him pay dearly for it. He had to name the fifty states.”
“That doesn’t seem that hard.”
“It is when you have to name them in date order of when they became a state.”
“Hell, that is harsh.”
“Yes, he wasn’t too pleased but she had made his favorite meal, so he had incentive.”
Jake chuckled. “Your family was unique.”
“That they were. I miss them so much.” Encouraged by the intimacy they’d shared, as well as his questions about her family, she said, “What about yours? What’s your family like?”
His shoulders shifted in a slight shrug. “Didn’t have any brothers or sisters.”
“But your parents? They’re still alive?”
“Yes. Both my parents are attorneys. My father still practices and is on the board of directors of numerous businesses. My mother left her career when I was born but filled her spare time with various charities. They go to all the right parties and know all the right people.”
“You don’t get a along with them?”
“Actually, I love them a lot…we just don’t have much in common. They wanted a different kind of life for me than I wanted for myself.”
“Like what?”
“Ivy League schools, marrying well…having children who would carry on the family businesses and traditions.”
“And what did you want?”
“I didn’t know for a long time. I went to the schools they chose, dated the girls they approved of. Even got a degree in political science and was headed in the exact direction they wanted me to go.”
“Did something happen to change your path?”
“Yes and no. I was a semester away from getting my master’s degree and was set to start law school the next year. Then I met Harry.”
“Who’s Harry?”
“An Iraq war vet I met at one of my mother’s charity events. He was a highly decorated soldier and sat at the table with us. He’d lost one leg and part of his arm in an IED blast. I remember thinking if that had happened to me, I’d think my life was over. But Harry was only a few years older than me and had already done remarkable things with his life. He was married, had a couple of kids, and instead of feeling sorry for himself, was working to make things better for returning soldiers. I, on the other hand, had come to the dinner because my mother made me. I was pissed because a couple of my friends had gone snow skiing and I wanted to go, too. And, oh yeah, my Porsche had a door ding. Those were my big problems.”
“Sounds like Harry really made an impact on you.”
“He did, much to my parents’ and my fiancé’s dismay.”
Though she longed to ask about that fiancé, she wanted to hear more about Jake’s life-changing decisions.
“What did you do?”
“I enlisted.”
“Wow, that was gutsy.”
“Not really. What I told you earlier was true. I didn’t know what I was getting into. I only knew my life up to that point had been useless. I’d been breathing air and taking up space without any real contribution.”
“How did your parents take the news?”
“They weren’t happy but eventually accepted my decision.”
“And your fiancé?”
“Broke it off with me.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep. When it was clear I wasn’t going to be providing her with the life she wanted, we both agreed it wasn’t going to work.”
“What a shallow woman she must have been.”
Jake remembered Sarah’s baby blue eyes swimming in tears as she pled with him to change his mind. She’d been a sweet girl who had expected a certain kind of life. He had no ill thoughts about her but he also knew his feelings for her hadn’t been the long-lasting ones either. Their marriage never would have worked.
“She wasn’t a bad person. She just wanted a different kind of life. But so did I.”
“She obviously didn’t love you.”
That much was true. Their broken engagement had been a mere blip on his life, with barely any influence. Within six months of their break-up, Sarah was married to one of her father’s junior law partners.
“How long were you in the Army?”
“Six years. I considered making a career of it but I came home on leave and—”
“And what?”
Jake shrugged. “I met someone and decided to do something else.”
“Teresa?”
Jake released a slow breath. They were getting into territory he didn’t want to go. He’d already shared more about his past than he ever had with any other person. Hell, even Teresa hadn’t known about his terror before he’d been sent to Afghanistan or about the talk he’d had with the Army chaplain. He’d never considered the events something he