“Damn straight. I recently watched the new season ofQueer Eye,” he admitted. “I’ve been spending a lot of time resting my knees.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’ve been studying for the LSATs, and getting ready to apply to law school—my top choice is here in San Diego, of course and… I’ve also been talking to the team over at JAG. Nobody’s made any promises, but we all know I want to stay in the Navy.” He smiled wryly. “And not just because I already have the uniforms.”
“That’s great that you figured that out,” Ashley told him, and her heart lurched again as their gazes caught and held and his smile faded.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I’m getting there, you know. I just keep telling myself progress, not perfection.” He cleared his throat. “Hey, how’re Kenneth and Clark?”
“Kenneth’s great. Completely recovered. Back to eating donuts and drinking beer,” she said. “The big twist is that Clark’s so completely in love with Kenneth’s sister Louise, thathe’sgone gluten-free. She has celiac, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” Jim said. “Wow. Clark still wanna be a SEAL?”
“More than ever,” Ashley said. “He’s been impressing me a lot lately. I think he might actually do it. I connected him with Kathy Gordon, the chief—my recruiter friend…? After he graduates, I think he’s going to join the Navy—as an officer, if you can believe that.”
“I can,” Jim said. “Absolutely.”
“Oh,” Ashley said, “thisis funny. I finally had lunch with Brad. My ex?”
“Oh, I remember Brad. Yes.”
“I called him a few days after I got back from camp,” Ash said. “I was done hiding… I called my father, too. I just… pretended I was in command, and I was.” She’d told her dad, pretty much pointblank, that she loved him, but she didn’t want to live in his cutthroat corporate world.I know my world is imperfect, but at least here, I have hope for something better…
“So, how’s Brad, um, doing?” Jim asked.
“He’s… great,” she told him. “He was out of the country when I first called and… anyway, he eventually called me back and he wanted to meet, so I figured why not and… Turns out he’s engaged. He’s getting married. That’s why he showed up, you know, knocking on my door, freaking me out…? He wanted to tell me that, face-to-face.”
Jim looked at her. “And… give you a chance to say,Oh, Brad, please don’t…?”
“Maybe there was a bit of that in there, too,” she said. “Therewasa certain stench of creepiness to that lunch, but I was like,Congratulations!” She did jazz hands and Jim laughed. “And Idohope that he’s happy…” She looked at him. “I hope you’re happy, too. You seem… well.”
Jim nodded. “I’m not sure I’d call ithappy, but I’m… doing okay. Yeah. You also look… well.”
“I am,” she said. “Thanks.”
But now he was shaking his head. “Yeah, I’m sorry, the word that came out of my mouth waswell, when what I really meant wasamazing. You look amazing, and seeing you, and talking to you again is… fucking amazing. I’m sorry if that’s too, um, much, or, God, I don’t know…”
Ashley interrupted him. “That was also my definition, when I said you looked well. I meantfucking amazing, too.”
She’d stunned him. Whatever he was expecting her to say, it wasn’t that. And now when he met and held her gaze, he was that same man who’d bared his soul to her in Florida. But right now, he couldn’t do more than whisper, “Ash…?” It was a question, as if he couldn’t quite believe what she’d just said.
So she cleared her throat and clarified. It was, after all, her plan. “I was wondering if you’d maybe want to go out and get… coffee… with me… sometime.”
“Oh, thank God!” he said, and for a half a second, she was convinced he was going to cry. But he ran both hands down his face and took a deep breath, and said, “Yes. Please. How about dinner instead? Tonight? Or you know, drive to Vegas, marry me…?”
She laughed.
“Too soon?”
“Yes,” Ashley said. “How about coffee, tomorrow?”
Jim nodded. “Coffee tomorrow works.”
“I need to take this slowly,” she told him.
“I get it,” he said. “I do. What I did was… really shitty. It was inexcusable. And I’m so grateful to have a second chance to show you that… I’m not that guy, that… frightened boy. I’m better than that—or at least I know that I can be. And I… I’m looking forward to letting you have a chance to… get to know me.”
Ashley’s heart was in her throat. “I really want you… to get to know me, too.”
