The Moments You Were Mine (The Hatley Family #4)

Chapter One –Foolish One

Chapter One

Fallon

FOOLISH ONE

Performed by Taylor Swift

SIX YEARS AGO

HIM: I’m sorry I missed move-in day. You all settled?

HER: Yep. I’m at the stables with Daisy this morning, but I’m heading back to the dorms and then to the beach for my first surf lesson!

HIM: Surfing? Since when have you been interested in surfing?

HER: I’m in San Diego for the next six to eight years, Parker. It would be a sin to be this close to the beach and not learn how to surf. You should come!

Concentrating on the shaggy-haired man giving the surf lesson was nearly impossible when I was acutely aware of the broad-shouldered Navy SEAL standing next to me in the sand.

My entire body tingled while my stomach danced with nervous excitement.

I hadn’t really expected him to join me for the lesson, and I certainly hadn’t expected him to show up at the dorms and offer to drive me.

What did it mean?

Nothing? Everything?

Did Parker finally see me as a woman instead of a kid?

Parker elbowed me, and my breath caught when I looked up into his face.

Square-jawed with steel-gray eyes and a straight, classic nose that had been broken recently.

The notch at the top added a certain toughness to him that hadn’t been there in his teenage years.

Usually, he was serious, his beautiful lips set in a firm line, with the delightful M shape at the top tempting me.

But when he smiled, like now, when his mouth spread wide, showing off straight white teeth and pure joy, he was like some sort of miracle.

An image you could never quite capture right.

He had his wetsuit unzipped and open, the sleeves hanging around his narrow hips, exposing his broad chest. He’d earned an entirely new level of muscles at Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs training and even more in the training he’d gone on to after it.

He was sculpted now, cut and grooved in ways that called to my fingers to trace the contours.

How was my eighteen-year-old, hormone-driven body supposed to resist him?

“Ducky, are you even paying attention?” he said under his breath, his smile growing.

“I’m a little distracted,” I hissed back.

He winked at me, and it set all those wild and raw emotions burning inside me cartwheeling again. “I know I’m a lot to take in, but you need to focus so you’ll be safe out on the water.”

“It’s not like you’ve surfed either,” I tossed back, swiping my dark-blond braid over my shoulder.

“You think a little board is going to do me in after I survived BUD/S?” he teased.

“Is there a problem over there?” the instructor asked, dark-brown eyes narrowing in on us.

“No, not at all. Sorry to interrupt,” I retorted and glared at Parker, who only hid his smile behind his mouth.

Two hours later, we were high-fiving each other at the end of the class when the chestnut-haired instructor joined us.

He congratulated Parker and me on our successful rides.

While other students in the class had struggled to even keep the board under them, Parker and I had both stood up and coasted along the wavetops for a few brief seconds before we’d lost our balance.

“I’m Ace. You’re Fallon, right?” the instructor said, shoving his hand at me. I shook it, and he held on a little too long, his finger skimming my palm in a way that sent a curl of unease up my spine. I rubbed my hand along my wetsuit.

“You sure you’ve never surfed before?” he asked, glancing at Parker and then back to me. His eyes dragged down my suit, and I had to fight not to pull my surfboard in front of me.

“No, but she’s a trick rider,” Parker said. “She’s used to being up on top of a moving horse.”

Ace’s brows raised. “Trick rider, huh? I’m not sure I’ve ever met one in person.”

Parker grabbed my hand, and the energy that flew between us was nothing like the ugly one I felt toward this instructor. This spark was like watching the fireworks over the lake on the ranch back home. Sizzling and captivating.

Parker tugged me toward him, and I lost my balance at the unexpected motion, colliding into his side just as his arm went around my shoulder.

“She’s at the University of San Diego on an equestrian scholarship.

Freshman. Just turned eighteen,” Parker added with a little growl to his voice that sent a delicious curl through me even as it pissed me off.

He was warning this guy off as if I was twelve instead of an actual adult.

I wasn’t interested in Ace. I’d felt that warning zing when he’d looked at me, and I’d learned firsthand what it meant to ignore those warning signs as a teenager.

I’d never ignore them again. But Parker had no right to place me in a bubble and stick me on a shelf just so no one would touch me.

He may not want me in the way I’d craved for years now, but that didn’t mean no guy did.

“Don’t take offense at his grunt,” I said, shoving away from Parker. “You know those Navy SEALs…they only have one tone—growly.”

Ace’s eyes flickered back to Parker. “SEAL, huh? Guess that explains why you stayed up on the board.” Then, he practically dismissed Parker and turned back to me. “We’ve got a more advanced class on Thursday evenings. You should check it out. I bet I could have you surfing like a pro in no time.”

Before I could respond, a woman jogged up and wrapped her arm through Ace’s. She had short dark hair, a pointy jaw, and wide eyes that made her look a bit like an elf come to life. “Hey, babe, your noon appointment is here.”

