Sailor Proof by Annabeth Albert
Chapter Four
Arthur
Derrick didn’t want to trust me. That much was clear from his stiff posture and guarded eyes. He kept casting me wary looks, and his crappy acting wasn’t doing our ruse any favors. Thus, I was only too happy when he said he’d need to change out of his dress uniform before eating, which gave us the perfect opportunity to temporarily ditch my parents. Derrick and Calder both had on-base housing that was apparently walking distance from the docks, but first I needed to find Sabrina, who had disappeared somewhere around the appearance of my folks. I scanned the still-crowded docks area as Derrick continued to act like another two hours with me was a capital punishment.
“This is a bad idea,” he muttered as we walked.
“Probably.” I refused to let him bring me down. Best kiss of my life, and Derrick’s ex had looked ready to floss with barbed wire. Total win.
Derrick huffed like my good cheer was another burden. “Then why do it?”
“Because your ex was standing right there,” I patiently reminded him. “It was either agree to dinner or announce that my bigger priority was to get naked and climb you like a tree, which considering my parents were also right there, I figured you’d prefer the dinner option.”
“Thanks.” Derrick blushed, a legit dark pink color, at the word naked. Throwing the big bad chief off his game was too much fun, and I had to restrain myself from making even more blush-worthy suggestions.
But I could be adult, so instead I patted his arm right below his stripes. “Look, this way we seem like a happy couple a little longer. No harm in that.”
“I don’t like lying to your parents.” He quirked his mouth and looked out over the Sound.
“Next week, I’ll conveniently mention to Mom that we didn’t work out because of my thing about dating military men. I’ll say I can’t do another deployment and that will be that. They never need to be bothered with the truth.”
“I still don’t like it, but okay.” Pausing by a crane, Derrick leaned against a guardrail. “That plan makes some sense, and it’s a story I can use with Fernsby and Steve if one of them asks.”
“See? Benefits all around.” I gave him an encouraging grin as I spotted my favorite mermaid talking to a young ensign. “Oh, there’s Sabrina.”
I waved, and she returned the gesture before striding toward us, wielding her phone like it was a light saber. “My post is already in triple-digit likes and has tons of shares.”
“Your what?” Derrick’s frown deepened.
“Sabrina is my secret weapon.” I pulled her in for a fast hug. Derrick could be a bit more appreciative of our efforts. “I wanted to make sure our kiss got more attention than your ex’s. Sabrina’s got the followers to make that happen.”
I liked to think we’d made a nice spectacle with our kiss. And what a kiss. Damn. Not that I had oodles of experience, but Derrick could kiss. Kissing him was like my playlist landing on a top-ten all-time great song, both familiar and awe-inspiring at the same time, making my insides all bubbly. If I’d been scripting sound effects for the moment, I would have gone for something bombastic or maybe the roar of a runaway train.
“I just wanted to make him jealous.” Derrick groaned. “Not go viral.”
“Well, judging by the look on both of their faces, you totally succeeded. And that kiss deserved to go viral.” I couldn’t help my dreamy sigh. Whatever. It wasn’t like I was getting a second shot at those lips, but I wasn’t going to dismiss how damn good it had been either.
“Yes, it did.” Sabrina made a show of fanning herself with her phone.
“So, we’re having dinner with my parents,” I addressed Sabrina, who kept glancing back at the sailor she’d been talking with. “You can come.”
“Actually, I was just walking over to ask you how you feel about the ferry and the bus.” She had the grace to look sheepish before returning to eye-fucking her new friend. “I have...plans.”
“You were going to ditch me?” I faked horror because this was hardly unprecedented, and I’d mainly needed her to get the sign and balloons here. And her social media rep didn’t hurt either.
“You seem in perfectly capable hands.” Sabrina gave Derrick a very obvious once-over.
“Ha. But okay.” I laughed as Derrick turned all pink again. “I’ll find a way back. Go get lucky.”
“Oh, I will,” she drawled before making her way back to the ensign.
Derrick waited until Sabrina was out of earshot to speak. “She seems...fun.”
“She’s a force of nature.” I followed him as we resumed our walk toward the barracks. “We met in high school when Dad was stationed here before his retirement. We were band geeks together, but you’d never know it now.”
“Nope.” Chuckling, he strode purposefully toward one of the buildings. “Calder and I were just laughing about that the other day—how that one band camp sent you home.”
“It was one camp.” I frowned as we stopped by the door. I didn’t want to sound too pouty, but I also liked to think I’d moved beyond my hopelessly nerdy past. “Do you need me to wait here while you get changed?”
“Yeah, probably easier than trying to get you signed in as a visitor. I’ll be fast.”
“Sure.” My tone was more clipped than it needed to be.
“Hey.” Derrick reached for my arm. “I didn’t mean anything by the band camp crack.”
“It’s okay,” I said even though it wasn’t. “My brothers got tons of mileage out of me being too geeky for the band camp crowd.”
“I can do better than your brothers.” Derrick really did have a nice laugh, deep and rich. Sabrina was right. I was a sucker for a good voice. And the smile lines around his eyes didn’t hurt either. “And thank you, by the way. I do appreciate...all this.”
