Page 35 of The Runaway Bride of Blitzen Bay (Blitzen Bay)

Chapter Seventeen

NASH

December 22

Blitzen Bay, California

“So why did you hate Steve in high school?”

Elle looks up at me as she drags a French fry through the ketchup on her plate.

“I didn’t hate him. Not really. We just weren’t good friends, you know? I’m two years older than him to start with.”

“Wow, I didn’t know you were that old,” she says, tapping her lips with her index finger.

“Settle down,” I say, shaking my head. “You’re only two years younger than me.”

“I’m four years younger than you. I turn twenty-three next year.”

“Ahh, I thought you were Steve’s age.”

“Nope. He was on the six-year college plan.”

“That’s right.” I stroke my beard—my habit when I’m trying to remember something. “I forgot he redshirted his first two years in college.”

“I don’t know what that means, but yeah, he’s two years older than me.”

“Damn,” I say, sighing. “You’re a baby.”

“I make up for it with my advanced maturity.” She takes a sip of her drink and narrows her eyes. “I still don’t get why he invited you to our wedding.”

“He probably invited most of the guys from the football team. We ran around together.”

“Oh, that explains it,” she says, nodding. “He talks about his high school team a lot. Did he play quarterback there, too?”

“Yeah, and it seems like you should know that.”

“I barely know what he played in college. I’m not much of a sports fan.”

“That’s blasphemy. How did you grow up in Georgia and not like sports?”

“There are other things to do in Georgia.”

“What things?” She looks at me mischievously. “Wait. Stop. I don’t think I want to know.”

“You probably don’t. Kit and I got into our share of trouble. Did you want to play football in college?”

I push my chair back a bit as I polish off my second cheeseburger. “I had quite a few scholarship offers, but I didn’t want to keep going to school.”

“So you went into the army?”

“Yeah, and oddly, I studied more there than I probably would have in college.”

She nods. “I bet Ranger school was tough.”

She does an impressive job of acting casually interested—no eye contact, conversational tone.

“Did Izzy teach you how to get information out of people?”

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