Chapter 12

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BeachHead poked his head into the room cautiously, letting the door shut behind him quietly. "Courtney?" There was a muffled reply from the bathroom and he waited patiently. The door opened and she looked out at him. "I uhh.. wuhh.. " Fumbling verbally he tried to remember what he'd wanted to say.. what he'd worked out in his head on the walk back to the motel.

"Hey Beach. Aunt Beth out there too?" Her cheerful tone said that she was over him volunteering her to run a obstacle course on the vacation.

"No, she left to head home." He watched her come out, wrapped in a towel that left her thighs bare and clung to all the curves. He'd never envied a towel so much in his life. "Ung... I ahhh.. wanted.. "

"Wanted something?" She walked over to the drawers and bent to rummage in the clothing. "What did you want, Beach?"

He was pretty certain he'd swallowed his tongue, since there wasn't any way he'd be able to speak coherently. Instead he just indulged in watching the long legs and the damp skin... shoot, she was saying something to him. "Huh?"

"Stop oogling my thighs and listen. I wanted to go get some dinner but not that same place. I'd like a real honest homestyle meal." She straightened up to look at him. "It's not that I don't like your friends.. it doesn't matter who's with us, but I'd just like some good hearty honest food."

He kept his eyes on her face and nodded quickly. "That's what I was thinking too. A big dinner. After all, I'll work it all off." He glanced away then back over to see her smirking at him. "What?"

Sauntering over slowly, the lean blond smiled up at him, making him lick his lips nervously. "So how exactly were you going to 'work it off', big man?" He blinked slowly and tried not to look down past her throat. "Were you planning... something?"

"I ahhh..." He edged backwards, every bit of his confident decisions flying out of his head. "Just... well.. no.. I mean... tomorrow..."

She winked at him. "Yeah, that's what I thought." She turned to pick up the clothing and he began to breathe again. "You'll have a heck of a busy day tomorrow with all that shooting and such. Although, target shoots don't usually take tons of energy..."

He cleared his throat slightly. "Yeah.. well.. it's not static shootin' only. It's combat simulated shootin' so.. it's a lot more involved."

"Okay! I'm sure it'll be great to watch." She stepped into the bathroom to change and he let out a sigh of relief.

He turned a small circle, cursing under his breath. Aunt Beth was right, he needed to make up his mind and stop being indecisive. Pushing a hand through his unruly hair, he tried to think about the situation but it seemed his mind turned more to how good it felt to have the blasted woman next to him. All the reasons not to fall into such a trap tried to make themselves heard, underneath the one overwhelming voice that wanted this. But what if he did try to make it work and she turned away? Was the risk worth it?

"So do you know where we can go?" She came walking back out, twisting her hair up with a few movements and turning it into a neatly styled bun at the back of her neck. There were occasions when Beach was convinced it was sleight of hand, the way women could arrange their hair so easily. She tucked two elegantly lacquered chopsticks into the bun and then turned to look at him. "Beach? Dinner?"

"Yeah.. it's a bit of a drive.. maybe twenty minutes but we're likely to get a table." He grabbed his uniform jacket up and waited for her to gather up her purse. "Don't you need a coat?"

She tugged at the sleeves of her shirt and shrugged. "No, I'll be fine." She gave a soft smile to him as she headed for the door. "Besides, if I get chilly, I can just borrow yours."

He frowned at her. "Well hell, what if I need it? If you're gonna be cold, take a danged coat." The irritation at her mild joke surprised her and she paused and went back to get her bomber jacket. "Think you'd know better by now, Princess."

She glanced at him. "I didn't think you were so possessive over your jacket." Hanging her small bag on her arm, she stood and waited. "Are we leaving?"

He stood for a second. "I'm not possessive... you could borrow it if you needed it." The abrupt change made her blink. "I mean... it's better to remember your own..."