“You’re welcome.” In a slightly better mood now, I waited under a tree while Derrick went into the barracks. He and Calder were among some more senior enlisted personnel who had single rooms in the barracks and got additional perks for being mentors to the younger service people in the housing. I had fun people-watching with all the fresh-faced recruits coming and going from the building in the short time Derrick was gone.
He returned in civilian clothes—jeans and a gray shirt with buttons that made his hazel eyes appear more green than gold. I didn’t have much chance to ogle him though before Calder and two of his friends arrived. After Calder too changed, we ended up all riding together to the restaurant in Silverlake, and somehow I ended up in the middle of the back seat, squashed against Derrick, who smelled like the sexiest pine forest ever and who was solid and warm.
My body hummed with wanting to kiss him again. Preferably without an audience, just to see if he really was that good at it, if things between us could be that magical, or if it had simply been the moment. Would it have the same rush without the revenge motivation? Given that simply sniffing his aftershave had me half-hard, chances were good that a repeat kiss would be even better.
But also, not happening, so I might as well enjoy being pressed up against him. And at least I’d get to sit next to him at dinner and maybe avoid the whole Mom inquisition thing. Speaking of, she started waving at us as soon as we entered the place, which was an upscale brewpub with a huge drinks menu, but also steaks and some twists on bar food classics.
“We’re over here,” Mom called out.
“Damn. Four tables.” Calder led the way over to the bank of tables pressed together, where yet more friends and family waited, including one of my other brothers and his family who had apparently driven up from his base in Tacoma.
“Ollie! How the hell are you, man?” Derrick had a hearty handshake for Oliver, who was slightly younger than Calder but older than me. My mom kept beaming at Oliver’s kids. She’d been so happy when he got transferred to this coast after stints in Florida and Georgia.
Not surprisingly, most of the conversation at our end of the table revolved around duty stations and deployments, Oliver and Calder swapping stories with occasional input from Derrick or one of Calder’s other friends. They spoke a language of acronyms and military slang that made my head hurt. Like my dad and uncles before them, Oliver and Calder were singularly focused on advancing in rank, and honestly, their conversation was almost as boring as when the topic shifted to all the sports happenings Calder and Derrick had missed while deployed.
Ordinarily I’d distract myself with the kids, but they were at the opposite end of the table on various tablets and phones until the food arrived.
“You okay?” Derrick asked in a low voice after the server set our burgers in front of us, and the rest of the table was distracted by eating.
“I should be asking you that.” I waggled a fry at him. “You’re the quiet one. My family’s a bit much, even when it’s only some of us like this.”
“I know. It’s weird, but I kind of like the chaos that comes with visiting your folks.” Derrick had such a fond smile that I regretted not visiting more often during the latter part of college and graduate school. Maybe family gatherings would have been more tolerable with him around.
“You’re welcome to them,” I joked.
“I wish.” A shadow passed across Derrick’s eyes, and I wanted to ask more about his past, but before I could, he frowned. “I still don’t like ly—”
“Shush.” I sent him a message with my eyes to not blow our cover.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I dragged another fry through a puddle of ketchup before glancing down the table. “I just want to savor my mom looking at me like I might have done something right for a change.”
“That can’t be true.” Unlike my brothers, who always tore through food after a deployment, Derrick took small bites, like he was trying to make the burger last, making me wonder what else he hadn’t had lately that he might like to take his time with.
I shifted in my chair. “Believe it. I’m the odd kid out.”
“Nah. Calder’s always talking about how smart you are. You’ve got some kind of graduate degree, right? Your folks have to be proud of all your school success.”
“Master’s, yes. But they don’t feel video-game music is a viable career path.” I took a bite of my own burger to avoid sighing dramatically.
“Isn’t it?” Derrick sounded way more curious than most of my family. “I mean it must be. Some of my buddies have playlists of nothing but game soundtracks. It’s kind of cool that you want to do that.”
“Yup. It’s big business.” I preened under the praise. “And while my heart is in doing my own scores, I also do freelance work cleaning up other people’s arrangements and other sound projects on a piece-by-piece basis. I’m still establishing my rep, but an indie game from some friends did really well, won me some awards.”
“That’s great.” His smile was so warm that the temperature in the room seemed to climb a good ten degrees.
“Yeah, well, awards don’t pay rent, but it’s a start. The sporadic nature of the work gives my parents hives.”
“I bet. But some things are more important than a good pension.”
“Exactly.” Our gazes linked, and something new zinged between us. Not the sexy energy of the kiss, but something perhaps even more powerful. Understanding. I felt seenin a way I almost never felt at family things.
And of course, my mom chose exactly that moment to plunk down in an empty chair on the other side of me, making the rounds the way she always did at big gatherings.
“You two are so cute together.” She smiled encouragingly at us both. “I want to hear everything.”
No, she really didn’t, but I still nodded. “Thanks.”
She adjusted her glasses as she continued to study us like we were an interesting science exhibit. “About time you had a good boyfriend.”
“Yep,” I agreed, even if my definition of good was far from hers. If only this particular boyfriend wasn’t a big fake. Knowing I’d have to hear her sigh when I told her about our “breakup” had my back tensing, even more so when she leaned toward Derrick, a certain gleam in her eyes.
“I have a question for you.”
