Second Chance: A Military Football Romance

"You're dating my sister?" she had asked. "Do you play football?"

"No."

"Basketball?"

"No," I had said.

She had tipped her head, those chestnut waves sweeping over her arm. "What do you do?"

"I don't know, video games?"

Quinn had laughed – a free, unpracticed sound. "With Sienna? She hates video games. You must be a good kisser."

Quinn had always been easy to talk to, despite the gap in our ages. She was a freshman when Sienna and I were seniors in high school. I remembered hearing the other guys talk about Sienna's hot younger sister. It had made my blood boil. They did not know her like I did. Quinn was more than just attractive. She was quick-witted, interesting, and guileless.

Where Sienna always had an agenda, an angle, or a desired outcome, Quinn was different. She was genuinely interested in people, not for what they could do for her but because she liked them. She was friends with everyone. Sienna had an exclusive list of people she would be seen with, but Quinn was more like me. Not loners, just not defined by the tight clans of high school territory.

"She's driving me crazy," Sienna had said many times. "I mean, she went to the movies with this nerdy guy. She could have gone out with the first baseman of the baseball team."

"Not into the whole dating thing?" I had asked Quinn when she was a freshman in high school. We sat on the worn leather sofa in her parents' basement playing video games while Sienna did her makeup for a pep rally.

Quinn had shrugged. "Sienna makes it sound like a competition. I'd rather just sit here and beat you at Mario Kart."

I did not tell her then, but I preferred the same thing. There had been too many nights when all I wanted to do was hang out with Quinn. I leaned on the doorframe and called myself a coward.

She must have heard my heavy sigh. "Owen? How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to be impressed with your use of the frost sword," I said.

Quinn paused the game. "Yeah, right. An expert like you. I probably did 100 things wrong back in that glen."

"Well, there is a secret passage in one of the trees, but you were a little busy with that ogre." I slipped onto the couch next to her.

"Is it wrong that all I wanted to do all day was escape down here?" Quinn asked.

I resisted the urge to brush her chestnut curls off her bare shoulder. "I don't think anyone would judge you for that. It’s surreal up there."

"All the almost crying but not actually, because women don't want their mascara to run. All the cheery stories about Sienna, even from people who called her the b-word to her face," Quinn said. "Perfect pictures, perfect flowers, perfect conversations – I'm not sure I'd call that reality."

"Sienna would have loved it."

Quinn gave a short laugh that ended on a jagged sigh. "She would be so mad about me hiding out here. I should be trolling the guests for a good date."

"'I don't need a date; we're good,'" I quoted her.

"Every time Sienna caught us down here playing video games." Quinn gave a ghost of a smile.

"You know, I was being honest. You're getting pretty good," I said. I picked up the second controller and tossed it between my hands.

"You don't need to lie to me," she said.

"And you look beautiful in that dress and your hair looks great long," I said. I nudged her with my shoulder. "Now can I compliment your playing or should I keep going about you?"

Quinn never believed me when I told her she was beautiful. It had almost turned into a game. I wondered if she heard compliments so rarely that she never knew what to do. Sienna got the compliments, the praise, and the bragging stories from their parents.

I told myself it was good for Quinn. Really, it was just a way to say what was on my mind. I would have gone crazy if I could not have told her somehow.

"Compared to you, I'm just stumbling around Dark Flag," Quinn said.