Patriotic Duty (8 page)

“Oh, God, what are you
doing to me?” I groaned. The feeling was out of this world and I was quickly
building up to another climax.

“Cara, oh, baby, I love
you so much,” he said as we both crashed over the edge and rode our waves
together.

It wasn’t until my head
cleared that I realized what he had said. I wasn’t sure what to say back, and
as his words settled into my head and true realization set in, I smiled a
little but said nothing back. My ears and my head were as far as those words
were going to go. There was no way I was going to let them penetrate my heart.

CHAPTER 11

We
slept in late the next morning, as Riley had woken me up twice more to make
love to me during the night. He hadn’t said the “L” word again and we didn’t
talk about it.

After breakfast we went
driving around the town again this time. We found a small area that had shops
and restaurants and we parked and walked around. As we passed a pawn shop, I
said, “Let’s go in here.”

He looked at me strange
then smiled. “Why? Need more guns?”

I shook my head.
Another damn cop joke!
“I don’t have any
guns.”

“Well, you should.
Single girl living alone in California.”

“I will get one when Aiden
is older and I can teach him how to use it. Right now, there’s more chance
he’ll find it and hurt himself.”

He nodded as he pushed
open a large glass door that had metal bars over the front of it. An
obnoxiously loud bell chimed overhead and I headed straight for the counter
where an older man with shaggy blonde hair wearing a Hawaiian shirt was sitting
on a stool, looking at something in his hand.

He looked up when he saw
us approach.
“Hi, folks.
Can I help you?”

I smiled and dug into the
pocket of my white denim shorts. “How much can you give me for this?”

I could feel Riley’s eyes
on me and I looked up at him. “What?” I asked.

He pointed to the object
in my hand. “Is that your… wedding ring?”

I nodded.
“Yep.
Ugly, isn’t it?”

I didn’t think it was
ugly, but it had lost its luster, no pun intended, after my ex had done what
he’d done. If Aiden had been a girl, I would have saved it for him/her, but I
didn’t think a boy would care about such things, and I could use the money.

The guy took the ring and
looked at it. “I’ll give you seventy-five dollars.”

I almost choked on the
piece of gum I was chewing. “You’re shitting me.”

He narrowed his eyes.
“This
is,
what, a quarter carat diamond? Maybe if it was
a princess cut I could give you more, but marquis cuts aren’t very popular.”

I nodded because I knew
what he was saying was true, but I still wasn’t having it.
“Yes
but there’s an attached band with more diamonds in it.
And isn’t gold
worth a lot these days? The gold itself has to be worth more. My ex paid 800
bucks for
that
five years ago.” I smiled at him and
batted my eyelashes. I could feel Riley watching me, but he said nothing.

The guy stared at me a few
more minutes. “I’ll give you a hundred.”

“A hundred and twenty-five
in cash,” I countered, my arms folded in mock defiance.

The man
smiled,
his ugly teeth on display. “Okay, little miss.”

He reached into his pocket
and counted out the bills, which I shoved into the same pocket the ring had
just vacated.

“Nice doing business with
you!” I waved as I walked towards the front door of the pawn shop. I wanted out
of there before he changed his mind. Plus it smelled bad in there from the
smoldering cigar he had sitting on the counter in an ashtray.

Riley grabbed my hand as
we started back down the sidewalk. “I can’t believe you did that.”

I looked up at him,
confused. “What?”

“That ring meant nothing
to you?” he asked. He did not sound accusing or judgmental, just curious and
somewhat surprised.

“No. Not anymore.”

He paused for a few
seconds,
then
said, “He really hurt you, didn’t he?”

I nodded. “Yes. But I’m
over it now. It just sucks I have to see him every other weekend.”

“I can understand that,”
he said. “I’m glad my ex and I never had kids.”

I looked up at him. “You
should be. I love Aiden very much, but trust
me,
divorce is fifty times harder when there are kids involved. It’s like you’re
never truly divorced.”

