Page 7 of The Moments You Were Mine

JJ had swept me off my feet the moment we’d met on the outside. We’d shouted encouragement to each other as we’d taken on a particularly wicked wave, and as soon as we’d planted our feet and surfboards on the sand, he’d asked me out.

For the first time in my life, I’d been the dead center of someone’s all-consuming focus, and I was thrilled to be there. For so much of my childhood, I’d had to fight for anyone’s attention—even my parents’—so having all of JJ’s was intoxicating.

At the sound of a vehicle door slamming shut, I turned my head toward the parking lot. A man emerged from a truck in the dim light of the streetlamps, and my heart literally flipped over.

I was up and out of the beach chair, running flat out across the sand, in a flash.

Large hands caught me as I flung myself at broad shoulders.

I buried my nose in the crook of Parker’s neck, inhaling that earthy scent that was uniquely his. The smell that had always soothed me.

“You’re home!”

He squeezed me tight before slowly setting me down and assessing me in that way he did now. It was a slow scan that looked for changes or injuries or who knew what, but every time he did it, my heart thundered, and my body nearly spasmed.

It had never felt wrong before…not until now—when my date was waiting for me at the bonfire.

Parker looked tired. Shadows lingered below eyes that seemed darker than even the night around us.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He reached out and tugged my braid, a motion he’d been doing since childhood. A sweet tease. A comfort. Reassurance.

“Better now,” he said, and my heart tumbled over again as he grinned. When Parker smiled, everything seemed right in the world.

From behind me, a confused voice called my name. I turned to see JJ making his way from the bonfire, a frown between those thick brows.

I swallowed hard, stepped toward JJ, and twined my fingers with his. “JJ, I want you to meet Parker. Parker, JJ.”

Parker’s gaze settled on my hand gripping my date’s, and his smile disappeared.

“Wait, this is the friend you were talking about? In the Navy?” JJ said, surprise in his voice as he took in Parker’s camo pants, tan T-shirt, and military boots. He was still in the clothes he must have worn on the plane ride home. Or ship ride home. Or however the hell Parker had come home from his latest assignment.

It shouldn’t thrill me as much as it did to know he’d come looking for me before he’d done anything else. That I’d been his first stop after months of being gone.

Parker stuck out his hand, and JJ shook it.

“You have me at a disadvantage, I’m afraid,” Parker said. His voice was gruff, the way it sounded when he was tired. “I haven’t heard of you.”

JJ stiffened, let go of my hand, and tossed his arm around my shoulder, drawing me closer.

“Well, you’ve been incommunicado for months,” I reminded Parker. The silence that followed grew awkward, and my palms began to sweat. I cleared my throat. “How’d you know I’d be here?”

“You said you didn’t want me to drag you away again.” Parker’s gaze settled on mine, and I felt the heat in his eyes stronger than I had from the bonfire moments before.

JJ made some kind of inarticulate noise at the innuendo. Damn Parker. He was going to mess things up for me before I’d even gotten past second base with JJ.

I punched Parker in the shoulder. “Don’t make it sound like that.” I looked up at JJ and smiled. “Parker is like a big brother. The one you never want around when you’re having a little too much fun, because he does that whole overprotective thing so well.”

This time, it was Parker who grunted unhappily.

It proved how messed up I was that I liked it. I liked that he was unhappy to see me with JJ. And yet, I also liked JJ. What was wrong with me? Maybe it had to do with the screwed-up DNA from my mother’s side of the family. Although, my dad’s side wasn’t exactly made up of saints either. Cursed. Maybe I really was cursed—as my uncle had once told me I was.

I ducked under JJ’s arm and stepped back toward the bonfire.

“Come on, I can see if there are still any hot dogs left. You’re probably starving,” I said to Parker.

He didn’t move. He stood at the edge of the sand, looking past me at the bonfire before returning to me. “I’m pretty beat. I think I’ll head home. I just wanted to see you before I landed in bed and slept for a week.”