6
COLE
What the hell did I do? Rushed things, that’s what. I went too far, too soon, and now Jenna was acting all weird around me. It’s not like I planned that little encounter in the lake. I was honestly just trying to have fun, you know? Get her back for calling me a cartoon girl. So, no, having her sweet little body plastered against mine was sadly not part of my plan today. I’m going to chalk that one up to divine intervention. Maybe someone somewherewaslooking out for me.
“You wanna watch a movie?” Jenna asks over the running faucet. She cooked dinner tonight, and even though I insisted on cleaning up, she instructed me to park my butt on the sofa and relax, claiming that I don’t know what it feels like to just sit still. Wonder why she thinks that?
“Sure,” I tell her.“Anything in particularyou want to watch?”
She turns the faucet off and dries her hands on a small towel. “A comedy,” she says. “Something from the eighties.”
We decide onFerris Bueller’s Day Offand settle on the sofa—her on one end, me on the other. The movie starts, and about five minutes in we’re quoting every line, and everything between us is back to normal.
“You aresoFerris,” she tells me and pops a piece of popcorn in her mouth—she just had to get up after the movie had already started to pop it because, and I quote, “It’s illegal to watch a movie and not eat popcorn.”
“How so?” I ask and open my mouth for her to toss me one of the kernels. It bounces off of my nose and lands on my shirt.
“Just your fun-loving, mischievous nature,” she explains. “I can see you doing every bit of what Ferris does in this movie. If recall, there was a time when you and Adam took my dad’s Jaguar out for a test drive without his permission. And I do believe it was all your idea.”
I smile at the memory, and, even though my chest aches at the mention of her brother—my best friend—I can’t help but chuckle. “He was so against it, just like Cameron. But we had a blast that day. And, hey, at least we didn’t wreck it like they did,” I say and nod toward the TV.
“Good thing, too,” Jenna says with a small laugh. “My dad would have had a fit if anything had happened to that car. You guys are lucky you didn’t get caught.”
She tosses me another piece of popcorn as lightning flashes through the windows. Not three seconds later, rain hits the roof—hard.
“Holy shit,” I say and hurry across the room to close the windows. “Where did this come from?”
“Oh wow,” Jenna says, her voice loaded with worry. “Did you see the streak of lightning?”
I nod as thunder cracks and damn near shakes the whole house. And then the lights go out.
“Shit,” I mumble as I feel my way around the space to the kitchen. I know there’s a candle on the island and matches in one of the drawers. “Jenna, are you okay? Just sit tight for one minute while I find—”
Dim light fills the room, and I look to see Jenna holding her cell phone with a light shining from the back of it. “Flashlight app,” she tells me and smiles. “This doesn’t seem like it’s going to blow over quick, so I think our movie’s ruined.”
“Yeah,” I agree and ask her to shine her light to the drawer so I can find the matches. I find them, plus a deck of cards. “Poker?” I ask and hold the deck up for her to see.
“I think I’m actually just going to head off to bed,” she says. “But I’ll take a raincheck.”
I nod and toss the matches on the counter along with the deck of cards, disappointed but understanding. “Raincheck it is. Sweet dreams, Jenna.”
“You too, Cole.”
“One more week, boys, and then it’s home sweet home.” Adam grins and readjusts the gun in his lap after our Humvee hits a bump in the road.
“Halle-fuckin-lujah,” Mark says. “I’m so fucking tired of dirt, and sand, and heat. I swear, if Jenna ever talks me into getting married, I’m not doing that honeymoon bullshit anywhere tropical.”
“What do you mean ‘if,’ dipshit,” Adam says and punches Mark’s shoulder. “You better make an honest woman out of my sister, or I’ll beat the shit out of you.”
I laugh along with John and Jay, the other guys on our team, but in myheadI’m pretty pissed. Mark keeps making these shithead comments, and I don’t get what his deal is. If you want to be with somebody, you be with them. Simple as that. I don’t see the point in stringing someone along if you have no intentions of taking that next step. I guess that makes me weird or something. But if it were me and Jenna was my girl,I’d’vehad a ring on her finger a long time ago.
Mark and Adam continue with their bantering, and it’s all joking—for the most part. I’ve learned out of all the years of our friendship to just tune them out when they get going like this. John chimes in and tells us how excited he is to get home to meet his daughter—she was born a week ago, and I don’t think he’s forgiven himself that he wasn’t there for her birth, although he couldn’t really help it. That kind of stuff happens when you do what we do for a living.
Amongst the chatter, my thoughts suddenly go to Jenna. I don’t know why, but the image of her face smiling back at me is all I see right before I feel the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
Something’s not right.
I don’t register the boom of the explosion until we’re airborne. Our Humvee flips and somersaults, and I’m tossed around, colliding with the other men and getting the wind knocked out of me. Dust and dirt fly all around us as the Humvee rocks to a standstill and a percussion of gunshots erupts outside.
