I just want to have a good time. That’s all. I’ve been watching you in that sexy uniform all night long, and I’m wet and ready, baby.”
“I appreciate the compliment,” smiled Ty, “but I’d like to know who you came with.”
“What does it matter?” she asked.
“It matters to me,” he said gently, moving her leg off his thigh. “I’m not into games, and I don’t take another man’s girl home. If you won’t be honest with me, I’m afraid you’re going to have to find another man to scratch your itch.”
“What kind of Marine are you?” she said, standing over him.
“An honorable one,” he said, rising to his full height above her. “I’ll be leaving now.”
Ty watched as she stormed off toward another Marine in his unit. He was new to the team, and Ty and his brothers weren’t impressed at all with the guy. He was the kind of guy that bragged about everything.
If he got with a woman the night before, he told the entire unit about it. If he won a commendation, everyone heard about it. They knew more about his childhood awards than his parents probably did.
For some reason, the guy irked Ty, and he was fairly certain it worked the other way around as well. Simon Walters was a man that lived off the laurels of others, and that wasn’t a Marine Ty wanted to be affiliated with.
“Looks like I got the chick you were hitting on last night, O’Neal,” he smirked the next morning during PT.
“Wasn’t hitting on anyone,” said Ty. “In fact, she hit on me, and I turned her away. Hope you enjoyed yourself.”
“Oh, believe me, I did. Even left her my number,” he laughed. Ty shook his head, staring at his brothers.
“I really hate that guy,” he said, frowning at them.
“Yea, I get the feeling he’s more trouble than he’s worth. I just wish command could figure that out as well. Our only job is to train him and hope he doesn’t kill his fellow Marines.”
“Someone will figure it out sooner or later.”
Ty wanted to check into his background. He wanted to figure out what his story really was, but his curiosity would have to wait. Then Walters was transferred to another unit, and the O’Neals were retiring. They’d gone into the Corps together, and they were leaving, relatively unscathed, together. As it should be.
His father was right, being curious was a good thing, and it would always pay off for him in the end. Which was why it was bothering him so much that the new dentist at the clinic was being so evasive with his questions.
Something was wrong, and he was definitely going to get to the bottom of it.
CHAPTER TWO
Londyn Vacarro stared at herself in the mirror. The huge ballgown for her Quinceañera made her look like the top to a wedding cake. She frowned at the image and turned to see her father wiping his tears.
“Daddy, it’s terrible. Don’t make me wear this,” she pleaded. There were thousands of crystals sparkling in the light of the room and a dozen pink bows around the bottom of the dress.
“It’s time for your Quinceañera,” he said emphatically. “You must do this. It’s part of our culture.”
Londyn knew that in Mexican culture when a girl turned fifteen, she celebrated moving from childhood into womanhood. When her grandmother was a girl, she would have learned about weaving and other things to make a good home. For Londyn, she wanted no part of any of the traditions. Having grown up without a mother, she didn’t have a lot of female influences in her life, so why should she suddenly be interested in anything to do with becoming a young woman.
Every girl she knew that had celebrated their Quinceañera had grown up way too fast. Many, who were not even eighteen yet, were already pregnant. Although her father wasn’t talking marriage or dating with her, she knew that the expectation would be she would need to reproduce at some point. In her opinion, too soon.
“Daddy, I know this is what you want, but I don’t. I’m fifteen. It’s not a big deal. I just want to finish high school and go to college. Why can’t I just have a regular birthday party with my friends? You know, pizza and a movie or something.” Her father’s expression was a pinched, tired-looking one that bordered on anger and frustration, and she knew that she was pushing his buttons.
“We said we would talk about college later, Londyn. And you’re not like other fifteen-year-old girls. You’re getting this party.”
