Warrior (First to Fight #1) - Nicole Blanchard Page 0,2

appraisal of his sister. “What’s Livvie doing here? Isn’t she supposed to be at school?”

“She finished, man. Starts teaching in August.”

Nodding, I turn my attention back to her. To the summer sundress that’s just a little too low-cut, a little too tight, and a whole helluva lotta tempting. From what I’ve heard from Jack, when his parents adopted her, she gave up the rebellious ways that bounced her from home to home, and tried to tame her wild side. But the little spitfire inside of her often makes an appearance when she’s either pissed off or three sheets to the wind. I have little will to resist the way her eyes snap or the sexy as hell way she cocks her hip when she’s throwing sass. She bites off a comment to her brother and I stifle a groan.

As I think about how much I’m gonna miss her, the firelight catches the red-gold of her hair and turns it into a halo of flames. I can’t help but wonder how it would look spread across my bed with her generous curves steeped in shadows. Her brother chatters on about my upcoming deployment, but I tune him out when Olivia shucks her cardigan and even more of her gorgeous milky skin comes into view.

Silence falls, and I see Jack watching me from the corner of my eye. “I’m sorry, man. What’d you say?”

Jack shakes his head, a knowing look in his eye. “I’m telling you from experience, dude. Love her to death, but you’re about to leave. Not a good idea to go there.”

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Good.” He stares at me intently for a moment before turning away. “She’s got a good thing going at that fancy art school. Got her life together. The both of you have shit timing, I swear.”

“I’m not the only one.” I nod toward Sofie. If Olivia and I had shit timing, Jack and Sofie have it ten times worse. Even now, they could barely stand to talk to each other. They only gave each other cow eyes when they were certain the other wasn’t looking. Otherwise they spent every interaction sparring.

“When do you leave, exactly?”

I clear my throat and shake my head a little to dispel the image. “Ah, next Monday.”

“Well, I’m glad you could make it out here before you had to ship out.”

“Thanks for inviting me.”

Jack slaps me on the shoulder as he heads toward the group. “Keep eyeing my sister like that and I’m going to start regretting it.”

“Fuck you,” I reply.

After dumping my now empty beer in the trash, I grab another and reluctantly follow Jack down to the beach. Night has fallen completely, and the only light comes from the small flickering bonfire and the few rooms still lit up. Memories of hundreds of similar nights gone by wash over me.

Our history is made up of a series of nights like this, and there is a gnawing feeling in my gut that this is going to be the last one. She isn’t a starry-eyed teen anymore, and I’m not some pissant private. Soon, a man would see what I am seeing and take it. And I would have to resist the urge to break his fucking jaw as I could only watch the distance between us become greater.

I chug the beer to soothe the sudden burn in my throat. Pre-deployment leave always makes me nostalgic.

A few more days and I can put Olivia behind me. For another year, at least.

I just have to get through tonight.

Sand shifts beneath my feet as I sit on one of the creaky old lawn chairs we’d drug to form a circle around the fire pit. I nod to Jack and our mutual friend Logan Blackwell. The three of us had gone to boot camp together. Jack and I joined because we couldn’t imagine doing anything else, Logan because of the extended family he had to support. Though we had different jobs, we always seemed to find our way back to hang out on our time off. And it was always nice to touch base with my guys when we had the chance.

Logan had recently separated from the Marines. In addition to serving as my going-away party, we’d also gathered to take his mind off his troubled marriage. On the positive side, he had only just started working as a cop. At least he had that to look forward to.

Yet another reason why it wouldn’t be smart for me to get involved with Olivia.