He paid the check and waited for her proceed him out the front door of the diner.
The crowds of servicemen had thinned out, most likely because they'd found a movie they wanted to see or a restaurant they wanted to eat at. Danny worried earlier as he was driving around that it might trigger an attack of claustrophobia with Ann and wanted to get her inside as soon as he could. But it didn't seem to have affected her.
"We never did decide on a movie, did we?" She commented as they walked to his car.
"No we didn't. Is there anything you really want to see?" He asked as he started to open the passenger door for her.
"I haven't seen your quarters yet." The suggestion seemed innocent enough but Danny knew better than to fall for her idea.
"You know we can't do that."
She smiled. "I know, I just thought I would ask."
He grinned back. "I'll give you a gold star for the effort."
"I'd rather see your quarters."
He nodded. "I know but you're not going to. So with that off the table, do you want to see a movie?"
"It doesn't really matter. As long as we're together, that's the important thing." She shrugged her shoulders and the urge to kiss her came over him again.
"That is the important thing. So why don't we go across the street to see what's playing and then we can spend a couple of hours together." He smiled at her.
"All right." She agreed as he let go of the door handle and took her hand in his. They walked across the street and studied the marquis before deciding on a movie they could both watch and Danny paid for the tickets.
"Popcorn?" He asked as they passed the concession counter.
Ann shook her head. "No thank you, I'm still full from dinner."
"They sure didn't skimp on the portions." He commented. "We should go there again sometime."
Danny found a couple of spots in the back row that Ann referred to as 'Nose Bleed' seats even though he explained that he wanted to be able to see the whole screen. The fact of the matter was he had already thought out the situation, as a good officer always did. He figured that once the lights went down, with no one behind them and few people in front of them he might just get that kiss he'd wanted since he picked her up earlier that evening. It was because of that, that the movie wasn't important. What was important as Ann said, they were together.
The lights eventually went down and the overture began as the credits began to roll. Danny reached over for her hand and without hesitation she laced her fingers through his. He glanced over at her and she seemed engrossed in watching the opening dialog in what turned out to be a war movie.
It seemed that with the war in Vietnam escalating, a lot of movies about the Second World War had come out in the last few years. He wasn't sure why and his dad didn't think it was right to glorify such a thing, even though what they fought for was for all the right reasons. Danny had yet to experience war himself and his feelings about it were mixed.
He felt Ann's head on his shoulder and heard her sigh. "I hate war movies."
"We don't have to stay if you don't want to." He offered.
"But you paid for the tickets, it wouldn't be right to leave without watching." She sighed again.
Now was his chance.
"We can stay if you want to, but we don't have to watch the movie." Was all he said and he waited for her to fully understand what he was getting at.
"What is it about you and dark places?" She finally said.
Danny grinned and squeezed her hand. "I only think about dark places when I'm with you."
"I think there's a compliment in there somewhere." She said quietly and he could sense that she was trying not to laugh. "So if we're not going to watch the movie, you must have something in mind."
"I have something in mind." He answered just as quietly before he leaned over and kissed her. It was something of a shock because it had a few weeks since he'd last kissed her and it was sweeter than he remembered. It must have been a bit of a shock for her too because she pulled away. "You've got magic in your lips Annie."
"I was about to say the same thing about you Lieutenant." Her husky voice made him smile and he kissed her again.
The second time she didn't balk and her hands seemed to know exactly where they wanted to go. They left a trail of goose bumps up his chest as they moved to join around his neck as she kissed him back and left no doubt that she'd missed him as much as he'd missed her.
His own hands found their way around her waist and pulled her as close as the arm rest between them would allow and he laughed. "It's a good thing that thing is there or we might be in some serious trouble."
"It's a good thing we're here and not your quarters or we'd really be in some serious trouble." She added.
"Be quiet Ann, I'm trying to watch the movie." He smiled as his lips found hers, still warm from his kiss He felt her smile and then heard her frustrated sigh.
