Nine Marines' Shared Property - Nicole Casey Page 0,20

by surprise.

“Gwen, I can’t see you without the others. That would be like cheating.”

Her eyes got real wide. “What?”

“We’re a tight squad,” I started.

“I know you’re a tight squad.”

I detected irritation in her voice. I took her hands in mine. “I like you, Gwen, I really do. That’s an understatement, actually. But I thought we had an understanding.”

She shook her head.

“Gwen, you said you’re not into dating.”

“Maybe I changed my mind.”

I kissed her hand. “That’s good. I’m glad to hear that. But I can’t date you, not alone.”

“Tight squad?”

I nodded. “We share. We share everything.”

She let go of my hands and turned away from the water. “I think we should head back.”

We walked a moment in silence. “Did I say something wrong?” I asked.

“No. I appreciate the honesty. I appreciate you being direct.”

It was hard to tell from her tone of voice or her expression what she was thinking. I tensed up, thinking I might have blown my chance, our chance. I didn’t dare say a word. I just walked beside her waiting for her to speak, waiting for her to tell me everything was going to be OK.

Finally, as we were leaving the beach, Gwen turned to me and said, “So, when’s the next time the whole tight squad has the night off?”

9

Manny

There’s nothing better than a long run to calm the nerves and collect the thoughts. Since the night in Gwen’s apartment, I’d been going for a late-night run every night—and an early-morning run, and an afternoon run when my schedule permitted.

My nerves were far from calmed; and my thoughts were far from collected.

“It’s been ten days,” I said to the guys. I didn’t need to elaborate; they knew what I was referring to.

“Ten long days,” said Santiago.

“I haven’t even had the time to go down to the cafe,” said Taylor.

“I have,” I said.

“You’ve seen Gwen?” asked Axel.

I shook my head. “No. I mean I’ve had time. But I think if I went to the cafe where she works and I saw her but I wasn’t able to touch her, I think that would just make me crazy.”

“You’re not crazy now?” said Elijah.

I paced back and forth in the living room. “Believe me, I can go crazier.”

“We believe you,” said Axel.

Travis’s phone dinged. I spun around; all our heads spun to look at him.

Travis calmly pulled his phone out of his breast pocket—calmly and slowly; too slowly. He read the message. “Your mission, if you choose to accept it: damsel in distress, body aching to be held by strong arms; pussy yearning to be stroked with a firm hand.”

“Is that from Gwen?” said Tristan.

With his deadpan delivery and his head so often in the clouds, I couldn’t tell if he was joking or being oblivious. Taylor punched him in the arm, and Tristan laughed.

“I have Thursday night off,” said Travis. “And so do you,” he said to Tristan. “And you.” He pointed to Taylor.

“Me too,” I said.

J.P. shook his head. “I’m on duty.”

“So am I,” said Elijah.

“I’m free Thursday, Saturday and Sunday,” said Santiago.

We compared schedules but couldn’t come up with a night we were all free.

“Damn,” said Travis. “This is going to be hard.”

“Fuck it,” said J.P. He turned to Elijah. “We can get Jorge and Rodriguez to swap shifts with us, right?”

Elijah pulled out his phone. “I’m on it.” He put the phone to his ear and walked out of the room.

Travis’s phone binged again. He read the message. “You know the location. The clock is ticking.”

Elijah returned with a disappointed look on his face. He said to J.P., “No can do.”

“Hell, guys,” I said. “What are we doing? We’re all here together now.”

“Yeah, and?” said J.P.

“Let’s go to her now,” I said.

“It’s almost midnight,” said Elijah.

“And?” I said. I walked over to the mirror and gave myself a quick inspection. Looking good and ready to please.

“We’ve got six am drills,” said Santiago.

I grabbed the keys to the SUV off the rack then I turned to the group. “Then we’d better hurry.”

Axel jumped off the couch and joined me. The others followed, all but Santiago and Tristan. I looked at Santiago and said, “We’ve got six am drills, but we’ve also got midnight drills.” I raised an eyebrow.

Santiago didn’t need any more convincing than that. And with eight of us on board, Tristan couldn’t refuse.

“Tell her we’re on our way,” I said to Travis, and we filed out, quickly and orderly.

A damsel in distress, nine Marines packed into an SUV, racing across town to the rescue.