Chapter 16
LAYLA
Before Santiago could even think about changing his mind and leaving me alone after all, I shot up, got us both a beer, and hurried back to the table as fast as I could. I sat back down again and grinned as I pushed his over to him, but he frowned.
“Okay, out with it, Perkins. Why did you want me to stay so bad?”
I shrugged, glancing down at the label on my beer bottle and picking at it as I tried to decide what to say. While I was still tempted to be honest with him, I couldn’t tell him the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
That would involve admitting that I just wanted to spend some time with him. For some reason I couldn’t explain, I was drawn to this man in a way that made no sense whatsoever. Okay, so maybe it does make a little bit of sense.
Santiago Cortez in uniform was hot as hell, but Santiago in civilian clothes with a plain blue t-shirt and a pair of shorts with normal sandals on his feet? Boy, that was doing things to me.
Any woman who liked men would want to spend time with this guy, but that wasn’t the only thing it was about for me. I was attracted to him physically. I couldn’t deny and I wouldn’t try. Objectively, he really was just an incredibly attractive man.
Dressed like we were now, it would be way too easy to forget why I couldn’t make a move on him, but I also just didn’t want to lose him. Not right now.
“I haven’t made many friends in the program,” I said. “You’re the only one who’s talked to me since you made an example of Bruce for insulting me, so that’s why you’re stuck with me now.”
Surprise flickered in those beautiful blue eyes as he looked back at me. “You don’t have any friends outside of the program either?”
I shrugged. “Most of my friends from high school have gone to college or moved away for work. I’ve spent the last few years doing everything I could to get into the training program, so I haven’t really made much time to have a social life.”
“What about your parents?” he asked. “I’m sure they’d like to see you.”
“You’d think, but I called them earlier. They’re out with some of Dad’s old buddies tonight. I’ll probably see them tomorrow, though.”
“You don’t want to see if you can track down the other cadets? It might help you bond with them if you hang out together away from the Station.”
I shook my head. “I have no idea where they’ve gone. Mel hopped on the first flight out to go home to her boyfriend and the guys just disappeared.”
“Try the nearest club,” he suggested. “These days, I think it’s called Kream. It used to be called Steelworks when I was a cadet, but it’s changed hands a few times since. I can almost guarantee that’s where you’ll find them.”
“Maybe later,” I murmured as I pulled a part of the label off the bottle and then raised it to my lips to take a sip. “Right now, I’m here with you. We’re having a beer together, and since you mentioned your time as a cadet, I’m interested in knowing more about it.”
“What do you want to know?”
I stared back at him, wondering how he could be such a dick during training and so easygoing at other times.
There was definitely more to him than just that absolute asshole he mostly was on the Station and I wanted to get to know this side of him.
The other side. The easygoing, nice side with the pretty smile and the casual attitude.
“I don’t know what I want to know,” I said. “I just want to know what it was like for you, I guess. You’ve obviously risen through the ranks fast and I want to know how you did it. Were you the shining star of your class? Were you Jonathan? Or were you a late bloomer, like me?”
“You’re hardly a late bloomer,” he said with a slight tilt of his lips. “Don’t let that wall get to you so much. You stood out from the beginning and you’ve handled everything else I’ve thrown at you remarkably well.”
“Maybe, but we’re not talking about me right now. We’re talking about you. So what were you like, Santiago?”
Eyes firmly holding mine, he shrugged and took a long sip of his beer. I had a feeling he was going to try to drink it as fast as he could so he could get away from me, but while I had him, I was going to do what I could to show him that I could be fun.
“Honestly? I probably started out a little more like Jonathan. I thought the sun shone out of my asshole and that I was going to be the best cadet they’d ever seen.”
I laughed softly. “I can see that being true. What happened?”
He smirked. “I realized how many cadets they’d seen and that I wasn’t even close to being the best. Hell, I nearly wet myself when they strapped us into that chopper.
One of the guys in the group ahead of us had gotten stuck and I was so shaken after seeing him coughing up water that I was terrified. ”
“You were terrified?” I shook my head. “I call bullshit.”
He chuckled. “Nah, straight up? I was so scared that I didn’t buckle myself in properly and I was in the back row, so the instructor didn’t notice.
I barely managed to stay in my seat until they dropped us, and I’m pretty sure I would’ve drowned if I had to get that buckle unlatched.
Instead, I shot out of the water as fast as I could, then I called my mom right after just to tell her that I love her. ”
Aaaaaw. “Is any part of that true?”
He crossed his heart before he picked up his bottle and pointed the open top of it at me. “If you tell anyone, I will vehemently deny that we ever had this conversation.”
I mimed zipping my lips. “Your secret is safe with me. How did you go from being the terrified cadet to the fearless instructor we’ve got now?”
