Page 30 of Scout Takes the Lead
“The thing is, you and Grace have a vibe together,” he said. “I think you should go after that. Even if it doesn’t work out, you’ll get some practice.”
“And maybe get my heart broken?”
He shook his head. “Take it from me, it takes more than a couple of dates to get your heart broken.”
That night when got home I still had a buzz from the raspberry beer, so I texted Grace. “Free for dinner one night?”
Then I waited. I saw the three dots on my phone showing she was typing, but nothing came through. Either she was writing War and Peace, or she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say. Join the club, I thought.
Finally the message came through. “You like Greek?” I almost laughed. That was what took so long?
I texted back. “I like the Greek place on Hollywood Boulevard. And they have outdoor tables so I can bring Scout.”
“Tomorrow at 7?” she wrote. I sent her a thumbs up. Then I grabbed my beautiful dog around the neck and kissed his head.
I slept through the night, with Scout beside me, and that meant I had to spend most of the day with my headset on, to get in my hours. I helped a lot of people navigate the complexities of their accounts, and that made the time pass enough so that I didn’t stress about meeting Grace for dinner.
I fed Scout his kibble, and he attacked it eagerly. After he finished eating, I took him for a long walk, then we met Grace at the restaurant.
She was pretty as ever, but I hardly noticed, because I was focused on her lips. I wondered what it would be like to kiss her, and I was embarrassed that I started tenting my shorts and had to sit down quickly at the table. She had the roast chicken and I had the moussaka, but that’s about all I remember from the meal.
We talked about our backgrounds and what we wanted from life, and I realized I was how I was falling in love with this woman. After dinner, we started walking, and it took me a while to realize we weren’t going toward my bungalow.
We turned a corner and Grace pulled out a set of keys. “This is my place,” she said. She let me in, and then turned and locked the door. Before I had a chance to say anything about the apartment, she turned to me and kissed me.
Her lips were soft and smooth, and I liked the way she put just enough pressure into the kiss to let me know she was serious. I kissed her back, of course, and then wrapped my arms around her.
I liked having Grace so close to me. I was scared that something would happen to trigger an attack, but at the same time I was determined to get over myself, to push forward with something that frightened me. Grace turned her head toward me. The endorphins rose in my blood stream, but in a good way. I hadn’t felt like that in a long time, and it was good.
We kissed for a while. Scout found a place on the floor where he could watch us, attentive to any threat, but I knew I was in good hands with Grace.
“We should probably get our clothes off,” Grace said, tugging at my waistband. “Don’t want to cause a wardrobe emergency.”
It must have been that word, emergency. Suddenly my brain was filled with the sound of sirens, and I was back in Afghanistan and there were incoming mortars. I wanted to run but I couldn’t abandon my team. I had to stay and fight. But where was my M-16? I looked around but couldn’t see it.
When I reached out, my hand touched something warm and furry instead of hard metal. Scout. I opened my eyes. Scout was licking my hand, and Grace was staring at me, her mouth open. “Are you okay?”
My mouth was dry and my pulse was racing. It took me a moment to answer. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out.”
“I guess emergency is one of your trigger words,” she said.
“I guess so. That kind of ruined the mood, didn’t it?”
“We could try again,” she said. “Only without words this time.”
It was close to two AM by the time were both satisfied and yawning, full of happy endorphins. “I should get home,” I said.
“You don’t have to go.”
I took a deep breath. “This was a big step for me. A good step, a great step. But I’ve learned that I can only push myself so far. It’s nothing about you, but I need to get back to familiar surroundings.”
She sat up, her ponytail loosened so that her blonde hair fell over her shoulders, and I thought I was a fool to leave, but I knew that I had to be in good mental shape to continue anything with Grace, and it was better to be safe.
Scout knew that it was time to head for home, and I followed his lead. I knew that I should be practicing the “heel” command with him, keeping him by my side instead of out in front of me, but for the moment I wanted him there, walking point.
The street that led back to my bungalow was shadowy, with only a few house lights on. Ahead of us, the road was busy and well-lit, and I hurried forward. In the distance I heard the whistle and rumble of the Florida East Coast railroad. By the time I reached the grade crossing, though, the arms were down and the red lights flashing, and the train was only a few hundred feet ahead.
The CSX rail lines ran about a mile from where I grew up in Indiana, and as a kid I’d hear that lonely whistle and daydream about hopping on a train and heading far away to have adventures. In a way, that’s probably what led me to the military—the chance to go somewhere new, become someone different.
