Terms of Surrender Page 3

  Sexy and prim, forward and flustered, unsure and determined. All in all, she was a contradictory puzzle—the most interesting one to cross his path in a very long time.

  Right now, the only word to describe her was confused. The woman was staring at him, her eyes only slightly rounder than her mouth. It was as if he’d said something incomprehensible.

  “Towed?”

  He nodded, wondering if he should rethink that smart idea. She seemed to have trouble following a simple conversation. “Yeah. Towed. And then they ransom your car back to you for a ridiculous amount of money. They do it all the time. I think that’s how they’re going to fund the next generation of battleships.”

  Her mouth snapped shut, her bottom lip disappearing between her teeth for a second. She raised her hand to her face, covering her mouth. Then a sound emerged. A chuckle. Followed by another one. Her eyes sparkled with amusement and she slowly shook her head back and forth.

  Danny’s own smile widened. They’d apparently been crossing signals and he trusted she’d soon let him in on the joke. He felt even more sure of that when she dropped her hand and her chuckles turned into snorts of laughter.

  “I’m such an idiot.”

  “You gonna tell me what we were really talking about?”

  “Not on your life.”

  Ooh. Interesting. Very interesting. He quickly ran over their conversation in his mind, trying to find anything outrageous, but for the life of him, he just couldn’t do it. He’d asked if she wanted to make a good impression and pointed out the window, she’d admitted she was in a hurry, he’d suggested she take a minute to move her car. What could be more innocent?

  Except, the dirty part. But, she couldn’t have thought he meant…no. This teacher-type wouldn’t mentally go there.

  Her eyes were now damp with what looked like tears of laughter. Her expression had gone from amused to embarrassed.

  Okay. Maybe she had gone there.

  “Did you think I was propositioning you? That I wanted to get you in your car to…”

  Looking almost sheepish, she slowly nodded.

  “Wow,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “I’ve been told I sometimes move a little fast. But believe me, I do not usually meet a woman, and, five minutes later, tell her she oughta do me in the backseat of her car.”

  Another grin. “Your mom definitely wouldn’t think you were gentlemanly if you did that.”

  “My dad would be the one who’d whack me one if I ever did such a thing. And my baby sister would kick my ass.”

  Her chuckles finally died, though her smile remained. That smile made her look younger, softer. Made her blue eyes gleam in the bright sunlight. Her tension had eased somewhat, so that she didn’t appear as rigid, and a few years had fallen off her face without that frown and pointy chin-lift thing.

  “I’d love to stay and apologize for casting aspersions on your character. But I do need to get to my interview.”

  He nodded. “I understand. Just move your car. Fast.”

  “Done.” She turned to walk back to her car, pausing once to glance back at him. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” Then, a spontaneous urge made him add, “Maybe I’ll see you when you’re finished.”

  She stopped and turned around, looking…interested.

  Interesting.

  “You’ll be working all afternoon?”

  He gestured toward the shop. “Lately it seems like I never get out of here. Some of these officers can man a billion-dollar nuclear submarine but don’t know how to drain the transmission fluid out of a Chevy.”

  She nodded once, slowly. “Okay then. Maybe I’ll see you.”

  If he had his way, she most definitely would. In fact, he might just have to make sure of it. Though it didn’t need it, maybe he’d pop the hood on his much-babied ’67 Impala and give her another oil change. A lengthy one.

  He wanted to see this woman again. He didn’t know her name—God, how could he not have gotten her name?—but he definitely wanted to learn it.

  As she got in the car, he almost yelled to ask what he should call her if they happened to bump into each other again. But it seemed a little too pushy. If he was meant to know it, he’d know it. If he was meant to see her again, he’d see her again…oil change or no oil change.

  Danny was a big believer in fate. That John Cusack movie, Serendipity, was a major chick flick and he’d pretended to gag his way through it when his sister had made him watch it once. But deep down, he kind of liked the idea.

  He wasn’t a very spiritual guy, but he did believe in things like karma and putting out good thoughts and getting them back in return. What goes around, comes around, that kind of stuff. Call it fate, or destiny, whatever.

  Things happened for a reason. People came in and out of your life because they were meant to. And if the beautiful blonde was meant to come back into his, she would.

  He stood by the motor pool, watching as she got into her little sedan, prepared to wave as she drove by. But a minute went by, and then another, and she didn’t move.

  It appeared she wasn’t leaving his life quite as quickly as he’d thought.

  Her door opened. One beautiful leg appeared, then she stepped out and turned to face him.

  “My car won’t start.”

  Danny lifted his eyes toward the sky and smiled.

  Serendipity.

  2

  Saturday, 5/7/11, 02:40 p.m.

  www.mad-mari.com/2011/05/07/quickone

  Just checking in between interviews on my phone. I was so busy last night getting ready for 2day that I forgot to put up my usual “Saturday Sinners” post.

  Newbies—every Sat I talk about somebody who has been very bad this week. Last Sat was about that jerk whose wife found a YouTube vid of him marrying another woman…without getting a divorce first. “Sunday Saints” is about someone very good.

