The Elite: The Complete Series of Boomer and Player (With Bonus) (19 page)

I hated the way that replaying it in my mind made it feel so far away.

“Holly Marie Parker!” Rachel snapped playfully. “
You
are gonna tell me what happened with you and your Navy man,
right now
!”

I laughed and tossed my hair back. “Okay, okay. No need for middle names. Geez, when did you turn into my mom?”

“I’ve been waiting here all morning to hear this story! I’ve been out of the loop for long enough,” she protested, still smiling through her whining.

“Well…it went pretty much as you’d expect…” I started, knowing my answer was beyond cagey. “We spent the night together and it was…” I paused, grappling for the right words to describe the experience. Overwhelming. Intense. Freeing.

Rachel interjected with a squeal before I landed on an option. “Amazing?”

I smiled and nodded. “It really was. But—”

“But?” She repeated, wrinkling her nose.

I sighed and the smile slid from my face. “It was really hard, Rach. Saying goodbye to him this morning. Knowing that last night was the last time we’d see each other for so long and knowing that he is about to be in a very dangerous position. It was all so overwhelming. Which made it all that much sweeter—but at the same time…it kinda wrecked me.”

“Oh, honey,” she scooped me into her arms, and held me tight. “I’m sorry.”

I breathed in her familiar scent and relaxed into her comforting embrace, releasing some of the weight I’d been carrying. “I wasn’t expecting it to be that hard. You know?”

Rachel nodded, her chin bumping my cheek. “It’ll be okay, though, Holly.” She released me and stared into my eyes.

“I know,” I agreed, forcing some confidence into my voice. “I mean, we talked about how we could make it all…
work
.”

“You don’t sound too convinced.” Rachel wrinkled her nose.

“Well…”

She gave me a puzzled glance.

“I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but there’s a part of me that feels like I’ve already been through this once before. So, as much as I can tell myself it’s different—or, that he’s different—I can’t help but feel like all of it is just words right now. And until I see what happens on the other side of this, I don’t want to get too excited.” I looked down at my hands and ran a fingernail around the cuticle of my thumb. “I want to be prepared this time.”

“Because of Kenny?”

I hated to admit that my ex-husband had some power still holding me after all these years.

“Yeah.” I dropped my hands to my sides and looked back into Rachel’s blue eyes. “Do you think I’m insane?”

“No. Not even a little bit, Holly. But, you know you have to let that go and trust the process. Don’t judge Jack based on your ex. Everyone is different and every experience is different.”

“I know.”

And I did. When my ex-husband had joined the Marines, he’d gone overseas and came home a completely different person. Our marriage had been in trouble long before his deployment, but the issues he’d carried home from war had proved to be more than our relationship could take, and when he’d chosen another woman as his outlet to deal with our problems, I had to walk away.

The scars of war hadn’t just touched
his
soul—they would be marked on
mine
for the rest of my life as well.

“I don’t even know how any of this happened. It’s like I blinked and poof!” I shook my head, still in disbelief. “I said I wouldn’t date a soldier ever again…”

“Don’t think of it like that, Holly. You’re not dating a
soldier
, you’re dating Jack,” Rachel corrected. “And he’s not even a soldier, he’s a sailor—a pilot.”

“You’re right,” I replied, nodding thoughtfully.

Rachel masked her expression, but I could see thoughts brewing in her eyes. “So, how did it end then?” She cocked her head. “I mean, he’s gone, so what happens when he gets back?”

I shrugged. “That’s the part I don’t know. But, unfortunately, there isn’t a way to find out until he gets back.”

Chapter Two

Jack

A few very long days, full of preparation and more meetings than I could count had finally birthed the beginning of the tour, and we landed on board a few hours after the ship pulled away from the shores of San Diego. What should have been a seamless transition, one I’d gone through on multiple other occasions, left me jarred and antsy as I tried to settle into life on board the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt CVN 71. Our squadron began the trip that would ultimately bring us to the Persian Gulf to relieve the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan as they ran OPS in the Middle East. Although it was a struggle to adapt to confined spaces, shared quarters, and life in the middle of the ocean, those things weren’t the source of the pent up frustration that grit against me every waking moment. No, the blame for those irritations lay solely with a leggy blonde that I’d been forced to say goodbye to only a few days before.

