The Elite: The Complete Series of Boomer and Player (With Bonus) (20 page)

“Listen, Player, I gotta get some shut eye,” I said, circling back to my conversation with my oldest friend. Even when he annoyed the shit out of me, he was still the guy who’d always have my back. My brother.

“All right man, stay safe.”

I clicked off the call and rolled back to my bed with a long sigh.

“He’ll come around,” Lions interjected, right as I’d closed my eyes.

“Huh?”

“Player. I was the first of my buddies to get married too, and at first they didn’t get it, but eventually they came around and now they’re all married with kids. Living the minivan life.”

I smirked. “Well, I doubt Player will ever settle down, but he’ll grin and bear it when I do.”

After a long, thoughtful pause, I rolled over and faced Lions. He was still holding his book, but looked up over the top. “How long have you and your wife been married?”

“Twelve years.” He smiled and his hand relaxed, dropping his book down onto his lap. “Twelve years, three kids, and five tours.”

“Wow. What’s the secret?”

Lions chuckled, his laugh low and soft, as he shook his head to himself. When he looked back at me, he was smiling. “There’s no secret, Boomer. Just a ton of hard work.”

At first, I wasn’t sure if his answer helped or not. I was used to hard work, it was the only speed I really knew, but if I were honest with myself, I didn’t really know what kind of work a long term relationship would take. People often said it was work, but I hadn’t had anything long enough to really see how that played out day in and day out. After a week and a half with Holly, I had no idea where our source of future conflict would come from, which meant I couldn’t even prepare for whatever was ahead.

“I don’t mean to be a wet blanket,” Lions continued. “Just being real with you. My wife, Sara, is a wonderfully patient woman who puts up with my deployments and military obligations like a real champ. She raises the kids when I’m gone and when we talk on the phone, she does her best to stay positive. But, that doesn’t mean we don’t have arguments and tension. Sometimes the kids are going nuts, driving her crazy, and she lashes out. Or, when I’m home, I get edgy and frustrated cause I’m not used to having them around after a long tour and I need space and that’s hard on them.” He stared off, past my shoulder, to the wall behind my bunk and looked like he was suddenly deep in thought. After a moment, he returned his gaze to me and offered another smile. “You make it work, though. You find the girl who will do all that, and fight it out with you, and you keep her and do the best you can, every damn day. That’s the secret.”

I nodded slowly, still absorbing his words. “Thanks, Lions. That helps.”

He gave me a quick nod and went back to his reading, but his words stayed with me. From everything I knew, Holly was the kind of woman worth fighting for, and so far, she’d been willing to fight for me too. So, while I had no idea what my future would hold, I knew that I wanted her to be a part of it.

Chapter Three

Holly

Even though I’d been home for a couple of weeks, the sounds of the ocean were still echoing through my mind. It was like living inside one of those sound machines used to combat insomnia. With the lingering ocean waves in my mind, it took a slight adjustment period to get back into the groove at work. Normally, I thrived with a day to day routine, but my heart and mind were wrapped up in the two weeks I’d spent with Jack in Holiday Cove, and it was hard to concentrate on expense account ledgers and monthly report spreadsheets. Jack and I hadn’t been able to talk much, between the time difference and his limited schedule, we relied on email to stay in touch. It wasn’t ideal, but each message was a small piece of him, and helped me remain connected.

The added bonus of having emails? I could go back and read them anytime I was missing him. Which is what my afternoon at work had turned into. I was reading through the last email from Jack—for the third time that day—when I heard a loud bang echoing from the office next door. I jumped up and bolted out into the hall and found the door open to the office next door. “Paula?” I called out, entering the office, my eyes darting around for the source of the noise. “Paula? Are you all right?”

A hand gripping a pen popped up from the other side of the large, marble topped desk. “I’m okay!”

I raced over and peeked over the edge. Paula’s chair was toppled over, the wheels still spinning, as she was gathering herself from a splayed position to get back on her feet. “Paula, what happened?” I rounded the desk and helped her up. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Yeah,” she replied, with a bubbly giggle. Once she was stable in her impossibly high heels, I released her arm to grab her chair and righted it. “I fell asleep with my feet up on the desk and rocked myself over.”

