Keeping Gemma (Holiday Cove 2)

Holly made a cooing sound like I was reading some lovey-dovey princess book for her bedtime story.

“Yeah, it was great, until her dad found out who she was sneaking around with. He told her to stay away from me, that I wasn’t good enough for her, and that I’d only drag her down.”

“That’s crazy!” Holly said. Her indignant tone made me smile.

“I don’t know. If it was my daughter, I can’t say I wouldn’t have said the same things. I loved her, but I was definitely influencing her away from the things she’d been doing. She’d never had a drink before she met me, and she’d never fucked a guy either. When we got together, her grades slipped, she stopped volunteering. I don’t know…maybe I wasn’t good for her. All I knew was we were having fun and living life. The other stuff didn’t matter much at the time.”

“So how did it end then? Her dad told her she couldn’t see you and that was it?”

“No,” I shook my head, wishing that had been all it took. “We kept seeing each other. We just got better at keeping it under wraps. One night, I was taking her home. It was super late, her parents thought she had been at an out of town cheer event, and I dropped her off out front. When I was walking back to my car, some guy jumped out of the bushes and attacked me right there in her driveway.”

Holly gasped and pressed her hands to her mouth.

“He beat me up, right there in front of Kimber. She screamed, but by the time her parents got down there, the guy was gone. Later on, she told me that she couldn’t see me anymore and we broke up. I never got her to tell me, but I’d be willing to bet my life, that the guy in the bushes had been hired by her dad to scare me off.”

“Damn. That’s messed up,” Jack said.

I nodded and dropped my gaze to the melted foam in the top of my beer. “A few months later, I went off to Annapolis, she went off to college, and we never saw each other again. I’m sure by now she’s married with a pack of kids, living a normal life. I hope she is.”

“Wow. Aaron, I’m so sorry. That’s awful.” Holly was still shaking her head as she processed everything I’d said. “And after that you just never wanted to date anyone?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. It just didn’t seem worth it. I moved around a lot. Deployed a lot. My way is easier. No one gets hurt. It’s a lot of fun. No strings.”

Jack was still staring at me like he couldn’t believe it.

“What?” I asked him.

“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s just crazy that I’ve known you for all these years and you never told me that story.”

I laughed softly. “Well you were never as stubborn about it as your girl here,” I jerked my chin toward Holly, still grinning.

She laughed and shrugged. “What can I say? I knew there had to be more under the surface than a…” she faltered.

“A pig?” I offered.

“No!” She laughed. “Okay…well maybe a little…”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “At least we can be honest with each other, huh, Holly?”

“I’ll drink to that,” she said, raising her glass. “To brutal honesty!”

We toasted glasses and after we downed the drinks, Boomer went to the bar to get a refill. Holly tore her eyes away from him and brought them back to me. “He misses you like crazy; you know.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” I answered, a sting in my heart warned me to not get too deep into the topic.

Holly reached across the table and placed her hand over the fingers sticking out of my cast. “I’m sorry I stole him away.”

I gave a laugh. “Don’t worry, I’m not holding it against you. I’m happy for you guys. Hell, with things spiraling out of control like they are, I might just jump ship and come join you in Germany. I’m sure there are plenty of single woman I can ravage over there.”

I wiggled my eyebrows at her and she slapped my fingers lightly.

“Now, now. You two need to be nice,” Jack teased, sitting back down at the table again.

“Yes, Dad,” I joked.

Holly giggled. “Well, I know two little furballs who would be very happy to see their Uncle Aaron again.”

“You coming back with us?” Jack asked me.

I shrugged. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I thought that was fairly obvious by now.”

He rolled his eyes but before he could object to my statement, our server came over and set a fresh pitcher on the table and informed us she’d be back quickly with our meals. After she left, we all turned our attention to pouring our glasses and polishing off the tray of Irish nachos we’d ordered as an appetizer and then got too busy eating to talk.