14. Ray
FOURTEEN
RAY
“Three amigos back together,” Chase said, walking up to the bar where Frank and I were sitting. “Kraft and Florida, good to see you both.”
I shook my head at the nickname I hadn’t heard in a decade. When I’d joined Chase’s security business, we’d dropped the nicknames from our Army days. Clearly, he was feeling sentimental and decided to bring them up.
“And you must be the beautiful Tammy,” Chase said to her as she walked up to set napkins down.
She said nothing but just lifted her brow.
“Tammy, this is my buddy, Chase Jackson, the one I told you about,” I explained and watched the recognition dawn in her eyes.
“Nice to meet you,” Chase said, smiling at her, and she smiled back. “You let me know if old Florida here gets out of line.”
“Florida?” she asked, her brows furrowed. “I thought you were from Minnesota.”
I groaned. “Military call name,” I said by way of explanation.
She was Army too, so I knew she’d understand, but what I hadn’t planned on was the gleam in her eyes.
She turned to Chase with a Cheshire cat smile on her face. “Oh, please tell me the story of how that name came about.”
“Well, as you pointed out, the man is from Minnesota and should be able to handle the cold, but he was the first to bitch any time the temperature dropped below sixty degrees, like he was going to freeze to death.”
Tammy smiled, and I could tell she appreciated knowing something she could likely use against me at a later time.
“You got lucky the Army let you stay at Fort Hood for so long,” Frank chimed in. “As much as I would have enjoyed having them transfer you with Sharky and HBO to Fort Carson in Colorado, I knew you’d die after the first winter.”
Chase and Frank both laughed at my expense. I rolled my eyes but smiled through it, enjoying hanging out with them both like the old days.
“How are those two, anyway?” I asked about our old West Point buddies.
“Sharky retired to South Carolina with his wife,” Frank said. “I haven’t talked to HBO in a while, but last check he was living on the California coast. He runs a fishing charter business out there with his son.”
“Do you want to hear the story behind Frank’s name too?” I offered Tammy, more than happy to embarrass him right back.
“Oh, I already know about it. How he used to eat four boxes of Kraft mac and cheese as though they were one serving.” Tammy smiled, and Frank chuckled.
I said nothing, but my raised eyebrows gave away my confusion.
When had she talked to Frank?
“Some shit went down a couple years ago with Vince. Frank came in to drink away his stress, and we got to talking about our time in the Army,” Tammy explained.
“Her name is much cooler than mine,” Frank said, nodding at her.
“What’s your name?” Chase asked her, beating me to it.
“Bullseye,” she replied but not adding any context whatsoever, her face completely stoic.
After a few moments of awkward pauses, Frank spoke up. “She was one of the best sharpshooters. She even won the International Sniper Competition two years running at the Army base in southern Georgia.”
Chase whistled next to me. “Damn, woman, that’s impressive.”
I watched as Tammy’s cheeks turned pink. Not much made this woman blush, but I’d noticed she often was embarrassed when people praised her for her accomplishments. It made me wonder if not many people did.
“I haven’t lost those skills… Just remember that.” She winked at me.
I knew she was teasing, but I also knew she likely wasn’t lying.
“I like her,” Chase said in a lowly voice, nodding at Tammy after she walked away. “She looks like she’d kick you in the balls and enjoy doing it. Just for shits and giggles.”
Yeah, that was definitely Tammy, alright.
“She’s good for him,” Frank chimed in, also keeping his voice low. “I’m trying to convince him to move here. He’s spent enough time with your sorry ass. Now he can come hang out with me in retirement.”
Frank was goading Chase, and he was a good sport about it, but I also saw the way Chase’s gaze homed in on Tammy. We spent the next twenty minutes catching up, but his gaze often followed her around, assessing her.
“You trying something for real with her?” Chase eventually asked me when Frank had left to use the restroom.
He knew the fake dating setup that we had used to give me the excuse to be here, but I was sure Frank had filled him in on the fact that I was staying with her and that other proclivities that had taken place the first night I was here.
I knew I could brush it off, but this man was one of my best friends.
“Yeah,” I responded, taking a swig of my beer.
My response was to him, but my gaze was on Tammy. “She’s got a wall bigger than China, but I have a feeling she’s worth it to scale it.”
“So, you gonna stay here or come back to Texas?” Chase asked, easy and with no underlying pressure.
“Don’t know yet,” I told him truthfully.
“The fact that you’re even considering it is an answer on its own.”
He was right. I just needed to think about it some more and have a talk with Tammy.
Before I could respond to him, Diego had walked up to the stool where Frank had been seated and leaned over the bar. “Hey, Tammy, can I put in for some food?”
“Sure, gimme two shakes,” she replied, holding up her finger as she worked her way around the bar fixing a few drinks.
