Read Online Where You Least Expect by Lydia Rowan - Free Book Online Page A

her face took on that expression that told him he was in for a thorough chastisement.
    “Well lie next time,” she snapped. “I mean, Jesus, that is the worst fucking answer imaginable.”
    Her thunderous expression had him laughing.
    “It wasn’t that bad, Verna.”
    “Pfft. Says you, and you clearly don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
    She was on a roll now, and after she tossed a piece of steak in her mouth and chewed, she pointed her fork at him.
    “Are you a virgin too?” she asked, pinning him with a skeptical glare.
    He almost spit out the water he’d been about to swallow and then sputtered, “No!” around a series of coughs.
    “Are you sure?”
    “Be serious, Verna,” he said after regaining his breath.
    “I’m just saying,” she said and then took another bite. A moment later, she continued. “If you go around doling out butterfly kisses because ‘it seemed like the right thing to do,’ and then actually telling the lucky recipient the truth about your reason, that is just so fucked-up. I’m not your target audience for high-level seduction, I’m sure, but wow, that was terrible. I was gonna ask you to teach me some game, but never mind.”
    The serious, slightly disgusted look on her face as she finished made it impossible not to laugh again, and she eventually joined him. They chuckled companionably for a few moments, and Joe realized he hadn’t felt this relaxed and at ease since he’d started considering the career shift.
    “What is it?” she asked, sobering slightly.
    “Nothing. I was just thinking this is nice.”
    “That it is,” she said in agreement.
    “But seriously, Verna, I didn’t mean to offend you, and I’m sorry about the kiss.”
    “Dude, you gotta learn when to stop digging. First it felt like the right thing and now you’re sorry. Just what a girl, or in my case, almost senior citizen, wants to hear after her first kiss.”
    She smiled slightly, but he could see that she still felt a bit uneasy. Of course, whatever else he might say would probably make it worse, so he took her advice and stopped digging.
    “So why aren’t you married?” she finally asked. “I know women practically swoon in you presence, even without the uniform, so how’d you manage to stay free?”
    “It wasn’t too hard,” he said with a shrug. “I was never in one place for too long, and I never wanted to keep someone enough to take her with me when I moved on.”
    “Do you want to settle down at some point?” she asked.
    “I don’t know. Sure.”
    “Am I detecting a note of uncertainty? How very unlike you,” she said.
    He shrugged again.
    “Let me take a stab at it,” she said, waiting for his approval.
    After he nodded, she began. “So, from what I gathered, you were some kind of supersoldier, SEAL, Spec Ops, or some shit like that. Right?” She raised a brow.
    “What makes you think that?” he asked, genuinely curious as to her answer.
    “With the base being so close, we get our fair share of military traffic at the cafeteria, and it’s just something I picked up on. I can’t say what the difference is exactly, but those guys just have a different vibe. Officers have their own vibe; rank and file have another. And you put me in the mind of those hard-ass dudes the first time I saw you. Am I on point so far?”
    “I could tell you—”
    “But you’d have to kill me,” she finished. “God, you’re so lame.”
    She smiled, big and bright, and Joe knew he’d never seen her look happier.
    “So anyway, you do this supersecret, dangerous shit, and then at some point, you realize that for whatever reason, injury, sadness, or maybe you’d just had your fill, you can’t do it anymore. You retire and then wake up day after day feeling useless and purposeless and then you start to panic, wonder if you made a mistake. You kinda know you didn’t, but you’re cursing yourself because what the fuck are you gonna do now? And then you think maybe