In the Likely Event(75)

“They must have cost you a fortune.” She looked at the diamond stud earrings I’d ordered from the store with the blue boxes. “Can you hold it?” She handed the box back.

I nodded and took the box while she changed out the earrings she was already wearing, putting the current ones in the box. “I can carry it,” I told her, and put the box back in my pocket.

“How do they look?” She turned her head, letting the sun catch the stones.

“Not as beautiful as you are, but they’ll do.” I took out my phone and turned on the camera app, flipping it to selfie mode so she could see how gorgeous she was.

“Take a picture with me.” She tugged on my arm, and I went, snapping a quick series of selfies and kissing her cheek on the last one. “They’re amazing. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” I kissed her forehead and let her go. If she was fresh off a breakup, the last thing she’d want or need was me pawing on her.

“I was thinking Palau.” She turned, walking backward to face me, her smile brighter than the sun.

“Palau?” Damn, she was gorgeous.

“For next year.”

“Right.” I swallowed through the growing tightness in my throat. “And maybe Peru the year after that. We could hike up to Machu Picchu.” If I could get leave. If we weren’t on deployment. If we weren’t headed for assessment for Delta.

“That sounds like fun.” She held out her hand, and I took it. “I’ll have to ask for time off, though. Going in October would give me more than a year at my new firm—assuming I pass the bar. I’m sitting for it soon. Hard to believe I’m finally out of school.”

“You’ve done great.”

We walked in silence for a few moments. “So I have a few interviews lined up at some really great firms. At least the ones that will talk to me before the bar.”

“Tell me about them.” I could’ve listened to her talk forever.

“One is in Boston, and there’s one in New York I like and another that I really, really like.” She looked up at me beneath her lashes, and her cheeks flushed. “Two in Seattle, and one in Tacoma. They all have reciprocity, so as long as I pass the bar in DC, I should be good.”

I blinked, pausing, then turning toward her. “Tacoma and Seattle.”

She nodded, and her breath caught as she searched my eyes for an answer I didn’t have to give her. “I was thinking, which is always dangerous, but I can’t seem to stop myself, which is why I broke up with Luke—”

Luke. Didn’t know him and already fucking loathed him.

“Not just because of this trip, but because we’ve been dancing around each other for years, Nate. Years. And we keep saying that the time isn’t right, and that we owe ourselves a real, true shot and not some half-assed long-distance tragedy, right?” She moved toward me, gripping my biceps. “I’m realizing that it doesn’t matter who I date. They’re all just placeholders because I’m waiting for you. Waiting for us.”

“Izzy.” I cradled the side of her face, soaking in every single word and rejecting them at the same time.

“I’ve graduated now, Nate. I can go anywhere. Do anything. You could get out if you wanted to.” Her grip tightened, and the intensity in her eyes, her tone, made my heart clench. “We could be together. Not just send emails and letters and highlighted books, but actually be together. We could wake up next to each other if we wanted to, or even just date. I can move to Tacoma if you want me to—”

“I won’t be in Tacoma,” I said softly.

“What?” Her brow knit.

“I can’t get out, and I won’t be in Tacoma.” I slid my thumb over the high rise of her cheekbone, relishing how soft her skin was. “I’ll be at Fort Bragg.”

“Fort Bragg?”

“North Carolina.” I nodded slowly, like it might soften the blow. “I haven’t told you where I’ve been the last few months. Why my emails weren’t as frequent.”

“I figured you were deployed.” She drew back.

“No. I was at selection. It’s like . . .” How the hell did I describe it? “Tryouts for Special Forces.”

“You went with Torres,” she said. “That’s what he always wanted to do, right?”

“Right.” I always knew she read my letters, but damn did she pay attention too. “Four of us went. Rowell—he’s my other best friend—”

“Justin and Julian. I remember.”

“Pierson too. We all made it.”

“Of course you made it.” She forced a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes as she stepped back, out of my reach. “You’re not getting out. You’re getting in deeper.”

I nodded again, like I was a plastic bobblehead. “Yeah. It’ll be about a year of training, and then . . .” The words wouldn’t come. “And then we’ll see where I go after that.”

“Then we’ll see.” She tugged her hair behind her ears, and the ocean breeze blew the strands loose again.

“I highly doubt they have the kinds of law firms you’re looking at in Fayetteville.” I shoved my hands into my pockets. “You’re probably interviewing at all the glitzy firms, right? The high-paying, high-rise, high-clout ones.”