“I’m Diego. Nice to meet you,” he introduced himself to Chase. “Heard you’re from Texas, too. Either of you ever been out to the Grayson Track?”
“The horse racing track?” Chase asked him in response as I sat back and tried to recall where that might be.
“Yeah,” Diego said. “I got a buddy who lives down that way and works there.”
“Once, but not in probably ten years,” Chase replied.
I’d never even heard of the place, let alone knew where it was.
“I’d love to get out there and visit him sometime and check it out, maybe place a few bets with him for shits and giggles,” he said.
“Speaking of betting,” Tammy said, interrupting us. “You’re turning into an old man there, Ray, making that beer last forever. I bet you I can pour two new beers for your friends before you finish that one.”
“Are you daring me to chug my beer?” I asked her as I watched the flirty smirk on her face.
“Oh, my money’s on Ray,” Chase said with a smile.
“I’ll put five bucks on that,” Diego added, grinning like a loon.
Odd that Diego had so much confidence in a fifty-year-old man to chug two-thirds of a beer. Even odder that Tammy was trying to stir the pot with me.
“Challenge accepted, darlin’. What do I get if I win?”
She shrugged. “You pick.”
Her smile faltered almost instantly as she realized her mistake of leaving that open-ended.
“Within reason!” she quickly added.
I winked and gave her my best shit-eating grin, making sure she knew I would take my time picking my prize when I won. And I would win.
She grabbed two fresh glasses and looked at me before she started to pour. “Go.”
I picked up my beer and started to chug it, a little peeved that I couldn’t just enjoy the taste of it as it went down, but the prize would be worth it.
Diego and two others at the bar had started chanting my name as I drank, while Chase just laughed next to me.
Shortly after Tammy finished pouring the first beer and had switched over to the second glass, I finished my beer and set the glass down with a hearty thud on the counter.
Diego and the other two customers clapped and hollered while Chase explained what all the commotion was about to Frank, who had just walked up.
“Pay up, Tammy,” Diego told her.
“I bet Ray, not your sorry ass,” she told him.
He chuckled and shook his head. “Alright then pay the man his five bucks.”
“I’ll let you come kiss the foam off my mouth instead,” I told her.
It was two-fold. One, it kept up the appearance that we were dating, but it also got me another kiss from her—one that I found I desperately wanted. Mostly to wipe that smirk off her face.
“Maybe later.” She smiled back at me. She saw my ploy for what it was and wasn’t going to play into it.
“I like winning bets,” I told her. “We should bet on something else so I can win again.”
She rolled her eyes and then furrowed her brows and put her hand on her hip as she cocked it to the side. “Your cockiness is not appealing, just so you know.”
I leaned over the counter and crooked my finger so she’d come close enough that I could whisper into her ear. “You seemed to like my cock plenty two nights ago.”
I pulled back and noticed her face hadn’t changed—ever the good soldier masking those emotions—but her eyes were sparkling and full of heat.
Oh yeah, she remembered alright.
Two hours later, Frank and Chase were gone, and Tammy was ending her shift for the night. The Watering Hole didn’t close for another two hours, but the crowd had dwindled enough that Sam could handle the rest of the bar on his own and close up with Wade who was first up to assist.
We were walking out to her car, and she waved to a few people she recognized in the parking lot while I stared at her in amazement.
Tammy was a mix of dry humor, a beautiful, kind soul, and vulnerability covered in armor.
“What are you staring at?” she asked as we walked up to her car.
I moved to her side of the car to wait for her to unlock it so I could open her door.
“I just find you appealing and interesting, that’s all,” I responded truthfully.
“What makes me so interesting?” she questioned, clearly assuming I had some ulterior motive behind my comment.
“Could be your beautiful smile,” I said, taking a step closer to her, bringing us mere inches apart. “Perhaps your quick wit. Maybe it’s your sassy attitude, or the way your dark-brown eyes get even darker when you’re irritated with people.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Well then, I guess my eyes resemble rich coffee a lot, because most days at least several people irritate me.”
“You ready to go home, darlin’?” I asked.
She paused, tilting her head and putting her hand on her hip.
“Look, darlin’,” she said, throwing that word back at me with enough attitude to strip paint off the walls.
“It’s not your home. It’s mine. I’m letting you stay out of the goodness of my heart, but let’s get one thing straight—you are the guest, and if I don’t think you’re being a suitable guest, I’ll kick your ass out faster than you can bat those handsome eyelashes. ”
“You think I have handsome eyes?” I teased.
She rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath. “Men.”
Yeah. This woman was a special kind of intoxicating. The kind I was finding I enjoyed and wanted to be around. A little bit volatile and a whole lot tempting.