Never Forget: A Novella in the Echo Platoon Series by Marliss Melton

boy and the dog.
    “Fair enough,” he replied. After all, the dog could end up biting the kid. The mother could end up blaming him . All hopes for a romance might burn completely to the ground. But hope was a stubborn son-of-a-gun, and he was still going to try. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he said.
    “Yeah. I’ll see you.”
    At least he could tell that she was smiling when he hung up.
    Rusty shoved his phone back into his pocket and returned Ian Schultz’s steady regard. He suffered an urge to stick his tongue out at the man.
    “She must have really loved you,” he said to the big, burly warrior.
    Sometimes the ghosts talked back to him; sometimes they ignored him. Ian just shrugged with macho confidence.
    “You got a problem with me asking her out?” Rusty asked.
    Sliding his hands into the pockets of his desert camouflage BDUs, Ian looked Rusty over as if measuring up the competition. At long last, he shook his head.
    “What’s that mean? You don’t mind, or you think I can’t win her over?”
    The ghost sent him a knowing smile. And then he vanished just as suddenly as he’d appeared.
    Rusty sank onto the edge of his bed and scrubbed a hand over his face. What would a woman who based her career on facts and hard evidence say to his assertion that he saw dead people—including her late husband?
    She’d accepted his offer of a date with lukewarm enthusiasm for a reason. Maybe he just didn’t live up to the standards she was used to.
    The sound of jets buzzing his rooftop on their descent to Oceana Naval Air Station prompted Draco to fly into a panic. Crated out back, his strident barks resonated with irrational fear.
    Poor dog. Poor him.
    Rusty heaved a tired sigh. His SEALs would show up tomorrow and he hadn’t put so much as a dent in his to-do list since the dog showed up. Maybe he ought to take up Maya’s offer of help after all.

Chapter Seven
    ‡
    “C AN YOU GET the door, honey?” Maya called to Curtis.
    Rusty’s offer of a date for the weekend had led to a fitful night’s sleep. Her alarm had failed to awaken her on time, and now she was frantically applying makeup so as not to be late for the meeting with a JAG officer regarding three airmen who’d managed to steal weapons from Logistics, probably to sell on the black market. With scanty evidence to prosecute them, Maya feared the men were going to get away with their trafficking.
    Curtis crossed the living room, his footsteps audible through her bathroom wall. She heard him open the door, heard Rusty greet him.
    Just the sound of Rusty’s voice put a tremor in her fingers. All of this angst for what? It wasn’t like he’d asked her to marry him! She blinked at the startling thought, smudging her mascara. She reached for a tissue to wipe it off.
    A bonfire on the beach was a harmless proposition. But fires and beaches were so darned romantic. A couple couldn’t walk beside the waves without holding hands. They couldn’t sit in the glow of a snapping fire and not feel a kindling of desire. It had been so long since she’d done either, she feared she’d make a fool of herself.
    What were Rusty’s intentions, anyway? He’d been a bachelor all his life. Was he thinking of settling down and starting a family? She’d already done that—had no wish to do it again.
    But starting a family would compete with Never Forget Retreat. Perhaps he was only looking for a good time. A little fun, a light romance.
    She had never done “light romance” or one-night stands—ever. She and Ian had met at Texas A&M. They’d been each other’s firsts. She could scarcely remember the rituals involved in dating.
    With Rusty she wanted more than a dalliance. Until she knew what his agenda was, her only course of action was to hold back.
    Casting a harried glance at the peach shell and black skirt she wore, she squared her shoulders and exited her bedroom, running straight into Rusty, who stood at the breakfast bar in her kitchen. Curtis was