Dr. Daddy's Virgin

“Oh, there's that movie The Hurt Locker,” I said as the image for the film came up. “About the war in Iraq. It won a few awards, didn't it?”

A strange expression immediately came over Everett's face. This time, though, I didn't let it slide.

“And I can see that any mention of war makes you clam up and get all weird,” I continued. “You don't have to talk about it if you really don't want to, but... Don't you think that you and I know each other well enough now to talk about this? I mean, how much longer do you intend to keep me in the dark about your past? If we are going to give this a go, don't you think I deserve to know these things?”

Something inside me felt really worked up all of a sudden. Maybe it was all the worry and fear about Simon and everything else that had happened recently coming to a head.

Everett looked at me and sighed. “Yeah. You're absolutely right,” he conceded. “You do deserve to know. Well, here it is – the 'doctor' who helped me, Jimmy, he's a buddy of mine from a very different time. The time when I was a Navy SEAL.”

My eyebrows raised in surprise. I hadn’t seen that coming at all. “Wait, what?! You were a Navy SEAL?”

He nodded. “I was, yeah.”

“Wow. Okay. So many things make sense now.”

“I know. It's pretty crazy when you think about it. I mean, here I am, principal of a high school, it's about the farthest thing from what I used to do that I could imagine.”

“And what made you want to be a Navy SEAL in the first place?” I questioned.

“Well, there was this girl.”

I smiled warmly. “It’s always a girl,” I said trying to lighten the weight of his words.

“Isn’t it?” he said with a slight smile. “Thing is, the relationship we had, it really messed me up. Long story if I were to really get into it, but the short is, she was having a long-term affair behind my back, she was a real piece of work. And when I found out, I just had all this anger and these feelings of betrayal inside that I didn’t know what to do with it all. I had always been someone who had lived for adrenaline rushes, and pushing myself to the absolute limits, so I guess I wanted to do something that would really push me to the absolute limits. And somehow I ended up in a recruiter’s office and eventually signed up to be a Navy SEAL.”

“And then... and then you were sent to Iraq.”

He nodded. “That's right. And I... when I was there, I saw things, things you can't imagine. Things you can’t forget. It's worse than any of these movies show. Way worse. And I lost so many good friends there. Good, good men who died too young, whose lives were cut far too short.”

I squeezed his hand. “I'm happy that you made it back. And I'm sorry you had to go through such a terrible, terrible experience.”

“Thank you,” he said. “You know, no matter how many medals or honors I won for my actions there, it wasn’t enough to mask the experience.”

“You were decorated?”

“Yeah. I keep 'em all in a drawer, hidden away. I moved on from that part of my life, and want to keep it in the past. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but love for my country and my brothers in arms, but my SEAL days are over.”

“I understand. And I'm sorry if I seemed pushy about it,” I added.

“It's alright. I know why you asked. I shouldn't have kept it from you in the first place.”

“Well, now I know, at least, why you don't want to watch war movies. So, rest assured, I won't be suggesting things like that again anytime soon.”

“Thank you. I'm really glad that you're so understanding about all of this.”

I looked into his eyes and then kissed him slowly and deeply.

“Why wouldn't I be? You've been so very good to me, Everett. I'm so, so grateful to have a man like you in my life. Someone honest, someone good. Everything you've done for me... It really means a lot; it does, trust me on that.”

“Thank you. I really do appreciate that.”

“Well, let's put a movie on then,” I suggested.

“That sounds like a great idea.”

But before we could, Everett's phone started ringing. He looked at it and then t

urned to me.