Page 102 of Daddy, Sir

She held back the sigh, knowing the Colonel was watching her reaction. The last thing she wanted was for him to get involved. “Yes, Sir.”

Beyond the offices and storerooms was a cavernous open area, that Jamie was all too familiar with. They called it the range, but it actually served multiple uses, including physical training and battalion formations during bad weather.

After he’d turned the lights on, he pointed at her. “I hope you’re ready for a workout, Corporal Allard.”

She’d expected him to tell her off, but not this. “Ollie?—”

“That’s Major Scott to you. You’re only making this worse.”

She blew out an exasperated breath. “Major Scott then,fine. But it was after school, and I wasn’t inside the ROTC building. You don’t have any authority over me.”

That was technically true, although there was a gray area, since she’d been sitting on the steps of the building.

He folded his arms over his chest. Even in jeans and a t-shirt he still managed the authority figure vibe, and if she was honest… it was hot. Recently she’d begun to realize that her feelings for him had shifted in a new direction. It had been a surprise.

Not that she’d ever tell him. He was seventeen and she wasn’t even fifteen yet. Even if she was sure about what she was feeling, there was no way he’d ever consider dating her.

“Maybe. You can refuse, if you want.”

Her mouth started to tilt up at one side.

“I’ll just refer it back to the Colonel, and see what he thinks.”

The smirk dropped away. Smoking was a mandatory suspension. As a teacher, the Colonel would have to refer her to the office, and that was on top of whatever punishments he’d throw at her when she came back from her ‘vacation’. Cadets were expected to lead by example, not break school rules.

“No thanks,” she said quickly.

“Then you get to deal with me. Drop.”

Drop meant only one thing in ROTC—push-ups.Ugh. She set her backpack down and shrugged out of her jacket. “How many?” she asked, as she got down on the floor and prepared to start.

“I’ll let you know when you’re done.”

Greaaaaat.She stared at the gray-painted concrete floor and scowled. Suddenly teasing Ollie had become a lot less fun. He was supposed to tell her off, give her the whooshing excited feelings of being in trouble, and then let her off with a warning. So much for that.

Normally she did the standard push-ups, but she decided to use the allowed modification. It meant pushing up from her knees instead of her toes and was a lot easier. It would bug Ollie, but he couldn’t actually do anything about it, since it was built into the regulations.

Jamie thought it was bullshit that the modification was just for girls. There was a lot of outdated crap like that in ROTC. She might not have lots of arm strength, but plenty of freshmen boys didn’t either, so she was usually stubborn about doing it the harder way.

But not this time. She pressed down and popped back up. “One!”

Oliver snorted. “Your poor girl arms suddenly can’t handle a real push-up, cadet?”

“I’m allowed,” she retorted as she came up from the second one. “Two!”

“Of course, the Army makes allowances forweakercadets. You are within your rights to use those allowances.” The words were all true, but there was a tone of smug derision to them.

The fact that she knew he was goading her on purpose didn’t keep it from working. She gritted her teeth and pushed up off her knees into the standard position. This time she rose slower, and the number didn’t snap out so cleanly.

She managed four and five without showing any strain in her voice. The movements were smooth, but as she came up from number six, good ol’ Major Scott had a nifty suggestion.

“Let’s drop the counting and instead you can go through the phonetic alphabet. You’re supposed to have it memorized by now. Start with the sixth letter.”

She froze and it took all her effort to keep from snapping at him. She knew the twenty-six letters of the phonetic alphabet, but she hadn’t yet gotten to the point of being able to recite them without thought. She held the plank position as she mentally ran through until she got to “Foxtrot!”

“Golf!”

“Hotel!”

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