Tease Me (4 page)

“
Is that where you got the
belly ring?”

She didn’t say anything right away and
he wondered if she planned on even acknowledging his
question.

“
No.”

When she didn’t continue, Bran
realized she really wasn’t going to tell him unless he pushed. Part
of him wanted to ignore it…just blow it off. He tried to. But
within a few minutes he understood it was going to drive him crazy
not knowing.

“
Where did you get
it?”

Tess didn’t glance his way but he saw
the smile. Normally, he would get pissed and just ignore her, but
that smile…it did weird things to him. It was so subtle, so
downright sexy, that he had to fight an urge to lean over and kiss
it off her face.

“
Vegas.”

“
Vegas? When did you go
there?”

“
About a year ago. I had
some mileage points and wanted to get away. I met up with an old
friend and we did the town up.

“
An old friend? Like a
girls’ weekend?”

She laughed. “Yeah, no. You know I
never had a lot of female friends. It was a guy I dated a couple of
times. He was leaving for Afghanistan and he wanted to meet
up.”

“
Ah.”

He didn’t know what else to say. Why
did he find it so odd that she would do things like that? Probably
because Tess planned everything. He found it out of character, but
then, since they had avoided each other the last few years, he
didn’t really know her character. People changed all the
time.

“
Where have you gone
lately?”

“
Nowhere much. Right now
though I’m saving up for a big trip.”

“
Oh?”

She nodded but said nothing else, as
if evading the subject now. He knew where she had always dreamed of
going. She’d talked about it all the time when they were in high
school.

“
So, when are you planning
to make it to Scotland?”

Her head shot up and he wished he
could see behind those dark glasses. He had always been able to
tell what she was thinking by looking into her eyes.

“
You remember
that?”

He tried to keep it light even as he
recognized the tone in her voice. Her parents had been nice enough,
but they had always ignored her. Tess’ mother was a girl’s girl.
He’d never seen Ms. Keller without makeup and dressed to the nines.
Her father had always thought women should know their place. It was
one of the reasons he knew she hung around their house so much
while they were both in high school. Even in a house that was
filled with men, he knew she’d found acceptance.

“
Of course I do. You
talked about it all the time, Tess.”

She smiled and looked down at her
Kindle. “I’m thinking next year. I have a lot saved up, but I want
to make sure I have the money to do whatever I want.” She looked up
at him. “So, are you excited to be joining the MEU
here?”

And her vacation plans had been locked
away. He knew Tess, knew just how she used distance to keep her
thoughts private. At one time, she didn’t hide anything from him.
Now though, it seemed she had erected a barrier between him and
certain parts of her life, and he wasn’t sure if he liked it.
Scratch that. He knew he didn’t like it.

For now though, he would go along with
her diversion and talk about his job with the 22
^nd
Marine Expeditionary Unit.

“
Yeah. It’s different from
what I was doing before. Plus, I needed some distance from the
guys.”

“
Ah. Not liking having the
big brothers in your orbit?”

He laughed. “You know Jesse. He thinks
he should tell us what to do, including our careers.”

“
I would think he would be
good at that.”

“
He’s very good at being a
know it all.”

“
No, I think it would be
marvelous to have someone to guide you. I don’t have anyone like
that I’m close to. It would be nice to have some kind of
suggestions about what I should do. Admit it, Jesse agreed with
this job.”

He laughed. “Yeah. Although I didn’t
have much say in it, Jesse was sort of surprised I campaigned for
it.”

Military folk didn’t always have a lot
of say in their assignments, but there was always a way to work the
system. Bran was proud of the fact that he didn’t call in his
brother or his father to help. Both of them could have put some
pressure on people to get him the job. Bran didn’t want that. He
wanted to make it on his own merits.

“
And Jack, how’s he
doing?”

That was the one big worry in the
Johnson family. “He’s still a little…off.”

He was looking out over the water but
he sensed her nod. Jack had been deployed and come back with
demons. Bran knew he was having problems dealing with them, but
Johnsons didn’t always share things like that.

“
Do you know if he’s
spoken to anyone about it?”

“
No, although MJ has been
working on him.”

“
Good. Now, tell me how
you feel about being an uncle for the first time.”

And, enjoying the woman and the
beautiful day, he did just that.

* * * *

Tess was on her way back from the
restroom when someone grabbed her from behind and picked her up off
the sand. She screamed, unable to help herself, then raised her
elbow ready to strike.

“
Whoa, watch it there,
Tess.”

She found herself face to face with
Tony Walker. Good thing he stopped her because she probably would
have shattered her elbow on his stomach. Tony was the epitome of
muscled Marine.

“
What do you expect when
you grab someone from behind like that? Really Tony, put me
down.”

He gave her a lopsided grin and pulled
her closer. “Aw, I just got a hold of you, Tess.”

She opened her mouth to chastise him,
but a lethal male voice drifted over the air to them. “I think you
need to put the lady down.”

They both looked over to find Bran
watching them.

“
Hey, sugar, who’s the
protector?” Tony asked as he ignored Bran’s order.

Oh, Bran didn’t like that. She was
torn. She didn’t like being treated like ragdoll, but she
definitely didn’t like someone acting like he had to protect her.
Okay, she liked the protecting part a little bit. She was enough of
a girl to admit that. But she didn’t need it. Tony was as harmless
as he was adorable.

