Strategic Engagement
Page 12

"Are you okay here while I swim? You know Darcy." He jerked a thumb toward their tomboy bombshell hostess sprawled in a lounge chair with a beer at her ringside seat for Bo's concert. "And you've met Julia Dawson, right?"
"Come on over," Darcy called from beside the woman Crusty had called Julia—wife of the prior Squadron Commander. The earthy blonde–Julia–wriggled her red toenails while her toddler son gripped them and giggled.
More families. More couples.
Mary Elise shook off the senseless frustration. Time to cut the self-pity crap.
Crap?
Geez, already Daniel was sneaking into her life and mind in so many ways. And now he had to soften her heart with sensitivity in making sure she didn't feel abandoned or awkward in the group. Yet, he achieved it without plastering himself to her side possessively as Kent had done.
No thoughts of Kent. Not tonight. Just enjoy the moment. "I'm fine, thanks."
Daniel knelt beside her. "I've got Austin now. Go visit or whatever."
Music and swirling water whispered a wake-up to her dormant creative muse. "In a minute."
He canted closer. "Are you okay? Everyone's being nice, right?"
Mary Elise struggled to keep her eyes on his face. She surely didn't want the sensual domino effect that would come from roving eyes, anyway. She'd seen his chest quite well a few seconds ago.
Now to try and forget those muscles. Just a body right? And she knew well what he looked like without the jean cutoffs. How really good he looked without them. Her heart rate kicked up a notch.
She willed her eyes to stay locked with his. "Everyone's been great."
And they had, welcoming her, yet not asking the umpteen questions that scrolled across their eyes every time she slipped and called him Danny instead of Daniel.
"Yeah, they have been awesome." He glanced back at his guitar-plucking buddy. "I'm still wondering how Bo financed both those bikes on his salary. I'm thinking lieutenants must be making more these days."
She couldn't help but marvel at the surprise thoughtfulness of the young bachelor, the pair of shiny mountain bikes a fun gift these world-weary kids would probably never forget.
Bo's speeding fingers slowed on the strings. "Every kid should have his own bike. Better for the little fellas to cruise the local sandbox for hot chicks," he said, dismissing his own generosity while he packed away his guitar.
Darcy wadded up a napkin and pelted him. "You're just trying to score points with unsuspecting women like Hot Tub Hannah over there."
A wicked twinkle lit Bo's baby blues. "Do you think it's working?" He directed the power of that lady-killer gaze toward the blonde in the steaming oasis at the end of the pool and received an encouraging grin in return. Bo stood. "My cue to soak away my troubles. Thanks again, Crusty, for introducing me to Hannah. I owe ya one. Don't hesitate to call me if you need a sitter."
Daniel pushed to his feet. "So you can hit on my neighbor, then take my brothers cruising sandboxes?"
"The park's a great place to meet women. Joggers and dog walkers and babes lounging on picnic blankets." His twinkling eyes took on a rapturous gleam before he landed back in the present. "Not that you need any of that now. Have fun you two."
Winking, Bo pivoted away to jog toward the hot tub, lowering himself into the frothing bubbles beside Hannah.
With everyone assuming she and Danny were a couple in the making, it would be simple to let herself slip into that notion, as well. But while she might be willing to take pleasure from living where she could, not at so high a price. If she allowed herself to soften around Danny any more, she would crack and spill all.
The temptation was rapidly growing as strong as the desire to press her lips to his warm skin with beads of water begging to be sipped. "Go. Swim. Play. Whatever."
Please. Now.
He searched her eyes for an extended second before backing a step. "All right." He turned to Trey, the boy scowling in a pool chair with his knees hugged to his chest. "Hey, kid? Can you swim?"
Trey sniffed. "Of course I can."
"Good. Hold your breath." He scooped his brother up and launched him airborne toward the center of the pool.
Trey shrieked, closing his mouth with a gasp seconds before he landed in the water. Daniel cannon-balled a foot away from him. Spray sluiced a giant wave over the side.
Years slid away to the countless times they'd played in his parents' pool. God, she'd hated it when he'd dunked her. Until she'd learned to dunk him right back.
Daniel exploded to the surface beside Austin and shook the water out of his face.
Austin paddled, his water wings bobbing, and shouted between huffing breaths, "Mary Elise, come in. We're gonna play baseball."
Trey splashed him. "Volleyball, you dweeb."
"Yeah. That."
Mary Elise pulled her feet out of the water. "I'm not swimming today, sweetie. You just have fun with your brothers."
She backed away, mentally recording the image of Danny swimming with Austin's spindly arms locked around the strong column of big brother's neck. Daniel, a man so different from the steely warrior who'd drawn down an enemy guard in a foreign country to save his brothers less than forty-eight hours before. The dual image left her dry-mouthed. Rattled.
Intrigued.
She could watch. And she would enjoy. But she needed to keep enough distance so she could still leave.
Daniel spiked the ball back toward Tag. For all the good it did him. The loadmaster tapped it in the air with ease, setting up the next shot as he passed the volleyball to his teenage son.
Who missed it–hallelujah–since the boy was too busy ogling the high schooler springing off the diving board, Zach Dawson's daughter, Shelby.Teenage hormones packed a ferocious punch.
