Valentine from a Soldier (2 page)

I sighed.  Even though I hated that nickname and always went by
Sarah
,
Morgan
was the only one who could get away with calling me that.

“Been stood up?” the guy next to me asked.

“As a matter of fact, I’m the one standing someone up.
”

He raised his eyebrows, probably wondering
why
I was
sitting here talking to him when I obviously had other plans.

“
My best friend
,” I explained, trying not to stare as m
y eyes
traveled
over his features—full lips, strong jaw.  Yes, this guy was attractive and certainly knew it.

“What, did you two get in a fight or something?”
he asked, taking a swig of his beer.

“No,” I said with a laugh.  “
I
just
shouldn’t even be here right now.”

“So what are you doing sitting by yourself at a bar?  Go
grab
a cab a
nd
meet her.”

Yeah, he definitely couldn’t be hitting on me if he was
already
encouraging me to leave.  Maybe he really wasn’t looking to meet anyone either. 
“It’d be a
long ride to Chicago
,
”
I said wistfully.

He laughed,
catching on that there was more to the story.
 
“That does complicate things,” he mused, a
friendly
smile finally reaching his blue eyes.  I liked
seeing
the twinkle in them
and wondered what his
story
was.
  If he wasn’t here to hit on women, th
e
n what was he doing at a popular touristy bar?  Certainly the locals had their own hangouts that didn’t involve hotels
filled with vacationers
.
  Was he just traveling around by himself?
  He looked like he was in the military with his short haircut and chiseled physique.  Maybe he was on leave or
something, just passing through.

He was still gazing at me with those baby blues, so I finally replied. 
“
Yeah, it’s kind of ruining my evening.”

“I can see how that would be a problem,” he agreed. 
“Snowstorm, right?”

“So you’ve been watching the news.”

“Afraid so.”

Thankfully he was about as chatty as I felt right now—not peppering me with questions or awful one-liners, just making casual
conversation
.  I liked that about him—he seemed in no hurry
to get to know me better
,
like it didn’t
matter to him
if he we talked or not
. 
I could probably ask him to leave me alone and he’d be more than happy to sit there nursing his beer without so much as another word
.

I suddenly wanted to get to know him though. 
A guy who’s
mysterious, tall, dark, and handsome does that to a girl. 
“
A
re
you
here
on v
acation?
” I asked.
“
I assume if you lived in San Francisco, you wouldn’t be hanging around in this tourist trap.
”

He smiled and glanced over at me again
.
 
“I’m on leave,” he replied.

“Oh,
like military leave?  A
re you in the Marines or something?”

“Special Forces.”

I nodded, realizing he wasn’t really willing to give me any more information.  Maybe he was just on vacation and needed a break as much as I did.
 
Here I didn’t want to be bothered and n
ow I was the one asking all the annoying questions.
  I took a si
p of my wine and looked around.  T
he group of women
to my left
was growing louder and louder, but
as I tried to focus on them, I could feel Ryan’s eyes on me
.

“How about you?
” he asked.
 
“
You seem awfully dressed up for an
evening with your best friend.”

“Oh,” I said,
looking back over at him
. 
“Bachelorette party.”
  I gestured to my dress as if
it were something only worn for that type of occasion
.

“Yours?” he asked, glancing down at my
left
hand.

“No,” I s
aid, laughing again. 
“My best friend’s.
  She’s getting married next weekend.”

“Valentine’s Day,” he said knowingly.

“Yep.
  I’m
the maid of honor and
her wedding planner
—that’s just a one-time gig though
.”

“You’re a good friend.
  My sister went crazy planning her wedding; I don’t know how you women do it.”

“I think that’s why Morgan put me in charge,” I said with a grin.  “She didn’t want to deal with all the stress of it either.”

“Are you bringing a date?”

“To the wedding?”
I asked, puzzled.

“Yeah.”

“Is that a roundabout way of asking if I have a boyfriend?”

“Maybe,” he said with a sheepish grin.
 
As I looked over at him again I couldn’t help
but think
that if I was looking to meet someone tonight, he was just my type.  And f
or someone who
claimed he
wasn’t
even
hitting on me
,
he was
certainly
making my heart pitter-patter an awful lot.

“No
pe, no boyfriend,
”
I
answered
, and it looked like he relaxed somewhat.

“Of course not
,
”
he teased.

Now I raised my eyebrows at him, waiting for an explanation.

“
It just figures that
now that I’ve sworn off women forever, the perfect woman shows up.”

“
Now that was a cheesy pick
-
up line
,” I protested.  “Besides, I was here first.  You’re the one who showed up.”

“I’m kind of glad that I did,” he said, eyeing me again with that smoldering gaze.

“Just kind of glad,” I mused.

“Well, I don’t want to come on too strong.”

