Chapter 12
TWELVE
The long, red, satin dress hung loosely from my closet door.
It was just staring at me. Taunting me. Preparing me for a long night of being surrounded by Marines and their loud, free-spirited ways.
The dress was preparing me for the dreadful speech that was going to be made in my brother’s honor.
I took a deep breath, placed my hands on my hips, and let it out very slowly.
It was fine.
It was going to be fine.
It would have been better if the Marine Corps ball wasn’t falling on the night before my brother’s death anniversary. Like, couldn’t they have picked a better night? And why couldn’t my father have made the trip to the East Coast to attend instead of sending me?
Why did I agree to this again?
Because Alex deserves it. Ah, that’s right. He did deserve it.
“Why are you staring at your dress like it’s the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen?” JoJo plopped down on my bed while wearing her light pink, silky robe. Her curlers bounced right along with her.
“I don’t want to do this, JoJo,” I said, turning around again to stare at the dress.
“I’ll be there with you, and so will Ryan. And all your other friends. We can support you, Cammie.”
I was thankful that my friends would be there to help me through this.
It was just…I didn’t want to sit there at that table during the Marine Corps ceremony, listening to an older, weathered Marine spew about his time in the military, and then go on about Alex and how he’d lost his life and what an honor it was to receive a purple heart award…
even if you weren’t alive to see it. I didn’t want to listen, because it was going to make me feel even sicker to my stomach than I already felt.
I was going to be spending the anniversary alone.
My mom was off in Mexico, according to the last postcard she’d sent in which she also said she just couldn’t handle being home at a time like this.
Then, there was my father, who was off in California with his new family—not that I would want to spend the day with him, anyway.
I would grieve alone. I would remember Alex the way I wanted to—while crying over a tub of ice cream and blaring my favorite movie on the TV.
It was going to be fine.
“You know you can’t back out, right?” JoJo said, breaking me out of my pity party.
“I know. Trust me. My father has called me twelve times in the last two days and then resorted to texting me to get the point across that I—and I quote—‘made a commitment.’”
My father didn’t even have the courtesy to say something like, “I wish I could be there with you.” But what did I expect? I’d been a raging bitch to him—not that he didn’t deserve it. But I couldn’t blame him for trying to steer clear of me.
“Well, what if I snagged you a date?”
I retorted, “I don’t date—”
“For the love of God, Cammie. I’m your best friend. I know you don’t date Marines. You two can go as friends, plus… he leaves in a week, so it’s not like even if he did fall madly in love with you tonight, there would be much he could do about it. Chill .”
A lightbulb went off in my head as I paced the room.
A date. That would surely get my mind off Luke and my raging attraction to him.
I had already prepared myself for the fact that he was going to be absolutely breathtaking tonight in his dress uniform.
Those uniforms could make the ugliest man on Earth look attractive.
And Luke…he was already dripping with sex appeal.
He didn’t need any extra help in that department.
Plus, what would happen when I saw him with a date?
I would drown in jealousy. He would probably bring one of the lucky ladies he’d picked up who knows where.
Actually, thinking back to the last couple weeks, I hadn’t seen many women at his house.
Like, none. Maybe he was taking a small break.
Or maybe I just hadn’t been paying attention…
“Yes.”
JoJo sat up a little straighter. “Yes?”
“I need a date.”
I watched as she narrowed her amber eyes at me. “That was too easy; what’s going on?”
I said, “Nothing,” a little too quickly.
“Try again.”
I let out a gasp. “What? Nothing’s going on.”
A devious smile was plastered on her face. “I know what’s going on…”
I propped my hands on my hips and acted completely confused. “Nothing’s going on, JoJo.”
“You really like him.”
I laughed as JoJo waggled her eyebrows up and down.
“Who?”
“Oh my God, Cammie. Are you, for real, still trying to hide it from me?” JoJo placed her hands on her chest. “Me? Your best friend for, like, a million years? I know you too well, my dear. You like Luke. I can tell.”
I blinked once. “I don’t like him, but…” Her eyes lit up with amusement, and I narrowed mine in retaliation. “But I think he is extremely attractive, and I would love to have a distraction.”