Holly Parker.

Not a moment had passed where she didn’t occupy the majority of my thoughts and made it impossible for me to fully accept that my life for the next six months was to be spent flying on and off an aircraft carrier.

We’d had one final phone call the night before I landed on the Roosevelt, and I’d promised to keep in touch as often as I could, but made sure she understood there was no guarantee how frequently we would be able to communicate. I wouldn’t always have access to the internet, and phone calls were few and far between. She’d accepted everything I told her, but I could tell in her tone of voice, that she was even more unprepared for the separation than I was.

The first two days on the carrier were too busy to allow for any down time, and when I was able to get to my email, she’d already sent three messages. They’d been very sweet, and supportive, but I hated to think of her waiting for my reply.

Which was why I was in such a hurry to get back to my quarters after completing my shift at the end of the first week aboard the carrier. As a senior officer in my squadron, I’d been given priority in my accommodations, and rather than being crammed into an open bay with a hundred sailors, I shared a two-man stateroom with Lt. Commander Richard Lions, a fellow officer and pilot in my squadron. Before the beginning of the tour, we’d known each other by reputation, and in passing, and I’d been relieved to find out we’d been bunked together. Lt. Commander Lions was older than me by a handful of years, married, with a pack of kids at home waiting for him. In the few days we’d been aboard the ship, he’d already plastered one of his walls with photos and artwork that had clearly been done by little hands.

He was a quiet guy as far as I could tell, and whenever we were in the room at the same time, he was usually on his laptop, calling his kids, or reading from a well-worn paperback that had an illustrated cover and a title that had something to do with zombies.

Usually, when he got a call from his family, I made myself scarce for an hour or so to give him some privacy. On the carrier, it was fairly easy to find something to occupy me for an hour or so. Usually, I’d hit up the workout room or go to the wardroom for a cup of coffee and remnants of whatever food had been served. However, after a long day spent in and out of meetings, my mind was on information overload, and I just wanted to get to my rack, spend the time to write out a proper reply to Holly’s emails, and then close my eyes for a nap.

“Hey, Lions,” I said, stepping inside the small room. He was reclined against a pillow in his rack, book in hand, and barely glanced up at my greeting. I slid the door closed behind me and went to my own rack.

Moments later, he laid the book down in his lap, and looked over at me. “Long day?”

I scrubbed my hands over my face. “Very.”

Lions smiled before returning his attention back to his book. I opened the last email from Holly and typed out a reply, letting her know how much I was thinking about her, and that I’d be free for a call if she was available. When the message was sent, I put the laptop back on the desk, and looked over at Lions. “Hey, I’m gonna try and catch some z’s, but will you let me know if I get a call?” I asked, throwing my hand in the direction of my computer. “I’m waiting for my—girlfriend.” I hitched over the term girlfriend, not sure that was the most accurate way to describe Holly. We hadn’t known each other long enough—or at least, not as long as it usually took for a couple to land on the proper labels for one another. And yet, our feelings seemed to run deeper than a lot of other couples. We had an instant connection that had rapidly grown and deepened in the short week and a half we’d been able to share together.

“Sure thing,” Lions replied, lifting his book back to eye level.

I grunted my thanks and rolled over, fishing my hand in the crack between the mattress and the wall, looking for my earbuds. When I snagged them, I put them in my ears, and dug out the MP3 player they were attached to and started the music up from the stopping point I’d set the night before. When I was at home, I never needed music or TV noise to fall asleep, but for whatever reason, on the ship, there was something about being in the tiny room, away from land, in an unfamiliar bed that made it hard to sleep without the assistance of some kind of noise to drown it all out.

I was drifting off to sleep, one arm slung over my face, to block out the overhead light, when Lions said, “Boomer, you have a call.”

I dropped my arm and rolled to my side. I ripped my earbuds out. “What?”

“You’ve got a call,” he repeated, jerking his head towards my computer.