"This isn't going to work." She whispered as she got up from her seat and walked to the exit.
Danny had no choice but to follow her out to the lobby. "My quarters are still out of the question. So what were you thinking of doing?"
"There's still daylight and we haven't been for a walk on the beach in awhile." She suggested.
"You'd rather go for a walk on the beach than neck with me in a dark theater." He teased her. "I think there's an insult in there somewhere."
Her face flushed as she smiled. "It's not what I would rather do but the way things always seem to progress with us it's probably the prudent thing to do."
"A walk it is then." He agreed as he took her hand and walked with her out of the theater. They waited for a couple of cars to pass before crossing the street and Danny walked her around to the passenger side and opened the door. "You may not believe this, but I'm glad you stopped things when you did."
She looked a little dubious at his admission. "You are?"
"I am because it reminds me that the reason I want to spend time with you isn't just so I can kiss you, that's just a bonus." He grinned as she sat down and then closed the door. "It also reminds me that the reason I want to spend time with you is that I feel good when we're together."
He walked around the front of the car and checked for traffic before he opened his door and got in. It didn't take him long to drive down to the beach and he found a place to park. He shut down the engine and after he got out of the car walked back to the trunk and pulled out a folded blanket. He got in the habit of leaving one there when he was still in high school because sometimes when he would finish his job at the Oahu Market he would go to the beach and study instead of going home and sitting in his room. He hadn't heard Ann get out of the car when he looked up to see her standing in front of him.
"We don't need a blanket to walk." She commented.
"I know. But I just realized that we got here in time to watch the sun set, if you want to. I haven't had the time since I've been home."
"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" Ann smiled at him as he closed the trunk and took her hand in his free one.
"That's the way it should be, don't you think?" He asked her as they walked onto the sand.
They trudged down toward the water and Danny could feel a stiff breeze coming off of the ocean. It always refreshed him to feel the air on his face and usually managed to blow the cobwebs out of his brain when he'd been working too hard. That was one of the reasons that he'd talked Hank into jogging with him every afternoon.
As he'd hoped, the sun was beginning to sink low in the sky and he looked for a spot to put the blanket down. It hadn't been his intention to look for a secluded spot for them but one just seemed to appear and it occurred to Danny that Ann would think he'd planned it. But luck seemed to be with him that early evening because she spotted it too and suggested that he put the blanket down there. He played along as though he hadn't seen it and asked her if she was sure.
"What's wrong Lieutenant, afraid I might ravish you?" She laughed as he shook the blanket out and set it down on the warm sand.
"That is not something I'm afraid of Annie, it's something I'm looking forward to." He grinned back at her.
He watched as she flushed, predictably but suddenly she was serious. "What are you afraid of Danny?"
He held out his hand to her and she took it as he helped her to sit. She slipped her shoes off and curled her feet under her as he sat down next to her and kicked off his loafers. He put his arms around his knees and looked out at the orange ball of the sun that was sinking down on the horizon. "I'm afraid of what could happen when I have to go out on those last two training missions. I'm afraid of what could happen once I get put into the rotation because there's always the possibility of getting shot down and being captured. And if it were to happen that I got shot down I think I'd rather die in the crash than get put in a prisoner of war camp."
"But at least in a POW camp you'd be alive." She reasoned as she touched his arm and her voice was soft.
"And from what those pilots told us, there were plenty of times they wished that they were dead."
He felt her head on his shoulder as she slipped her arm through his. "This isn't exactly the way I pictured our first date ending up, talking about combat and POW camps."
"Remember what I told you? If we're going to make a go of this, these are things you'll have to know. If it's not something you think you can deal with then we need to make some decisions before we get in too deep."
"I'm already in too deep, so I'll have to learn to live with it." Her voice had gotten tight and came out as a whisper.
He glanced down at her and tears had begun to roll down her cheeks. He put his arms around her and he felt her arms around his neck, holding him tight and he tried to soothe her. "I'm sorry Ann, I didn't mean to make you cry."
