Back To You (12 page)

“Well,” Olivia
chuckled, brushing sand off of her arms and chest. “Guess he’s not planning on
keeping anything a secret.”

I touched my
fingers to my lips as I stared after him. “I guess not.”

Chapter
Twelve

Spencer

“Alright, see you
lovebirds in a few hours.” Ellie shut the door to our hotel room and joined me
in the hallway. We were giving Mills and his girl some time to themselves for a
few hours. I was grateful that they wanted alone time, since it would give me a
chance to have some time with Ellie too. Though, after waking up with her the
past two mornings with an uncomfortable case of morning wood, I kind of wished
that we could trade places with Mills and Olivia right about now.

“Dinner was good,”
Ellie commented as I took her hand. She stared down at it for a moment with a
bewildered look on her face and then brought her gaze up to meet mine.

“Yeah, it was.” I
hoped my smile was reassuring. To be honest, I was just as surprised about the
ease of this as she was.

We made our way
into the stairwell that led to the grounds below. Outside, the air was chilly
and Ellie shivered beside me. I put my arm around her. The sun had kept us warm
on the beach that day, but the temperature had dropped considerably since then.
I peered down at Ellie. She was wearing the Marine Corps hoodie that she had
purchased at my graduation. She looked adorable in it.

“So where are we
going?” Ellie asked me.

I shrugged. “I
figured we could walk around for a bit, maybe head over to the Starbucks down
the street for some coffee.”

“That sounds good.
But I think I might get hot chocolate so I’m not up all night.”

“Who knows, we
might need to be up all night. I’m not sure how long Mills is
gonna
need with Olivia. I told him
to text me when it was safe to come back.” I saw Ellie blush as she thought
about what they were doing. I knew she wasn’t a virgin, but for some reason I
kind
of
liked that she could be bashful about sex. It
made her seem innocent in a really hot way.

“Well, it’s only
been a few weeks since they’ve seen each other.”

That made me
laugh. “Yeah, well, it’s been a few weeks since any of us have so much as laid
eyes on an attractive female.”

“There are no
girls in combat training?”

“Nope.”

She frowned up at
me. “That doesn’t seem fair. They should be able to learn combat techniques
too, just in case. I know there aren’t many women in combat jobs yet, but there
are still a lot of medics and stuff in the field over there right? They should
definitely get to learn combat moves.”

“Take it easy,
Rosie the Riveter.” I squeezed her upper arm playfully as I pulled her tighter
against my side. “The girls do their combat training on the east coast. The
Marine Corps separates gender in boot camp and combat training. Other branches
don’t, but we do.”

“Oh.” She smiled
sheepishly. “Well, good. You must be going through withdrawals then. How did
you manage to go all that time without the opportunity to get laid?”

I pulled her to a
stop and swung her into my arms. Pressing my mouth to hers, I couldn’t help but
feel a tightening in my stomach as she gave herself over to me. I wanted her so
much. It was as easy as breathing. Why hadn’t we started doing this sooner?
Oh, right, because there were a ton of
reasons why we shouldn’t do it at all.

I felt her smile
against my lips and all negative thoughts left my head. I wasn’t sure how long
we stood there kissing on the sidewalk. I barely registered the cars whizzing
by on the street, feet away. One thing about military bases, you were always
seeing a young couple embracing in random places.

I broke the kiss
and smiled down at her. “Well, I
was
going through withdrawals. But as long as we keep doing that, I think I’ll
survive.”

We laughed and
continued walking, hand in hand, toward the Starbucks.

“So, the job is
still going good.” Ellie offered.

I noticed the
hesitation in her voice. “But?”

“But, my dad isn’t
letting up on me about becoming a lawyer. Honestly, the more time I spend in
that environment, the more I realize that I wouldn’t really like to have his
job.”

“Have you tried
explaining that to him?”

“Yes, and no.” She
shrugged. “I’ve told him that I’m still not sure it’s the right career for me.
Before I took the job, I had no problem telling him that I didn’t want to be a
lawyer. But now that I’m supposed to be learning about the field and giving it
a chance, I try not to be so absolute.”

