A/N - so, why, yes, I totally owe you updates on other stories. But this grabbed my attention and has completely distracted me from all other WIPs (don't worry, nothing is abandoned). It's currently 20,000 words and mostly written but...y'all know that "mostly written" is just my way of saying that I'm going to completely rewrite it as I go so apologies in advance for any delays. Note that while some of the names may be familiar, this is not supposed to be consistent with any of my other stories. xoxo - tmtctlb

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Title: Bookworms

Place: Bahamas

Time: May 2014

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Danny scowled at his - soon to be former - best friend. "What the hell is your problem, Benz?"

"My problem?" Frankie repeated, before throwing his arms out. "My problem, Green, is that we're in the middle of paradise and you are bringing down the mood. You've scared off the last two sets of luscious ladies that I brought by with your sulking. Did you forget that we are here to get laid?"

"I didn't forget," Danny muttered. Hell, it was the reason he allowed Frankie, Steve Berchem and Jason Smith to drag him here. Promises of golden beaches, plenty of alcohol, and women ready and eager to indulge in a little no-strings-attached loving. Although none of them had ever been to this resort before, Javier Cruz recommended the place. And while it pained Danny to realize that Cruz had most likely come here with Danny's sister Caroline, who he was dating, the man had not steered them wrong. The beaches were so bright that they hurt his eyes. The team had been plied with so much booze since their arrival yesterday that Danny was actually craving water. And everywhere he looked, there were gorgeous women in miniscule bikinis. "I'm surveying the options."

And none of them compared to Rebecca.

"That's it," Frankie snapped. "Be gone."

"What?" Danny demanded.

"You're thinking about she-who-shall-not-be-named again," Steve explained, not moving from his position on the lounger. As far as Danny could tell, all the man had done since they arrived was sit on his ass and drink, but Frankie wasn't on his case.

He folded his arms across his chest. "Are you a mind reader now? Besides, the rule was no saying her name. Not that I couldn't think about her."

"Well, I'm changing it," Frankie replied. "Because you might not care how blue your balls are but I do and there's no way I am wasting this opportunity when chances are that a month from now we'll be back in Somalia or some other shithole without a drink or a woman in sight."

Frankie was right, damn it, but Danny wasn't used to being overridden. He glanced at Steve and Jason. "Are you going to let him get away with this crap?"

"Rules are the rules, man," Jay replied, gesturing to Berchem. "And you made the rules last year when Steve was hit with the same bug. No talking about her, no mentioning her name, and no cock blocking the team."

Damn it. Danny wished they would stop reminding him of that fact. "Fine. Do whatever you want. I'll see you back at the room for dinner."

"Make it breakfast," Frankie muttered as he tossed back some frothy concoction. "Maybe by then you'll be tolerable."

"Fuck you." Picking up his vodka tonic, Danny stalked off. As soon as he was out of sight, he slowed. The resort was an all-inclusive destination for single adults, no children allowed. The kind of place where people went to see and be seen, meaning that private space outside of the bedrooms was scarce. And Danny knew better than to return to their suite, where Frankie was bound to come looking for him, determined to "break the dry spell" as the guys were terming Danny's current bout of celibacy.

Danny was wandering around the lobby, searching for any sort of privacy, when he saw it. A semi-circle of potted plants with just the foot of a lounger poking out. The perfect spot to spend a couple of hours in peace. Well, maybe not perfect. It was next to the toilets and probably stunk to high-heavens by midnight but at 1600, that shouldn't be a problem. Stopping by the bar to pick up a six-pack and some bottled water, Danny headed toward his chosen spot. He turned the corner, only to stop cold. Instead of one lounger here, there were two. And one was already occupied.

Shit.

The woman looked up at him, although he couldn't see her eyes through the dark shades she wore, and Danny realized that he had been standing there staring. When she spoke, her voice was cool. "Are you looking for someone?"

"Avoiding someone, actually," Danny admitted, immediately kicking himself for being too honest. Maybe three vodkas on an empty stomach hadn't been the best idea. But the woman didn't react to the admission, simply staring at him apparently waiting for him to do ... something. He nodded towards the empty lounger. "Is that taken?"

She hesitated before shrugging. "Nope."

Danny settled into the lounger, cracking open a beer, as his companion's attention returned to her book. An actual book. She was hidden away in the corner of a resort where people went to hook up reading a book. The last book he read was back in Afghanistan. His sister Caroline always threw a couple into his care packages - biographies mostly, despite his stated preference for mysteries. Which is the only reason he had read Frozen in Time, the book that the woman next to him held. It was surprisingly good. A bit dry at times, but anyone who could make it through a winter living on a glacier had Danny's respect. Besides, he wouldn't mind something to read himself right about now.

Anything to distract himself from the fact that he had broken up with his girlfriend of almost ten years.

The actual breakup had come five months ago but, since Danny left a week later for Afghanistan, the reality of the situation hadn't completely sunk in. Not until he returned to the States and found himself at loose ends. No Rebecca to rush off to meet when the plane landed. No week full of reunion plans. Hell, even with a trip to see his parents, he hadn't had so much free time in years.

