“In the…?” A muscle in his arm jerked under her hand. “When I was a soldier, you mean? No. Before that. It was a kid thing. I have two brothers.”
How little she knew about her lover. “Older? Younger?”
“Older. We were born a year apart and we’ve always been close. Anyway, we all got a little, uh, a little stupid the night before Cam—he’s the oldest—the night before he left for college.”
“Meaning, you realized you were going to be separated, probably for the first time, and it upset you.” She nuzzled his shoulder. “I think that’s sweet.”
Matthew grinned. “The truth is, we were drunk as skunks. All of a sudden, some memento, something we could share, seemed right. So we drove to this little place Cam had heard of, spent a while arguing over whether we should get tattoos of an eagle or a skull and crossbones…”
Mia gave a dramatic shudder. “I’m glad the eagle won.”
“Yeah,” he said, smiling. “Me, too. Anyway, it was just kid stuff.”
“It was nice stuff,” she said softly, hugging his arm.
“You think?” he said, and felt foolish because he couldn’t stop the pleased grin that spread over his face.
“I know. I was an only child. I’d have given anything for brothers or sisters.” She looked up at him and batted her lashes. “Besides…that eagle is very sexy.”
“You’re what’s sexy,” Matthew said, and kissed her right there, on the street, for all the world to see.
A shop caught Mia’s eye. Matthew saw the way she gazed at a pale apricot dress in the window.
“Let’s go inside and take a closer look,” he said.
She shook her head. This wasn’t a tourist shop. Everything here would be expensive.
“No,” she said, “it’s lovely, but—?
?
Matthew caught her hand and tugged her through the door. A smiling woman bustled toward them.
“Buenos dias.”
“Buenos dias, señora. Quieremos comprar un vestido, el del aprador de la vitrina.”
“No!” Mia gave the woman a quick smile, then turned to Matthew. “I don’t want to buy the dress,” she whispered. “It’s too expensive.”
“I want to buy it,” he said softly.
“I can’t let you.”
“Aha,” he said. “Discrimination!” His expression was serious, but his eyes laughed at her. “Ice cream’s okay but a dress isn’t.”
“Matthew.” Mia tried not to smile. “That’s silly.”
“She discriminates, and now she slanders me.” He turned toward the shop’s owner, who was watching the byplay and grinning. “What is a man supposed to do with a woman like this, señora? Unless…” He looked at Mia. “Unless, you don’t like the dress.”
“Of course I like it. It’s beautiful. But—”
“Or you think it’s not your size. Actually it does look kind of small.”
“It’s not too small.”
“You sure?”
“Honestly, Matthew…”