Page 1 of The Moments You Were Mine

Chapter One

Fallon

FOOLISH ONE

Performed by Taylor Swift

SIX YEARS AGO

HIM: I’m sorry I missed move-in day. You all settled?

HER: Yep. I’m at the stables with Daisy this morning, but I’m heading back to the dorms and then to the beach for my first surf lesson!

HIM: Surfing? Since when have you been interested in surfing?

HER: I’m in San Diego for the next six to eight years, Parker. It would be a sin to be this close to the beach and not learn how to surf. You should come!

Concentrating on the shaggy-hairedman giving the surf lesson was nearly impossible when I was acutely aware of the broad-shouldered Navy SEAL standing next to me in the sand. My entire body tingled while my stomach danced with nervous excitement. I hadn’t really expected him to join me for the lesson, and I certainly hadn’t expected him to show up at the dorms and offer to drive me.

What did it mean?

Nothing? Everything?

Did Parker finally see me as a woman instead of a kid?

Parker elbowed me, and my breath caught when I looked up into his face. Square-jawed with steel-gray eyes and a straight, classic nose that had been broken recently. The notch at the topadded a certain toughness to him that hadn’t been there in his teenage years. Usually, he was serious, his beautiful lips set in a firm line, with the delightful M shape at the top tempting me. But when he smiled, like now, when his mouth spread wide, showing off straight white teeth and pure joy, he was like some sort of miracle. An image you could never quite capture right.

He had his wetsuit unzipped and open, the sleeves hanging around his narrow hips, exposing his broad chest. He’d earned an entirely new level of muscles at Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs training and even more in the training he’d gone on to after it. He was sculpted now, cut and grooved in ways that called to my fingers to trace the contours.

How was my eighteen-year-old, hormone-driven body supposed to resist him?

“Ducky, are you even paying attention?” he said under his breath, his smile growing.

“I’m a little distracted,” I hissed back.

He winked at me, and it set all those wild and raw emotions burning inside me cartwheeling again. “I know I’m a lot to take in, but you need to focus so you’ll be safe out on the water.”

“It’s not like you’ve surfed either,” I tossed back, swiping my dark-blond braid over my shoulder.

“You think a little board is going to do me in after I survived BUD/S?” he teased.

“Is there a problem over there?” the instructor asked, dark-brown eyes narrowing in on us.

“No, not at all. Sorry to interrupt,” I retorted and glared at Parker, who only hid his smile behind his mouth.

Two hours later, we were high-fiving each other at the end of the class when the chestnut-haired instructor joined us. He congratulated Parker and me on our successful rides. While other students in the class had struggled to even keep the board under them, Parker and I had both stood up and coasted along the wavetops for a few brief seconds before we’d lost our balance.

“I’m Ace. You’re Fallon, right?” the instructor said, shoving his hand at me. I shook it, and he held on a little too long, his finger skimming my palm in a way that sent a curl of unease up my spine. I rubbed my hand along my wetsuit.

“You sure you’ve never surfed before?” he asked, glancingat Parker and then back to me. His eyes dragged down my suit, and I had to fight not to pull my surfboard in front of me.

“No, but she’s a trick rider,” Parker said. “She’s used to being up on top of a moving horse.”

Ace’s brows raised. “Trick rider, huh? I’m not sure I’ve ever met one in person.”

Parker grabbed my hand, and the energy that flew between us was nothing like the ugly one I felt toward this instructor. This spark was like watching the fireworks over the lake on the ranch back home. Sizzling and captivating.

Parker tugged me toward him, and I lost my balance at the unexpected motion, colliding into his side just as his arm went around my shoulder. “She’s at the University of San Diego on an equestrian scholarship. Freshman. Just turned eighteen,” Parker added with a little growl to his voice that sent a delicious curl through me even as it pissed me off. He was warning this guy off as if I was twelve instead of an actual adult.