Make Mine a Ranger (Special Ops: Homefront Book 4) (11 page)

Bess shrugged. “It takes a ton of time
and a ton of money. Two things I don’t have. Besides, I’d really like to learn
more about cooking first. There’s so much I don’t know.”

“There are some culinary schools in Baltimore
and DC, you know.”

Bess smiled. “Yes, and there’s a little
girl waiting for me at Edith’s right now who needs food, housing, and a good
insurance plan.”

Tyler’s shoulders slumped. She was right.
A single mom couldn’t afford to drop everything and pursue her dreams.

Bess glanced around her, looking upward
toward the massive beams the crowned the structure. “I remember driving by this
place when it was all run down. I just figured they’d plow it down one day. I
never imagined anyone would do something like this with it.”

“Yeah, a hell of a change from life in
the Green Berets, huh?”

Bess nodded. “Have you ever thought about
what you might want to do after the Rangers?”

“Not much. It’s still too early to think
about getting out. I always figured I’d go to twenty.”
Till recently.
His
eyes wandered, deep in thought.

Bess seemed to pick up on it. She was
always good at that. “You still feel that way?”

“Sometimes. But not always.” He pressed
his lips together, reaching for his beer. “Rangers can get pretty banged up on
missions, and it can make a guy wonder how many good years he’s got left, you
know? I’ll keep doing it as long as I can, but it’s not one of those jobs you
can do half-assed. Lives are on the line.”

“Anything interest you outside of the Rangers?”

You mean other than you?
He seriously wanted to ask her. The way
the candlelight reflected in her eyes made her look like she should be painted
in oil.

Or rubbed down in oil at the very least,
he thought, suppressing a smirk.

“Not really,” he answered, grateful when
the waitress set some appetizers in front of them. Something to focus on other
than how tempting Bess looked tonight.

Bess pressed her lips together
thoughtfully. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“You said something to Lewis about
staying here a year at most, depending on how things go. What did you mean by
that?”

“Well, you never really know about
Special Ops. I’m working on some intelligence issues now, and… well, let’s just
say that if it goes the way we think it might, it will be the basis for a
mission. If that happens, I’ll have to get back down there fast and deploy.”

Breaking eye contact, Bess reached for
her wine, concern creasing her forehead.

“Hey, but don’t worry. I won’t stick you
without rent for those months. I’ll make sure you’re covered for my full
lease,” he assured her.

Tilting her head, her eyes narrowed.
“That’s hardly what I’m worried about, Tyler.”

He touched her hand, the feel of her skin
against his palm warming him from his fingers all the way to the core of his
heart. “No need to worry about me, either.” He knew the words were somehow
lacking. With close friends married to the military, she knew what was at
stake.

By the time the entrees arrived, they had
sampled six full plates of appetizers and covered just as many topics. Conversation
with Bess was as easy in this setting as it was at the kitchen table back at
the house, except for the way he felt his heart rate pick up a notch every time
she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. The subtle move was so innocuous,
but for some reason it made half the blood in Tyler’s brain surge downward.

As the waitress set their entrees in
front of them, Tyler suppressed the urge to take a picture of them before he devoured
his meal. They looked more like works of art than food.

The owner might be a snake
eater—what Army guys called Green Berets—but he sure had a knack
for recruiting culinary talent.

“You see, Tyler? This is what I’m talking
about. Look at the plating skills.” Bess had an appreciative grin as she gazed
at her meal. “This is the kind of thing I dream about doing one day. And I’m
hell and gone from being this good.”

“You have the talent.”

“Even if I did, I need the education. Funny
how my Bachelor of Arts didn’t really prepare me to do something like this,”
she said, giving a nod to her dish. She flaked off a bite of her salmon,
grilled to perfection, and touched it lightly to the sauce that made a delicate
pattern over her plate. Her eyes shut as she touched the bite to her lips, and as
she chewed, a quiet moan escaped her. “Ohhhh, Tyler, you really have to try
this.” Opening her eyes, she sliced off a bite for him and brought the fork
over toward him.

He took the bite in his mouth. “That’s
incredible. If you’ll cook that up for me, I’ll put you through culinary school
myself,” he said with a laugh.

Taking a forkful of his Macadamia
encrusted Mahi Mahi, he sampled his entree. His eyes slammed shut at the taste
of the delicate fish layered with a light sweetness from a mango salsa. “You’ve
got to try this,” he said, taking another forkful and holding it out to her. As
her lips enclosed around the fork, he couldn’t help recalling how she had
tasted during their brief kiss. Sweeter even than the pineapple mango salsa
that was topping his fish.

An air of complete satisfaction on her
face, she looked flat-out erotic as she murmured her compliments to the chef.

“Incredible, isn’t it?” he said. “Hard to
believe the owner’s backstory. He must have been pretty ticked off three times
a day, sitting down to an MRE. No wonder he got out early.”

“That’s delicious. Can I have another
bite?” she asked, scooting her chair closer to his.

“Sure,” he replied, wondering if he
should just scoop a portion onto her plate. Yet he loved the intimacy of
it—feeding her, feeling the pressure of her mouth against his fork as she
pulled the food from it with her mouth. He couldn’t resist offering her another
bite. “Tastes just like Hawaii to me.”

“You’ve been to Hawaii?”

“When I was enlisted before West Point, I
was stationed at Schofield Barracks on Oahu for a couple years. That’s when I
took up paddleboarding. I tried surfing a few times, but I stunk at it,” he said
with a laugh.

“Oh, I bet you weren’t that bad.” She
offered him another bite of her salmon. “That’s where Vi is going on her
honeymoon.”

“Oahu?” He took the bite from her fork,
savoring the brief connection between them. This was the way to eat dinner, he
decided, alternately feeding and being fed by a desirable woman.

