Chapter Four
“School’s out. I don’t know how the heck I’m going to keep my sanity all summer long.”
Sitting on the front porch of Sarah and Ian’s house, Kenzie smiled slightly at Sarah’s pained words. Her brothers were in the back grilling dinner while Kenzie and Sarah sat on the porch chatting. Unfortunately, Hailey hadn’t been able to make it to the weekly family gathering because she’d been called in to work.
Kenzie stared at her niece, who was doing backward handsprings in the yard, and gave a small shrug.
“I’m sorry you can’t use wine to help this time.” Kenzie lifted her own glass and gestured to Sarah’s baby belly. “Don’t want to get my future nephew drunk, so I’ll be sure to drink another glass for you.”
“Aren’t you wonderful,” Sarah drawled, then sipped on her lemonade.
“I can’t remember. Is this barbeque tonight celebrating that it’s summer vacation? Or trying to distract from the pain that your child will be telling you how bored she is for the next two months?”
“I think a little of both.” Sarah rubbed her belly. “Though I’m sure Auntie Kenzie will take her for a few dozen sleepovers, right? Please? Oh God, please say yes? I’m already exhausted from being pregnant.”
Sarah was so tiny that she’d begun showing pretty quickly into the pregnancy. Now at six months she was already almost all belly. Emily was over the moon at the idea of being a big sister.
Kenzie laughed and shook her head. “You doubt me? Of course I will. I adore my niece.”
“You spoil her rotten.”
“I believe that’s actually the definition of adore, isn’t it?”
Sarah arched a brow.
“Aye, well it should be then.” Kenzie sighed and leaned back in the chair.
Her gaze drifted out over the handful of houses in the distance and the road that led down to the quaint town of Coupeville. It was rather pretty. One of the oldest towns on the island and still with that small-town feel.
“You’ve been back here a year now—do you ever tire of island living?”
“Not at all. I love Whidbey.” Sarah’s expression turned whimsical. “It’s beautiful and peaceful. When we moved to Japan for Dad’s orders, I didn’t just mourn leaving Ian, but the island too.”
“But it must’ve been nice having been able to travel.”
“You really don’t have much choice if you’re in the Navy life. I’m not much for moving around since I did it so much as a kid.” Sarah grinned. “If you’re thinking about traveling, you should go and marry yourself a nice Navy man and—oh fuck.”
Kenzie’s grimace deepened.
“Shit, Kenz, I’m sorry. I forgot for just a minute and completely let that slip.”
To hear her friend dropping swear words left and right almost erased the slight stab of sadness that had bloomed at Sarah’s Navy man remark.
“No need to apologize. Seriously. We had one dinner together, and I’m not even sure I’d call it a date.” She forced a light shrug. “And it was seven months ago, so it’s water under the bridge.”
Seven months. Shite, that was over half a year. Why did it still bother her this much?
Sarah clenched her glass of wine in her hand, clearly distressed. “I know, but—”
“You don’t need to tiptoe around the topic of the Navy or Navy men, for fuck’s sake. We live on an island where there’s a base nearby. They’re sewn into our lives by nature.”
“They are. You’re absolutely right. But I try and be careful and not mention them, because you don’t need to be reminded of a certain asshole sailor.”
Certain sailor meaning Brett. This was why you didn’t tell your friends all the little details about your love life. Or lack of a love life.
The night after she’d had dinner with Brett, she’d met Sarah, Delonna and Hailey for breakfast. They’d all inhaled four-digit-calorie meals while she’d scooped on all the details on Kenzie’s first date in a long-arse time.
Real brilliant move there, because Sunday night Brett hadn’t shown up at the pub. Actually, he’d pretty much avoided coming to the pub every night for the past seven months. Radio silence. He didn’t have her number and she didn’t have his. Not that she would’ve called him.
The ball had been in his court. He knew where she worked while she only knew he worked on a Navy base with about a zillion other people. Clearly, he’d dropped the ball. Then again, maybe he’d never wanted to have it in the first place.
Yet she’d been quite a fool and had held out hope for the next couple of weeks that maybe something had simply come up. Maybe he’d been called back on the ship. Did that happen?
Until she’d spotted him a few weeks later in the grocery, walking through an aisle with a pretty woman at his side. Kenzie had hightailed it out of the store in a heartbeat, leaving a cart full of groceries and the insensitive wanker behind.
It had all become clear, including how naïve she’d been. Brett had been indulging her at dinner that night, but obviously his pressing need to get shagged had been greater than waiting to see how long it would be until she put out.