My heart lurched into high gear as I hopped down and grabbed my computer, momentarily wondering why I hadn’t heard the sound. Since leaving Holly, the sound of a virtual call coming over the computer speakers had become my favorite song. The melodic beeps a source of comfort and excitement. As my eyes found the handle of the caller, my heart sank back down. It wasn’t Holly, it was Aaron Rosen, my best friend, and current caretaker of Princess, my yellow lab.

“Hey Player. What’s up?” I answered, clicking onto the call. I forced enthusiasm into my voice and a smile onto my face as the call connected.

“Hey, Boomer!” Rosen’s cheery face filled my screen. “Let’s see if we can get your favorite blonde in here.” He whistled over his shoulder and my smile warmed at the sight of Princess wandering into the background.

I laughed at her casual strolling pace. “Don’t tell her, but she’s been demoted to my second favorite blonde.”

Aaron chuckled. “Secret’s safe with me.”

“Hey girl,” I called, catching her ear. She ran to the computer and jumped up, putting her front paws on the desk next to Aaron’s hands. “How’s she doing? Settling in?”

Aaron stroked her head and I caught the sight of her tail fanning out behind her. “Yeah. I put up a box of doggy biscuits on the check-in desk for guests to give to her. Not surprisingly, she never wants to leave the museum.”

I laughed at his answer and gave a sarcastic eye roll. “I hope you’re taking her out for long runs to work all that off…”

“Naw. Her name might be Princess, but I’ll tell ya, she’s pretty content kicking’ it like a bachelor, pizza, beer, and late night TV binges.”

I shook my head. “Dude…”

“We’ve hit the beach too,” Aaron replied, shaking his head. ‘Damn, Boomer, when did ya turn into such a soccer mom?”

Princess looked up at Aaron and then back at the screen, as though she were waiting for the answer too.

“You look like you could use a pizza and beer night too,” he continued, one hand still stroking Princess’s head. “What’s going on?”

I shrugged. “You know, the same old drill. Endless meetings and briefings. It’s all good though, I’m just ready to get up in the air, take out the bogeys, and get home.” I smiled weakly. If only it were that simple.

Aaron grinned, he knew from years in the service that it was far from reality. “And by get home, you mean go to Irvine and fuck your girlfriend.”

“Shit, man,” I scoffed, shooting a look over my shoulder at Lions, who was still reading—or at least pretending to read. “Is that necessary?”

Aaron only laughed. “When did you get so straight laced? Next thing I know you’re gonna be making babies, driving a minivan, and your idea of living on the edge, will be drinking anything other than light beer on a Friday night.”

My fingers went to the track pad and dragged the cursor up to the end call button. “Player, chill, or I’m hanging up.”

He chuckled and shrugged. “Just callin’ it like I see it.”

“Yeah, well just because you’re allergic to any woman who wants to stay more than a night, doesn’t mean the rest of us have to be that way. I don’t call you out for your shit, so what the hell?”

Aaron held up his hands in surrender, a grin still pulling at the corners of his mouth. “All right, all right. Uncle, man. I’m happy for you, I am, if you wanna trade in the single life for a khaki colored existence in suburbia, I got your back, but don’t expect me to follow suit.”

I couldn’t even remember the last time Aaron had been with a woman longer than a night or two. He was a habitual player and had zero desire to ever settle down. I’d had a few years like that, wild and free, not caring what happened in the morning, but those days were far behind me, almost like a ghostly memory, as though it had been someone else wearing my skin. The idea of going out to a bar, picking up a random woman and taking her home for a night, was not only unappealing, but I couldn’t grasp the sensation of why that had ever excited me. Aaron, on the other hand, lived for one nighters, maybe allowing for a full weekend if he really liked the girl.

Even before Holly had come into my life, I’d been ready for a change of pace for some time. Up until that point, I hadn’t found anyone that was on the same page, and willing to deal with the military life, which often involved periods of separation, large doses of stress and anxiety, and secrets that couldn’t be shared. Holly and I hadn’t been together long enough to see if we could make it over all the obstacles, but I was holding out hope that what we’d found on the shores of Holiday Cove, could translate to the everyday and beyond.