Sailor Proof (Shore Leave 1)

Chapter Ten

Arthur

“Introduce me to your new man,” Aunt Sandy demanded as she passed our table on her way back from the dessert buffet. Fork in hand, she settled into an open chair at our table. She shared my mom’s habit of circulating throughout a meal, collecting all the best gossip. It was a wonder it had taken her this long to make it to us.

“Aunt Sandy, this is Derrick.” I’d made so many introductions that I doubted even Derrick’s impressive brain was keeping track of names. The dining hall was full of relatives and friends, a lively group, and I too was struggling to keep up with all the newcomers and changed hairstyles and kids who had grown half a foot since I saw them last.

“You look familiar.” Her eyes narrowed, revealing the same shrewdness that had made her an excellent flight nurse. She was a double relative as she was my mother’s sister who had also married a Euler cousin.

Derrick extended a hand across the table. “I’m also Calder’s friend.”

“That’s where I saw you before.” Like my mom, she had short, fading red hair laced with gray and white. She had a firm handshake for Derrick before returning to her pie. “And of course that video that Maureen sent around.”

“That did make the rounds, didn’t it?” I was getting tired of hearing about the video. Now that it had served its purpose and made Derrick’s ex jealous, I was way more concerned with the prospect of getting some real, private kisses than with the idea of going viral again.

We could just have sex. For the millionth time during dinner, I mentally slapped myself. Smooth. So smooth. There were a ton of ways that I could have seduced Derrick and probably had better results than making it sound like a choice between a movie and a video game as after-dinner entertainment. But instead I’d blurted that out, and he’d predictably shot me down, and now we’d spent the whole meal weirdly tense and formal, that one bed undoing all the fun and easiness we’d found on the drive over.

And what was worse was that I’d wanted him to say yes, bad idea though it inevitably was. If we were going to practice good-boyfriend behavior, hooking up this week made a certain amount of sense. Lord knew I could sure use that sort of practice too. Moreover, I simply couldn’t get that kiss out of my brain.

“You’re aiming high, Arthur.” Aunt Sandy shook a long finger at me. “I like it. Calder must be having kittens though.”

From across the table, Calder winked at me. He was clearly enjoying the attention being on me a bit too much. The family opinion seemed to be unanimous that Derrick was too good for me. All the approval was unsettling, as was the implication that someone like me would need to work extra hard to keep Derrick.

“That’s one way to put it,” I said mildly, giving the man in question a hard question. “Did Kelly come?”

It was a deliberate change in subject, but I did like Sandy’s daughter, who was married to a woman who worked as a social worker for a veterans support organization. They had two little girls who were a nice change of pace from the seemingly endless stream of boy babies in the family.

“Kelly’s family will be late.” Sandy frowned. “She got called in to work an emergency shift, so they’re leaving Olympia first thing in the morning.”

I made a sympathetic noise. “That’s too bad.”

“Eh. That’s the life of a nurse. We’re so proud of Kelly’s acceptance into a master’s degree program too. She’ll do so much good as a nurse practitioner.”

“I bet.” I nodded, but my spine still stiffened. Do good. It might as well be the family mantra. I swept my gaze around the room. Soldiers. Firefighters. Nurses. Paramedics. And, of course, a huge contingent of sailors. And every last one of them served the greater good.

And then there was me.

“You should think about going back to school as well.” Aunt Sandy had clearly been talking to Mom.

“I already have a master’s.” I worked to keep my tone level. No sense pissing off one of the aunts on the first night.

“Yes, but not in education. You’d be such a good music teacher.” She patted my hand encouragingly. The family was obsessed with finding me my “calling.” Too bad I’d already done exactly that.

“I’m pretty happy doing what I’m doing. Just landed a big job for later in the month.”

“That’s excellent.” Derrick played the part of the supportive boyfriend to perfection, leaning forward, eyes all eager. “Tell us about it.”

“My friends are doing an expansion pack for their award-winning game, and I’ll be doing the score for the new level. It introduces a fun new mechanic, and I’m looking forward to the work. Hopefully, it leads to more jobs for other games.”