  I guess I’m the sinner today ‘cause I forgot to blog.;-)

  Anyway, how about you guys take the floor? Say h’lo to each other. I’ll check in when I get home. L8er—

  Mari

  MARISSA WAS HALFWAY THROUGH her meeting with a woman from Human Resources, feeling confident she’d rocked the interview with the Deputy to the Commandant, when she remembered her underpants.

  Oh, not that she wasn’t wearing them. That was impossible to forget. She’d picked a hell of a first time to go commando.

  No, she didn’t have to worry about panty lines, but there were definitely other distractions. Like getting used to, uh, everything being exposed to any random updraft.

  So, no, she hadn’t forgotten for one minute that she was pantyless beneath her skirt. But she had forgotten—however briefly—what she’d done with those panties. When the woman interviewing her made a comment about a white-glove ceremony, it popped into her mind that she’d left her silky black undergarment, along with her pantyhose, in her car’s glove box.

  And an adorably sexy, very nice mechanic was right now working on her car, having insisted he didn’t mind trying to find out what was wrong with it while she was at her interview.

  And in order to check out what was wrong with the car, he might need to get the owner’s manual.

  And while reaching into that glove box for that manual, he might just grab a fistful of recently worn lingerie.

  Oh, God.

  Under normal circumstances, a superhot, sexy dude touching her underwear might give her a little thrill. Normal circumstances being if said underwear happened to be on her person at the time.

  But superhot, sexy dude finding them balled up in her car, and wondering what the hell kind of psycho takes off her underwear right before an important job interview?

  Uh, yeah. Not so much.

  “You are so screwed,” she muttered with a groan.

  “I’m sorry, what did you say?” asked the woman.

  Things just go from bad to worse.

  Fortunately, her interviewer was distracted, flipping through a file
, and had barely glanced up. Yanking her thoughts together, Marissa stammered, “Uh, you’re so…shrewd. I mean, the way you have everything organized.” Forcing a laugh, she added, “My home office is a mess, I can never find anything.”

  “I see.”

  The woman offered her a tight smile. It could have been genuine, or it could have been her way of humoring Mari while she figured out a way to make sure the crazy blonde who talked to herself in the middle of a meeting didn’t get hired. The woman probably already disliked her because she had to work on a Saturday, the Deputy to the Commandant being too busy with end-of-the-year activities to schedule a weekday interview.

  Sighing deeply, Mari said, “Forgive me, I’m a little nervous. I’m mumbling.”

  The woman’s face softened. “It’s okay.” Lowering her voice and leaning closer, she added, “And don’t worry—you’re not screwed. In fact, I think you did very well.”

  Oh, Lord. Definitely bad to worse. “I’m so sorry!”

  “Don’t worry about it. Believe me, I work around a bunch of sailors all the time. The language can be…salty.”

  The ice broken, they spent the next half hour talking about the job, which Marissa wanted more than ever. At first, it had just been about employment—getting paid to do something other than peddling overpriced shoes at a Harbor Place boutique so she could pay the bills. Now that she’d come here and learned more about the guest lecturer position—what she’d be doing, who she’d be talking to, why she was needed—she knew she wanted it. Badly.

  As someone who’d had to play mom for her younger siblings from the age of fourteen, Marissa knew she was good with teens and young adults. She could relate to them—maybe because she’d still been a kid herself when she’d been thrust into such an adult role.

  She could manage both mindsets. Could dish with her eighteen-year-old sister about some hot guy she’d met in Bio 101, but also put on the cautionary Mom hat and remind her that college was about learning, not about guys.

  She could support her twenty-one-year-old brother when he decided to go to art school rather than finish college, and also worry about how he was going to support himself drawing comic books.

  And as for her twenty-six-year-old brother, well, hers would be the shoulder he would lean on when he finally decided to come out to their incredibly old-fashioned, rigid father…who so wasn’t equipped to deal with having a gay son.

  Yes, she was definitely part old soul, part young adult, and had been for fifteen years. So she had the right background to deal with college kids.

  Plus, she’d grown up in the military. She’d been a victim of one of its most common negative side effects—spouses unable to deal with it, families wrecked because of it. Kids raised by distant, rigid, militaristic parents. She knew what happened to the children of weak mothers who couldn’t cope and cheating fathers who couldn’t love.

  “The Deputy to the Commandant told you why some midshipmen will be returning here before the official start of the summer semester?” asked the interviewer.

  Mari nodded. “He said they are faced with washing out.”

  “Yes. Some should, either for academic reasons or lack of seriousness about their decision to attend.”

  “I’m sure there are some who apply for the wrong reasons.”

  “Exactly. Others, though, might succeed, but they’re unsure about whether they can live a military life, or have unrealistic expectations about what that life entails.”

  “Hence the need for a reality check.”

  “Exactly.”

  Bringing in guests to talk to these young men and women on their own terms, about real-life issues they faced—outside the day-to-day of the military—seemed like a very good idea. One guest speaker was an accountant who would be showing them what their financial futures might look like. Another was a diplomat who’d be talking about the big world picture.

