A Midnight Clear Read Free

be able to use the skills the Naval Academy was drumming into him in the field yet, but he could use them to win this girl.
    That woke Steven up. The man loved a good campaign. “Okay. What’s the objective?”
    “To get her to go out with me.”
    “Only the one date?”
    “For now.” He’d know after one date, if she were the one meant for him, if his secret infatuation could be nurtured into something deeper, more lasting… Or if he had to let it go.
    “What’s the first rule of an engagement?”
    “Know your enemy.” Joe frowned. “But she’s not my enemy.”
    “Okay,” Steven allowed. “She’s your adversary. Or at least her indifference to you is.”
    Yeah, Joe could think of it like that. That was good. He shook a finger at Steven as he thought out loud. “I need to know what she likes.”
    “That might have been good to know before you fell for her.”
    Joe ignored Steven’s comment and the implication he was already in love with her. “I’ll need to make a careful study.”
    “You’ll spy on her?”
    “No.” That sounded awful, spying. “No. It’s recon.”
    Steven laughed softly. “Recon. That’s a good one. Whatever you need to believe.”
    “Your problem is you have no romance in your soul.”
    “Thank God. A Naval officer has no need for romance .”
    Steven was probably right. Trouble was, Joe might not have a need for romance in his soul, but it was there. And Frances Dumfries had called to it.
    It had been her nose that had started all the trouble. From the back, she’d been lovely, of course, all of her perfectly arranged. Too perfectly; there was nothing there to snare his interest. She’d turned and revealed a perfectly proportioned face as well—except for her nose. It wasn’t classic and it wasn’t noble; her nose was a dollop in her face, a tiny bit of approachability in her cool expression.
    He’d had the mad urge to nuzzle his nose against hers and his heart seemed to unfurl like a bloom and that was it—he was head over heels.
    Stupid, romantic Joe, falling into stupid, romantic love at first sight.
    And she wouldn’t even give him the time of day.
    “You’re entirely the wrong man to help me with this,” he told Steven. Best to just plan it all himself.  
    “What?” That got his roommate’s goat. “I’m exactly the right man. Let me get a pen and paper and let’s start thinking of what this girl might like.”
    “Frances.”
    “You even say her name all wondering like. You poor bastard.” Steven turned to his desk, then stopped dead at the bag covering it. “Can I…?”
    Joe gestured to his own desk, which was neat as pin and didn’t have a book bag cluttering it. “Knock yourself out. Or put your bag in its proper place. That might also help.”
    Steven didn’t take his advice, and instead grabbed paper and a pen from Joe’s desk. “Where did you first see her? What was she doing? That might give us some clues.”
    “Good thinking. It was at a social at the admiral’s house for the firsties. You were there.” Joe still couldn’t believe Steven hadn’t noticed her. She hadn’t only been one of the few women at the thing; she’d also been pretty beyond belief. “She was playing hostess.” She’d been so self-assured, as if entertaining all those midshipmen had been no more taxing than an afternoon tea with friends.
    “I remember the social. But I don’t remember you talking to her.”
    “I did.” She had a lovely voice. Once he’d gotten over his reaction to her adorable nose, they’d exchanged hello , how are you , what’s your service selection . A small conversation, but enough to have him tumbling even deeper. When she’d smiled, a warm, welcoming stretch of her mouth that was probably general, Joe had felt it so very specifically in his own overstretched heart. “She handed me a glass of lemonade, asked about my studies.”
    “And you fell for her like that?” Steven paused in his scribblings and raised an eyebrow.