“My dad used to take me and my brothers fishing out on the Sound with an old army buddy of his. That was back when we were still in high school. Since the three of us enlisted in the military, we’ve rarely been in the same hemisphere much less the same time zone.”
As he continued to stare out the window, she took the opportunity to study the man sitting across from her. It was easy to picture Tino in a uniform. Something about those broad shoulders and the way he carried himself, not to mention the way his eyes periodically scanned their surroundings as if watching for something. She found herself wanting to glance back over her shoulder to see what was there. What was he expecting to see?
“Were you all in the army?”
“Dad was in for twenty years, and my older brother, Jack, was in Special Forces until he screwed up his knee on his last mission. Our younger brother is a marine.”
He shook his head in what was obviously mock disgust. “I don’t know what he was thinking by enlisting in the Marine Corps, but we’ve forgiven him—well, almost. Jack is of the opinion that the idiot didn’t read the sign on the door and walked through the wrong one. No doubt those jarheads took one look at our baby brother and had him signed, sealed, and delivered before Mikhail knew what had hit him. It’s sad, really.”
She laughed. “Sounds like the three of you are really close. I’m an only child. Being the sole focus of both my parents’ attention made it hard to get away with anything. It must have been a blessing to have a pair of brothers to take some of the heat.”
“Yeah, it was. They’re both a royal pain in the ass, for sure, but I wouldn’t trade my brothers for anything. Just don’t tell them that. I’d never hear the end of it.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
Their appetizer arrived, which changed the focus of their conversation from family to food, a much safer topic as far as she was concerned.
“So while you were stationed overseas, did you find a particular cuisine that you especially liked?”
“You mean besides what they served in the mess? I was especially fond of a couple of the MREs they gave us when we were out on patrol. You’ve probably heard about those. They’re the meals served in a foil pouch. As it turns out, blowing dust and sand added just the right touch of spice to packaged beef stew.”
She stared down at the crab cake and set her fork back down. “Okay, now I’m feeling guilty about eating this.”
The faint laugh lines around Tino’s eyes deepened. “Sorry, don’t let my rotten sense of humor ruin a good dinner for you. Besides, I’m just jerking your chain a bit. Some of the MREs really are pretty good, and army cooks do a heck of a job even under tough circumstances.”
He set his own fork down. “But to answer your question for real this time, I was stationed in Italy for a short time. Every city had its own cuisine, and it was all good.”
Finally, a bit of common ground. “I love it, too! My folks took me there right after I graduated from high school. I visited a lot of interesting places, but the wonderful food is what I remember the most.”
Tino topped off his wineglass and then hers. “Do you enjoy traveling?”
“Some. I spent a semester abroad in England and liked that, but I guess I’m really more of a homebody.” She finished the last bite of her crab cake. “How about you? Did you get to see the sights when you were deployed?”
As soon as she asked the question, she wished she hadn’t. “Sorry, Tino, that was thoughtless of me. You weren’t exactly on a pleasure cruise.”
He set his plate to the side. “No need to apologize. I was in the army for close to ten years, and not all of it was in combat situations. When I was stationed in Italy, I did use some of my leave time to visit other parts of Europe. I also spent some time in Japan. When I was stationed stateside, I found it interesting to see how other folks live even here in our own country.”
She couldn’t imagine the life he’d lived, such a far cry from anything she’d ever known. “Considering your dad was in the army, you must have also bounced around a lot as a kid, too.”
“Yeah, I did.”
As he spoke, an odd look flashed across Tino’s face. It was gone too quickly for her to make sense of it, but maybe she’d only imagined it. “Did you always plan to come back to this area when you got out?”
“Pretty much. Except for my younger brother, my family is all here. And he comes home on leave whenever he can.” Tino took a long sip of his drink before continuing. “Unfortunately, my father passed away last year, which was the deciding factor on whether or not I reenlisted. I wanted to be close by for my mother’s sake. None of us wanted her to be left alone while we stayed scattered all over the world.”
Interesting. Natalie’s father took great pride in tracing his family’s history back to the Revolutionary War, but he never talked about any of his relatives with the same degree of warmth she heard in Tino’s voice when he mentioned his brothers and mother. “You’re a nice man, Tino Gianelli.”
Did ex-soldiers blush easily? Because right now his cheeks looked a bit flushed even though his olive complexion made it hard to tell for sure. “I’m glad you think so, but I’m pretty sure my brothers would both take great delight in proving you wrong on that point. They could tell you stories that would curl your hair.”
Then he gave her unruly locks a pointed look. “Wait a minute. You haven’t already been talking to them, have you?”
She’d always had a love-hate relationship with her hair, but she couldn’t remember anyone ever teasing her about it with such genuine good humor. Twirling a strand around her forefinger, she gave him a smug look. “I’ll never tell. On the other hand, maybe talking to them would have the opposite effect on me and actually straighten my hair. If I thought that would actually work, I’d be hunting down your brothers even as we speak. Where did you say they live?”
“I didn’t. Besides, I like your hair just fine the way it is.”
Normally, she would have doubted that. God knows, Benton used to hint that there had to be something she could do to tone down her curls, but the sudden spark of heat in Tino’s eyes made her think he might just mean what he said. A slow flutter of awareness danced along her nerve endings. What would it feel like to have his fingers tangle in her hair as he kissed her senseless? With luck, she might just find out before he took her home.
Whoops, she got caught lusting. Tino met her gaze head-on. “Keep looking at me like that, and we might not make it to that movie after all.”