"Beach.. it's fine. I have my coat." She spread her arms to show off the well fitted slacks and buttoned shirt. "I'm ready to go.. so let's go eat dinner." He swallowed hard and held out an arm to her. She smiled and stepped into the circle of his arm to exit the room. It felt good to hold her next to him as they walked to the car. A warm content feeling made him relax slightly. When she tensed and came to an abrupt stop, he looked at her.

She stared at the car sitting innocently in the parking lot. Then she whirled to yell at him while pointing at it. "WHO THE HELL DID THAT!"

He winced at the volume and looked at the car. "Did what? Oh... well.. " He tried not to smile. "I could make some guesses... but I dunno.."

She stomped over to glare at the car. "Someone SARAN WRAPPED Ted! This is NOT FUNNY!" She turned to shout randomly at the hotel rooms. "THIS IS NOT FUNNY! You BASTARDS! I swear!"

"It's okay Courtney.. it's just saran wrap..." He let out a chuckle. "That's a new one actually... here.. we'll just take it off. It's not that bad.." A few minutes of slicing through the plastic wrapping, carefully avoiding the paint, and Beach rolled the plastic up and tossed it into a trash can nearby. "See? Good as new.."

"It's not respectful! Ted is a beautiful car and doesn't deserve to be treated as a prank." Courtney petted the hood. "It's just not right."

"Ya named the car, Ted?" Beach twitched when she turned a glare on him. "Sorry.. Ted is a fine name.. really." He opened the door for her to get in. "It's an appropriate name in fact..." Settling into the passenger seat he looked over at her. "After all.. he's been 'bus-ted'."

She stared at him solemnly. "Get out of my car, Beach."

Ignoring the order, he tilted his head. "Well, if'n I don't miss my guess, before the week is out, he'll be 'annihila-ted'."

"You're such a jerk." She cranked up the car while he smiled smugly. "Punning is the lowest form of humor."

He settled further down in the seat, surreptitiously gripping the front edge of the cushion tightly. "Well, I ain't never pretended to be no high falutin' comedian."

"That's true." She looked over him fondly. "I love you, you big crude Ranger." His almost shy glance over at her made her smile. "So tell me where we're going."

"To hell in a battered handbasket... otherwise known as four blocks up then take a right." He motioned as they got close. "Slow down to take the... nuuughhh..." They swung around the corner and he gritted his teeth and struggled to stay in place. "Easy Evel Knievel, we ain't gotta get there in five minutes insteada twenty..."

"How about seven minutes? That slow enough for you, grandma?" He grunted at her when she expertly steered around another corner. "Relax..."

"Ah am relaxed... go straight.. up where the red light is blinkin'? Turn left.. full stop, the MPs love that red light." They slowed to a sedate and proper stop and CoverGirl waved cheerfully at the MPs sitting in their jeep. "Parking lot on the right about four blocks down.. can't miss it.. if'n yer not going a hundred miles an hour..."

"Oh shut it, Ranger man. Here?" She carefully maneuvered through the half full parking lot to park. "Lock your door."

"Got it." Beach stepped over next to her and then held out an elbow for her to loop her arm through. Once inside Beach was hailed from a table full of Rangers. "Uh-oh.."

"What Beach? We can sit with them.." CoverGirl tugged him over and he held her chair, making her blush. "Thank you."

"Hey guys.." Settling into the chair beside her, Beach nodded around the table. "Courtney Kreiger, this's Tank McGreer, Sherlock Holmes, Lee Wong.. known as the littlest Ranger.." He dodged a sugar packet. "And KW over there. Thanks for sharin' the table. Nice to see some of the old faces."

Courtney looked a little suspicious. "Sherlock Holmes? Really? Did your parents hate you?"

The lean short-haired man grinned. "No.. just my fellow Rangers. My name is really Paul Holmes.. but you know how guys go." He shrugged towards KW. "Ask him why he's called 'KW'."

She turned agreeably. "Okay.. I'll bite."

There were a few hoots and Beach glared around the table. "That's enough of that..."

