“Sounds like we had the time of our lives.”Alana began to regret that she couldn’t remember anything about their night together.
“I’m thinking it was a damned shame I forgot most of it.”
“Most?”Alana frowned.“Do you remember any of it?”
He squinted at the sunshine glaring off the water.“I swear I can hear the music from the conga line.And I recognized Mama Delores, though I couldn’t remember her name.”
Alana sighed.“That’s more than I got.”
They walked along the path leading to the beach in silence.
When they reached the sand, Alana automatically kicked off her flip-flops and bent to pick them up.
Chase did the same.Then he captured her hand in his, as if he had every right to do so.
Instinctively, Alana knew that if she didn’t want him to hold her hand, he would release it at once.She hated to admit it, but she liked that he held her hand.Well,hatedwas a strong word.She didn’tlikethat she was softening toward the man who’d obviously tricked her into marrying him.How else had she ended up wearing a wedding ring with a marriage license to prove it had happened?No woman in her right mind would marry a guy she’d only just met.
That was the problem.She hadn’t been in her right mind.Her brain had been soaked in tequila.She was surprised she hadn’t succumbed to alcohol poisoning.
“You say you just got off active duty?”Alana asked, curious about the man she’d married.
“Yes, ma’am.”He looked out to the sea.“I served for eleven years as a Navy SEAL.”
She frowned.“Why didn’t you go until retirement at twenty years?”
He didn’t answer for a while.Alana thought he was ignoring her question until he answered, “I used to love the adrenaline rush of going into battle.I lived for the fight, for the challenge.”
“What changed?”she asked softly.
His hand tightened on hers.“I lost too many of my friends.Some of them had taken the plunge and dared to marry and have children.They were my brothers.And they had family who loved them.Those wives lost their husbands.Those children will never know their fathers.”
Alana’s heart squeezed hard in her chest at the sadness in Chase’s voice.“Is that why you didn’t marry?”she asked quietly.
He nodded.“I figured it wasn’t fair to any woman to put her through that kind of loss.”
“What if the woman knows what she’s signing up for and loves her man enough to go into it with her eyes wide open?Don’t you think it should be her choice?”
“No woman could understand the danger we faced on every deployment.And we were gone more than we were at home.She’d have been on her own more often than not.”
“Again, why wouldn’t you give her the choice?”Alana lifted her shoulders and let them fall.“Not all women are weak and dependent on a man to survive.We’re not all wimps.”
“Lots of my friends’ marriages ended in divorce,” Chase said.“Their spouses couldn’t handle the loneliness.They found other men to make them happy.”
Alana’s lips pressed together.“They weren’t the right women for your friends.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t meet a woman who fit that bill.”Chase nodded toward a building ahead with a huge, garish red-and-orange sign proclaiming it La Casa Loca.
Rather than continue to the bar, he turned her toward a small shop several structures short of their destination.
“Where are we going?”Alana asked, trotting to keep up.
“I don’t feel good about wandering around out in the open, especially after the near miss with the car in front of the Cabo Wabo bar.”
Alana shivered.“Me either.”
Chase nodded.“And if Text Dude is looking for us, I don’t want to make it any easier for him to find us before our rendezvous time.”
Alana glanced over her shoulder.“Do you really think someone could be following us?”
