How Ray had gone from considering walking away to not wanting to let go of her hand—ever—made no sense.Then again, from the minute he’d met her, without having said a word, he’d known she was someone special.Getting to know her better had cemented his first impressions.He wanted her more than he thought possible for one human being to want another.
The last thing he needed now was to sit alone in his room and stew over how sure he was that he didn’t want this—whatever it was—to end.He’d been kicking around the differences in their lives for three days and was no wiser now than when he’d arrived.But one thing was for sure, he was a damned sight happier than he had been two hours ago.
“Hey, man.”Sitting at the hotel bar, Doug waved Ray over.“Not out with the bachelors?”
“Nah.Only met the groom a few hours ago.The rest of the guys have known each other for a while.I just didn’t see the point.”
“Same here.I’d rather spend my night watching football.On the other hand, my fiancée is off having a blast with the girls.”Doug waved at the stool beside him.“Have a seat.”
Oh, this can’t be good.Usually Ray thought quickly on his feet, but, at this moment, all his brain cells were still working their way up from south of his belt.There was no finding a single excuse to skip drinking with the brother of the woman he was quickly tumbling head over heels for—hard.Forcing a smile, he took a seat, ordered a beer, and focused on the large-screen TV in the corner.
“What are you waiting for?”Doug shouted at the TV.“An invitation?”
“Throw the blasted ball already.”Ray shook his head.“The kid is too young.He wants to show off.Eickleman was in the clear.Coach will rail his butt for not throwing to the star running back.”
“Quarterback thinks he’s all that.Reality comes around sooner or later, and these young kids come crashing off their pedestals.”
Ray certainly understood how it felt to crash and burn.He reached for his drink.
“Sorry, man.”Doug set down his beer.“I wasn’t thinking.”
“We’re just watching a game.”Because the urge to down the remainder of his beer in one swallow was so strong, Ray nudged the drink away with his fingertips.Looking back at the game, he pretended not to notice the way Doug’s gaze had followed Ray’s hand, then came back up to study his face.
“Did my sister tell you why I separated from the navy?”
Ray shook his head.Amy had shared the story of the siblings separation at an early age, after their natural father had been killed in a bar fight, but she’d said very little about Doug as an adult.
“It was a cluster you-know-what.Everything that could go wrong did.An explosion cost one man on our team his life and another his leg.”He reached for a handful of nuts from a nearby bowl.“I was lucky—so they told me.I’d only lost my vision in one eye.But you need two good eyes to do what I did.”
All Ray could do was stare.Any response seemed woefully insufficient.That day long ago on the field, he’d lost the ability to play pro ball.Yet he could still walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night or play in a friendly game.Only on rainy days and occasionally during a big game on TV did he feel his loss.For all intents and purposes he still had full use of all his body parts.
“Giving up on a dream stinks.Big time.”Doug glanced at the screen.Fourth down and eight, thirty yards out, the team went for a field goal.“I thought I’d be in for at least my twenty.Not for the pension.Ilovedwhat I did.Every single adrenaline-stoked minute of it.”
Ray nodded.That much he understood.He’d loved the highs of playing ball.Whether the rush of coming from behind to win a game or the agony of giving away the game-winning points, the intensity was unmatchable.He had loved every frickin’ minute.“But you had a backup plan?”
A riot of laughter wasn’t the response Ray had expected.
Even when Doug stopped, his shoulders still shook with the last remnants of his mirth.“I didn’t have a clue.Took six months just to shake off the depression.”He hesitated.“The guilt never goes away.”
Doug’s buddies.Dear God.Ray felt two inches tall.
“I kicked around the country, licking my wounds.Tried a few jobs.Nothing worked.A guy I knew from the navy ran a skydiving school.If I couldn’t save the world for Uncle Sam, teaching thrill-seeking people how to propel through the sky seemed like a good fit.It worked for a while.”
One of the teams scored, and the bar erupted in cheers and moans.Both Ray and Doug glanced up at the screen from sheer habit.Neither really cared about the game or the score anymore.
“I walked away from my last job.Third strike.”Ray hadn’t meant to share that bit of information.Especially not with Amy’s brother.“I just couldn’t see waking up and spending another day the same exact way I had the day before and the day before that.”
Nothing wrong with running away from a dull life, he told himself.People started fresh all the time.The only problem was, he had no idea what he was running to.
“You and Ray seemed to be getting along awfully well on the beach.”Emily practically had to sit in Amy’s lap to be heard over the roar of the music.
“We almost didn’t.”In only a few seconds Amy’s mind rewound past the tender moment locked in his arms to Ray’s odd dispatch earlier in the bar onto frolicking at the beach and didn’t stop until it settled on Ray’s admission that he had no job and no plan.“He’s unemployed,” she blurted out.
Emily took a second to process Amy’s words, then shrugged.“The economy is the pits right now.Lots of people are having a hard time—”
“He left the job because he was restless.”
Whether Emily was waiting for Amy to say more or merely trying to read her mind, she didn’t know.