She nodded as though to let him know she knew that but it wasn't enough to get her to calm down. Danny didn't know what else to do so he stretched out on the blanket and took her with him. His only intention was to hold her so he could try and comfort her in some way but as she stretched out next to him and he felt her so snug against him he quickly realized that it was a bad idea.
When she kissed him, it all went to hell in a hand basket.
He couldn't help but remember wondering what it would be like to be in a tangle of arms and legs with her as they necked on the beach and he was finding out in a hurry. The only thing was, it wasn't what she needed, even if she didn't think so. He tried to slow things down by keeping his kisses gentle and not letting his hands go where they wanted. But she seemed to have set a course for them and where that going to end, he didn't want to find out. Not like that.
As gently as he could, he took her arms from around his neck and put her far enough away from him so that he could get up and he brought her with him. She looked confused and her eyes were red from crying. "What are you doing?"
"Cooling things off." He told her as he took her by the hand and pulled her off the blanket toward the water's edge.
"Danny." She seemed to realize what he was about to do and literally dug her heels into the sand and tugged on his hand. "Don't you dare!"
"It's for your own good and it won't do me any harm either." He was chastising himself for allowing his body to respond to her when it wasn't what she needed. She kept stalling and tried to pull her hand out of his grasp. "I'll carry you in if I have to."
"You wouldn't dare." She challenged. He heard the anger in her voice and knew that he'd diverted her attention from talk of combat and the feel of their bodies so close together.
"I dare." He answered the challenge and picked her up. She struggled in his arms and he wondered again if what he was doing was such a good idea because she felt so good against him. He walked out into the water and when he got waist deep, dropped her in. She let out a squeak of surprise as she hit the water and went under. When she came back up a moment later she started to laugh.
"I guess I deserved that."
"I didn't know what else to do." He admitted and laughed with her. "I've never felt compelled to drop a girl in the ocean before."
"Well, I've never felt compelled to pull an Air Force pilot in either." She answered and caught him off guard because the next thing Danny knew Ann grabbed his hands and with help from the outgoing tide pulled him in with her. When he came up she was nearly chest high in water and she was laughing.
"You look like a drowned rat Annie." He smiled.
"Well if I look like a drowned rat, what does that make you?" She kept laughing and Danny was relieved to see that her good spirits had returned.
"It makes me a very wet Air Force pilot." He grinned at her.
"A very handsome Air Force pilot in my opinion."
Her eyes were fairly glowing and Danny's heart did an odd flip. He was falling in love with her; he knew that now and wondered if she was feeling the same way about him. "You're defeating the whole purpose of this little dip in the ocean when you look at me like that."
"Have you ever kissed a girl in the ocean?" She asked as she backed up.
"I can't say that I have."
"Now's your chance." She laughed again and he waded over to her.
"Do your parents have any idea what a little vixen you are?" He asked as he put his arms around her and pulled her against him.
"How could they when I'm only a vixen with you." Ann looked into his eyes and put her arms around his neck.
"I'm flattered." He leaned over and kissed her. And before he had the chance to react because he wasn't expecting it, Ann leaned back and they went in the water again.
When they came up Danny glanced at the horizon and the sun was nearly down. "Come on Miss Vixen. We came here to watch the sunset."
"Only if you carry me." She smiled. "You carried me in here, so I think it's only fair that you carry me out."
"Fair enough." He agreed and it took some effort because her water logged state made her heavier but he picked her up, walked with her out of the water and carried her back to where they'd been sitting. After he put her back on her feet he sat down, settled her between his knees and wrapped them up in the large blanket.
She leaned against his chest and as they watched the sun finish setting, she sighed.
"What was that for?" He smiled at her as he rested his cheek on her hair.
"This is the nicest first date I've ever had." She snuggled against him and he wrapped the blanket even tighter around them.
He couldn't help but hope that this would be his last first date, ever.
"For me too Annie, for me too."