Mommy Loves The Military Man

What she wouldn’t give to slip her fingers into his hair, to— Stop it, Cameron.

“You, uh, well, you put your hand on my back.” Hearing it out loud didn’t sound the same as it had in her head. It sounded… neurotic. But Lizzie had driven her to it. Lizzie’s scheming… and Cameron’s ridiculous list of what she needed in a man. But now that she’d blurted it out, she had to finish. “And stop holding doors or doing anything nice. This isn’t a date. This is two parents taking their kids out to the movies.”

He grinned and stepped back, allowing the door to close. “You got it.”

“Fine,” she mumbled under her breath as she whipped the door open, walked in, and then let it go before Alex followed her. As usual, embarrassment heated her cheeks. Just because she couldn’t date him, even though she wanted to, there was no need to behave like a jerk.

She and Alex both approached the ticket counter at the same time. He motioned to her. “After you.”

“No, after you.” She could be nice, too. Because they were both humans. And she didn’t want to apologize

to him yet again. Ugh, why was this so hard?

He shook his head and bought his tickets. Cameron did the same.

As soon as they handed their tickets to the attendant, Lizzie and Mariana ran ahead to the theater. Cameron yelled after them. “Girls, wait.”

But they kept going, not even responding to her.

She slipped her wallet out of her purse. “Guess they didn’t want anything from the concession stand. More for me.”

“Mariana told me her order already. She said she’d save us the best seats.”

“Lizzie’s out of luck. She didn’t give me her request.” Just then, Cameron’s phone buzzed. Jumbo popcorn, junior mints, diet soda. Thx.

At least she had included a thanks. Cameron turned the phone around so Alex could see the text.

“Smart girl.”

Too smart.

A few minutes later, she and Alex headed into the theater, their arms full of popcorn, drinks, and sugar. She scanned the theater for a minute before she found the girls about halfway up… on the aisle… beside each other.

No, nuh-uh. Not happening. Cameron reached the row and bent over Lizzie. “Scoot down.”

Alex must not have realized she’d stopped because he headed into the aisle just as Lizzie stood. Mariana jumped up and now it was the four of them, pressed together between the tight row of seats as they tried to rearrange themselves.

Cameron tried to shift to the left and bumped into Alex. She rested her hand on Lizzie’s shoulder and maneuvered to the other side. Mariana wiggled right, Alex stepped over both girls. Somehow they ended up right back where they started… with Lizzie and Mariana on the aisle and she and Alex beside each other. “Oh, for crying out loud.”

“Shh.” A woman in the row behind them glared. “The movie’s about to start.”

“I’m almost done.” It was still the previews, and Cameron was juggling enough snacks and worried about her seats that the woman should be able to take one look at her and see what the problem was. Granted, she wouldn’t understand Cameron’s anxiety about sitting next to this man in the dark, but it wasn’t dark yet, either.

And then the lights went down. Oops. The woman threw her another look and motioned to the screen. Where the movie was starting.

Cameron thrust the last of the snacks at her daughter and plopped into her own seat. Alex lowered his arm onto the arm rest between them.

She nudged him with her elbow.

He pushed back.

Well, this just wouldn’t do. No way was she going to spend the entire movie huddled in her chair, squeezing her arms to her side to keep from touching Alex while he was sprawled on the armrest that was half hers. But the only way to share it was to press their arms together.

Change of plans. She leaned toward his seat and stretched her arm along the entire armrest. Who said she had to share? He could use the one on the other side.

He smiled back but didn’t try to move her arm again. He just sat in his chair. Really close to her. His arm brushed against hers. Of course, it did. She was practically hanging over his seat, rudely, all because she was afraid to touch him. And now here she was anyway. Almost touching him. This was not a good idea. Because if she touched his arm, she might be tempted to do something else. Like hold his hand. And that was a monumentally bad idea.

She had completely miscalculated this situation. And now she was stuck with his arm dangerously close to hers.