The Lieutenants' Online Love. Caro Carson
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or missions or shifts, which was how he felt because it was indeed what he was doing. This woman looked like she had time, like she was where she wanted to be and enjoying it.
Maybe she was a local. She could be a yoga instructor, all smooth muscle and Zen contentment, the polar opposite of him and his career.
The guys around her talked over one another, laughing and gesturing. Chloe was laughing with them, but this didn’t look like a boyfriend introducing his girlfriend to his pals. This looked like a reunion of people who were surprised to find each other here. Long-lost college buddies, maybe. That kind of thing happened in an army town all the time. Paths crossed unexpectedly with so many people coming and going as assignments began and ended.
She glanced his way and did a subtle double take when she saw that he was walking directly toward her. She didn’t look away. Neither did he.
Another man came running up behind her, full speed. She started to turn with an elbow raised in a defensive move but the man plowed into her, wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug and let his momentum carry them off the edge of the pool to plunge into the water.
Idiot.
Thane didn’t know a woman alive who appreciated getting thrown into a pool without warning. That fabulous smile of hers was going to be gone.
They popped up a couple of feet apart.
“Idiot,” Chloe said.
Exactly.
But then Chloe broke into laughter. “You are so, so lucky you still have all your teeth, Keith. I was about to clock you with my elbow when I realized it was you. You better be grateful I’ve got ninja-like mastery of my ninja-like reflexes.” They exchanged trash-talking banter until Chloe hoisted herself out of the pool.
Okay, she didn’t sound like a Zen yogini. She’d gotten in some good zingers, though. Now she sat on the edge, her hair a waterfall down her back, her feet still in the pool. “I don’t suppose any of you guys brought a towel? I don’t have one. I wasn’t planning on going in.”
“Me, neither,” said one of the dry guys. “Sorry.”
“The sun’s out,” said another dry guy. “You’ll be fine.”
“Hey, the keg’s been tapped.” The tackling guy hauled himself out of the pool and headed over to the keg, dripping wet.
College buddies, for sure. If any one of them wanted to try to become more, he’d best get his act together. Thane wasn’t going to hang back and wait for the pack of golden retrievers to grow up and man up.
Thane detoured a few steps to the chair where he’d thrown his things earlier and snagged his oversize towel with one hand. Then he walked up to the pool’s edge and crouched down beside Chloe. “I’ve got an untouched beer here and a clean towel. You’re welcome to one or the other or both.”
“I’ll take the towel, please.”
They were strangers, so her smile for him was polite, pleasant, still beautiful. Thane set down the beer so he could shake out the towel and let it fall around her shoulders, keeping the action quick and casual. “There you go.”
“Thanks.”
He picked up the beer and sat next to her, putting his feet in the water, too.
She beat him to the introductions, holding out her wet hand for a shake. “And hi, by the way. My name is Chloe.”
“My name is Thane. I wanted to meet you.”
They smiled at one another.
This feels like the start of a beautiful friendship.
They’d arrived late to the party, so the burgers were all gone.
Thane didn’t care. Nothing could ruin this day. He’d met a girl, and now the sun was warmer, the trees were greener, the food smelled better. He could keep talking to her forever. He wanted to learn more about her, where she came from, how she felt about everything, where she was going. He wanted to keep looking at her beautiful face. There would be a first date, a first kiss. He couldn’t wait for time to speed toward that moment; he was enjoying every second right now and didn’t want this afternoon to end.
“It looks like our choice is hot dogs or hot dogs,” she said to him. To the complex’s maintenance man who was manning the grill, she said, “I’d like a hot dog, please.”
Thane got two for himself and they headed over to the condiment table, where, unfortunately, two of the four golden retrievers were hovering. Chloe made the introductions. Marcus shook his hand. Bill had a beer in one hand and a plate in the other, so he did the lift of the chin. Of course.
“We went to school together,” Chloe offered. Her hair was still wet but not dripping. She’d tied Thane’s towel around herself, high under her arms. It made her look like she’d just stepped out of a shower. It was a very, very good look.
Judging from the way their gazes kept straying to the knot in the towel that rested just above her breasts, Bill and Marcus thought so, too. Bill turned away pretty quickly to set down his beer and pick up the mustard for his hot dog. If he cared more about mustard than hanging on to Chloe’s every word, then he probably had something else going on with a different woman.
“Hey, are you still serious with that girl from Mount Saint Mary’s?” Chloe asked Bill.
Thane wondered if she’d read his mind. Nah—Chloe wasn’t vain enough to assume every single man ought to be interested in her. Except every single man around here was—just not Bill.
Chloe pointed to Bill’s plate. “You only put mustard on your hot dog. That reminded me about her.”
“Mustard made you think of Susie?” Bill asked.
“Don’t you remember the hot dog test? Mustard means a man wants to settle down.”
“Oh, that dorky thing. I remember.” He looked at his hot dog and started to laugh. “You aren’t going to believe this, but Susie and I got engaged when I finished Airborne School.”
The other dude dropped the mustard like it had burned him. “Which topping was for the good-looking men who like to show women a good time?”
“Marcus the man-whore,” Bill muttered under his breath.
“I can’t tell you,” Chloe said. “That would invalidate the whole hot dog test.”
Thane listened with one ear as he covered one hot dog with relish. Across the pool deck, he spotted one little table left in the shade. He’d ask Chloe if she wanted to go over there. Hopefully, the pack wouldn’t follow. They weren’t bad guys; they just weren’t a beautiful woman wrapped in his towel, which was the only person Thane cared to talk to. He picked up the ketchup bottle and squeezed a hearty red line over the relish dog.
“The opposite of married is bachelor, which is what I am,” Marcus said. “Suave and devastating bachelor. The opposite of mustard is ketchup, so it must be ketchup.”
“That’s right,” Chloe said, and then a little silence followed as everyone looked at Thane.
He held the ketchup bottle in the air a second longer, then set it down.
“So, you’re a playboy bachelor?” Chloe asked with a tilt of her head and a teasing voice.
He looked her in the eye as he silently picked up the mustard and squeezed that on his second hot dog.
Her friends loved it. Marcus nudged her with his arm. “So, what’s that mean, Chloe?”
“I’m not done yet.” Thane picked up a forkful of sauerkraut and plopped that on the mustard dog. The men hammed it up, their whoa