Page 154 of Oblivion

Dante’s nightmares still haunted him from time to time. In the lead-up to Forrest’s anniversary, they’d become more frequent, though had settled again since he and the guys visited Forrest’s grave. They returned to Fort Campbell with heavy, yet peace-filled hearts.

I turned my attention back to Dante when he laughed while holding an animated conversation with Pittsy. My entire chest filled with love; his laugh made me smile every single day.

Just like in Vegas, when he and the guys were together, they were loud, boisterous, and commanded the room. Unlike Vegas, I wasn’t drinking tonight, and there was no partying thanks to Mei and Chen’s gorgeous little girl, Alice, sleeping nearby.

Well, no partying aside from the guys getting shit-faced while we played charades. Couple against couple. Even Doughboy and Pittsy had brought along a plus-oneeach.

“Okay, okay, my turn!” I declared above the rising laughter and yelled conversations.

Dante squeezed my ass as I stood, then tugged me back down for a quick kiss.

“Let’s show ‘em how it’s done, Lemon Drop.”

He grinned as if the delicious smile would solve all the problems in the world, and it made my stomach flip. Then flip again when nerves began to coil.

Charades wasn’t something I was good at, but this one was special. This round, I hoped, would be the one to win them all.

I plucked up the whiteboard pen and uncapped it, waiting until a hush fell over the room, excluding a few lingering sniggers between Chen and Tuck.

“Oh, timer,” Mei called, wriggling her fingers at the timer on the coffee table.

I held up a hand. “Not this round. I think he’s gonna need a little extra time.”

“What!” Doughboy exclaimed. “Your shady-ass games are rubbing off on your missus, Lotus!”

Dante laughed. “And it’s not the only thing that gets a rubbing off.”

“Dante!” I yelled indignantly.

The room erupted in laughter, and it took me a good minute of waving my hands around to regain order.

I sent Dante a nervous smile. “Ready?”

He schooled his chuckle and gave me his full attention; his expression now conveying complete and utter focus. Thiswasa competition after all, and I’d learned early on just how competitive the guys were.

“Okay. And go!” Naiomi—Tuck’s wife—cheered.

I had the sentence already planned in my head, and quickly drew nine lines of varying sizes across the top of the whiteboard.

_____’_ ___ _ ___ __ ___ ____

“Uh, so I’m assuming the first word is a name? End of the first word is ans,” Dante declared.

“You’ll need to wait and see. But yes, that’s correct.”

“Hey, no fucking talking, you!” Pittsy yelled, aiming the top of his beer bottle at me.

I flipped him off, then tapped on the little line and pinched my fingers at Dante.

“Small word—A,”he declared.

I pointed and wrote the “a” in, then indicated at the second line.

“Sounds like…hot!”he exclaimed as I fanned myself. He ran through the alphabet until I halted him at g.

“Someone’s got a something something something something.”

The third to last word came easy after I made “in” motions, but no matter how much pointing I did at every single female in the room—including myself—Dante took his sweet-ass time guessing the wordher.

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