Daniel's gaze drifted back to Mary Elise. He looked beyond the new lines of worry and fatigue around her eyes to the clear green gaze he'd fallen hard for in his youth. Remembered how they'd known everything about each other. Shared every thought, no matter how personal.
Maybe it was the swimming scenario hammering him since they'd enjoyed countless hours in his parents' landscaped backyard and kidney-shaped pool growing up. He'd shut down those memories after they split, but now he'd have to learn to live with them bombarding him from more directions than antiaircraft fire.
"Crusty?" Tag shouted. "You with us, man?"
Daniel nodded, rejoining the game, his mind lofting back to the past as surely as the ball sailing through the air.
"I'm not swimming today, Danny."
Daniel stroked his way through the numbingly cold pool. His teenage body hungered for exercise outside the stifling formality of his parents' house. Early spring weather in Savannah made for chilly water, not that he cared. And usually Mary Elise didn't care, either.
"Why not?" He stopped inches from the cement edge where Mary Elise perched gripping her knees. "Scared of a little freezing water?" He flicked drops in her face.
"Yeah, right."
He hauled himself out to sit beside her. "What's the matter? Really? Come on, spill, because I'm not buying the scared-of-cold-water crap for even a second."
She scooped her hand through the pool and flicked his face right back. "Your dad hears you say crap again and you'll be needing that cold water to rinse out the soap."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. He hasn't tried that since I was in junior high. Now come on. Swim with me. There's an extra suit in the pool house."
He reached to tug the rope of red hair trailing over her shoulder, then paused. When the hell had Mary Elise gotten breasts? Not much to them, but they sure as hell were there. He jerked his hand away.
"I can't, Danny. Can't. Okay? I'm a girl and there are days it's just easier for a girl if she doesn't swim."
He felt the color drain from his face and knew it didn't have anything to do with the freezing water. Some stuff a guy just didn't want to know. "Oh."
"Yeah, oh. Now go swim and enjoy the fact that you're a boy and can swim all thirty-one days of this month. I'll soak my feet here while we talk about something else."
And he wanted to do just that. Well, until he saw the downward tilt to her mouth, the minifurrow on her serious brow.
Who needed to swim laps, anyway?
Standing, he extended his hand without a word while he waited. He could handle this. Sure, he wanted to dive to the bottom of the pool where he wouldn't have to even think about this discussion. But he was a practical guy and, hell, this was Mary Elise after all. They could talk about anything.
Even if she had developed br**sts overnight. He shoved his hand closer.
She eyed his outstretched arm. "What?"
"Chocolate."
"Huh?"
"Let's go get some chocolate. I hear chicks like to eat a boatload of the stuff when they're, uh—" he stifled his wince for Mary Elise's sake "—not swimming."
A smile so perfect crept across her face and right up to her eyes that a charge of victory shot through him until Daniel forgot about the pool behind him and the swim he'd waited all winter to take.
Mary Elise fitted her hand in his and stood. "Yeah, right, now I get it. You've just got your eye on that box of Hostess Ho-Hos in my mom's pantry."
"Busted."
Her laugh swelled then faded as they pushed their way through the ivy-covered gate separating their yards. "You're not totally grossed out?"
"Maybe a little."
She punched his arm.
"Hey, joking!" He rubbed his arm, relaxed. He could always do that with Mary Elise, relax, be himself with nothing to prove. Daniel slung an arm around his best friend's shoulders. "This just means you're gonna be able to have kids someday. Right? Nothing gross about that."
She tipped her face up to his. "Thank you, Danny."
Mary Elise arched onto her toes, a soft breast pressed to .his side as she grazed a kiss against his cheek right at the corner of his mouth. If he moved his head even…
"Hey! Heads up, Baker."
Daniel blinked. The volleyball whizzed through the air, straight toward his face.
"Crap." He launched to the side and swung his cupped hands up into the ball with a microsecond to spare.
And damned if his gaze didn't land right back on Mary Elise to see if she'd been watching. He wasn't any better than Tag's son, Chris, drooling over a girl until he lost focus on the rest of the freaking world.
Chris punched the air with a victory shout. "Point, game and match for the visiting team."
Tag eased out of formation over to the side of the pool. "Perfect timing. We need to hit the road. My daughter's driving home from college for the weekend, and I promised Rena I'd move boxes out of Nikki's room before she gets here."
Daniel waded closer to Tag as Darcy launched out of her chair to join in the game. No doubt those boxes had been pulled down on his account as the loadmaster and his wife sorted through their son's old clothes to help fill Austin and Trey's empty closet. He stifled another wince at everything he owed his friends. He was a hell of a lot more comfortable being on the giving end. Did Mary Elise feel the same way?
And when the hell had he started analyzing feelings?
He shook off the thought faster than beading water in his hair. "Hey, make sure you pass along my thanks to Rena for the kids' clothes." Since the other marrieds had attended together, he couldn't help but notice Rena's absence in light of the conversation with Tag on the flight.
"Let Rena know I'll send 'em back your way once these guys get through with them."
Tag shook his head with a look of horror. "Don't come near my house with those things, man. We've almost got our nest empty. Our baby-making days are over." He hauled himself out of the water. "You ready Chris? Chris?"