“He’s not necessarily an asshole, Sarah.” Even as she said it, she wondered why she was defending him. No, she couldn’t be that silly. “He was simply a horny sailor hoping for a bit of immediate fun. Seeing that I wasn’t ready to give it to him, he obviously went elsewhere.”
“Apparently,” Sarah grumbled. “Well, I never met him, but he sounded like a nice guy from what you said and I was pretty excited to hear you were putting yourself out there and dating.”
Kenzie didn’t reply, but stared at her niece who continued to do flips on the lawn.
It really was better that her brothers hadn’t realized she’d gone out on a date and then been stood up. To say they would’ve lost it would be an understatement. Aleck in particular, as he’d had a bit of a run-in with Brett that night.
Shite, what was she doing still thinking about this man? Giving him a minute of her thoughts? It was ages ago.
“Is there anyone out there who has caught your interest lately, Kenzie?”
Ah, the girls were always fishing for the latest on her love life. They’d calmed down for a couple months after Brett, giving her time to heal if she’d needed it, but then jumped right back on the train.
“I don’t know if it’s interest,” she admitted slowly. “But there is someone.”
Sarah jumped on it like a kid on cake. She sat up in her chair and leaned forward. “Seriously? Spill the beans. I want details and I want them now.”
“I met him at my gym. He’s a trainer there.”
“You go to a gym?” Sarah’s eyes widened ever farther. “And you use a trainer? But you hate exercise.”
“I don’t bloody hate exercise, I hate sweating. There’s a difference, and shouldn’t you just be excited I’ve met someone?”
“I am. Oh, absolutely. Is he cute?”
“He’s attractive. Maybe a little unconventional. Loads of hair that he keeps in a ponytail—”
“Wait, you like long hair on guys?”
“—and I don’t believe he has an inch of fat on him,” she continued, ignoring the dubious look from her friend. “He’s big and wide—”
“So are semi-trucks. Keep going. Does he have a good personality? Do you guys have much in common?”
“Well, we both like to work out.”
“But you don’t like—fine, you don’t like to sweat. What else does he have going for him?”
“I don’t know, Sarah, it’s early. We’ve only talked in the gym and mostly about fitness stuff.” She paused to take a sip of wine. “He’s a single father—he told me that much. Has a son who’s three.”
“Oh wow. A kid, huh? But you do love children.”
“Do I?” Kenzie shook her head and frowned. “Sometimes I wonder if I just prefer borrowing other people’s. Maybe the most I’m supposed to be is an aunt.”
“Please. You’ve got plenty of time to decide.”
“I’m almost twenty-nine,” Kenzie pointed out.
Sarah shook her head in dismay. “You realize people do get pregnant past thirty, right? Do we need to talk about how babies are made?”
“Sausage goes in the crescent roll, something of the sort.”
“Sausage in the crescent roll? Well. That’s a new one.”
“Thank you.” She lifted her wineglass and winked. “I try to stay cutting-edge with my perverted analogies. Regardless, I know how babies are made. Even if I haven’t participated in anything quite that fun lately.”
Sarah gave her a pointed glance. “Well maybe this trainer guy is exactly what you need then.”
Even as the thought of sleeping with the man did absolutely nothing to her pulse, she still gave a small nod. “Maybe. We’re having dinner at Fliers tomorrow night.”
The front door swung open and they both glanced back to see Ian strolling out.
“Dinner’s about ready. You gals coming?”
“I’m hungry enough to eat my arm off, so aye, I’m coming.” She nudged her brother in the side. “Took you long enough.”
Ducking under him before he could get her in a headlock, she slipped past him and down the stairs of the porch. She glanced back with a laugh, but it faded. Ian had already changed his course and helped his pregnant wife to her feet, planting a tender kiss on Sarah’s lips.
Feeling a bit intrusive on the tender moment, she turned her attention away and sought out her niece to let her know it was time to come to dinner.
*
“What are you having next, Chief? This one’s on me.”
Brett grimaced and set down his now empty pint. If he had a next one he’d be getting a little too close to being buzzed. Something he prided himself on was always being sober around his sailors. Even if a good amount of them were considered friends, he still had an image to uphold.
Tonight was just going to have to be another missed opportunity to get their chief drunk.
“I’m good. Thanks, Roberts.”
“But it’s your birthday, and you don’t turn thirty-five every day, Chief,” one of the guys across the table pointed out. “Come on, one of us can make sure you get home okay.”
Thirty-five. Hell, how had he gotten so old? Only three years until retirement. It sounded unbelievably close, and yet felt like dozens of years away.
Even if he’d preferred to hang out at his house and catch the baseball game alone, he couldn’t turn down his overeager sailors, most he considered friends, who’d insisted on buying him dinner and beers. Well, two beers. He was cutting himself off.
