Night Maneuvers - By Jillian Burns Page 0,24

guests had gone. She refused to discuss anything sensitive in front of her colleagues from the base or any new neighbors. Forcing a smile, Alex said, “Something good from my pool party? It was fun. I’m lucky to have such great friends.”

Lily put her hand on her shoulder and gave her a look that, back in Texas, would have meant, “Bless your little heart, but you’re slow.”

“Good steak, Hughes,” Grady said as he came up behind Lily and wrapped a protective arm around her waist.

“I was telling Alex that things will be okay between her and Mitch soon, I just know it.”

“What about Alex and Mitch?” Jordan asked as she and Jackson stepped into the kitchen carrying their ice chest.

“Nothing!” Alex tossed the steak into her sink, switched on the disposal, and shoved the hunk of meat down with the grill tongs. “I’m sure he’s plotting his next outrageous prank right now.”

As she glanced around at her company with a flawlessly nice smile, every one of them looked appalled, and she realized she was still shoving the meat down into the disposal as she talked.

“That was perfectly good tenderloin, Hughes.” Jackson pointed at the sink.

“Come on, honey, it’s late.” Jordan grabbed her husband’s arm and dragged him toward the front door.

After that there was a mass exodus. Jordan assured Alex they’d get together soon, and Lily whispered something about watching out for sea animals to Alex as she hugged her goodbye.

Sea animals? Did Lily think Alex was going to be injured by a killer dolphin? In the middle of a desert? That girl was a sweetheart, but she was certifiable.

Alex waved them off, then closed her front door and leaned her forehead against it.

Did they all know how she felt about Mitch?

Damn him, anyway. She hadn’t seen him since that disastrous, wondrous kiss in the pool. But she’d assumed it was because she’d started teaching night maneuvers this week and he was still teaching during the day. Now she wasn’t so sure. Would he throw away their friendship so easily?

Rolling to rest her back against the door, she closed her eyes and played the kiss over again in her mind. How his mouth had taken possession of hers and how he’d run his hands over her body. She’d been trembling and out of breath. And so had he.

Why couldn’t she have felt that with Neil? Or any other guy she’d met?

But it had always been Mitch. Ever since the night he’d come to her after catching his wife in bed with that senator’s son. Before that, if Alex were honest. But she tried so hard to keep whatever she felt strictly platonic.

Last Saturday was the closest he’d come to talking about his childhood since the night his marriage ended, and she’d blown it by pushing too hard. She’d ruined everything the past two weeks by insisting Mitch see her as a woman. And what had that gained her? Nothing but heartache. Her plan had backfired.

She’d lost her best friend.

Rubbing her eyes against a roaring headache, she trudged to her bathroom and filled her tub with hot water and vanilla-lavender bath oils. She lit some candles, stripped out of her bathing suit and sank into the bath. She needed to calm her tension headache and think about what to do. Or not think at all.

It seemed as if she’d been dealing with her feelings for Mitch half her life. She’d tried being a good friend, waiting him out, trying to get over him and, finally, moving away. Nothing had worked.

She’d thought after the way he kissed her last week that maybe… But if Mitch wanted more than friendship from her, she didn’t want it to be just because he was horny. She couldn’t waste anymore of her life waiting to find out if they could ever be more.

Resting her head against the rim of the tub, she closed her eyes. Suddenly her grandfather’s words came back to her. “Lexie, girl, you got to go after life like you rope a runaway calf, before it gets away.” He’d whispered it as he hugged her goodbye the day she left for the Air Force Academy. He’d been her lone supporter amidst her parents’ disapproval, so at the time, she’d thought he meant her career. But now she could see how that bit of wisdom applied to the rest of her life, as well.

She sat up, sloshing water over the edge of the tub. You know what you have to do, Hughes.

Go after that

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