Night Maneuvers - By Jillian Burns Page 0,46

she was still on night maneuvers, the only way to maximize his time with her was to go ahead and spend the night there during the week, too.

The change seemed barely discernible. Alex made room for his stuff on the bathroom counter, in her closet and drawers, and they even talked about bringing his big-screen TV over for watching games on the weekends.

So, it seemed without either of them discussing it, he’d—for all intents and purposes—moved in with Alex. If anyone had told him a month ago he’d be moving in with a woman, he’d have laughed and denied it with every fiber of his being. He might have even made another stupid bet like he had when Jackson had talked about marrying Jordan. That’s how sure he’d been then.

Now, uncertainty seemed to have moved into his psyche and made itself right at home alongside the bit of terror that still remained. All he knew was that, despite the fear, he was happy, and that a part of him he thought had died, the part that believed in love, that needed love, wasn’t dead.

It was on life support and needed a lot of intensive care.

But for the first time in more than seven long years, his heart was cautiously, one wonderful day at a time, coming back to life. And it felt good.

He decided to come clean with Commander Westland, but he had to let Hughes know his plans first. It wouldn’t prevent him or her from receiving a promotion, but it might mean reassignment for one or both of them.

Following the advice of his administrative assistant, he had a friend of his get front-row tickets for the whole gang to one of the Cirque du Soleil shows on the strip for Saturday night. The plan was to surprise everyone with the tickets after the ceremony on base Saturday.

By lunchtime Friday he was too excited to wait to tell Alex about the show. He decided to take off early, buy himself a new shirt, and then surprise Alex at home with the tickets.

He didn’t know which one he was more excited about: he and Alex getting promoted to the rank of major, or he and Alex making it official that they were a couple.

Somehow the two seemed connected in his mind. Maybe because whenever something good had happened in his life, Alex was always a part of it.

14

ALEX JERKED AWAKE as her cell phone played “Anchors Aweigh.” She grabbed the phone off her bedside table. “Hughes.”

“Alexandria, hey. It’s Neil.”

Alex swiped the hair out of her mouth and blinked the sleep from her eyes. Neil. She hadn’t heard his deep voice in over a year. A vivid memory assaulted her of Neil’s delighted expression when he realized she’d used the Navy’s theme song as his ringtone on her cell.

She cleared her throat. “Yeah, hey, hi, Neil. How’re you doing?” She rolled over and sat up, checking her alarm clock. Noon? She’d had three hours of sleep. But that wasn’t Neil’s fault. He didn’t know she was on night maneuvers.

“—you out to lunch?”

“Wait, what?”

“I’m sorry. You sound like you’re not feeling well. Is this a bad time?”

“I was asleep. I’m on night duty this rotation.”

“Oh, no, I woke you up? I’m so sorry.”

“No problem. What were you saying?”

“I’m in town and thought I’d take you out to lunch, but it sounds like that’s not going to work for you.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m not really fit for public consumption right now.” She gave a short laugh that died in the silence.

“Well, listen, I’m on leave and I flew in to Vegas because I wanted to see you. Maybe I could come over there later this afternoon? After you get a few hours’ more sleep.”

“Uh…” He flew in just to see her? Hadn’t she made it clear before she left Langley that they were done as a couple?

“I know it’s rude to invite myself over, but I’m shipping out next week and I thought I’d see how you’re doing before I go.”

“No, no problem. Come on by. I just bought a house.” She rattled off the address.

“If you’re sure?”

“Yeah, it’d be nice to catch up.” That’s all this was. Two friends catching up after a year.

“Great. Be there in about an hour.”

After Alex clicked off, she jumped in the shower, blew her hair dry and tried to apply a little makeup, but her hand shook. Why was she so nervous? She cared about Neil, but she certainly didn’t love him.

She dashed into the living room,