Chapter One
Makenna
Nineteen years under my parents’ roof, four mediocre years studying history in college, months at boot camp, and then A school had me craving freedom and fun.
“Are you settled in?” my dad asked as I walked out of my building.
“Totally settled.” I glanced around, watching as hordes of people headed toward the mess hall.
“Allison there?”
“She’s somewhere, but I was just heading to dinner,” I lied, knowing I was going the opposite direction.
“When in doubt, always go for the salad. It’s the least likely thing to kill you.”
“Got it.” I tucked my hand into the pocket of my coat, fishing out my car keys. “Trust me, Dad. I’ve memorized everything you told me.”
He sighed on the other end of the phone. “I should’ve pulled some strings and had you stationed closer.”
“I have to do this on my own,” I told him, stalking toward the crowded parking lot. “I want to do this on my own. Promise me you won’t get involved, Twilight?” I used his call sign, something I’d heard him called a million times by his friends.
“I won’t, sunshine. I swear.”
“I’m in no way a ray of sunshine, Daddy. Maybe to you, but no one else.”
“Got a nickname yet? Chaos would be a great one for you.”
I chuckled, knowing he was right. I was like a ball of chaos, too wild to be caged, too unwieldy to be anything else. “Nope,” I lied again. “Just Dixon or Mak. You know how it is when you’re new.”
“You’ll find your place, sweetheart. When’s duty start?”
“I have a few days to settle in.”
“Everything is hurry up and wait. I’d like to say it gets better, but it doesn’t.”
My dad loved talking about the navy. He wasn’t just a regular sailor. Nope. My dad was the elite. The crème de la crème. A navy SEAL through and through.
I had no plans to break the proverbial glass ceiling, trying to be one of the first female SEALs ever. I was happy to find my place as a quartermaster without the pressure of saving lives and risking my own on a daily basis.
“Mak.” Blondie, my best friend from boot camp, waved across the parking lot, leaning against my car. “Get your ass moving. We’re losin’ daylight.”
“I got to go, Dad. I’m here. I’m safe. I’m ready.”
“Okay. Okay. I’m so proud of you. You know that, right?”
“I do.” I waved back at Blondie when he didn’t stop glaring at me because I wasn’t moving fast enough. “I love you, Daddy.”
“Love you too. Give ’em hell.”
“That’s the plan. I’ll call soon.”
“Tomorrow?” he asked.
“I’ll text you tomorrow.”
“Fuck,” he huffed. “A text is fine.”
“Go spend time with Mom or Cullen, Dad. I’m heading to the world-famous salad bar you’ve been raving about for years,” I said sarcastically.
Dad chuckled. “Later, kid.”
“Bye, Dad.”
“Well, Jesus. If you moved any slower, we’ll get there tomorrow,” Blondie said as I jammed my phone into the back pocket of my jeans.
“What’s the hurry? It’s not even five.”
Blondie ran his hand over his cropped blond hair, always looking exasperated. “It’s our first night without curfew, and I’m not wasting it.”
If Blondie and I hadn’t become best friends at A school, I’d find him attractive. But there was something about him that made him feel more like my brother than possible boyfriend material. His blue eyes and full lips made most of the girls swoon, but I just didn’t see him the same way.
I clicked to open the locks to my Jeep, wanting nothing more than some time off base. “Where are we going anyway?”
He settled into the passenger seat, looking like a giant folded up, with his knees almost touching his chest. “I found the perfect spot down by the ocean.”
“It’s the Gulf, not the ocean,” I corrected, sliding the key into the ignition.
“Um, it’s still an ocean.”
I glanced over at him, unable to keep the judgment from my face. “Listen, the Atlantic is the ocean. The Gulf is the…”
“Gulf?” he teased. “It’s still endless blue water, babe.”
“You’re a goofball.”
“You try growing up in a cornfield in Indiana. I’m sorry I wasn’t a spoiled little girl from Virginia where the ocean was in my backyard.”
I backed out, ignoring his comment. “Where am I going?”
“The Rusty Knuckle.”
I gaped at him as I shifted my Jeep into drive, keeping my foot firmly planted on the brake. “The what?”
“Rusty Knuckle. Supposed to be the hottest bar on the beach.”
“Sounds like it.” I laughed. “Why there? I heard the Seagull is so much better.”
Blondie blanched and pulled on his tank top, the same one he always wore because it showed off his muscles. “Because the Seagull isn’t a biker bar.”
“Biker bar?” A car honked behind us when I didn’t move, still gawking at my dumb friend. “Why the hell are we going to a biker bar?”
“Nothing sexier than a woman in leather,” Blondie said, as if we were having a normal conversation, which we weren’t. “Find the gas, babe, and hit it.”
A few minutes of silence passed as we drove off base, heading toward the water. “So, leather, huh?” I asked curiously. I’d always pegged him as the type to fall for someone a bit more like Little Bo Peep than Joan Jett.
Blondie turned up the radio, blasting an old heavy metal tune, moving his head like he was in a classic rock band. “Nothing sexier.”
“You’re a freak.” I laughed, tapping my thumb against the steering wheel, following the beat of the music. “I think that’s why we’re friends.”
“We were meant to be together.”
I glanced at him, curling my lip. “Not happening.”
“I know. I know.” He lifted his hands. “I mean we were meant to be friends, Mak. You’re a freak like me. You hide it so much better, but I could see it the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“You have freak-dar.”
He nodded, studying my profile as I drove. “Why do you hide it, anyway?”
“You met my parents at graduation, Blondie. Enough said, no?”
“They seemed really sweet.”
“Sweet? Are you serious?”
“They were sweet. And how would I know otherwise? You barely talk about them. Your mom looks like she’s a runway model, and your dad looked like he was a badass at some point.”
I laughed louder. “When they come visit, I want you to recite that statement in front of him.”
“I may be blond, but I’m not stupid. And he may be old, but he could probably still beat my ass to a pulp.”
“With one arm tied behind his back.”
“So, tell me, what’s their story?” he asked, angling his body so he was facing me and turning down the volume on the radio.