home, she decided. Maybe some new lingerie or something just to show Ryan how much she missed him.
Sarah hummed to herself as she stood, planning to grab a salad at a nearby café for lunch. Maybe her best friend Morgan would want to meet up tonight for dinner or drinks. She could use a little girl time if Ryan was going to be gone again.
Heading down the block, she breezed into the smoothie place and pulled her phone from her hobo bag. As she stood in line, she texted her best friend.
Drinks tonight?
Her phone buzzed almost immediately with Morgan’s reply.
Commander Hottie is still busy on base, huh?
Sarah laughed, remembering how she’d lamented to her best friend yesterday that Ryan hadn’t been home. She knew other women had to deal with a heck of a lot more—long deployments, husbands or boyfriends who’d been injured or killed. She shuddered, remembering her own brother’s brush with death not that long ago. Patrick had been injured on a mission and airlifted to Landstuhl.
Ironically, that entire situation had brought her and Ryan together, not to mention prompted Patrick into proposing to his girlfriend. And now, after all that, Patrick was married and she was practically living with Ryan.
She quickly texted Morgan back after she placed her order.
I miss him! It sucks sleeping alone at night.
She smirked as she saw the row of eggplant emojis her bestie sent back to her. Good lord, she and Ryan would indeed make love for hours whenever she saw him next. Things were always spectacular between them in that regard anyway, but after a couple of nights apart?
Damn.
She couldn’t wait to see him again.
Grabbing her green smoothie and salad from the counter, she texted Morgan back and walked down the block toward her office. Her Mini Cooper was parked on the street, and she grinned as stopped beside it and answered her phone.
“Hey hun!”
“Please tell me you didn’t send him nude photos or something,” Morgan said.
Sarah finished sipping her smoothie and leaned against her car. “God no, nothing like that. I sent him a selfie blowing him a kiss.”
“Thank God,” Morgan said. “He’d probably die on the spot if he opened a text like that around his military buddies.”
Sarah smirked. “You’re terrible. And he can see me nude any time he wants—he just has to come home.”
“Amen,” Morgan said sarcastically.
“Listen, I gotta go. I’m outside my office, and I have to eat lunch before my next patient. So are you up for drinks later on or what?”
“Sure thing. Text me later, and we’ll set a time and place.”
“Perfect. Stay out of trouble!” Sarah teased.
The women hung up, and Sarah tossed her empty cup into a trash can. She smiled at a young woman pushing a child in a stroller and then passed by a Hispanic man sitting on a bench. “Are you a nurse?” he asked, taking in the scrubs she was wearing.
“Physical therapist,” Sarah replied.
“Oh, gotcha,” he replied, taking a sip of his coffee. His dark eyes met hers. “I didn’t think there were any hospitals nearby.”
“Not close enough to walk to,” she agreed. She went back into her office building, sinking down into her chair as she hummed to herself. “Well aren’t you happy today,” her friend Dawn said a few minutes later with a smile as she poked her head in the door, holding some supplies.
“You know it,” Sarah said, taking another bite of her salad. “I’m plotting how to surprise Ryan when he finally gets home.”
“That poor man,” Dawn said with a wink. “So he’s not stuck on base anymore?”
“He is. He’ll be there tonight, unfortunately for me. I’m just planning ahead.”
“I see,” Dawn said, waggling her eyebrows. “I need to find myself a man like that!”
“For sure,” Sarah said with a laugh, pulling her long hair back into a ponytail. She tucked her necklaces back inside the shirt of her scrubs so they wouldn’t get in the way when she was working with her patients. “Morgan said the same thing when I talked to her earlier.”
“Girl, you’re holding out on us. I know there have got to be some single and available sailors down at Little Creek.”
“There are tons. Ryan’s not really into playing matchmaker though—neither is my brother, come to think of it…. Oh, I’ll ask Flip when he gets back.”
“Flip?” Dawn asked, looking confused.
“Evan. That’s just what the guys call him. Anyway, he’s taken, too, of course, but—”
Dawn laughed. “How about you invite me to the next beach bonfire? The guys still have