“
Oh, for the love of God,
put me down, Tony.”

He laughed and set her on her feet,
but either to irritate Bran, or claim her in front of the crowd
that gathered there, he slipped his arm over her shoulders. Knowing
Tony, probably a little of both. She wiggled away from earning a
frown from him.

“
If you would act like a
normal human being, Tony, this wouldn’t be a problem.”

“
Sorry, Tess. I just
thought I’d sneak up on you. Kind of hard catching you
unaware.”

Which was true, and that was how much
Bran had left her off balance. Tess wasn’t sure what she was going
to do about that. It seemed to get worse each time they spent time
together. Her only hope was to get him out of her house. Once the
crowd realized there wasn’t going to be a fight, they started to
fade away.

“
Wanna introduce us,
Tess?” Bran asked, not taking his gaze from Tony.

Oh, she hated that tone. It aggravated
her on so many levels. He sounded as if he were just as pissed at
her as he was at Tony. She did not owe him an explanation, or even
an introduction, but she’d been raised by a Southern mama who
didn’t allow for bad manners.

“
Not really but I will.”
That earned her a glare from Bran, but she ignored it. “Tony
Walker, this is Bran Johnson. He’s going to be working with you on
the AEF.”

Tony nodded. “Ah, yeah, you’re
replacing Ghost.”

And, as men normally did, they forgot
her and started to talk about planes. She didn’t say anything and
started to walk away, only to hear Bran say, “Here’s my number.
Give me a call.” Then he jogged to meet up with her. “Where ya
going?”

“
I thought I would leave
you alone with your new BFF.”

He chuckled. “So, I take it you dated
him too?”

“
No. He asked me out
several times. Turned him down every time.”

“
Why?”

She shrugged, as she started back to
where their towels were. “He’s kind of obnoxious at times, like you
witnessed. Plus, he’s a pilot.”

“
What?”

“
Pilots. You’re all kind
of… well, obnoxious. I mean I get it. You have to have that God
complex to fly a jet and not worry about dying. But, doesn’t mean I
want to date it or put up with it forever.”

He was quiet for a few moments as they
walked side-by-side back to their spot on the beach. “You said you
dated them before.”

Again she shrugged. “Once or twice,
but the relationships never really took off.”

“
Why?”

Because they weren’t you.

Dammit, no.

“
Just didn’t click with
them.”

“
Ah.”

There was something off, and not just
with her. Maybe it was too much to expect people of the opposite
sex to remain friends. It wasn’t like he was attracted to her, but
it was still strained. Then, he blew away those ideas with his next
comment.

“
Race you back to the
towel,” he said as he took off.

She was competitive enough to growl
and start running after him. She easily caught up to him and pushed
past him. He arrived just a step behind her.

“
Damn, woman, you don’t
know when to give a guy a break.”

She shook her head as she drew in deep
breaths. “You should know better than to expect me to let you
win.”

Bran sighed. “You’re still the best
friend a guy could have.”

Then, as if he didn’t say anything
important, he settled back down on his towel.

As she sat down, Tess reminded herself
this is what she was. A good friend. A little buddy.

And wishing for more would just lead
to heartbreak.

Later that evening, Tess’ cell rang
just about the time they finished up dinner. When she saw the
caller id, Tess knew her three-day mini vacation was
over.

“
Keller.”

“
Keller, this is Lt
Commander Black.” His weary voice told her there was trouble at the
hospital. Time off was sacred to people at the hospital and
everyone understood downtime was needed. Black was known for being
a stickler about rules, but he understood that every person in the
hospital needed time away to be effective in their
duties.

“
Yes, sir.”

“
We have an issue.
Apparently, the stomach flu has hit full force and we need another
nurse in tonight.”

“
No problem. I’ll be in
ASAP.”

“
It won’t be on just labor
and delivery. You might have to work some other department, but it
seems that many people are sick, and it doesn’t bode well for
tomorrow.”

“
No, problem, sir. I’ll be
there in less than thirty minutes.”

She hung up and sighed. She wanted to
be there, to help. It was in her blood to be a nurse, but she hated
to give up her veggie time on the couch.

“
Gotta go in?” Bran
asked.

She nodded. “Apparently, the stomach
flu is marching through the hospital.”

She stood and started to gather up the
dishes. “Nope, go on. I’ll take care of it.”

“
Thanks.” She hurried back
to her room and started to get ready. There was nothing to be done
now but to get into work.

* * * *

Bran had just put the last dish in the
washer when Tess came striding out of her room. One thing about TK,
she never really took very long to get herself in order. As he
watched her grab her purse and keys off the counter, he realized
how much he admired her. From the time they’d met, she had said she
wanted to be a nurse. Seeing the determination on her face
definitely proved how committed she was to it.

“
So, will you be on all
night?”

When she glanced up at him, her eyes
were guarded. He had the feeling she was hiding things from him and
it irritated him, again.

“
Uh, I’m
assuming.”

There was something in her voice that
caught him as strange. “Something wrong?”

“
Nope. Just weird
answering to someone. I come and go as I please most of the
time.”

He thought it was something more than
that, but he didn’t push it. “Ah, well, I’ll see you tomorrow
morning.”

“
Not sure if I’ll be back.
There’s a good chance I’ll have to stay on.” She started toward the
door to the garage.

He frowned. “Don’t they usually have
protocol for that? Like you can only stay so long?”