“This is a bad idea,” he muttered as we walked.
“Probably.” I refused to let him bring me down. Best kiss of my life, and Derrick’s ex had looked ready to floss with barbed wire. Total win.
Derrick huffed like my good cheer was another burden. “Then why do it?”
“Because your ex was standing right there,” I patiently reminded him. “It was either agree to dinner or announce that my bigger priority was to get naked and climb you like a tree, which considering my parents were also right there, I figured you’d prefer the dinner option.”
“Thanks.” Derrick blushed, a legit dark pink color, at the word naked. Throwing the big bad chief off his game was too much fun, and I had to restrain myself from making even more blush-worthy suggestions.
But I could be adult, so instead I patted his arm right below his stripes. “Look, this way we seem like a happy couple a little longer. No harm in that.”
“I don’t like lying to your parents.” He quirked his mouth and looked out over the Sound.
“Next week, I’ll conveniently mention to Mom that we didn’t work out because of my thing about dating military men. I’ll say I can’t do another deployment and that will be that. They never need to be bothered with the truth.”
“I still don’t like it, but okay.” Pausing by a crane, Derrick leaned against a guardrail. “That plan makes some sense, and it’s a story I can use with Fernsby and Steve if one of them asks.”
“See? Benefits all around.” I gave him an encouraging grin as I spotted my favorite mermaid talking to a young ensign. “Oh, there’s Sabrina.”
I waved, and she returned the gesture before striding toward us, wielding her phone like it was a light saber. “My post is already in triple-digit likes and has tons of shares.”
“Your what?” Derrick’s frown deepened.
“Sabrina is my secret weapon.” I pulled her in for a fast hug. Derrick could be a bit more appreciative of our efforts. “I wanted to make sure our kiss got more attention than your ex’s. Sabrina’s got the followers to make that happen.”
I liked to think we’d made a nice spectacle with our kiss. And what a kiss. Damn. Not that I had oodles of experience, but Derrick could kiss. Kissing him was like my playlist landing on a top-ten all-time great song, both familiar and awe-inspiring at the same time, making my insides all bubbly. If I’d been scripting sound effects for the moment, I would have gone for something bombastic or maybe the roar of a runaway train.
“I just wanted to make him jealous.” Derrick groaned. “Not go viral.”
“Well, judging by the look on both of their faces, you totally succeeded. And that kiss deserved to go viral.” I couldn’t help my dreamy sigh. Whatever. It wasn’t like I was getting a second shot at those lips, but I wasn’t going to dismiss how damn good it had been either.
“Yes, it did.” Sabrina made a show of fanning herself with her phone.
“So, we’re having dinner with my parents,” I addressed Sabrina, who kept glancing back at the sailor she’d been talking with. “You can come.”
“Actually, I was just walking over to ask you how you feel about the ferry and the bus.” She had the grace to look sheepish before returning to eye-fucking her new friend. “I have...plans.”
“You were going to ditch me?” I faked horror because this was hardly unprecedented, and I’d mainly needed her to get the sign and balloons here. And her social media rep didn’t hurt either.
“You seem in perfectly capable hands.” Sabrina gave Derrick a very obvious once-over.
“Ha. But okay.” I laughed as Derrick turned all pink again. “I’ll find a way back. Go get lucky.”
“Oh, I will,” she drawled before making her way back to the ensign.
Derrick waited until Sabrina was out of earshot to speak. “She seems...fun.”
“She’s a force of nature.” I followed him as we resumed our walk toward the barracks. “We met in high school when Dad was stationed here before his retirement. We were band geeks together, but you’d never know it now.”
“Nope.” Chuckling, he strode purposefully toward one of the buildings. “Calder and I were just laughing about that the other day—how that one band camp sent you home.”
“It was one camp.” I frowned as we stopped by the door. I didn’t want to sound too pouty, but I also liked to think I’d moved beyond my hopelessly nerdy past. “Do you need me to wait here while you get changed?”
“Yeah, probably easier than trying to get you signed in as a visitor. I’ll be fast.”
“Sure.” My tone was more clipped than it needed to be.
“Hey.” Derrick reached for my arm. “I didn’t mean anything by the band camp crack.”
“It’s okay,” I said even though it wasn’t. “My brothers got tons of mileage out of me being too geeky for the band camp crowd.”