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“Well, we have some time to talk about this. You don’t graduate for another five weeks.”

“That’s just it, Mom. I’m eighteen. I signed the papers and will be leaving for basic training the week after graduation.”

The shocked expressions on his parents’ faces told him they never expected him to do something so drastic without discussing it with them.

“A week? You’ll be gone a week after? But, Mark. We were going to do a family vacation.”

“I know, Mom. But we’ll have time to do that later. This is important to me. I feel it in my bones that this is right for me.”

Jennifer swallowed her fears, staring at her husband. Turning back to Mark, she nodded.

“You’ve never done anything without a lot of thought put into it. If this is what you want to do, then I’ll be the mom handing out cookies at basic graduation.” Mark laughed, hugging his mother.

“Maybe don’t do that,” he smirked. “Thanks for understanding and supporting me. This means a lot to me.”

“You’re welcome,” said his father.

Time felt as though it were moving at warp speed for Mark after that. Basic, pararescue training, jump training, a promotion, more schooling, another promotion. It seemed that he was on the fast track for everything. When his parents died within weeks of one another, he was devastated.

That’s when his bad decisions started.

“Hello, handsome,” smiled the woman at the bar.

“Oh, hello,” he said with a soft blush.

“What can I get you?”

“Just a beer, please.”

“Sure. Why you looking like you lost your best friend?”

“No reason.”

“My name is Cara. First beer is on me,” she said with a wink. “Next one you can buy. After I get off.”

Mark gave her a shy smile and took her up on the offer of the beer after work. Then, it was the offer of taking her home. Then the offer of coming inside her apartment. Then cumming inside of her.

She was pretty, seemed intelligent and driven. She was working toward her real estate license and was hoping to work for a big firm in New Orleans. Since he was stationed in the Gulfport/Biloxi area, it would be an easy commute to see her.

When he received word that he would be deployed for at least six months, he was concerned about Cara’s loyalty. She’d gone ‘out with the girls’ a few times only to come home smelling like cologne, not perfume. She always said it was close quarters, and the men were rubbing up on the girls. But he also never met the ‘girls.’ When he would ask, she would get defensive, and he would apologize.

“Marry me,” he said, staring at her one evening.

“What?”

“Marry me. I’m being deployed, and I want to know that you’re mine.”

“Okay,” she said, smiling at him.

It was the one thing he should have apologized to himself for. Being an idiot.

CHAPTER TWO

Six months and eight days later, Mark returned home to find a note on the table saying she was leaving him. He knew something was wrong. No e-mails. No phone calls. No responses to his messages.

Where Cara made her mistake was believing that Mark was just another guy with no skills. Within two hours, he knew that she’d been working for Craig Grayson’s real estate firm, meeting him for evenings together, and that Grayson was married. Mark decided to take matters into his own hands.

Pulling up to the Garden District mansion, he just shook his head. This was more Cara’s style. Not their simple condo or his favorite fishing cabin. She wanted luxury and wealth. Old money mixed with new. There were more than a hundred people crammed into the small backyard.

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