“You really like him.”
I laughed as JoJo waggled her eyebrows up and down.
“Who?”
“Oh my God, Cammie. Are you for real still trying to hide it from me?” JoJo placed her hands on her chest. “Me? Your best friend for, like, a million years? I know you too well, my dear. You like Luke. I can tell.”
I blinked once. “I don’t like him. But…” Her eyes lit up with amusement and I narrowed mine in retaliation. “…But, I think he is extremely attractive, and I would love to have a distraction.”
JoJo leaned back on my bed, propping herself against my white headboard, which pushed the rollers to the front of her head. I could tell her wheels were turning. Turning rapidly, by the way she was grinning.
“Okay… I’ll tell Ryan to bring Jett to escort you.”
I smiled and nodded, having no idea who Jett was. I turned my head to look at my dress again, and suddenly, it didn’t seem like it was torturing me anymore. Maybe if I was lucky, Jett and I could get a little friendlier than my last date… okay, my last few dates. It’s been a while.
The dress was tight against my body, hugging every single one of my curves. The rose-red color shimmered underneath the civic center’s bright lights and I pushed my curled, blonde hair over my shoulder, allowing my diamond earrings to twinkle. My gown was cut low in the front but was still modest in most respects. It fell gracefully to the floor, and if I wasn’t so worked up about the speech being given in my brother’s honor, I would feel glamourous and ready for a wonderful evening.
I was surprised when Jett stepped out from behind Ryan an hour ago. He was extremely attractive, in a boyish sort of way, with his chestnut-colored hair and friendly smile. I was still wondering why he didn’t have a date. JoJo had given me a short biography of Jett while she was helping me with my makeup, and there wasn’t really much to him. He was in the Marine Corps, he was the same age as me, he had never been married, and in fact had never even been in a serious relationship except for in high school. He was moving to Okinawa, Japan, in a week and apparently, according to him, that was why he was single.
Which was fine by me. As long as he was single and not looking to get into a relationship with me, I was totally ready to have a good time.
My stomach swirled with nerves as the four of us walked through the doors to the ceremony room. I already had a glass of wine in hand to hopefully help with my nervous energy. When we arrived at our table, Jett pulled out my chair and smiled a genuine smile at me. I could tell he was a gentleman, and that just made him even more attractive.
JoJo took the seat to my left, just as Jett took the seat on my right. The room was filled with at least a hundred round tables, all draped in dark red tablecloths. The centerpieces were large glass vases with lit candles floating inside. Crystal plates and sparkling glass cups were placed in front of us, and although I hadn’t eaten a single thing all day, I couldn’t even fathom eating the delicious meal the servers would place in front of us after the actual ceremony because my stomach was currently filled with nerves.
I’d been to a Marine Corps ball before. They were all the same. First, you mingled and sipped drinks, then the ceremony would start promptly at 7 p.m., led by the Marine Corps band, and then would come the speech given by a retired Marine. The ceremonies always bored me to death when I was a child, and I would barely listen to what the guest speaker had to say. But now that I was a little older and definitely more in-tune with the ins and outs of war, of what it did to a person, and their family, I was certain I’d be paying attention during this one.
The main thing on my mind while sitting in this cushioned chair, barely able to cross my legs in my tight silk dress, was how I was going to keep myself together when the guest speaker, General Siekman, started to ramble about Alex and the sacrifice he had made. Everyone in attendance knew I’d be here, and a lot of them would probably hunt me down afterwards to give me their condolences. Which was another reason I was stressed beyond belief that my parents weren’t here. Especially my father.
Then the whole Luke thing was lingering in my thoughts, too. He was right there in the back of my brain, pushed up against words like longing, want, need… Part of me wanted to allow myself to take off on a tangent and think about him fully so I could distract myself from the oncoming doom of this ceremony. But the other part knew that I would be playing with fire. He was a walking ball of fire.
Literally.
My eyes found him within seconds. I snapped my slouched shoulders up straight and gripped the stem of my wine glass even harder than before.
Holy smokes.
There were no words.
There were no words to describe the walking masterpiece only a few yards away. His dress blue pants were pin straight, leading down to those shiny black shoes. He was holding his white hat in one hand, and the other was shaking an older Marine’s hand. His dress jacket fit him tautly around the biceps, and the collar only made his jaw look that much straighter. His dark blond hair was parted to the side, and not a hair was out of line. I fleetingly wondered what it would feel like to run my hands through it, just to mess it up.
It would probably be extra silky between my fingers.
So, so silky.
Jett yelled, “Woah, Cammie!”
I jumped in my seat, craning my head over to him.
He was quickly wiping off his royal blue pants and my mouth dropped open.
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry!”
I wanted to hide underneath the table. I literally wanted to crawl under this table and hide for the rest of night. I wanted to hide from the guest speaker and all the stares. I wanted to hide from Luke, because of how I wanted to rip his uniform off, and I wanted to hide from Jett, because I’d just dumped my wine all over his lap.
If only my dress weren’t so tight, then I’d truly be able to crawl under this table.
And not think twice about it.