I covered my mouth with my fingers to suppress a smile. “I’m sorry. It’s not funny.”

She waved off my comment and I relaxed. She was still laughing at herself and shaking her head. “My son, Dominic, has been sick all week and sleeping in bed with Jeff and me. Which isn’t the most restful situation, to say the least.”

“Aww. That sounds rough. I hope he feels better soon.” I’d met her sons before. They were both hurricanes when at full strength, and I imagined it being a handful keeping them contained even when they were sick. “Anything I can do to help before I head out? I’m ducking out early this afternoon.”

Paula ran an online clothing boutique for one of a kind, high end items she found, or worked to create with her own design team. We had gotten to know each other pretty well in the year that we’d shared a wall between our offices, and she’d often let me come over to get a glimpse at new items she was posting on her website.

Currently, her office didn’t look set up for a photo shoot. Her desk was covered in paperwork, a tablet, and a laptop both lit up with different web pages, and her phone had buzzed three times since I’d entered. Whatever she was in the middle of was definitely not something that looked like much fun.

“No, no, that’s all right, Holly. Thank you though.” She fluffed her auburn hair back, but seconds later it fell forward again, just barely longer than her shoulders. “My virtual assistant up and quit on me last week. No notice. Nothing. Just gone! So, now I’m trying to learn all this web stuff that I know nothing about. It used to be an easy, click, click, done, but now…this…” she shook her head as she stared down at the mess across her desk. “I’m afraid it’s a little out of my depth. Especially when I’m running on caffeine and fumes.”

“Yeah, technology isn’t really my best friend either,” I replied, frowning. “I do, however, have a really good website guy. I’ll email you his info.”

Paula looked up at me again, and her eyes lit up behind her thick, black reading glasses. “Really? Oh, Holly, thank you!”

“No problem. So, why don’t you get back to your little guy and give him a call in the morning.”

She smiled down at her desk and without another thought, reached over to power down her computer. “You don’t have to tell me twice!”

I laughed. “Probably safer that way. You don’t wanna break your leg and leave Jeff to taking care of the kiddos all alone.”

Paula rolled her eyes as she straightened. “No kidding.”

I waited as she grabbed her purse and walked out of her office with her. We stopped at my office so I could shut down my own computer, and with a jolt, I realized I’d left it open to Jack’s email thread. With a huff, I closed the windows and shut the machine off.

“How have things been since you got back from your vacation?” Paula asked. She’d stopped short of my desk and was eying the art work hanging above the small couch that I’d positioned at an angle in the corner. I’d originally purchased it just to fill out the office space, since I was the only resident, but it had come in handy during some of my twelve hour days in the midst of tax season, and proved to be quite a comfortable place to take an afternoon nap.

“Pretty good. A lot slower than last month, obviously,” I replied, waiting for the screen on my computer to black out. When it did, I pulled my purse out from the bottom drawer of my desk, and made my way to the door of my office, ushering Paula out with me. “Some days I can even hear myself think!”

Paula laughed and waited as I locked the door. “What a luxury! Just wait till you have a few kiddos chasing you around. You’ll think back on these days with a fond, faraway smile,” Paula advised, still smiling, as we walked towards the elevators.

I forced a smile on my face, ignoring the urge to remind myself that having a family of my own wasn’t likely in the cards for my future. At least, not any time soon. At the thought, I realized that Jack and I had never talked about family, and whether or not that was a common goal. Thinking back, it struck me as odd that in all of our conversations about life and our pasts, neither of us had brought up the idea of having kids someday. But, then again, things had already moved incredibly fast. Throwing heavy duty, future talk would have made things feel even more serious than they already were.

I shook my head, brushing the thoughts away. There was no sense in worrying about it now. It certainly wasn’t a conversation to bring up when he was thousands of miles away, living on a giant ship in the middle of the ocean, preparing to go into a war zone.

