Page 16 of Leave

Like going into combat, I thought. Like all the nerves and anticipation were taking a backseat to reality. This was what we’d trained for. This was what we were here for. Nothing left to do but knuckle down and get through it, hoping all the way for minimal casualties.

Footsteps coming into the room had me lifting my head and Nolan withdrawing his hand, though he didn’t pull away when I clasped it in mine between us.

Dad came into the room with Mom on his heels, and the flurry of emotions rushing across his face were hard to read and harder to take. He was happy to see me, sure, but there was some hurt there. Frustration. Disappointment. Disgust.

This is who I am, Dad. You’ve known it for a long, long time.

Why can’t you make peace with it?

But I kept that to myself and stood. My dad and I shared the stiffest hug we ever had, and he shook hands with Nolan.

“You in the Navy too?” Dad asked, clearly trying to be civil.

“Marines,” Nolan said.

Dad eyed him and chuckled. “And here I thought you were all still jarheads.”

I winced, thinking Nolan might not appreciate the joke.

To my surprise, though, he laughed, shrugged, and… blushed? “I went the jarhead route for a long time.” He ran his hand over the shaved side of his head. “But my boyfriend likes the high-and-tight look, so…”

Dad’s scowl was there and gone in a flash, and he managed a semi-comfortable laugh instead. As he took his seat in his usual recliner, he said, “Well, as long as it’s still within regs, I suppose.”

Nolan just chuckled.

I was a little taken aback by his answer, though. Was he just trying to needle my dad? Remind him we were together? Or…?

“I swear that’s my favorite part of being in the military,”I’d mused to Nolan early on when a couple of seriously hot service members had jogged past the taco rice café.“Everywhere you look, it’s sweaty, built guys in shorts and high-and-tights.”

“You have a thing for high-and-tights or something?”

“Are you kidding?”I’d laughed and gone for my drink. “They’re fuckinghot.”

Not long after, Nolan’s haircut had begun to evolve from closely shorn to the high-and-tight he was sporting now.

I hadn’t thought anything of it except that he’d looked seriously sexy like that. Especially when the top had gotten long enough that I could run my fingers through it while he was going down on me.

Had he…

No way. He hadn’t.

“I’ve been there for two years,” Nolan said, and I shook myself out of my distraction. My brain caught up, and I realized one of my parents had asked how long he’d been on Okinawa. Unaware of me short-circuiting for a moment, he went on, “I was on Iwakuni before that.”

“So you like it over there?” Mom asked with what seemed like genuine interest, but rubbed me like someone trying really hard to pretend they weren’t uncomfortable. “I think I’d be nervous living in a place that’s so different from home.”

“It’s not bad,” I said. “Most people speak some English, and I’m learning enough Japanese to get by.”

Nolan said something in rapid fire Japanese.

I huffed and rolled my eyes. “I said I was learning enough to get by, not enough to…” I waved a hand at him.

He just snickered. I bumped my leg against his. He elbowed me playfully. That wasn’t an act—that was how we were at home, too.

But I suddenly remembered the act when I realized my parents were watching us with odd expressions. I shifted uncomfortably and cleared my throat. “You’ve seen the pictures I’ve posted, right? Okinawa is gorgeous.”

“It is quite lovely,” Mom admitted. “I think I’d just be nervous living in a foreign place.”

“What about driving on the wrong side of the road?” Dad asked. “I’m surprised that doesn’t cause accidents.”

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