TY
No fucking way. I finally get a good look at the blonde across the room and ho-ly shit. It’s her. The woman from Key West. The one I never managed to get out of my head after all these years. Or hell, it’s not like I tried to get her out of my head. Not at all. She’s been my favorite fantasy ever since that night.
“You good, man?” Colton asks before taking a drink. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”
“I kind of did.” I indicate the gorgeous blonde sitting at a table with two other women. “I know that chick. The gorgeous blonde sitting with Michelle and Bailey?”
David follows my gaze, smiling when he sees his wife. “You mean Lexi?”
Her name reverberates through my mind. I knew her as Alexa—a name I haven’t forgotten over the years. “That’s the one.”
Colton bobs his head. “She’s sweet, that one. You remember her from school? She went to Brookside with us, but she’s a few years younger.”
I stare at the woman across the room as she talks with her friends. “No. I mean, yes. I mean, I know we both grew up here, but I didn’t know her back then. We met, once, maybe five years ago?” I stare into my drink, trying to do a quick calculation. “Six years ago. Almost seven. Wow.” Has it really been that long? “I had just come back from a tour and needed to chill, so I went down to Key West for a few days and ran into her. We figured out we grew up in the same town but never met before then and the rest is history. We spent one beautiful day together and then I got a call from the base commander in the middle of the night telling me to get my ass back home pronto. I left her a note professing my undying love, and I haven’t seen her since.” I stare her way again. “I wonder if she remembers me.”
Colton guffaws. “Right. Because one random day with you is enough to stick with a woman for almost seven years.”
“Exactly.” I hold up my glass in a mock salute and then take a drink.
He rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “Shit, man. I didn’t think you could get more full of yourself, but congratulations on exceeding expectations.”
“I know my strengths, that’s all.” I shrug, laughing. “And getting under a woman’s skin just happens to be one of them.”
David and Colton talk about life in Brookside but I couldn’t care less about what they’re saying. I smile and nod my way through it just so I’m not too much of a dick to my friends, but I’m caught up in my head something awful. My mystery woman is here. Sitting no more than twenty feet away from me.
How many times have I fantasized about running into her? How many times have I replayed the day we spent together? How many harrowing, gunfire filled missions has she gotten me through? When shit went sideways or things got hard, I focused on her. I don’t know why. Maybe she was my happy place. Maybe she was something beautiful in the middle of a shit ton of ugly. Whatever the reason, it worked and I swear, the only reason I’m sane is because of her and all the imaginary conversations she and I had over the years. I poured my heart out to her, over in Afghanistan, night after night, telling her more than I’ve ever told anyone. Sure, it was an imaginary her, bikini clad and smelling of coconut and seawater, but it helped. A lot. And now here she is, just across the room, and I can finally talk to her face to face.
“I’m going over there.” I interrupt whatever Colton is talking about because it’s obviously irrelevant.
He gives me a wounded look. “Why do you always do that to me?”
“Do what to you?”
“Just talk over whatever it is I’m saying.”
“Because I learned a long time ago that whatever it is you’re saying is complete and utter bullshit.”
“Dude. Wow. That hurts.” Colton puts a hand to his heart as David laughs.
“He’s right you know.” David rakes a hand through his hair. “We can tune into every fourth word and still get bored.”
“You’re both assholes,” Colton says and then turns to me. “So, are you going to go talk to her or just sit here and rip on me all night?”
“Believe me, I’m sure I’ll be able to pull off both.” I glance back at Alexa—Lexi—and find her looking right at me. I flash to the way she looked the first time I saw her.
The moment I saw her on the beach, stretched out in a lounge chair, looking out towards the ocean, I knew I had to talk to her. Her blonde hair was piled high on her head and her legs were long and tan. She had dug her feet into the sand and was drinking some kind of fruity, island drink, her cherry-red lips wrapped around the straw. When she looked at me, I could see myself reflected in her sunglasses.
“Well, hello beautiful,” I said, a simple enough line that I meant with all my heart. She was stunning and I was awe-struck in her presence.
Her face has barely changed, although she’s dropped the red lipstick in favor of something more muted. I wish she hadn’t.
“You guys coming with?” I ask.
David grabs my arm. “Why don’t you take a minute and think through what you’re about to do here, Ty. You slept with this woman once and then disappeared. You knew her well enough to find out she lived in Brookside, the town where you grew up and your sister still lives, but then didn’t bother to contact her even once in the last seven years?”
I wrote her letters. Many, many letters. I poured my heart and soul out onto those papers and then never sent them.
But David doesn’t need to know that.
She doesn’t need to know that.
I grin at my friend. “You need to have more faith, my friend. This is me we’re talking about. She’ll take one look at me and it’ll be just like old times before you know it.”
David stares at me thoughtfully, tapping his finger to his chin. “I’m trying to understand what it’s like in that head of yours. Is it just a steady stream of hoo-rahs and Ty is awesome or do you break it up with thoughts of women fawning all over you as you flex your biceps?”
Colton laughs. “Dude.” He points a finger at his brother. “You totally nailed it.”
I sip my drink. “Yeah, well, we can’t all be super stars, now can we?” I ask and then head her way without waiting to see if David and Colton follow.