  And if she got the job, Mari—Dr. Marissa Marshall, who wrote a dissertation on the effect of the military on relationships and families—would be discussing their personal lives. Dating, marriage, children. Confusion over gender roles and the trouble sexism can bring into a household. The costs, the sacrifices, the potential pitfalls.

  It made sense. A lot of sense. She only hoped the deputy agreed she was the right person for the job, and that he wasn’t too worried about her age, which he’d mentioned a couple of times during their meeting.

  After a few more minutes of conversation, Marissa finished in Personnel and headed out of the building, toward the parking lot. Her thoughts were in a jumble. Images of a good job—doing good things for students in need of support—mixed with the picture of a stranger with her underwear in his hand.

  His big, strong, powerful hand. Hmm.

  But when she arrived at the parking lot, seeing the empty spot where her car had been parked, she began to imagine another scenario. Her, on the phone, reporting her car stolen.

  Because it wasn’t in the parking lot.

  God, had she really been so flustered, so worried about the time and her stupid freaking underwear, that she’d handed over her keys to a complete stranger? Where on earth was the smart, sensible Marissa, or even the suspicions, skeptical Mari?

  “Hey, there, how’d it go?”

  Relief washed over her as she heard a voice calling from the open bay of the garage building. The handsome Midas man emerged from the shadowy interior, still dressed in his mechanic’s coveralls.

  “Pretty well,” she admitted, approaching him slowly. Then, not about to ask if he’d looked in the glove box, she added, “I guess you were able to get my car started?”

  He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing into the shadowy recesses of the garage. “Jumped it and drove it in here so I could work on it. Not a big deal, your battery was dead as a doornail. I ran out and picked one up and popped it in.”

  Eyes widening, she replied, “Seriously?”

  “Yep. I also changed the oil while I was at it.” He shook his head in disapproval. “Speaking of which, you do know motor oil’s supposed to be a liquid, right? The stuff that came outta there was the color and the consistency of tar. When’s the last time you had it changed?”

  She’d been meaning to do that for a good year. Or two.

  “I guess I forgot. Sorry.”

  “Don’t tell me, tell her.”

  She lifted a confused brow. “Her?”

  He gestured toward her car again. “She’ll get even with you if you neglect her. Why do you think she was rattling like a bag of bones?”

  He sounded like he was talking about a loved one. “I take it you like cars.”

  “They do call me the Midas man,” he said, tapping the letters stitched on his chest.

  “Yeah, I noticed.”

  “But to answer your question, I sort of like cars. Maybe about as much as Winnie-the-Pooh likes honey.”

  The very idea of this big, rugged man knowing who Winnie-the-Pooh was made her chuckle. And the fact that he’d actually admitted it? Even more noteworthy. Most guys would be too worried about being considered wusses to dare say such a thing.

  “Fortunately, cars can be obtained without having to climb trees or fight off bees,” she countered.

  “What’s the matter,” he asked with a grin, “your grocery store doesn’t carry Sue-Bee?”

  She chuckled again, liking him more with every passing minute. She liked his wit, liked his smile. Adored those dimples. “So, how much do I owe you?” she asked, shaking off the mental lapse into la-la-lust land.

  “Not much,” he told her, naming a figure.

  He was right. It wasn’t much. In fact, it sounded far too low for an auto repair. “Wait, that’s just for the parts. What about the labor charges?”

  He waved a hand. “It was a twenty-minute job. Piece of cake.”

  “I couldn’t…”

  “Sure you could. Let’s call it Be Kind To Others Day.”

  What a nice sentiment, especially coming from such a stro
ng, young man. He had surprised her again, revealing a depth of warmth and kindness she didn’t usually encounter in men she met. It seemed out-of-place with his raw, masculine good looks and his career.

  “The next time you have the chance to do a simple, twenty-minute favor to help out a stranger, go for it and think of me,” he added.

  Uh, interesting way to put it. Going for it while thinking of him…that might not be very difficult. But there they were again, back to quibbling about those its.

  She could do as he asked—pay it forward—and she would. But she had another idea, too. She cast a quick look at the ring finger on his left hand, not seeing a band of gold. Though a mechanic might take a wedding ring off when working, she didn’t see any distinctive tan line, either. So she hoped she was right in deducing he wasn’t married. Whether he was unattached, she couldn’t know. But it was worth finding out.

  Mari hadn’t been out with a man in a long time. It had been even longer since she’d actually been the one to ask for a date.

  It’s not a date. It’s a thank-you.

  Right. It was the least she could do. What anyone would do.

  Would you do it if he was seventy, with a long, greasy gray ponytail, a hairy back and tattoos?

  She told that little voice in her head to shut the hell up, then took a deep breath. Hoping she hadn’t misread interest when he was just being a nice guy who treated every woman like she was something special, she said, “You’ve got a deal. But can I also buy you a late lunch or an early dinner as a thank-you?”

  She held herself rigid, waiting for his answer.

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  Not exactly a refusal. But not a yes, either.

  “Here’s another idea,” he said. “How about you spring for a couple of burgers and come with me to the marina? We can take my boat out and watch the sunset over the water.”