“What else what?”
“What about you?” He said. “You can’t spend every hour of your day with five-year-olds.” He waved the book in the air. “And I can’t believe you spend every minute of your day reading this when you’re not with my sister or the rest of your students.”
I laughed in spite of myself. “No, I don’t spend my entire life with five-year-olds or reading Beauty and the Beast.”
“So?” He wagged his head back and forth impatiently. “What do you do with your time?”
I played with the sphinx cat keychain on my backpack zipper. “I spend time with my parents. And I study.”
“You study. That’s seriously what you like to do when you’re not teaching or nannying?”
I raised my chin slightly. “I’m applying to get my master’s degree at the University of Arkansas. So I use my time to study. What’s wrong with that?”
“So…no travel?” He tilted his head toward me and wriggled his eyebrows. “No boyfriends?”
“I don’t need a boyfriend right now. I’m busy.”
He paused and studied me for a moment. “So tell me, what is it in that book that you like so much? Because based on the movie Jade makes me watch ad nauseam, there is very little in that story about staying at home and studying all the time.”
“Belle loves books.” I pursed my lips. “And she loves her father.”
“But those can’t be the only reasons you love it.”
“Of course not. I love it for the adventure. The nerd gets her books and goes on a journey while finding true love. It’s every bookworm’s dream come true.”
“Let me get this straight.” He picked up my book and held it in the air. “You like to read about adventure. But you don’t actually like to have any?”
“I…” I frowned. “I never said that.” Why was he muddling everything I said? Taking it and twisting it like a piece of licorice.
“Oh please.” He snorted. “You don’t like to travel. You don’t have time for a boyfriend. Your idea of a good time is studying and working with children who still struggle to take themselves to the bathroom.” He gave me a funny look. “And you say you like adventures?”
“Grad school is an adventure!”
He rolled his eyes.
“Well, what do you do that’s so adventurous?” I asked defiantly.
He laughed. “Aside from joining the military?” Then his eyes grew brighter, and he leaned slightly toward me, looking very much like an excited little boy. “I mean, why not? You get to travel! Every few years, you go somewhere new.” He swept his arm around him, as though all the world were before us, rather than the arena. “Germany. Japan. California. Texas. Colorado. And every time you move, you get a whole new world to explore!” He clasped his hands again and leaned his elbows on his knees. “I’m saving everything I can right now to make sure Amy and I can travel whenever we want wherever we get stationed. It’s part of why I joined the Air Force.”
“Part of?”
“Well,” he gave a half-laugh before tugging his uniform jacket down. “The uniform makes me look tough, you know. I thought that would be a good bullet point on my resume.”
I snorted and tried to cover it by taking a sip from my travel mug. “And what does your fiancée think of all that traveling?”
The light in his eyes dimmed a little, and his smile fell. “She’s pretty busy. But she says she’ll make time after the wedding when things settle down a little.”
“What about coming here?” I asked. “Can she visit much?”
He laughed a little and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, well, let’s just say there’s a reason everyone’s teasing me about my imaginary girlfriend.”
As annoying as Derrick was, I felt a little guilty. Apparently, his fiancée wasn’t as thrilled with travel as he was. Or with him, it might seem. I tried to give him an encouraging smile. “At least you can do video chats with her.”
He gave me a tight-lipped smile. “Yeah. We can.”
Did they, though? “How—”
“But I’m not worried about me.” He sniffed and sat up. “I’m worried that you won’t be able to loosen up. Because if you don’t, you won’t have much fun this summer. And my sister and I will be stuck trying to drag you behind us like a stick in the mud.”