JoJo leaned back on my bed, propping herself against my white headboard, which pushed the rollers to the front of her head. I could tell her wheels were turning—turning rapidly, by the way she was grinning.
“Okay… I’ll tell Ryan to bring Jett to escort you.”
I smiled and nodded, having no idea who Jett was. I turned my head to look at my dress again, and suddenly, it didn’t seem like it was torturing me anymore. Maybe if I was lucky, Jett and I could get a little friendlier than my last date… Okay, my last few dates. It had been a while.
The dress was tight against my body, hugging every single one of my curves.
The rose-red color shimmered underneath the civic center’s bright lights, and I pushed my curled, blonde hair over my shoulder, allowing my diamond earrings to twinkle.
My gown was cut low in the front but was still modest in most respects.
It fell gracefully to the floor, and if I wasn’t so worked up about the speech being given in my brother’s honor, I would feel glamorous and ready for a wonderful evening.
I was surprised when Jett stepped out from behind Ryan an hour ago.
He was extremely attractive, in a boyish sort of way, with his chestnut-colored hair and friendly smile.
I was still wondering why he didn’t have a date.
JoJo had given me a short biography of Jett while she was helping me with my makeup, and there wasn’t really much to him.
He was in the Marine Corps, he was the same age as me, he had never been married, and, in fact, had never even been in a serious relationship except for in high school.
He was moving to Okinawa, Japan in a week and, according to him, that was why he was single.
That was fine by me. As long as he was single and not looking to get into a relationship with me, I was totally ready to have a good time.
My stomach swirled with nerves as the four of us walked through the doors to the ceremony room.
I already had a glass of wine in hand to hopefully help with my nervous energy.
When we arrived at our table, Jett pulled out my chair and smiled a genuine smile at me.
I could tell he was a gentleman, and that just made him even more attractive.
JoJo took the seat to my left, just as Jett took the seat on my right.
The room was filled with at least a hundred round tables, all draped in dark-red tablecloths.
The centerpieces were large glass vases with lit candles floating inside.
Crystal plates and sparkling glass cups were placed in front of us, and although I hadn’t eaten a single thing all day, I couldn’t even fathom eating the delicious meal the servers would place in front of us after the actual ceremony, because my stomach was currently filled with nerves.
I’d been to a Marine Corps ball before. They were all the same.
First, you mingled and sipped drinks, then the ceremony would start promptly at 7 p.m., led by the Marine Corps band, and then would come the speech given by a retired Marine.
The ceremonies always bored me to death when I was a child, and I would barely listen to what the guest speaker had to say.
But now that I was a little older and definitely more in-tune with the ins and outs of war and what it did to a person and their family, I was certain I’d be paying attention during this one.
The main thing on my mind while sitting in the cushioned chair, barely able to cross my legs in my tight silk dress, was how I was going to keep myself together when the guest speaker, General Siekman, started to ramble about Alex and the sacrifice he had made.
Everyone in attendance knew I’d be here, and a lot of them would probably hunt me down afterwards to give me their condolences—which was another reason I was stressed beyond belief that my parents weren’t here. Especially my father.
Then, the whole Luke thing was lingering in my thoughts, too.
He was right there in the back of my brain, pushed up against words like longing, want, need…
Part of me wanted to allow myself to take off on a tangent and think about him fully so I could distract myself from the oncoming doom of this ceremony.
But the other part knew that I would be playing with fire. He was a walking ball of fire.
Seriously.
My eyes found him within seconds. I snapped my slouched shoulders up straight and gripped the stem of my wine glass even harder than before.
Holy smokes.
There were no words .
There were no words to describe the walking masterpiece only a few yards away.
His dress blue pants were pin straight, leading down to those shiny, black shoes.
He was holding his white hat in one hand, and the other was shaking an older Marine’s hand.
His dress jacket fit him tautly around the biceps, and the collar only made his jaw look that much straighter.
His dark-blond hair was parted to the side, and not a hair was out of line.
I fleetingly wondered what it would feel like to run my hands through it, just to mess it up.