that Mike probably wanted the cabin to himself for a little while.
Although Mike was working all week, so maybe I could have gone up for a few days. That could have been nice, except I didn’t have anyone to go with me.
The last woman I dated, Sherry, broke it off about seven months ago. I thought things were going well, but I guess she didn’t like me traveling all over the world and only being home half the month—or less.
I had been married twice. My first wife and I married when we were only twenty, and she ended up hating the military lifestyle and left me to return home while I was on deployment three years into our marriage. I’d received one of those famous Dear John letters while I was in Iraq, and it had almost broken my heart—almost.
My next wife was four years later and lasted for five years. I thought we had a great thing going, but when I came home on leave and surprised her, the shock was on me, as I found her in our bed with her boss.
Since my second marriage ended, I’d dated a handful of women, but I couldn’t say that I’d been all in with any of them. I figured that after two failed attempts, the chances of finding anyone now were slim. Most women either had their families or had their careers.
Although I wanted a wife to come home to and had always hoped for a couple of children, I didn’t expect that now, and I was upfront with every woman that I met. I’d love to have a great time, but I wasn’t sure that I was looking for anything long term. I even explained to them that my job came first, and I traveled a lot. I never asked them to wait for me, never asked them to be monogamous, and so far, it was good. A bit lonely at times, and Holly got on my case often, but I was okay with that.
Maybe that was contradictory, wanting a family, and telling women that I wasn’t in it for the long haul. I guess if I ever found the right woman, I would change the way I thought, but I wasn’t holding out for that.
I pulled into our training facility and saw Joe and Wyatt off to the side of the lot smoking. “You know those things will kill you,” I said to them as I passed by.
“So will a gun, but you still shoot them,” Wyatt replied with a laugh.
That was kind of the mentality with all of us. Something was going to kill us, might as well enjoy the ride while you can. Although I tended to be the extreme one in the group, and by extreme, I didn’t mean the one that did all the unhealthy things. No, I was the opposite.
My body was my temple, and I only put the best into it—except beer. Beer was always allowed to enter the temple. I worked out, ate right, scheduled physicals, took vitamins, got my teeth cleaned twice a year. I made sure to get enough sleep—most of the time—and felt like I was twenty-five and not turning forty.
Most of the people were still sitting around the table in the classroom area, but Trevor was piling food on his plate. “Hey, man, you just get here?” I asked as I collected a plate and glanced over the spread.
“Yeah, Devon had a checkup this morning, ran a little late,” he said as Alice reached past me and grabbed a pickle spear off the plate. She glanced at me and then did a double take.
I hiked a brow at her as she leaned toward me. “Are you wearing makeup?”
Ah, shit! I had forgotten to get that cleaned off when we finished. Holy crap!
“Makeup?” Trevor jumped in with a laugh. “Are you?”
“No, I am not.”
Alice got closer to me. “Oh, you most certainly are! Why are you wearing makeup?”
“It’s no big deal, Alice. I forgot to wipe it off.”
“Why are you wearing it in the first place?” Trev asked before he turned to the group behind him. “Hey, our man is wearing makeup over here.”
I wanted to turn and bang my head against the wall as people started laughing and throwing out comments. Joe and Wyatt took that moment to return and asked what was going on.
“Explain, Melton!” Alex said with a laugh. “If you don’t explain the reasonable explanation that you are totally trying to come up with