“How long have you lived here?” I ask.
She thinks for a moment, pursing up those full lips of hers and shifting them slightly to the side. “I guess it’s almost been five years now. Though I bought the house a little earlier than that.”
“Really? So young to buy a house.” I can’t help the admiration in my tone, seeing as I still haven’t seen my own name on a mortgage yet.
Yep, no wonder she doesn’t date guys like me—the ones who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks with limited choices and resources.
“Yeah. I was living with my ex-fiancé back then in Atlanta where we worked. But I wanted to invest in some real estate. So I thought I’d buy a vacation house here and rent it out when I wasn’t using it—you know, like on AirBNB or Vrbo.”
“Can’t blame you for wanting to move in full-time. It’s a great house. And the location…” My voice trails, looking out at the sea.
“You really love the ocean.”
“Doesn’t everyone? I mean, look at the traffic on the weekends, all headed for the beach.”
“Then why join the Army? Why not the Navy?”
I shrug. “I fell in love with the oceanafterI got the uniform.” I glance over at her. “Don’t you love it? The ocean, I mean. We’ve already established how you feel about guys in uniform,” I can’t resist with a joking tone.
She laughs, and the sound of it warms me somehow, as though I’ve accomplished something worthwhile if I coaxed a laugh out of her on a night when she had looked so miserable only minutes ago.
“The ocean is great. But I’m always working. Especially in the summer when it’s beach weather. So I don’t get to enjoy it much. I’m… well, like my sister, I guess.”
“Your sister?”
“Yeah. Maggie. She lived in New York City for more than ten years, but it wasn’t until the day before she moved that she finally made it to the top of the Empire State Building.”
“No kidding?”
“No kidding. When you live someplace, you get so caught up in day-to-day life that you never really do the things that tourists do.”
“Not me. My last job was behind a desk. One of those jobs where you’re always working. Evenings. Weekends. DC is toxic that way.”
“Work first, play later?”
I give my head a shake. “More like, work first, play never. So now that I’m out of there, I’m going to take every minute I can to enjoy the water while I can. This might be my only shot to do this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the Regiment is made up of battalions, right? And they cycle in and out, like in shifts. So right now, my battalion is training and another battalion is sort of…” I pause, searching for the right way to explain this to a civilian. “… on standby, I guess you could call it. So if something bad happens, they’re the ones who’d go first. So they can’t take leave now. And they’re on short recall. That sort of thing. This fall, it will be my battalion’s turn. So that’s why I want to enjoy this now.”
“That must be stressful,” she says it almost breathlessly, as though she’s experiencing it for herself—an odd reaction from someone who doesn’t like the military. “Like living with an axe above your head.”
I shrug. “Any time I get stressed, I just come out here and the ocean puts it all in perspective for me.”
Her quizzical gaze drifts from me to the ocean, and then back to me again. “Okay, I’ll take the bait. How does the ocean do that? I mean, it’s pretty—don’t get me wrong. But just looking at it doesn’t solve anything.”
“Doesn’t solve anything,” I repeat her words in a mutter. Typical knee jerk reaction from someone who likes to control things, I’m betting.
I stop for a moment and dare to touch her shoulders briefly to turn her toward the waves. Even in near darkness with only a half moon above us, we can still see the whitecaps. “Just look at it. I can surf it. I can ride its waves, but I can’t change the waves, right? The ocean’s in control. Not me.”
Her face screws up. “That would just make memorestressed. Not less.”
I stoop to pull off my shoes. “Come on. You need to get your feet wet.”’
Her eyes widen. “Now?”
“Yeah. Take your shoes off. It’ll help. I promise.”