Until the World Stops - L.A. Witt Page 0,49
that?”
He waved a hand. “Not important. The important thing is that the asshole behind the wheel”—he pointed to an imaginary cab—“thought it would be funny to pull forward and then tap the brakes.”
I snorted. “Not surprised.”
“I know, right? Anyway, he pulled forward, and I had like half a second to think I didn’t want to fall over the side, but I also didn’t want to fall in the bed because it was full of debris we’d cleaned up after that last round of mortars.” He crouched, put his hands on the railing, and eased himself back down onto the deck, and I didn’t let it show that I was relieved he hadn’t broken his ankle again. “In the time it took me to try to think which way I should fall, gravity made the decision for me.”
“And you went into the bed of debris.”
“Yep.” He grimaced as he picked up his plate and sat down again. “Caught my foot between a couple of chunks of concrete, and that was all she wrote.”
I laughed and went for my beer. “Okay, but seriously, why were you up on the bed rails like that?”
His cheeks turned a shade of pink that was surprisingly cute. “Is that really important?”
“You tell me. Because you always leave that part out when you tell the story, so…” I arched an eyebrow.
The pink deepened, and he chuckled. “There…may have been some shit-talking with some Marines about who had the balls to surf on the back of the truck on the way to the place where we were dumping debris.”
I barked a laughed. “Now it all makes sense. I mean, all you had to say was ‘Marines’ and ‘shit-talking.’”
Tristan chuckled. “I know, right? The amount of stupid things I’ve done because I was with Marines. Especially when I went drinking with Marines…”
“You do realize that drinking with Marines counts as one of those stupid things, right?”
A year ago, that would have earned me a glare and probably some insubordination. Tonight, it made him laugh, and he gestured at me with his beer. “You mean to tell me that in a decade, you haven’t gone drinking with Marines?”
“I didn’t say that.” I took a pull from my own beer. “I just said it’s a stupid thing to do.”
He laughed again, which made my heart do things. I’d known from the start that he was gorgeous, but had he always been this cute?
Or was I just losing my damned mind?
Chapter 14
Tristan
“I guess this pandemic is good for one thing.” Casey tossed his phone on the counter and went to the refrigerator. “I’m not spending as much time on my phone.”
“Tired of doom scrolling?”
“Well, yeah.” He pulled a bottle of Pepsi from the fridge and shut the door with his hip. “But without Tinder and Grindr…”
“Oh. Yeah. Didn’t realize how much time I was spending on those until I deactivated them.”
“Right?” He groaned. “Ugh. Lockdown is like deployment—no Tinder. No Grindr.”
Leaning against the sink, I laughed. “Right? At least being on a ship, I could get laid once in a while.”
Casey glanced up from pouring his soda. “Yeah?”
“Well, yeah.” I eyed him. “You never screwed anyone when you were shipboard?”
“Uh, no. I was way too afraid of getting caught. Probably because I came in when DADT was still a thing. For a while, anyway.”
“Hmm, yeah, that would do it.” I shrugged and sipped my drink. “I think the MAs were getting laid more than anyone else when I was on the boat.”
“Seriously?”
I nodded. “Dude, we were the ones on patrol all the time. We knew all the places people got caught, and we knew which shifts would look the other way if they found people fooling around. Took a little strategizing, but we managed.”
He held my gaze, then laughed and shook his head. “Man. So I didn’t actually have to go six fucking months without getting laid?”
“Not even during port calls?”
“Ugh.” Casey groaned. “On my last cruise, the only one fucking me on my port calls was my command.”
“How so?”
“Half the time, I was on duty. Then someone in my section would fuck up, and our master chief would punish all of us by not letting us have overnight liberty. When we got to Hawaii on the way home, I finally had time, and my chief promised I could have the entire three-day weekend on shore.”
I inclined my head. “So did you finally get some?”
“If by ‘some’ you mean ‘the flu’? Yes.”
A laugh burst out of me. “Oh. Dude. That is rough.”
“Right?”