Paula led the way out of the elevator when it landed in the lower level of the downtown office building, and I followed after her blindly, my eyes not focusing clearly on what was in front of me. We parted ways in the underground parking lot as she veered right to go to her Mercedes. “Don’t forget to text me your web guys’ details. I need all the help I can get!” she reminded me, waving from a few paces away.

“Will do!” I smiled brightly, snapping back to reality.

I got into my Honda CR-V and paused before turning over the engine to check my phone for any new emails. It was becoming a compulsion. One that I was acutely aware of, but powerless to stop.

Nothing.

I tamped down my disappointment and tossed my phone onto the passenger seat.

* * * *

In an effort to distract myself, and make up for the fact that I’d left the office hours before I normally did, I spent the afternoon running errands and wandering around town, enjoying the warm, spring day. When I returned home, I was weighted down with a few shopping bags, and stopped at my front door to set them down before fishing my keys from my purse.

As I was digging in the outside pocket of my purse, a familiar voice called over to me, “Holly? Hey! Long time, no see!”

I cringed, and was instantly grateful that my long hair had fallen into my face so that Greg didn’t see my less than flattering reaction to his chipper greeting. I forced myself to plaster a smile on and turned towards his voice as he reached the door of his neighboring apartment. He was wearing his usual attire, a pair of slacks, a button down shirt, and a black necktie. “Hi, Greg. How are you?” I asked, finally locating my keys. I pulled them free from my purse and inserted them into the deadbolt, keeping one hand on my doorknob so there was no mistaking that I didn’t have time to chat.

He took a few steps in my direction and I braced myself. The last time we’d run into each other had been at the gym the morning I left for my vacation and he’d asked me out on a date. The whole situation had been incredibly awkward, and I wasn’t eager to repeat it. In fact, I’d changed my gym routine from morning to evening just to avoid it.

I should have known there was no way to escape him entirely. Not when his front door was ten feet away from mine.

“I’m really good. I’ve missed seeing you in the gym. At first I thought maybe you were still on vacation, but I’ve seen your car in the lot, so…” he stopped himself, as though realizing how stalker-ish he was sounding. He smiled, trying to recover. “Anyway, it’s good to see you. How was your trip?”

I pushed the door open and smiled over my shoulder at him. “It was great, thanks for asking.” I reached for the handles of my bags, but Greg grabbed one before I could.

“Here, let me help you with this,” he offered, smiling down at me as he lifted the bag from the floor.

I kept my smile fixed in place, and led the way into my apartment. I’d known Greg long enough to not feel threatened by him. He was a nice enough guy, but he also had that used car salesman vibe going that always made me a little leery. He tried too hard to get people to like him and it came across as fake. When I set down the bag I’d been carrying onto the dining room table, I turned to reach for the one he was carrying, but he followed suite and set it beside the other.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” He was still smiling at me as he pocketed his hands. “So, listen, I know it’s been a while, but just so you know, my offer is still open.”

“You’re offer?” I repeated, feigning confusion. The last thing I needed was for him to think I’d been sitting around pining over his offer to go out to dinner.

“To go out sometime,” he replied. “I’m free tonight.”

I nodded. “Right. I appreciate that, but I’m actually…seeing someone…”

His smile faltered and for a moment, I felt a sting of guilt at hurting his feelings. “Oh, right, well that’s great!” He bounced back quickly, flashing another smile, though it had a tinge of force to it, as he backed out of the dining room and started back to my front door.

I followed his exit. “I’m sorry, Greg.”

He held up his hands. “No, no. Don’t be. I’m happy for you, Holly. I just wish I hadn’t waited so long to work up the nerve to ask you out in the first place.”

“I’m flattered,” I said. He spared me from having to think of anything to add, and went back into the hallway, disappearing into his own condo with an awkward wave.

I shut the front door, locked it, and smiled to myself, thankful that I’d gotten over that patch of awkwardness. I headed back into the dining room and was halfway through unpacking one of the shopping bags of groceries when I realized that Hunter hadn’t come up to greet me at the door. I dropped the bag onto the counter, shut the fridge door, and started down the hallway. “Huntey?”