The Last Santini Virgin. Maureen Child

at the man, noted the insignia on his shirtsleeve and recognized him as another Gunnery Sergeant. “Yeah?”

      The guy stuck out his right hand and said, “Thought it was you. I’m Davis Garvey.”

      “I’ve seen you around,” Nick said with a nod as he shook the man’s hand, then turned to pay the bartender for his beer. Glancing back at Davis, he asked, “You want anything?”

      “No, thanks,” he said, and waved the bartender off. “I’m on my way home. Just stopped in to look for you, actually.”

      “Now why would you do that?” Nick asked, and took another sip of his drink, wishing the guy would leave so he could get on with torturing himself for picking on Gina.

      The other man grinned and leaned one elbow on the bar. “Sort of promised my new sister-in-law I would.”

      Nick looked at the guy, trying to figure out what was going on here. As far as he knew, he hadn’t dated any women lately who had brothers-in-law stationed at Pendleton. So it couldn’t be some defending-her-honor kind of thing. And if this was leading to a “shotgun wedding” scenario, the man would just have to go ahead and shoot him. No way was Nick Paretti getting married again. The phrase “been there, done that” roared across his mind.

      “Okay,” he said after a minute or two of silence, “you have my attention. What’s up?”

      Around them conversations flowed, Marines relaxed after a long hard day, and splashes of laughter shot through the air. But Nick wasn’t paying attention to any of it. Instead, he concentrated on the man now grinning like some damned fool.

      “I hear,” Davis said, “you’ve been making Gina’s life miserable at dancing school.”

      Panic, swift and sure, shot through him.

      “Hey!” Nick spoke up quickly, then threw a fast glance at the Marines on either side of them to make sure they hadn’t been listening in. After all the trouble he’d been going to, to keep his dancing lessons a secret, he sure wasn’t about to stand there and let Davis Garvey announce it in the NCO club. Hell, the news would be all over base by morning.

      He could almost hear the teasing and ribbing he’d be getting for the rest of his life if word got out. They would be calling him Sergeant Twinkle-Toes or something else just as humiliating. For Pete’s sake, he had to get Garvey out of there.

      Wouldn’t you just know Gina would be involved in this? All of his guilty feelings melted away to be replaced by the irritation he usually felt for the woman.

      “Why don’t we go outside to talk about this?” he suggested, and took a huge swallow of beer when he’d finished talking.

      Davis’s grin broadened, and his eyes held a knowing gleam. Yep, he knew exactly why Nick was trying to get him to leave the club. “Oh, I don’t know. I’m happy right here.”

      Scowling at his fellow sergeant, Nick muttered, “Look, I’m not going to talk about it in here, all right?”

      Then he turned around, marched out of the room and down the first flight of stairs like a man on the parade ground. He never looked back, never checked to be sure Garvey was following him. Just kept walking, across the reception area, up the short flight of steps and out the doors into the late-afternoon gloom. Nick kept walking until he reached his car, and there he stopped, waiting.

      In another minute or two Davis Garvey approached slowly, hands in his pockets, that damned smirk still on his face.

      “All right, what’s this about?” Nick snapped.

      “I told you. Gina.”

      Figured. It wasn’t enough that she drove him crazy at class. Now she’d thought of a way to bother him at work, too. And to think he’d spent all day berating himself for hurting her feelings. “She’s your sister-in-law, you said?”

      “Yep. I married her sister Marie a couple of weeks ago.”

      “Congratulations,” Nick muttered, and silently wished the poor guy luck. He’d need it if his new wife was anything like her sister.

      “Thanks.”

      He didn’t want to insult the man’s family, but damned if Nick was going to stand there and not defend himself, either. “Since you’re related to her, you should know what Gina’s like.”

      “Charming?” Davis suggested. “Beautiful? Funny?”

      All of the above, Nick thought, and plenty more. “Don’t forget to add annoying, shrewish, bossy…” He paused, then asked, “Do I have to go on?”

      “No,” Davis said on a laugh. Shaking his head slightly, he added, “I think I get the picture.”

      “I’m not sure you do.”

      “Look,” Davis said, “Gina said you’ve been giving her a hard time, so I thought I’d talk to you about it.”

      Disgusted, Nick said, “Strange, she didn’t strike me as the kind of woman who needed someone else to fight her battles.”

      “She isn’t,” Davis told him, and his smile was gone. “But she’s family now. And I look out for my family.”

      Nick took the man’s measure and slowly nodded. He could understand family loyalty. “I’d do the same.”

      “Then you’ll lighten up on Gina?”

      “I’ll fire only if fired upon,” he said solemnly.

      Davis smiled again. “Sounds fair enough to me.” He held out his right hand once more, and Nick took it in a firm shake. “Good to meet you, Gunny.”

      “Same goes, Gunny,” Nick said.

      But as the other man walked off toward his own car, Nick’s mind was racing. Gina Santini had called in reinforcements. Oh, maybe she hadn’t come right out and asked her brother-in-law to talk to him, but she’d probably expected him to. That meant she wasn’t retreating, only regrouping.

      She may have won the first battle, but as far as Nick was concerned, the war was still on.

      Three

      Family-dinner night at the Santinis’ was always interesting. At least one night a week, no matter what else was going on in their lives, the Santinis came together over the dinner table. And for a couple of hours they caught each other up on the news, argued, laughed and ate themselves into a stupor.

      Gina glanced around at the faces of her family and smiled to herself. Mama, of course, lonelier since Papa’s death two years ago, but still vibrant and deeply involved in whatever her daughters were up to. Then there was Angela, the oldest Santini sister. A widow herself, Angela and her son, Jeremy, had moved back home after her husband’s death three years ago. Jeremy was a great kid, Gina thought as her glance slid in his direction. And it was doing him a world of good to have Davis, Marie’s new husband, in the family. Jeremy’s father hadn’t been much good at the “family” thing. He’d made all of their lives miserable, and if anyone here was willing to admit it out loud, they’d have to say that Angela was actually happier as a widow than she had ever been when she was married.

      But naturally no one would ever admit it.

      Then there was Marie. Gina smiled to herself as she looked at the middle Santini sister. Since meeting and falling in love with Davis, Marie had really come into her own. Oh, she was still a great mechanic, and spent most of her time happily involved in some greasy job or other. But there was a sparkle in her eyes and a glow about her that hadn’t been there before Davis.

      So basically, she told herself with an inward frown, every Santini at the table looked happy as a clam. Except of course, for her.

      “I saw your Gunnery Sergeant Paretti today,” Davis said, and reached for the bowl of pasta.

      Well, that