KW snorted at him. "Hey.. it's not our fault your girl is offering..." He held up his hands when Beach half stood. "Calm down Bullwinkle... we're just kidding. God, you're as damned touchy as ever." He turned to Courtney. "My NAME is Jared Kwiatkowski.. but for some reason these unlettered louts have issues with words over two syllables.. so I just answer to KW instead. I used to make my drills in Basic crazy. They wanted to yell at me over stuff.. but it was hard to sound menacing when you're trying to shout 'Cut that out Kwiatkowski!' and not stutter." The table broke up in laughter and he pointed at McGreer. "Now Tank here.. he took one look at my name on my shirt and just said 'damn boy, I didn't know they made name tags that long' and then he dubbed me KW and said if I didn't want to answer to that, he'd come up with a nickname that would make me LONG to be called by initials. I didn't push my luck."

Tank laughed. "Yeah.. you could have gotten tagged with 'BeachHead' or something like that." Again, general laughter and Beach snorted at them. "So.. lucky guy there, Sneeden. How'd you fool this lady into coming to eat with you?"

Beach looked at her for a moment. "I gave her a piece of taffy. Now she follows me everywhere." She helpfully smacked him in the ear making him wince. "Ow! Dang it woman!" She pointed at him warningly. "Okay okay! She's my girlfriend. She's also an Army corporal.. so don't go thinkin' she's some delicate lady. She'll out curse a danged sailor."

"Yeah.. love you too BeachHead." She smiled at the waitress who appeared. "Hi.. yeah, we just showed up. Sorry."

"It's no problem at all. Would you like to order? The rest of the table already ordered." The young waitress raised an eyebrow at the Rangers seated and chattering at each other.

Looking through the menu, Courtney pointed at Beach. "Ask him first."

Beach turned his face up to look at the waitress. "Huh? Ribs.. big plate of 'em. Baked potato.. uhh.. and whatever veggies ya got on hand."

She scribbled on her notepad. "We have corn, beans, sweet potato or mixed squash." She waited while he nodded. "Which would you like?"

Tank guffawed at the confused look she got from Beach. "Honey, he wants all of them. Just pile it all on the plate, he'll eat it all." He laughed again when Beach rolled his eyes. "Come on.. you didn't get that big and strong eating salads and fruit."

"Yeah well..." Beach nodded at Courtney. "Tell the woman what you want, Courtney."

"Chicken marsala.. house salad. Thank you." She leaned on the table for a moment listening to the rowdy conversation as the men taunted her Ranger who responded with his own insults. "So you guys were all at Benning here at the same time?"

"Yeah.. Tank there.. he was part of the Ranger cadre who trained your guy here." Lee indicated Holmes. "Sherlock there went through in the same class. Me and KW were in the holdbacks, went through Ranger school right after Beach and Sherlock. There's really some wild stories about your guy too.."

Beach threw his hands up. "Did all of ya'll get together and decide that if'n I showed up, everyone would try to tell tales on me? Ain't ya got someone else to talk about?"

The Rangers looked around at each other. "Well.." Tank grinned. "No, last Rendezvous we talked about all the interesting folks.. so now we're going to talk about you." Beach leaned his head on one hand. "So are you done protesting? Because we can wait if you want to bother protesting more. It won't do any good."

"Naw.. go ahead." He seemed resigned to it and exchanged a glance with Courtney, trying to impart a private message that he'd prefer a different subject be brought up.

She gazed at him for a moment before turning to Tank. "Soo.. what sort of tale do you have?" Beach groaned and put his head on the table. "Stop honey.. I'm sure it's a good story."

Tank laughed. "Yeah right. Last I heard, Beach here was still doing some instructing on physical training. So someone should know he had some issues training during Ranger school."

Beach's head came up. "Oh no.. that's unfair! I wasn't havin' no trouble with the trainin'! It was ya'll havin' trouble with me not havin' trouble!"

Holmes nodded. "He's right. He didn't have trouble with the standard training.. it wasn't until you cadre members decided you had to stop him that he... uhh... ran into trouble..." Laughter broke out and he high fived Lee. "Anyway..."

End chapter

Yes, next chapter will be more BeachHead stories. Thank you for reading.