Mission For Love (Love By Design 6)

Still, the need to deflect my pain was ingrained.

“Why does there have to be some guy who broke my heart?”

“Because I want to beat him up when I meet him for making my life so difficult.”

David made me feel special in his Neanderthal way.

“Oh, okay, I’ll be sure to give Deveraux a heads up.”

“Dev…is that really his name?” David asked, spoon midway to his luscious lips.

“Yes, but I feel like I’m an easy internet search target for you. So who was the girl that ruined you?” I leaned over the table and redirected his spoon to my mouth licking the sweet treat and watching his narrow on mine.

“Ah, you got me.”

“Mmm…come on spit her evil name out so I can hate her too.”

David huffed and leaned back like he was settling in for a good tale. I hadn’t expected that.

“Viola. Viola Marks.”

“Sounds like a real witch already.”

“Full on broom riding, spell conjuring harpy. She did move here from a little hamlet outside Boston, but now I just feel like we’re type casting her.”

“Did she have crazy hair and stormy grey eyes?” I kind of wanted to know more about this girl from his past. As in was she still hanging around. At least Devereaux did me the favor of leaving for the arid temperatures of the southwest for training purposes.

“I plead the fifth, but know this I met her at a pep rally in high school. I played football and she was a tennis player. She liked to hang out with the jocks. It’s all in the yearbook photos if you’re inclined to page through.”

“Did Amber tell you I requested them?” I was so going to interrogate my friend when I saw her tomorrow. That was akin to breaking the bonds of sisterhood and one night stands.

“The fifth, Miss Roberts.” David toasted me with his shot of espresso “Don’t blame me for the high school sports dress code. I was a horny teen. Pretty sure skirts are all I cared about. Tennis skirts, field hockey skirts, lacrosse–”

“Any other sports you’re missing big guy?”

“Anyway…”

“Yes, please continue.” I rolled my eyes as my finger made the circumference of my teeny-tiny coffee cup.

“I ended up reconnecting with Viola the summer I was on leave. We had a fling.”

“Naturally.” I hummed a few bars of Summer Lovin’ from Grease.

David smirked and continued his story. “I was deploying on my first tour and she tells me she’s pregnant.”

I didn’t see that coming. Insert my good foot into my mouth on that one.

“Oh. No. Wow.” My reply was lame and I started to see under the cracked shell he was ripping open for me. An exclusive sneak peak where he kept the vault of emotions he seldom expressed unless he was on the football field or untangling twenty years’ worth of computer wires from the ancient Mrs. Moore, our language arts chair.

“Yeah, well I wanted to do the right thing you know? Provide for them, so I married her thinking that she would move to the base I would have been stationed at.” He rubbed rub his chest absently like the loss hurt him more than he cared to admit. Its sweet, disarming, and hard not to notice when my heart squeezed inside my chest and my hands itched to grab onto him and hug him hard.

I encouraged him to tell me more.

“And then what?”

“Well, I obviously didn’t get Hawaii as my first pick. She wanted sunshine, beaches, and all the pineapple she craved. I ended up going to Fort Hood in Texas and ended up being there for all the craziness.” I remembered hearing about a solider firing on his squad. A few had been injured and two including the shooter died. It was terrible and frightening.

“Oh David, I’m so sorry.”