The Marine Meets His Match. Cathie Linz

in the reserves. Most of his time these days is spent running King Oil and chasing after his baby son. He’s as smart as a tree full of owls, to quote my Texan brother.”

      “Did you grow up in Texas?”

      “No, although I did spend a summer or two there. Like you I grew up all over. My dad was a Marine, he’s retired now. All my other brothers are Marines.”

      “All? How many are there?”

      “My momma had five sons. The youngest two are twins.”

      “Are you the second oldest?”

      “No, that honor goes to my brother Ben. I’m the middle child.”

      “Which means, if I remember my birth order character traits correctly, that you’re the peacemaker in the family.”

      “Negative. That role falls to Ben. What about you? Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

      “No. I’m an only child.”

      “Which means you’re a high achiever and expect a lot from life.” At her surprised look, Rad added, “Hey, I’ve read some of that birth order stuff, too. As an adult, only children tend to have high self-esteem.”

      She laughed and shook her head. “Not me.”

      “Why not?”

      “My dad didn’t want me getting a big head.” Her tone was mocking but she could feel the muscles in her neck tensing up.

      “Sounds like he gave you a hard time.”

      “You could say that.”

      “Did he hit you? Beat you?”

      Not with his fists but with his words. But she couldn’t say that because her throat closed and her mouth went dry.

      She reached for her iced tea. The condensed moisture made the glass slippery and she almost lost her hold on it. The ice cubes clattering against the sides sounded unnaturally loud in the sudden silence.

      “Steady there.” Rad reached over to straighten the glass and set it back on the table. His fingers brushed against hers.

      Had he tried to capture her hand in his, she would have snatched it away. Instead he gently rubbed his thumb against the back of her hand.

      Serena frantically tried to come up with something sophisticated and funny to say, but was so distracted by her awareness of him and her turbulent emotions that all she could come up with was, “I don’t like talking about my childhood.”

      Right. That was an understatement. Brilliant, Serena. She pulled her hand away, exiling it to her lap where her fingertips continued to hum from his touch.

      “Then we’ll talk about something else. Like how we met.”

      She frowned. “We met at the school two days ago.”

      “Where you were madder than a rained-on rooster.”

      She lifted an eyebrow at him. “Another of your Texan brother’s quotes?”

      “Actually that was one of my grandfather’s.”

      “Yes, well, if I was aggravated with you, I had good reason.”

      “So you told me at the time. But we obviously can’t use the truth in this case about how we met, so we need to come up with something else. How about you saw me and fell instantly in love with me?”

      “How about you saw me and fell instantly in love with me,” she instantly countered.

      His slow smile was worth the wait. “That’ll work too.”

      Okay, there went her hormones again. Time to haul out the common sense practical stuff. “I think we should just go with something vague, like we met through a mutual friend.”

      “That sounds boring.”

      “Boring is good.” Hormones are bad. Bad hormones. Behave.

      “Marines are not into boring.”

      “Fine,” she retorted. “Then you think of something.”

      “Hmmm…”

      She noticed the outer corner of Rad’s eyes got all crinkly when he was thinking.

      “My brother Striker met his wife when they had to work together,” he continued. “And my brother Ben met his wife through her brother.”

      “Neither scenario would work in our case. I’m telling you, we should go with mutual friends. It’s the simplest thing.”

      “I suppose you’re right.”

      Did he really have to sound so doubtful when he said that? “And how did you romantically propose to me?” she asked. “Did you get down on bended knee?”

      “How about the beach?” He nodded at the view out the window where the surf washed in. “I proposed to you on the beach at sunset.”

      “Only one problem with that. From here, the sun rises over the Atlantic ocean, it doesn’t set over it. See, it’s details like those that are going to get us in trouble.”

      He raised a dark eyebrow. “You’d rather I proposed to you at sunrise?”

      “No.” She refused to allow her heart to beat a little faster at the thought of him really proposing. She’d regained control of her wild inner-female self and she planned on keeping her locked up indefinitely. Serena Serious was in charge now. “We’ll stick to your proposing on the beach. We don’t have to say when.”

      “Heidi is gonna want to know the juicy details.”

      “Who says we have to tell her?”

      “I do. Or she’ll get suspicious. So here’s the story. We met through mutual friends and I proposed on the beach here on Topsail Island while the sun set over the sound, not the ocean. You’re an only child, you went to UNCW and got your degree in…?”

      “Business administration,” Serena replied.

      “Before opening your own bookstore, you worked at…?”

      “Various jobs, including the district manager of a large bookstore chain.”

      “You moved here to coastal North Carolina…?”

      “Two years ago. Before that I lived in Raleigh, and before that I was in the Boston area, and Virginia Beach before that.”

      Rad continued his questions through dessert and the drive home. It wasn’t until Serena walked into her apartment later that evening that she realized that while she’d practically supplied him with her résumé, and even confessed her love of dark Belgian chocolate, Rad hadn’t told her anything about what he did in the Marine Corps. Other than the little he’d told her about his family, he hadn’t said much about himself at all.

      That’s when she remembered another trait of middle children. They can be secretive.