Page 48 of Bad Girls Don't Marry Marines (Rock Canyon, Idaho 3)

Val released a bitter laugh as Dorothy made it to solid ground. “I think I’m going with crazy on this one. My father is a bit . . . demanding and caught up on appearances.”

“Walk me back to my office and tell me about it. You’ll find I’m quite a good listener, and another brain working out the problem can’t hurt.”

“Family business is private, Valerie. We don’t talk to outsiders about it.”

Her father had given he

r that lecture when she’d told her sophomore algebra teacher the real reason she’d skipped class the day of her final. Granted, she’d never had perfect attendance, but she hadn’t wanted to flunk the class either.

After her father had kicked Caroline out, Val had met her with money and a bag of clothes, making her late for the test. After explaining the situation to her teacher, she’d been allowed to take the test during lunch but had had to call her father at his office, which had only infuriated him. Apparently, he had planned to put a spin on her sister’s sudden departure, and Val had ruined any chance of that when she’d opened her mouth.

“He just has this idea about the type of man I should be interested in, but I already married one of his approved choices.”

“Let me guess; it was a disaster?” Dorothy asked as she tightened her hold on Val’s arm, propelling her down the street.

“Unmitigated,” Val agreed.

“Hmmm . . . well, I for one can’t believe he’d have issue with someone who has served his country, and besides that, Justin seems like a nice man.”

“He is. It’s more Justin’s father that my dad has an issue with,” Val said, feeling snobbish just saying it out loud.

Dorothy clucked sympathetically. “It was the same way with my great-great-grandparents, Ian and Aileen. Ian was a member of the peer class—had a title and everything—and Aileen had been the housekeeper’s daughter. They’d played together as children, and when he came back from school, they fell hard for each other. When his parents forbade it, he took some jewelry and money and stole Aileen away in the night. They were married by the ship’s captain before they sailed off to start a new life in America.”

“That’s really romantic,” Val said, feeling slightly envious of the long-dead founders of True Love. Even though she didn’t believe in all of that forever love stuff the way other people did, fighting for each other was admirable. If only she weren’t so jaded.

“Ha, you think that’s romantic, you’ll have to hear about my husband sometime. He was in the Army, which is how I knew your Justin was a military man. It’s all in the way they carry themselves.” Dorothy waggled her gray eyebrows and added, “There is just something about their shoulders that makes me giddy, even at my age.”

Val coughed to cover her surprised laugh, and Dorothy gave her a twinkly look. “I’m an old woman, Valerie, but I’m not dead yet.”

Chuckling, Val said, “Yes, ma’am. And please, call me Val.”

“And you call me Dorothy. Ma’am makes me feel old.”

“And we wouldn’t want that,” Val teased, and Dorothy barked with laughter.

“I like you, Val. I truly do,” Dorothy said, before adding, “but you’re going to have to be more discreet with your young man. I haven’t ferreted out the sneaky bastard who’s been selling information, but I have the feeling your father wouldn’t be above showing up here and making things difficult for the two of you.”

“Well, there’s really nothing to tell,” Val lied, slowing down as Dorothy shot her a disbelieving look. “Okay . . . well, not much. I told him I wasn’t interested.”

“Which is the furthest thing from the truth. Really, I can’t imagine being in your shoes and not letting that man take me for a spin.”

“Yeah, well . . . There’s more to life than hooking up with a hot guy with a hero complex.”

“And what about love and happiness, dear?”

Val frowned. “No offense, but love is bullshit. We tell ourselves we’re in love to help alleviate some of the pressure we feel when we make bad choices or let others do it for us. For example, a woman will stay with a man for years, even if he kicks the crap out of her, because of some misguided idea that she loves him. Or a career-driven woman who suddenly becomes a housewife because her husband asks her to. From what I’ve seen, love is about letting someone else control you.”

“Oh, sweetheart, no. Love is about give and take and making compromises because the other person’s happiness means more than your own.”

“Exactly. Once you start putting another person before your own needs, that’s when you end up dumped for the big-breasted intern at your husband’s work. Love makes you weak,” Val said, stopping in front of a red-brick building. In the window it said TRUE LOVE’S MATCHMAKING SERVICE.

“Spoken like a soul who has never known real love.”

Val laughed. “No offense, Dorothy, but when it comes to love, you can keep it. I’ve got no use for it.”

“What about your mother? Any siblings? Don’t you love your family?”

Val paused. Of course she loved her sisters. She would do anything for them, but that was different.

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