He frowned at that. “I see
that.”

We walked in silence for a
few minutes until we found a small mom-and-pop type café and we sauntered
inside.

“Have a seat wherever
you’d like, guys. Someone will be right with you.” A nice-looking young hostess
wearing a short brown uniform waved her arm around the café and we sat in a
squeaky red booth.

The same girl brought us
two glasses of water and two menus. “Here you are.”

I looked over the menu and
decided on a turkey club and set the menu down. I pulled the lemon out of my
water and set it on a napkin and took a sip.

Riley looked at the lemon,
then to me. “Why do you always do that?”

“I hate lemon in my water,
it’s gross.”

He chuckled. “Then why
don’t you ask for it without?”

“It’s not that serious. I
can take it out.”

He shook his head and put
his menu down. “You’re an interesting character, Cara Reid.”

“So are you, Sargent Riley
Forrester.”

A waitress came by and
took our orders and after she collected our menus and left, Riley looked at me
and said, “So who has Aiden this weekend?”

This was the first time he
had asked about Aiden or mentioned him without me talking about him first. “My
mom and stepdad have him.”

“Your mom was okay with
you coming away for the weekend with a guy she has never met?” He smiled
wickedly at me.

“I told her I was with
friends. Girls’ weekend,” I replied. Then I frowned at the look on his face. He
almost looked… hurt.

“Oh.” He took a sip of
water.

“I’m sorry. Did I say
something wrong?” I cringed at how insecure I sounded.

He looked at me
contemplatively for a few long seconds that made me uncomfortable. “Are you going
to let me meet your family? I mean, I’ve only even seen Aiden once or twice.”

Why
bother? You’re just going to leave me,
I wanted to say, but I
didn’t. “If you want to meet my mom, you can. If you want to meet my sister…” I
trailed
off,
since he already knew my only sibling
lived in Colorado, ironically enough.

“I
know, she lives in Colorado.
And not
just Colorado, but Colorado Springs, where I’m stationed.”
His eyes
twinkled as he said it.

I nodded because I could
hear the double meaning in his words. The truth was
,
I
knew I wouldn’t stay in California forever; I did want to move Aiden out of
California and raise him elsewhere. The area I lived in wasn’t the greatest and
was getting worse, and the areas that had the best schools I couldn’t afford to
live in, being a single mom. I knew he’d have a better chance at a good
education and that I could afford a house with a yard for him if I moved. Of
course all this sounds great in theory, but seemed near impossible in practice.
My ex would have a complete shit fit if I left the state.

“Well I’d still like to
meet your parents,” he said.

I nodded, sipping water
again. “Sure, that’s not a problem.”

“I don’t want to meet your
ex, though,” he said seriously.

I laughed a little. “Don’t
worry about it. I don’t really speak to him unless it’s absolutely necessary
about Aiden.”

He studied me seriously
and then said, “You really hate him, don’t you?”

I cocked my head to the
side. “Don’t you hate your ex?”

He shook his head. “No, we
don’t hate each other. We’re still friendly.”

I
unwrapped
the white paper napkin from around my silverware and began twisting it. “She
must not have cheated on you.”

His eyebrows went up. “He
cheated on you?” At my nod, he sighed. “I kind of wondered. People usually
don’t get divorced when their kids are so little.”

I nodded again. “Yeah, it
wasn’t easy, but I’m doing okay. Aiden will be okay.”

Riley seemed to be
measuring his words carefully. “Is he still with the girl?”

“You mean my best friend?”
I forced a smile.
“Yep.
Still happy as clams, I
suppose.”

Riley normally had a very
even affect. He didn’t shock easy and he wasn’t dramatic. He spoke quietly most
of the time and the only aggressiveness I had ever seen him display was in the
bedroom, so I laughed a little when he gasped and his eyes got big.
Although, that answer usually elicited that response from everyone.

