From what we knew about her, she was perfect. Almost a tailor-made match. Watching her stare out the window, her legs peeking out from the bottom of her sundress, I had to admit I was getting my hopes up.
Sharing a girlfriend. Together, the four of us. I actually laughed out loud.
Holy shit.
It was crazy, but for us it was also perfectly sane. None of us had been able to keep a girlfriend... or in Kyle’s case, even a fiancee. Ranger deployments happened much differently than standard enlistment. Any one of us could be called away between breakfast and lunch, without any warning, and not come back until next Christmas.
And shit… in the case of Briggs? A helicopter could land on his front lawn and take him in the middle of throwing horseshoes at a family BBQ. And yes, that happened.
No, these days women tended to frown upon shit like that. Especially in today’s age of instant gratification, text-messaging, video chats… none of them really understanding that the places we go, and the things we do, communication won’t always be at the level they’ve grown accustomed to. In even the best scenarios, they’re lucky to get a once-a-month, ten-minute choppy phone call from some shitty sat-phone.
“It is beautiful out here,” Sammara admitted. She turned, and the morning sun shattered her eyes. They shone this amazing. crystal blue.
“It’s even more beautiful at the lake,” winked Dakota. “Sunshine.”
Sammara smirked back at him. He’d been flirting with her — in his corny Dakota way — the whole ride. “Easy there, killer.”
Killer. Funny choice of words.
If she knew half the stuff Dakota had done, she’d see him in a whole different light. Putting his youth and charm and beauty aside, he’d stepped up and saved our lives more than once on assignment. And of course he’d taken life too — probably more so than any of us. Except maybe Briggs.
All of it was necessary, of course. And Dakota was good at it. Good at it in the way that he didn’t let it get to him; none of the stuff he did weighed him down, at least not on the outside. On the inside I could only hope he wasn’t an emotional shitshow.
An elbow struck my ribs. I turned, and there she was, smiling at me.
“So what’s your story?”
I looked back at her for a moment, just caught up in her beauty. She was exactly my type. Exactly the kind of woman who—
“You don’t talk much, do you Ryan?”
At that Kyle and Dakota started laughing. “Him? Usually he never shuts up.”
I forced a smile. “Just daydreaming,” I said.
“Daydreaming…” Sammara tossed back her golden hair. “The three of you are bringing me into your beautiful but deadly spider’s web of debauchery… and you’re daydreaming?”
I squinted. “Debauchery, huh? Is that how you’d put it?”
She shrugged. “Yeah, well when you’ve got one girl and three guys—”
“Four guys,” Dakota corrected. “Eventually, anyway.”
“Fine,” Sammara sighed. “Four guys. Sharing the same girlfriend? That’s going to get… well, let’s just say ‘messy’?”
At least she was forthright. I’d give her that.
“Messy in what way?” I asked.
“Well, Kyle tells me you’ve all put jealousy aside.” She rolled her eyes again in disbelief. “So for the moment, let’s rule that out. Sharing me — the four of you — have any of you figured out the logistics of how that’d work?”
She was sorely underestimating us. I wasn’t sure I liked that.
“We’ve put a lot of thought into it,” I told her. “More than you know.”
“Okay then,” said Sammara cheerily. “Who gets me first?”
My eyes shifted to Kyle, of course. Sammara immediately noticed.