Ace’s eyes shot to the parking lot beyond the beach hut where he worked, selling surf gear and swimwear in addition to the surf lessons. A dark SUV had pulled into the handicapped spot in front of the shop.

“I hope to see you again, Fallon,” Ace said and then headed off toward the SUV.

The woman stayed behind, shooting me a glare. “Ace and I are engaged.”

I almost laughed. The claim she’d staked was nearly as ridiculous as the warning Parker had given her fiancé. “Congratulations,” I told her. “I’m just here for the surf lesson.”

“Well, it’s over now,” she said.

“We’ll just return the boards and head out,” Parker said, grabbing our rented boards and heading toward the hut.

I could feel Ace’s fiancée’s eyes on me the entire way.

“I guess I need to invest in a board,” I said after we’d dropped the rentals off.

“You’re not going to take more lessons with him, are you?” Parker demanded as we stripped off our wetsuits by the outdoor showers.

“Maybe not him, but someone,” I said.

As I stepped under the stream of the water in my red bikini, I felt Parker’s gaze on me. It lingered. Hot and steamy. Or maybe that was just the way I always felt around him.

I’d known Parker my entire life—well, as far back as my memories went.

His dad was the chief of security from my father’s global bar conglomerate, and every summer or holiday I’d spent with Dad, Parker and his parents had been there too.

We’d had golden vacations full of laughter and joy.

Days woven with feelings of acceptance, as if I was actually wanted and cherished, only to have them ripped away when Dad sent me back to the ranch as if it wasn’t a big deal, as if it didn’t tear his heart out like it did mine.

That was before everything went to hell at the ranch.

Before my stepdad had died and left a failing legacy to me rather than my mom, and before my father had helped me save it.

Dad and I had mended our relationship in the last few years, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever be rid of the scars my childhood had left on my soul. Wounds that cracked open easily.

Parker was glowering when I opened my eyes and stepped away from the water to towel off .

“What’s got you all broody and simmering?

” I asked casually, unable to help the heady rush of hope that hit hard, fast, and uncontrollably as his eyes scanned me from head to toe before darting away.

Maybe Parker would actually admit to the sizzle burning between us.

Maybe he’d actually admit he didn’t like Ace looking at me because Parker wanted me.

Because we belonged together. We weren’t just childhood friends. We were something more.

But my hopes crashed and burned when Parker said, “I think Ace was high. That’s dangerous on the water at any time, but especially while teaching beginners. Anything could have happened, and he wouldn’t have been prepared.”

I pulled a T-shirt and yoga pants over my bikini, slipped into a pair of flip-flops, grabbed my bag, and headed for the parking lot where we’d left Parker’s truck. I threw my bag into the back and turned around, watching as Parker took a turn at the outdoor shower.

The water sluiced off him, the sun hitting it and casting him in a shimmery rainbow of mist. It reminded me of the waterfall back on the ranch.

The way the colors glimmered over the foam as the water hit the rocks.

It reminded me of times we’d spent playing in that water over the last few years, my stupid crush growing in leaps and bounds while he built up more and more barriers between us.

When I was fourteen, I got why he’d done it. He was five years older than me and refused to see me as anything more than a family friend, as the kid he’d been charged with protecting whenever he was around. But I was eighteen now. That didn’t seem so far off from his twenty-three, did it?

He dried off, pulled on a gray T-shirt that clung to every one of his enormous muscles, and jogged over to the truck.

“You up for tacos?” he asked as he slid on a pair of dark aviator glasses.

“You think they can beat the ones the new chef at the resort makes?” I asked.

He pushed his sunglasses down so he could look at me over the top, and those steely gray eyes made my heart skip a beat again. “We’re mere miles from Mexico, Ducky. I bet these will be the best damn tacos you’ve ever had. Only place better is this shop in Ensenada.”

“What do I get if you lose?” His brows furrowed. “You said you ‘bet’ I’ve never had better.”

My stomach flipped as his eyes turned dark and stormy before he slid the glasses back up, hiding his emotions from me.

“If I lose, I’ll keep dragging my ass out here to take surf lessons with you.”

I scoffed.

“What? Since when have I ever reneged on any of our bets?” he asked, a hint of warning in his tone.

“Oh, I think you’ll keep your end—at least until your command hauls you back to training and off on deployment to some far-off part of the world where you’ll do unspeakable things.”

His jaw ticked. “That’s weeks away. And the way you stood up on that board today tells me you’ll be done with classes well before I’m called back.”

He opened the passenger door for me, and I barely prevented myself from rolling my eyes at him.

Not only at the gentlemanly move that made our time together feel date-like, when I knew it was the furthest thing he’d intended, but because I knew the real reason for this bet. He didn’t want me near Ace.

As he climbed into the driver’s seat and backed out of the spot, I watched him surreptitiously from under my lashes.

He may not admit to the attraction that drifted between us now, but I’d still scored a point today.

He hadn’t liked Ace flirting with me. He didn’t want me with another guy.

That had to count for something, didn’t it?