I
smiled
, thinking how easy this guy was to talk to.  I didn’t even know his name; maybe that’s what made our entire conversation
feel
so effortless
.  I could pick up and leave
right now, a warm feeling inside of me thanks to his flattering attention, and not have risked a thing. 
We’d had a few laughs, exchanged a few glances. 
The safest thing to do would be to go on my way and ignore that pounding feeling in my
chest
each time I looked at him. 
I didn’t want to leave though, despite my earlier hopes to sneak in and out without having to talk to anyone. 
I’d come down for a drink
expecting a lot of things, but certainly not him.

“I’m
Sarah
Cooper
,” I said, holding
out my hand.

“
Ryan
Bradley
,” he replied, his muscular hand enveloping mine. 
A warmth
surged through me at his touch, and I didn’t want him to let go.  In fact as soon as he did, I was imagining him touching me a
gain—maybe
accidently brushing up against me as he leaned closer, or reaching out and affectionately caressing my arm.  Or better yet, wrapping those muscular arms
right
around me, which certainly wasn’t about to happen, but a girl can dream, right?

“So you still didn’t tell me what you were doing in San Francisco,” I hinted, hoping to get him to open up a little more.

“I
was in California a few years
ago
,” he said with a shrug.  “I’d planned to come back, so here I am.”
 
He took a swig of his beer, and I sensed there was more to the story.  He didn’t seem to want to share though, and I didn’t see any need to press the issue.  I swirled the remaining wine
around
in my glass, and he glanced
down
at it.  “Can I buy you another drink?”

“Sure, why not?” I agreed.  I never let men I didn’t know buy me drinks, but despite my being undeniably attracted to him, he felt more like a friend or proper date than a stranger I’d run into at a bar.  He wasn’t leering at me or making suggestive come-ons.  We were having an actual conversation.

“
Another
glass of wine?”

“Yes, thanks.”  He gestured to the bartender, who came over to refill my glass
and bring him a second beer
.  My phone beeped, and I glanced down at the screen, seeing a picture of my friends
perched on barstools at the beginning of their
big night
out.
 
It looked like the snowstorm hadn’t put a dent in their plans. 
They were all
wearing
skimpy
cocktail dresses with huge smiles on their faces and drinks in
their
hand
s
.  Morgan had a little
veil and tiara
atop her head, with the words “Bride to
Be
!”
jumping out
in
glittery
hot pink letters. 
I’d found it at a party shop near my apartment back in Chicago and
knew she’d enjoy being the center of attention for one evening. 
I showed the picture to
Ryan
, and he grinned.

“Yep, you’re definitely the prettiest
of
the bunch.”

I shook my head and smiled.  “Flattery won’t get you anywhere.”

“I’m not hitting on you, remember?”

“Right,” I said, with a knowing look.

“So you planned this big bachelorette party
for tonight
, but you’re stuck here in California. 
I’m guessing you’re not on vacation. 
Were you here on business or something?”

“Actually, yes.
  I’m a conference planner,
and
I was here all week for the big conference going on
at the hotel
.”

“
Right
, I saw a bunch of medical types wandering around
a few days ago
.  Was it a medical convention or something?”

“Yep.
  It ended this morning, so I thought I’d have plenty of time to get home.  I wasn’t taking into account Mother Nature when I booked my flight months ago though.  It sucks, but I’d rather miss this than the actual wedding.”

“That’s a good way of look
ing
at it,” he said thoughtfully.

“So you said you’re
in the military
.  Where are you stationed?”

“I’m back stateside now.  I just returned from my third tour in Iraq, so I’m spending my R&R traveling up and down the west coast.”

I nodded, thinking it was a little strange
that
he wanted to vacation alone.  Didn’t he have friends or family to spend time with? 
A girlfriend?
  Okay, he
probably didn’t
have a girlfriend
judging
from the way he’d been looking at me, but if I’d been stationed overseas, I couldn’t imagine wanting to go anywhere but home.
  Or if I was going to travel, I’d at least bring some of my girlfriends along with me.

“So what about you?” he asked.  “You must travel a lot for work.”

“All the time,” I agreed.  “I think I’d get bored being stuck in an office all day.  I mean, I do spend my fair share of time at a desk organizing all the details
for the events that I plan
, but seeing new places is one of the reasons I love my job so much.
  It’s definitely more fun when a conference I’m running is somewhere other than Chicago.
”

“I know what you mean.  I’ve moved around a lot being in the military and all.  It suits me though,” he said with an easy shrug.

I finished my second glass of wine and decided to quit while I was ahead.  We’d had a nice chat, but I should probably just head back up to my room
and let each
of us
go
our separate way
. 
Maybe I
’
d call my friends
,
and they could put me on speakerphone so I could pretend I was there with them. 
I at least wanted to find out what Morgan thought of all the
activitie
s I’d arranged for the evening: drinks at a swanky bar, dinner at a top-rated restaurant on the other side of town, and then dancing at one of our favorite clubs. 
I’d arranged for a limo service so we didn’t need to worry about finding cabs after each stop, and I imagined my friends laughing and giggling, sipping champagne, as they went from one venue to the next.  We didn’t usually have a big night out like that, so I’d wanted to pull all the stops for
Morgan’s
last night
out
as a single girl.