“Experience,” he said thoughtfully. “Being on the job taught me a lot, but so did your dad. It all comes with time, Layla. It’ll happen for you, too. You’re already damn good. Now it’s just about honing your skills and building up your confidence.”
“The confidence thing might be an issue,” I admitted. “It took a massive hit when Hanna left. Don’t get me wrong, I’m confident in my actual skills, but not so much in my ability to be a part of my class.”
“You’ll get there. The guys are afraid of you.
I don’t know if they found out who your father is or if it’s just because of what happened with Bruce, but they are afraid of you.
What I did to that dimwit when he disrespected you and Meeks shouldn’t have scared the rest of them this much.
It’s not that hard to treat a girl right.
I think they know that, which is why I don’t think that’s what’s keeping them from hanging out with you. ”
“Is it just me, then?”
To my surprise, he rocked his head from side to side. “Yeah, I think it is. I think they know that you’re serious competition, but you’re also a beautiful woman and I suspect that’s why they’re staying away from you.”
I blinked hard. Then I did it again. “Did you just call me beautiful?”
His chest expanded on a deep breath. Then he shrugged. “Don’t look so surprised. It’s not like you didn’t know it. All you need to do is to show them you can be a friend and a coworker and that they don’t have to be afraid of being around you just because you’re hot.”
My heart hammered in my chest and my eyebrows shot up. “I’m hot?”
He snorted, shook his head, and took another big sip of his beer. “I’m not going there with you. I’ve said what I needed to say about it, and now it’s over. How did you find me here?”
“I didn’t come looking for you,” I said honestly.
“After I got off the phone with my parents, I just decided to take a walk. I saw the name of this place and recognized it from hearing my dad talk about it, so I came in. If memory serves, this was where he used to come when he just wanted to get away from it all. Not many people from the Station come here, I think.”
“Which is exactly why I chose it,” he said.
“Sorry for ruining your alone time.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be alone time.” He shot a glare at his phone. “I got stood up.”
My heart stopped hammering and started squeezing instead. As it did, I felt some of the blood draining out of my cheeks. “Oh, my god. Did I crash what was supposed to have been a date?”
When he saw how horrified I was, he laughed. “Not a date date. I was going to meet a friend, but?—”
“A lady friend?” Jeez, Layla. Way to be direct. Stop talking.
Something flashed in Santiago’s blue eyes before he drained the last of his beer. “Nope, but I’m not going there with you either. In fact, I should really be getting back to the Station. Thanks for the beer.”
He got up, and an overwhelming sadness came over me as he left without so much as a backward glance. It was completely irrational to be so sad that he’d just left, but I really was. I thought we’d been having a good time. He’d called me beautiful—and hot—and now he was gone. What is with that?
Although I was pretty sure we’d already crossed a line we weren’t supposed to have crossed just by having that drink together. Cadets definitely weren’t supposed to socialize with—or crush on—their instructors.
Once we graduated, it was different. We still weren’t really supposed to get romantically involved with our superior officers, but we were allowed to be friends. To hang out together.
At this point, I didn’t really only want to be a friend to him, but that was beside the point. I liked him, but judging by the way he’d just left, he didn’t like me very much. He’d practically run rather than spend any more time with me.
As I exhaled deeply through my nostrils, I decided it was for the best that he was gone.
Even if he did feel the same about me as I did about him, nothing could happen between us.
He was also right that I needed to try with the other cadets, and so I left my beer behind and walked out of the bar to see if I could find that club he’d mentioned.
As I hit the sidewalk along the beach, though, a couple of guys that were most definitely not with the Coast Guard approached me. They stayed a few steps away, but they were leering at me in a way that made my skin crawl.
Feeling uncomfortable, I upped my pace, but they matched it, which was also when they started whistling. “Don’t be like that, baby. Come talk to us. What’s your name?”
Urg. Why right now? This didn’t happen to me often, but it had happened before. Especially around the beach and parking lots where people with nothing better to do than just hang out.
Out of nowhere, a hand grabbed mine and I almost jerked it away until I spun to face the person who had made the guys shut up. Santiago wasn’t looking at me. Instead, his jaw was clenched tight and his eyes were on the horizon.
“Come with me, Perkins,” he muttered. “I’ll get you out of here.”
My heart skipped so many beats that I felt a bit dizzy, but his hand felt so good in mine that I tightened my grip on his fingers and tried not to swoon.
I knew my crush was silly and I knew I had to get over it, but right now, with his much larger, much rougher palm pressed against mine and his strong fingers in my hand, I didn’t feel so silly.
In fact, it didn’t feel silly at all. It felt like he cared about me and that was much, much more dangerous than an unreciprocated crush would ever have been.