It was hard not to
admire how smart she was. She was always thinking about the many different
sides of a situation, not just the one that was most relevant to her. I admired
the fact that she knew how much it meant to her father to be a lawyer, so she
didn’t want to be offensive. But at some point she needed to stand up for
herself. If it was possible to be considerate to a fault, Ellie definitely was.

“Just do me a
favor,” I started, staring straight ahead, “don’t let your dad, or anyone for
that matter, talk you into doing something you don’t want to do. You have so
much going for you. I know that whatever you decide to do, it will be great. It
doesn’t have to be a lawyer.”

She smiled and
squeezed my hand. “Thanks, Spence.”

“So, how’s the new
guy? Fat and bald?”

“Eric? Not quite.”
She chuckled. “But he’s nice. He doesn’t treat me like a five-year-old like
some of them do.”

“Good to hear.”

We didn’t talk for
a while, but it wasn’t an awkward silence. Sometimes we just didn’t feel the
need to fill up the empty air with random words. It was comfortable just to be
together. That was one of the best parts of our friendship, and I was glad that
wasn’t changing now.

We reached the
Starbucks and I held the door for her as she walked in. Since it was a
libo
weekend, there were couples everywhere. We weren’t the
only ones that had the idea to have a late night coffee run. Then again, there
wasn’t much to do on base so it made sense that people would chill here.

As we approached
the counter, I had a moment of panic. Ellie and I had always bought our own
food or drinks whenever we were together. But now, I realized that if she were
anyone else, I wouldn’t even hesitate to buy her coffee. Would she think it was
weird, or was she expecting it?

“Can I help you?”
The clerk behind the counter had a sullen expression. He was obviously ready to
go home for the night.

I turned to Ellie
and gestured for her to order ahead of me. She asked the guy for a hot
chocolate with whipped cream, and I asked for a black coffee. When he gave us
the total, Ellie and I both reached for our money.

“I have cash. I
think mine was like three dollars.” She was already unzipping her wallet and
pulling out the bills.

“No, it’s fine.” I
put a hand over hers on the wallet. “I got it.”

The cashier rolled
his eyes and thrust his hand out further for my money. I glared at him as I
handed over the cash for our drinks, deciding not to tip him. We stepped over
to the end of the counter to wait.

“Thanks, Spence.
I’ll get the next round,” Ellie offered with a smile.

I wondered if that
meant that she didn’t think this felt like a date. I winked at her. “We’ll
see.”

When we got our
drinks, we took a seat at one of the tables on the patio. “So, this is pretty
crazy.”

I had just taken a
small sip of my coffee and it scalded my mouth. “What’s crazy?”

“Oh, you know. Us,
acting like a couple.”

Not sure what to
say, I just watched her. Ever since my feelings for Ellie started changing, I’d
been convincing myself that it would never work between us. Now, I was trying
not to think about any of that. It just felt so damn good to be with her like
this that I didn’t want to dwell on all of the reasons it was a bad idea.

“Spencer?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m okay, you
know.”

“I know you’re
okay.” I wasn’t sure where she was going with this.

Ellie sighed and reached
for my hand across the table. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m not all
broken up about Tim. I’m okay. And really, you have a lot to do with that.”

Hearing her say
that I helped make her feel better was a relief and a punch in the gut at the same
time. I wanted her to be happy, but the idea that it was because of me was
nerve-wracking. What happened when I wasn’t able to make her happy anymore?
What happened when I left and she was alone again? What if she was only happy
with me now because I’m a rebound from Tim? I really stepped in it this time.

“Anyway, since
you’re obviously not in the mood to talk about any of this, how do you like
being a Marine so far?” Her tone was joking, and I mentally told myself to
relax and stop being a baby.

“I like it. Combat
training was pretty tough, but I’m about to graduate and start actually
learning about my job. I’m looking forward to that.”

She sighed. “Where
are you off to next?”

“After this I go
to Florida for A School.”

Ellie fidgeted
with the cardboard sleeve on her to-go cup. “And after that?”

Shaking my head, I
let out a breath. “I won’t know until the end of A School. I know it’ll be
another school, I just don’t know where.”

