Page 111 of Daddy, Sir

But it was the faint scar, bisecting his right eyebrow, that clued her in. She knew that scar, because she’d caused it with a badly aimed swing of a stick, during an invented game with…

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped and hung open as she stared. She tried a couple times to speak, and when she finally did it came out barely more than a whisper. “Oliver?”

“You do remember me! I was starting to wonder.” He grinned. “Hey, brat, I missed you.”

Chapter Four

She just looked at him without answering. Now that it had clicked, she could see the shades of the boy she’d loved in the man who stood there watching her. Time had changed him… for the better.

“Jamie? You okay?”

She realized she’d been staring without blinking and forced herself to look away. “Uh, yeah, sorry. I’m just surprised to see you. It’s been… a while.”

“About twelve years, right?”

“Oh, I’m not sure. A little more, I think?” As if she wasn’t entirely sure, because she’d spent so much time thinking about him and missing him. “Let’s see. I was in my senior year the last time you visited, and your mom moved before I graduated.”

He nodded. “So, that would make it?—”

“A little over thirteen years.”

Oliver whistled and shook his head. “Damn. That’s a long time. Honestly, I hated that we stopped exchanging letters too. I kept meaning to write your mom to get your new address, but…” He trailed off and shook his head again. “Life in the military can be a lot. I’ve been pretty much everywhere in the world by now.”

“Is it everything you wanted? Was it worth it?” The questions popped out without thinking. They were things she’d wondered about a lot.

He was quiet for a minute and his eyes seemed slightly unfocused as he stared into the distance. Finally he shook it off and laughed. “Well, that’s a heavy question to answer while I’m hanging through a bathroom window, and you’re sprawled on the floor.”

For a second, she thought that was all he was going to say, but then he continued, “In some ways, it’s been everything and more. In others, well, I don’t think you’re ever really prepared for this kind of life, until you’re in it. They don’t tell you all the things you’ll be giving up, or how hard it’ll be.”

He started to say something else, and then he stopped and shook his head again. “Anyway, I was hoping we could catch up, but this wasn’t exactly how I’d pictured the conversation going.”

Right, because she was still sitting on the bathroom floor, and he was standing in a flower bed. She sighed. “Me either.” So much for the makeup and sexy outfits she’d packed, to stun him with her beauty and maturity.

“So…” He gave her an expectant look as the silence drew out between them. “Are you going to invite me in?” he asked finally.

Because that would be much better than talking through the window. “Sure. Meet me at the door.”

He vanished from the window, and she appreciated that, because getting off the floor was way more effort than it should have been. All the kicking and thrashing she’d done while hanging through the window had twinged a few things, and everything hurt.

But it was getting a look at herself in the mirror over the sink that really made her cringe. “Oh my god.” She just stared, blinking slowly. She’d known she wasn’t looking her best, but it was far worse than that.

She’d pulled her hair into a ponytail for comfort while driving. Now it was skewed to one side and flopped limply, while large bunches tried to escape the hairband. Her face was red, which she’d expected, but also streaked with sweat, dirt, and some flecks of dried paint that must have rubbed off the frame.

Her clothes, also planned for comfort during the drive, were a ratty old sweatpants and t-shirt combo that she usually only wore while running errands. Now they were dirty, and the hem of her shirt was torn. It was so far from the image she’d wanted to project, that she almost burst into tears.

She repaired what damage she could, washing her face and pulling her hair down so she could finger-comb it into some semblance of order. There wasn’t much else she could do. Her luggage was still in the car, of course, so she couldn’t even change.

And he was waiting at the door.Fuck.

It took her a full minute of deep breathing, to calm down enough to decide that she wasn’t going to let him in. He’d already seen her looking a mess, it was too late to fix that, but she was too unsettled to sit down next to him and chat. She’d just have to think of some reason to send him away.

She paused with her hand on the doorknob, thinking desperately, and then it came to her. Her mother had given her the perfect excuse. She tugged the door open. “Actually, I was just thinking… Oliver?” She frowned at the empty steps. He was nowhere in sight.

Had he just decided to leave? Not that she could blame him after the show she’d put on, but that didn’t seem much like him. “Oliver?” she called, as she leaned out to look around.

“Be right there!” He appeared around the corner of the house, holding a bouquet of flowers, and flashed her a wide smile. “I had to grab these from the car.”

Her glance flicked to the flowers, but they weren’t enough to hold her attention now that she was finally getting a good look athim. The sight was… impressive. If she wasn’t mistaken, he’d put on a few inches in height, and there seemed to be a lot of hard muscle filling out the combat uniform he wore.

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