The same brilliant smile that had caught his eye in the airport lit up Destiny’s gorgeous face. “Nice, huh?”
“I can’t commit till I taste the food,” Ethan replied. “Who knows, it might be the Five Fingers of Death.”
“Never thought I’d hear a Marine with such a sweet mouth,” came the dry voice of an old woman behind him. “Or maybe you’re too young. I was a nurse in Vietnam, and what we actually called them was the Five Dicks of Death. When I came home, I promised myself that I’d never again put anything in my mouth that wasn’t delicious. And that’s why I opened this restaurant.”
Ethan felt a hot blush creep over his face. “I’m so sorry, ma’am.”
“Aunt Lizzie,” she corrected him.
“Sorry, Aunt Lizzie. I didn’t see you. I was just kidding my—” My friend? Too soon. Besides, he was hoping to be more than friends. “—Destiny here. Food that smells this good has got to be amazing.”
To his relief, neither Aunt Lizzie nor Destiny looked annoyed at him. Destiny was rolling her eyes at him, but in an amused way.
Aunt Lizzie gestured them to a table. “Guess you’ll find out. And welcome home.”
“Thank you, Aunt Lizzie,” he said, sitting down. “It’s good to be back.”
The menu was written on a blackboard. They both gave it a glance, then ordered.
As Aunt Lizzie walked away, Destiny kicked him under the table. “I can’t take you anywhere, can I? Bring you to the best barbecue restaurant in Santa Martina, you stroll right up to the owner and say she serves the Five Fingers of Death.”
“Five Dicks of Death,” Ethan corrected. “Don’t be shy, I’m a Marine.”
Destiny kicked him again. “I’ll have you know, I’m a nice old-fashioned girl.”
“A nice old-fashioned girl with an M16.”
“You wouldn’t catch me dead with on
e of those. They don’t go with anything I wear. Nowadays I carry a modular Sig Sauer. Fits right into my purse.”
It was like a game or a dance, that easy push-pull flow of teasing between them. Like their wrists were tied together, so any time one tugged, the other moved. And once that image occurred to him, he couldn’t help picturing it: a red ribbon binding his wrist to hers, with more ribbons trailing over her luscious naked body as they lay in bed together, teasing each other with the silken fabric…
Destiny snapped her fingers. “Now who’s falling asleep? I said, what do you do in your spare time other than dancing at clubs and getting pranked with terrible hot dog stands?”
Jolted out of his fantasy, Ethan said, “Basketball. Hiking. Rock climbing.”
“Good stuff,” Destiny said. “Just what you’d expect from a Recon Marine. And all of it requires a whole lot of room. What do you do to kill time when you’re in your tent?”
“Play video games.”
“Ah-ha! I knew there was something like that. And it’s not just to kill time, right? You really love them, right?”
Caught out, Ethan admitted, “Yeah.”
“I knew it. Nerd,” Destiny said with satisfaction.
“It takes one to know one. What’s your nerdy passion, nerd girl? A secret addiction to the Twilight books?”
“No way. They got werewolves all wrong, and there’s no such thing as vampires.”
If she knew that, she’d read them. All of them, from the sound of it. So his guess that she liked books was on the money. “Then what’s your favorite thing to read?”
“History.” She tossed her braids. “Not nerdy at all.”
Ethan grinned as he saw the gleam in her eyes. It was the sure sign of a nerd thinking of their obsession. “Favorite time and place?”
“Oh, I’ve got lots. But let me tell you, there was incredibly cool stuff happening in Asia and Africa when Europeans were huddled in the dark gnawing on turnips and not bathing.”