Forgive & Forget (Love in the Fleet) Read Free Page B

prefer my first mate in a bikini, and no offense, but you don’t have the man boobs to pull that look off.”
    “Good one, Bill. Listen, I’m proud of you, buddy. And rules are rules. ‘Rule Number Two: If either man can replace the other with a hot babe in a bikini before lines are cast off, then the first man gets the sailboat and the loser is shit out of luck.’ You won, hands down. And it’s not like I haven’t pulled that on you a time or three. So tell me about the chick.”
    “Hallie’s not a chick, Sky.”
    “They’re all chicks until proven otherwise.”
    Philip lay across his unmade bed with his arm thrown across his forehead and a stupid grin on his face. “She’s tall, athletic body, long blond hair, and these blue eyes that look at you like you’re her hero.”
    Sky sighed. “Aw, I love it when they do that. Jeez, I can’t believe I’m living vicariously through Bill Gates and his BCGs on a Saturday night. What does she do?”
    “She’s a student.”
    “Oh, my God, you’re not robbing the cradle are you? Has she reached the age of consent? Did you give her your real name?”
    “She’s twenty-four, smart ass. Goes to UNF and she’s smart. Very smart. We talked about real stuff. Not like most of the women we meet. You know, the ones who blabber on with all their friggin’ small talk? She even knows a lot about the Navy.”
    “Maybe she’s prior service.”
    “Hallie? In the military? No way. She knows a lot because she’s majoring in television broadcast. I mean, she knew details, like, about the Cole bombing. She understands the complexity of Rules of Engagement.”
    “Let me get this straight. You stood on the beach with a hot chick at sunset and instead of kissing her, you discussed Rules of Engagement? Shit, man, the only rules of engagement you should have been thinking about were the ones that might engage her in your bed. You could have had her screaming, ‘You may fire when ready, Gridley!’ What am I going to do with you, Bill? For an engineer you really are a dumb ass.”
    “No, I am the man with a sailboat and a smokin’ hot first  mate in a bikini. That’s what I am. And you are the loser who is shit out of luck tomorrow.”
    “Two points for Bill Gates!” Sky called out to no one in particular. “Okay, looks like you won this round, buddy. You want to go out for a beer later this week—if you’re not, like, married by then? We could meet halfway.”
    “If I don’t have a date. Because, as Rule Number One states: ‘An evening spent with a hot chick trumps a beer with a wingman every time.’ See ya.”
    Philip thumbed off his phone and tossed it on the bed. He felt better about the fiasco on the beach after talking with Sky. Surely he’d done the right thing by not trying to kiss Hallie—at least tonight. “Better safe than sorry” had always been his mantra. Probably why he didn’t get girls the way Sky did. But charming women was not Philip’s strength—especially beautiful, self-assured women like Hallie. And there was more to her than just being hot. How many young American women could quote the bombing of the USS Cole chapter and verse?
    He lay awake thinking about what his mom had told him for years, “Just be yourself, Philip. Be your sweet, wonderful self.” She didn’t get it that guys didn’t want to be thought of as sweet or wonderful. They wanted to be men . But when he watched his buddies in action, he realized his mom might be right, because apparently he hadn’t acquired the asshole gene.
    “Don’t worry, Philip,” she’d say. “When it’s time to settle down, the smart women will be looking for a man like you. The kind they can count on. And you’ll know when she’s The One. You’ll just know.”
    He would spend the entire night lying on his back, hands clasped behind his head, staring at nothing, thinking about Hallie, and figuring out how to keep from fucking this up.
    Chapter 2

      
    Rashid clicked send and closed his