Soft Place to Fall (Navy Book 4)

Chapter 7

The dance hall was packed, and Will had placed his hand on her back to keep track of her in the crowd. It took them a few minutes to find a place to sit, but eventually a small table opened up and they grabbed it before it had even been cleaned.

Carmen remembered the place from the last time she had visited the Stevens's ranch. It was where Rainer and Caleb had taken her and Kelly, a fellow Landau girl. It had been a different experience that night, it hadn't been nearly as low key as this, and she found herself enjoying being able to blend into the crowd.

"You sure you don't want to dance?" Will asked as he leaned back in his chair watching her and her tapping foot.

"I'm sure, besides our table might be stolen from us if we leave it." She had to raise her voice to be heard over the music.

"You're probably right about that, what would you like to drink?" he asked as a harassed waitress approached them.

"A beer is fine." She waved the question away in a manner that told Will to order whatever he thought was best.

She watched as he smiled at the waitress and the woman's entire demeanor changed. Will flirted outrageously with her as she took their order and she was eating it up. Carmen noted that she gave Carmen the once over before she left. It was obvious that she didn't see Carmen as competition and Carmen didn't know how to feel about that, it was a new experience for her.

"You laid it on a little thick, didn't you? Do you flirt with every waitress you meet?" Carmen leaned forward so that Will could hear her. He followed her lead and leaned in too, causing his face to be inches from hers.

"I like waitresses, I've known some wonderful ones in my time, and I was just being friendly. She looked as if she was having a hard night and a few kind words can make all the difference, besides it will get us better service in the end."

Carmen felt as if he had just accused her of thinking badly of the waitressing profession and she defended herself without thinking. "I've nothing against waitresses, as your tone implies. I was one for years." Carmen could have kicked herself as soon as she said it. Why did he manage to make her so sensitive about things? Who cares if he thought she thought badly of waitresses.

"You were? Tell me all about yourself. Tell me something not many people know." He looked eager as he watched her face intently. He had such a way of making a girl think she was the only one that mattered.

"I used to be a waitress." She leaned back in her chair to get out of his space. His closeness was getting a little too intense for her.

"Come on, just one more thing."

"You first, what do you do at the ranch?"

He leaned back with a smile for the waitress as she delivered their drinks.

"I train horses."

Carmen tilted her head looking at him. "You train horses, what does that mean?"

"I teach horses how to take a rider."

"You break horses," she clarified, and she was floored by the sudden change in him.

His smiled faded, his jaw grew hard, and his eyes narrowed. "I train horses, horses should not be broken, no living creature should ever be broken."

He had said the last part so softly that she had thought she had misheard him, but as his ridged face turned to watch the dancers while he tried to regain control, she knew she had heard him correctly. That was two nerves she had hit; his carefully practiced charm and breaking horses. She was starting to get the feeling that he had some major hang-ups, and she had tried to save enough tortured men in her life, she didn't need to try to save another one.

"I have a doctorate in Philosophy." She didn't know why she revealed it, but she hated seeing his stern expression. It was Will being real, but it was a scary real. There was a deep hurt there.

She watched as his face relaxed and his smile eventually returned as he turned back to her. The smile was back on his lips but not in his eyes.

"Dr. Morales, beauty and brains. I like it!" He raised his beer to her before taking a sip.

She shook her head, but she couldn't help the small smile that touched her lips. He really did have a line for everything.

*******

Will raised his beer to her, glad that her little reveal had pulled him back from the edge. What she had said touched a nerve on multiple levels. When he had signed up for the military they had done their best to break him. Becoming a SEAL was all about being broken down and built back up again, stronger, smarter, and surer, and along with that came a respect in one's self at having survived the process. But he had never really been broken, he had just learned to play the game.

Some faceless men in a hell hole had tried to break him too, but he had resisted and survived, only he wasn't stronger for it. He was weaker and he hated himself because of that weakness.

But when he looked at Carmen he forgot all about it. She brought him back to the present with her little smile at his comment. She had a beautiful smile. He let his gaze wander to her lips and he watched as she licked them in an age-old invitation that he doubted she realized she was issuing.

"I'm hungry, how about you?" he asked, reaching for a menu in the stand on the side of the table in order to distract himself from her lips.

"Sure." She looked over at the dancers, leaving the ordering to him once again.

"You sure you don't want to dance?"

"Yep."

He shrugged as if to say it was her loss as his gaze wandered to the man standing on the edge of the crowd. He was standing in the opening of the hallway leading to the restrooms, watching them.

Carmen's phone rang and she pulled it from her pocket, frowning as she saw who was calling her. She answered it, putting the phone to her ear, and Will listened to her one-sided phone conversation.

"I'm out Adrianna...yes, I'm sure it's safe...no, there's been no other contact...no, I'm not worried...I think he's finished bugging me...sure...uh-hu...O.K... I'll talk to you later." She hung up the phone with another frown. Will had noticed that she had forced a smile while she had been talking to the person on the other end.

"Sorry, it was my mother, she worries." She offered by way of explanation.

Will had found the conversation fascinating, he had found Carmen's unease perplexing. "You call your mother Adrianna?"

"She's not very motherly." Carmen's lips pinched shut as soon as she said the words. "What's for dinner?"

That raised so many more questions that Will knew she would never answer, at least not at a dance hall. He would have to find a way to force her trust him, and he thought he had the perfect way to do it, but first he had to get Josh to agree.