“No. Different island. Kauai. Some remote
resort right on the beach.”

“Kauai’s supposed to be beautiful.”

“You never went there when you lived
there?”

Tyler shook his head as he held out a
bite to her. “Not on a Specialist’s salary. I stuck pretty much to Oahu. But I
still loved it.”

Bess pressed her lips together and tossed
her head to the side with a slight shrug. “Sounds nice, but Hawaii’s kind of
down on my to-do list.”

Tyler’s eyebrows lifted as she closed her
mouth around his fork. He had never met a woman who hadn’t drooled over the
idea of Hawaii. And in the Army, Schofield Barracks was a coveted PCS. “Really?
Where would you have chosen for a honeymoon?”

Bess, her mouth still full, smiled a
moment as she chewed. “You’ll laugh,” she finally said.

“I won’t. Promise.”

“Alaska,” she confessed, filling her fork
with some of the new potatoes on her plate.

“Alaska,” he repeated. “Why would I laugh
at that? I hear Alaska is gorgeous in the summer.”

Bess’s mouth twitched upward into a
half-grin, her expression unconscionably sexy to Tyler, as her eyes danced mischievously.
“Because I want to go in the winter.”

Tyler’s chin dropped an inch. “You must
love snow.”

“Actually, it has nothing to do with the
snow. I want to see the Aurora Borealis. You know, the Northern Lights?”

“Really?” he said. Bess was always full
of surprises. “Actually, that sounds like a hell of a good place for a
honeymoon.”

Her eyes rested on him appreciatively.
“That’s what I thought. Vi looked at me like I was crazy when I suggested it to
her. And Lacey and Maeve pretty much took her side.”

“They’re dead wrong. Any guy would agree
with you.” Tyler speared some asparagus with his fork. “Think about it. It’d be
too cold to even get out of your hotel room much, and that could only be a good
thing on a honeymoon, right? Besides, a honeymoon should be a dream
destination. If seeing the Northern Lights is a dream of yours, then by God,
that’s where you should go.”

An image popped into Tyler’s mind as he
chewed on the tender asparagus tips—of Bess snuggled up in a ski parka,
standing out on the porch of a resort with a hot spiced wine held tight in the
clutch of her mittens, watching one of the most spectacular light displays in
the natural world.

Fort Wainwright was just outside of
Fairbanks, Alaska. Guys he knew who had been stationed there had always talked
about being able to see the aurora borealis. Bet Bess wouldn’t mind a year up
there with Abby, being able to get her fill of the lightshow with her daughter
at her side.

A knot formed in his stomach. And where
the hell had that idea come from? He was just on their first date, and already was
planning a PCS with her. Better put the brakes on that train of thought.

“Care for dessert?” The waitress asked
them, snapping him back to the moment.

Tyler ordered two desserts, not because
they were still hungry, but because he didn’t want the evening to end. He would
have been content to spend the entire night spoon-feeding Bess, even though he
could actually think of a few other activities he’d prefer to do with her.

As the desserts disappeared from their
plates, Tyler watched her scoop the last spoonful of a custard-filled dessert
crepe into her mouth.

“Oh, I can’t get enough of this, Tyler,”
she said, clearly savoring the bite, oblivious that Tyler was imagining her
saying the same words in a very different situation.

Okay, so this could be damn awkward at
the close of the night, he suddenly realized. He needed to tread carefully
here. She was his housemate, he reminded himself. His friend. The mother of the
three-year-old Tyler loved fiercely.

Shit
. The three-year-old who was away for the whole night at
Edith’s. That could make things way too tempting.

After he handed his credit card to the
waitress, Bess shifted in her seat awkwardly. “I really wish you’d let me chip
in. This meal must have cost a fortune.”

“No way. And it was worth every penny. I
read about this place a couple weeks ago online. I was kind of curious what
kind of place a former Green Beret would open up. I needed the company.”

“Tyler, look in the mirror. You could
have gone with anyone.”

“Maybe. But I wanted to go with you.”
Didn’t she see the attraction he felt for her? “Besides, I need to get you out
more. You work way too hard. Then you come home and cook for me and Abby.”

Bess laughed. “Used to. Now I work out at
the gym and feed my kid food from a can.”

“That chicken piccata you whipped up the
other night sure didn’t come from a can.”

She waved a hand in his direction. “Oh,
that’s amateur stuff. Some night I’ll make you my smoked trout soufflé. That takes
some practice and I actually got it down pretty well. But I’ll have to do it on
a Saturday. I’m getting pretty used to my weekday workouts at the gym.”

Tyler signed the credit card receipt and
handed it back to the waitress. “I’m just glad you’re enjoying it there. I
thought you might. It’s good to do something out of your comfort zone every
once in a while.”
Like taking your housemate out on a date.

“Yeah. Connor was saying they’re starting
a women’s boxing class. Said I should try it. He said I have a knack for the
heavy bag and might really enjoy it.”

I’ll bet he did.
“Boxing, huh? I better behave around you
from now on.”
And Connor better behave, too.
“Think you’ll do it?”

“I guess so. I like the instructor
already, and that’s half of it. Makes classes a lot less intimidating.”

“Who’s teaching it?”

“Connor.”

Connor again.
Standing, he pulled her chair out for
her.
Does she have a thing for Connor?

Feeling suddenly uneasy, he furrowed his
brow as they walked out of the restaurant. “So, you like him?”

Bess shrugged as she stepped through the
door, her hair catching a breeze off the Bay. “More than the guy who teaches
grappling. He scares the hell out of me.”

Vlad, Tyler thought. “Yeah, Vlad kind of
scares the crap out of everyone.” Funny, it was good-natured Connor who Tyler
was more concerned about right now, though.

Maybe Bess was hoping Connor would ask
her out. And here Tyler had all but put a stop to it.