Saying this out
loud did not help my mood. My future was so uncertain. Before I left for boot
camp, this was an adventure that I couldn’t wait to get started on. Now, I felt
like I was somehow disappointing Ellie by being on the move all the time. If I
was being honest with myself, I didn’t like that feeling. This was my dream. Now
I was conflicted over something that I was so excited about only a short time
ago. One thing was for sure, if this was going to work at all, I needed to
figure out a way to balance both the Marine Corps and the girl of my dreams.

“And after that
school?” She didn’t meet my eyes.

“I don’t know.
It’ll be months before I know where I’m stationed.”

Ellie looked up at
me and tried to smile. “Have you thought about where you want to end up? I bet
there are a lot of really cool places you could go.”

“Come here.” I
held my hand out to her and when she took it, I gently tugged her from her seat
and onto my lap. I put my finger under her chin to make sure she was looking at
me. “After everything that’s happened, you’ve always been there for me. I just
want you to know that no matter where I am, I’ll always be there for you, too.
No matter where they send me, I’ll always come back to you.”

The look in her
eyes made my chest hurt, but I held her gaze as I waited for her response. I
didn’t know what was happening between us or where it was going, but she needed
to know that I’d always have her back. I couldn’t promise much, but I could
promise that. I was blindsided by how much it hurt to think about losing her. I
was only just now finding out what it felt like to have her.

Ellie leaned down
and kissed me softly. “I know, Spence.”

When she pulled
back, I noticed a lone eyelash on her cheek. I touched the spot and made sure
the eyelash was stuck to the tip of my finger. She grinned and pressed the tip
of her finger to mine. She closed her eyes, and I watched as she made a wish.
This was a tradition that we had started a long time ago. I wasn’t sure how it
started, but it was always the same. It was similar to a wishbone. We would
make a wish, and whoever had the eyelash on their finger when we pulled apart
would get their wish.

We separated our
fingers, finding that I was the one with the eyelash. As was custom when I won,
she pouted.

“Don’t worry,
you’ll still get your wish,” I told her.

She looked up at
me, surprised. “How?”

“I wished that
your wish would come true.”

***

“Hey guys!” Olivia
greeted us warmly when we returned to the room.

Mills’ text had
come a lot sooner than I had expected, and I was pretty annoyed to have my time
with Ellie cut short. It was shocking that he called us back to the room after
only an hour. Did they get anything done at all?

The two of them
looked almost giddy as they stood together, holding hands. They seemed to be
trying to decide who should start explaining. I could tell that they were on the
verge of telling us some pretty big news, and I immediately worried that Olivia
might be pregnant. Talk about rushing into adulthood.

 
“Olivia and I are getting married.”

I nodded slowly at
Mills.
Has he lost his mind?
“Yeah,
we know. We were there when you proposed.”

“No, man, I mean
we’re getting married
tomorrow.
And
we want you guys to be our witnesses.”

Mills was
practically jumping out of his skin with edgy excitement. All I could do was
stare at him. Was he serious? I was just barely getting used to the idea of an
eighteen-year-old proposing marriage, let alone actually following through with
it. Of course, I knew that they would eventually get married. I just didn’t
think it would be on a
libo
weekend with Ellie and me
as the only guests.

“Slow down, Mills.
Where are you planning to do this?” I scratched my head as I tried to think
about the logistics of their spur-of-the-moment plan.

“Vegas.”

I continued to
stare blankly at my friend. He was just standing there with a hopeful
expression in his eyes. Olivia and Ellie were already prattling away about what
she should wear and how she should do her hair. I gawked at them, bewildered,
as they began digging through Olivia’s suitcase and pulling things out. This
was getting out of hand.

“But what about the
big wedding you were planning? We spent all that time talking about colors and
flowers!” Ellie laughed.

Olivia waved her
hand. “Sweetie, in the military, a wedding like that is a luxury.”

“Really?” Ellie
bit her bottom lip. “God, I feel like I’ve been planning my dream wedding since
I was five. And you seemed so excited to be planning yours! Are you sure you
want to do this?”