This wasn't the first time they split up. In fact, there had been a two year break when Danny did his first tour of Iraq. And their college years had been casual, with both of them free to see other people. But for the past three years, things had been becoming more and more serious with everyone - including Danny himself - seeing marriage as the ultimate outcome. But then his mother casually asked whether he would be proposing over the holidays and Rebecca started talking about delaying children for a few years after he got out of the Marines to give him time to adjust to civilian life. Initially Danny put his irritation down to cold feet. But as he stood in the jewelry store looking at diamond rings, he couldn't lie to himself - or her - any longer.

He didn't want to marry Rebecca.

Or, rather, he didn't want the life that marrying Rebecca would entail, the one that they had talked about and planned for years. A life where they settled down close to his hometown in Connecticut. One with a 9 to 5 job, a couple kids, and a house with a yard and white picket fence. A life outside the military.

Away from his team, his brothers.

Danny had seen guys successfully make the transition. His old team leader was now a statie in Massachusetts and Danny always figured he would go that route eventually. But then eventually became right now and, well, frankly he wasn't ready. But even that wasn't really true because Danny was pretty sure that not ready was code for was never going to be ready. Or, at least not on a timeframe that might work for Rebecca, because he wasn't talking about a year or two or even five. He was talking another twenty.

A lifetime.

Ultimately, they claimed that the breakup was mutual. Two people who grew apart over the years, their lifestyles incompatible, with each unwilling to make the sacrifices that marriage would have required. But Danny knew better. Rebecca had been nothing but understanding when, instead of getting down on one knee, he told her that he was re-upping. Heck, she offered to wait. To keep going on the way that they were, with him in Norfolk and her in Boston, seeing each other on weekends or during his leave. Or to give up the job she loved in order to find one closer to him. He was the one who balked because he knew, even as she brainstormed ideas, that it would never work.

Because when push came to shove, the team would always come first.

He had loved Rebecca. Hell, he still loved her. But he knew, deep in his heart, that she would always take second place. And she would never understand that, her job simply a job. Something she actually proved when she offered to give it up in order to move to Norfolk. Which meant that, ultimately, she would come to resent his work. Resent him. Hell, she probably already did. That was one way to explain the never-ending tension between Rebecca and Frankie.

So even as he hid from his friends in order to, as Frankie would no doubt claim, sulk, Danny knew that he made the right decision. No matter how much things currently sucked.

Annoyed at the direction of his thoughts, Danny picked up his phone. Maybe Frankie did have a point about his mood. Unfortunately, the wi-fi at this place was crap and Danny wasn't going to pay the astronomical international phone rates to scroll the web. Worse, Danny hadn't thought to download anything to read before he left. The resort shop might have some magazines but he was loathe to leave his hiding spot only to find himself with a choice between People and Cosmo.

Popping open a beer, Danny checked his watch, realizing that only thirty minutes had passed. Damn it. He glanced at the woman next to him. She was petite and muscular, her body nicely filling out the relatively conservative two-piece suit that she wore, her brunette hair pulled back in a ponytail. Pretty but no knock-out, especially in this crowd. He could see at least one other book tucked into the bag that sat next to her chair, although he couldn't see the title. A second glance confirmed that she didn't have a water bottle near her and, based on the last thirty minutes of being completely ignored, Danny guessed that the service in this hidden corner wasn't great. He hesitated for a few more minutes before speaking. "You have anything else to read?"

Her head turned in his direction but, with the large glasses, he couldn't see enough of her face to figure out what she was thinking. "Pardon?"

"I'm willing to trade a drink for something to read," he explained, holding up a beer and a water, giving her the choice.

He thought that she might have rolled her eyes before her attention returned to her book. "I doubt that we have the same taste in reading materials."

"Normally I'd agree, but most women aren't fans of military history," Danny said, more sharply than he intended, annoyed at the dismissal. "Although I might dispute whether the Coast Guard counts as military."

She lifted her head. "You've read Frozen in Time?"

"Not the way I would want to go," Danny replied. "Stuck in a hole in the ice."

"Me neither." She reached up, sliding her sunglasses down her nose to reveal dazzling hazel eyes and Danny revised his opinion of earlier. An eight rather than a six. "I'm Kara."

"Danny," he replied. He held out the beer and water. "Drink?"

"I'll take a water," she replied, and Danny tossed one over. She caught it easily, unsnapping the top and taking a sip before leaning down to her bag. He thought he saw her lips curl slightly before she spoke. "But not sure that The Girls of Atomic City is your style either."

He grimaced. "World War II, I assume?"

"Yup." A smile flitted across her lips and, for an instant, Danny felt himself tempted to close the distance between them and kiss her.

Dismissing the impulse on the grounds of too much vodka and too little food, he held out a hand. "Pass it over. It can't be worse than The Notebook."

"You read The Notebook?" Kara was definitely laughing at him.

"I was stuck on a plane with nothing to do," Danny explained. Upon opening Caroline's package and seeing what she sent, Danny had immediately tossed the novel onto the pile of books, movies, and magazines that were available for common use. It was only once they were on their way home from Iraq that Danny realized the guys switched out his new Tom Clancy for Nicholas Sparks. That had been after his first deployment, back when he was still the boot and subject to random razzing. "I wasn't a fan."

"I haven't read it," Kara replied. Having passed over Girls, she returned to her book, although Danny noticed that she left her sunglasses off. Maybe he hadn't completely lost his touch with the ladies. He moved the beer and water between their chairs, giving her the option of more, and cracked open the book.

Anything had to be better than sitting here thinking about Rebecca.