“You’re joking.”

I shook my head. “No.”

I hated talking about this
and regretted even telling him. What did it matter?

“I thought Miranda was
your best friend,” he said.

“She is.
Now.
We became close after our divorces. This was someone
else.”

“I’m sorry,” he said
quietly. “That is seriously messed up.”

I plastered on another
smile. “Yes, well it’s also in the past. I’m better off without him. He sucked
in the bedroom anyway.”

Why
did I just say that?

He smiled a huge, genuine
smile. “Is that so?”

“Yep.”

“And I don’t?”

I bit the inside of my
cheek and shook my head.
“Oh, hell no.”

The server brought our food
and thankfully, the conversation turned to other things, like his job and
people he had met on the base.

***

A hazy yellow light was
seeping
in through the hotel room’s curtains we had
forgot
to close the night before. I opened my eyes to see
Riley’s smiling face looking down on me. I squinted and blinked a few times,
then smiled.

“Good morning,” I
whispered.

He smoothed my hair back
away from my face.
“Happy birthday, beautiful.”

I smiled slightly. “Ah. So
it is.”

He leaned down and kissed
my nose. “Sit up,” he said, pulling me into a sitting position. His eyes raked
down to my chest, where my silk nightie had come down and was partially
exposing me.

I looked down and adjusted
it. “Oops.”

He grinned. “I didn’t
mind.”

“I’m sure.”

He grabbed my hand and
placed something in it.

I looked into his
mischievous eyes then to the package in my hands. It was a small white box with
a pink bow around it and it definitely looked like jewelry. I panicked a little
bit, his words from two nights ago flitting through my mind,
Cara, oh, baby, I love you so much,
and
I tried to control my breathing.

I gingerly plucked the bow
apart and the pink ribbon fluttered to the bed. Then I opened it with a creak
and stared at the beautiful white-gold chain that held a pendant, three
cascading diamonds on its simple but beautiful design. I brushed my index
finger over the necklace and fought to keep my eyes from watering up.

“Oh, Riley, it’s
gorgeous,” I said as I looked up at him.

“I saw it and it reminded
me of you,” he replied, still smiling.

“Really?
How so?”
I asked, looking back down and rubbing the smooth
diamonds with my fingertip again.

He gently took the box
from me and plucked the necklace out, unclasping it. “Because there are three
diamonds on it and they remind me of the three qualities I love about you.
Your strength, your beauty, and your transparency.”

I raised an eyebrow.
“Well, nobody’s ever accused me of being transparent before.
Actually,
quite the opposite.”

He placed the necklace
around my neck and his hands felt warm and soft as he did. “You can be very
closed off, and I know it’s because of what you’ve been through. But you have
let me see parts of you that I’m sure you haven’t shown anyone else. And I am
grateful for that.”

I touched the necklace
once more now that it was on me, and I leaned over and kissed him. “Thank you.
I love it. I really do.”

“Happy birthday,
beautiful,” he said, kissing me back. He pushed me down onto my back and
hovered over me, his hands clasped in mine, pinning me to the bed. He broke the
kiss and stared into my eyes for a long moment, then kissed me again, all sexy
and warm. He made love to me as I still wore the necklace and it was sweet and
gentle, yet urgent and frenzied.

Best.
Birthday.
Ever.

***

Riley surprised me by taking
me to a somewhat casual steakhouse for dinner, which I loved, except when he
told the staff it was my birthday and they all sang to me – I hated that! I may
be a Leo, but I do not like being the center of attention.

After that, he found a
country bar and took me dancing. This was the first time I’d been out to any
sort of bar or club with him since the night we met and it was interesting to
watch him. He was again very curious, looking around, but I never caught him
blatantly looking at other women. If he did, he didn’t stare long enough for me
to catch him. I don’t know why I even made myself pay attention to this, as
he’d be gone soon and I’d have no control over anything he did. Not that I did
now. I sighed.