“I’m switching to water. Thanks, though.”
The table of men grumbled good-naturedly but didn’t slow their drinking. Which was another reason Brett kept his ass sober. Someone needed to keep an eye on these guys and make sure the designated didn’t drink.
Since they were in a restaurant brewery type place, the designated was the poor nineteen-year-old who was old enough to die for his country but not old enough to have a beer.
But the boy took it in stride, keeping up with the conversation and seeming to enjoy every moment of the evening. Besides, Brett didn’t doubt for one moment the young sailor found ways to drink outside of the bar situation.
“Holy shit. It’s Petersburg,” one of the guys muttered.
“Petersburg?” Brett scratched his memory, and came up with the sailor who’d discharged honorably out of the Navy last year.
A quick glance behind him showed the familiar guy standing at the hostess area of the crowded restaurant. Same features, except he’d grown his hair out long.
“He’ll be waiting a while for a table with that other party over there taking up half the restaurant,” Roberts pointed out. “We got room here since a couple of our guys took off. You all cool if I invite him to chill with us?”
“No problem at all,” Brett drawled and pushed his beer aside to reach for the water. It’d be nice if their food arrived soon.
“Shit, Petersburg isn’t alone. Do you see who his date is? It’s her. That totally hot chick.”
“Dude, yeah, isn’t she that hot waitress?”
Ignoring his sailors’ discussion about Petersburg’s apparently hot date, Brett just shook his head.
“Yeah, the one from McLaughlin’s Pub.”
Wait, what? That caught his attention. Swiveling in his chair he slid his narrowed gaze beyond Petersburg. He hadn’t seen her at first because she’d been standing directly behind him, but now that the former sailor was heading their way, she was following and in no way hidden anymore.
Fuck. It was Kenzie.
“I’d nail that ass so hard.”
Without looking away from Kenzie he couldn’t tell which of his sailors said it, but Brett slapped the table in the nonverbal command to shut it.
God, he couldn’t argue with the statement, though. Kenzie looked sexy as all hell.
She wore a black dress that somehow managed to be sexy and modest as it hugged her every luscious curve. Her hair was down, looking extra shiny, and she was wearing makeup. There was no doubt in Brett’s mind that the two were on a date.
Especially from the you’ve got to be shitting me look on her face as she followed Petersburg to a table full of men.
Several emotions slammed into him at once. Raw desire. Eagerness at seeing her again, and, most of all, guilt. Fuck, the guilt consumed the other two in a fiery rush.
Whatever rage she directed his way, he would take it. Hell, he deserved it.
She hadn’t seen him yet, that much was clear. He had to wonder if she’d make some kind of scene when she did. Though Kenzie hadn’t given off the drama vibe the night they’d gone out.
Being a man who met conflict head on, he didn’t even entertain the idea of trying to sneak off before she saw him. Instead he turned back in his seat, stretched his legs out under the table and stared straight ahead and kept his back to her.
Shit would hit the fan, or…fuck. They’d soon find out.
*
This guy had to be fuckin’ kidding. This was a first date. A bloody first date and he was going to squeeze them into a table full of random men she didn’t know?
This was beginning to feel like the plot from some bad porno. Especially the way the first man had looked her over like she was the entrée at dinner. Next she’d learn the whole lot were construction workers or Navy men or something. Any minute now she expected to hear stripper music or some shite.
Kenzie’s jaw ached from how tightly she clenched it and, for a moment, she debated turning on her completely impractical and painfully pretty heels and walking right back out the door.
Unfortunately, she’d chosen tonight to be the first time in a while that she’d allowed her date to pick her up.
Though, hmm, she could always call Aleck. Then again that wouldn’t turn out well. He’d lecture her for having the gall to try and date at nearly thirty, and threaten—again—to lock her up.
Folding her arms across her chest and lifting her chin to salvage pride, she approached the table of men with the same indifference she did when taking an order.
She slid a glance around the table of six men and bit back a groan. In fact, fuck it all, some of these men were regulars at the pub.
“Thanks for letting us crash your dinner, guys.” Tad grinned, shaking hands with the men who stood up to greet them. “This is Kenzie, by the way,” he said to the guys. “Kenzie, I used to serve with these guys in the Navy before I got out to take care of my son.”
Oh shite, they literally were Navy men.
The introductions came next. Fast and furious, and she knew she’d never remember names—especially as they were last names only. She didn’t miss the heated glances and big smiles that screamed jackpot as they checked her out.
“And then this here is Chief Craven. Probably the best guy you could pick to be your superior.”
Kenzie was so caught up in the introductions that she hadn’t paid much attention to the man sitting with his back to them.
He turned in his chair and the world around her spun.