A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)

Garrett was hurting too. He’d spent the past six months being her rock and making sure she remembered to eat, shower, work, and anything else she forgot to do when the memories and sadness threatened to overwhelm her. He needed her to be strong for once, and she was determined to do just that. Even if it meant she had to celebrate her birthday.

“Fine. But I draw the line at strangers crowding around the table singing ‘Happy Birthday’ like a bunch of jackasses.”

“Deal.” Garrett laughed.

They turned and made their way across the beach and up the stairs to her condo talking about birthdays past.

An hour and a half later they were seated at a back corner table at Sorrento’s just finishing up their meal. Sorrento’s was a small, family owned restaurant on the outskirts of town. The tables were covered with green vinyl and the booths with red leather. Pictures of Italy and old Sicilian families littered the walls and the white, silk carnation covered in dust in the center of their table had seen better days. Garrett liked to tease Parker by calling her favorite place a “hole in the wall.” Luckily, the amazing food made up for the less than perfect atmosphere.

Parker was wiping the corner of her mouth with her napkin as Garrett sat watching her.

His best friend was gorgeous. There was no denying that. If it was possible, she was even more beautiful than the first day he met her, and he was stunned stupid when he laid eyes on her all those years ago in the coffee shop just off campus.

After a quick shower at her condo when they had got back from the beach earlier, she had let her naturally wavy hair air dry. The auburn waves had golden highlights from the sun and hung down past her shoulders.

He watched as she used her fingers to sweep her long bangs out of her eyes at the dinner table. Garrett always had the urge to do that for her. How many times had the three of them, and some random hook-up he’d found, been out to dinner over the years when his hand would raise on its own accord to smooth the hair away from her face? One time he even had to pass it off by quickly signaling the waitress for another drink.

Even if Parker didn't like celebrating her birthday, she still liked dressing up and going out. When she had got out of the shower, she chose an olive colored strapless mini dress that had a relaxed top all the way down to her hips. It hugged the tops of her thighs and her perfectly round bottom tightly, featuring gold-studded detailing that accentuated her toned physique. This was her favorite dress to wear when her skin started to darken from the summer sun and she was in the mood to feel sexy.

She was glad Garrett chose to dress up as well. He looked good in anything he wore, but when she stood up from her spot in the sand earlier and saw him in a pair of black dress pants and a long sleeved blue button down with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, it was enough to make her mouth water. It reminded her that it had been far too long since she last saw him in the clean, crisp lines of his Navy Service Dress Whites. The pants, with a permanent military crease that ran down the front, showed off his muscular legs, and the tailored jacket hugged his well-defined chest and broad shoulders. How many times had she stood in rapt attention when he shot his cuffs and adjusted his collar?

Her precarious thoughts were threatening to consume her, so it was a good thing Garrett chose that moment to place a small, gift-wrapped box on the table in front of her as the waitress cleared their plates.

Parker’s eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together, practically bouncing up and down in her seat with excitement.

"You hate birthdays yet pee your pants over presents. There is clearly something wrong with you," Garrett joked.

"Shut up and give me my present," she replied with a sassy tone.

He shook his head and laughed as he slid the box across the table towards her.

She reached out and snatched it up into her hands and tore the wrapping paper off in three seconds flat.

"Hey, I took a lot of care wrapping that present and you didn't even appreciate it." Garrett pouted.

"Oh you did not," she fired back. "You wouldn't know how to wrap a present if your life depended on it. Who did you con into doing your dirty work for you this time?" She asked with a raise of one of her eyebrows. "Tiffani with an 'I', Bambi, Destiny..."

Garrett feigned a look of indignation that she would suggest such a thing, but unfortunately she was right.

Over the years he never had a shortage of women at his disposal. Some would say he was trying to overcompensate for the fact that the only woman he had ever wanted, he could never have. But Garrett would never say that. He was just bored and he tired easily of the same thing day after day. He needed variety. It was the spice of life after all, right?

Parker slid open one of the flaps of the box, and Garrett gave up the staring contest. He would never win anyway. She knew him too well.

"Alright, fine. It was Buffy," he admitted with a roll of his eyes.

She barked out a laugh at his attempt to hide who he really was from her. She'd seen so many women come and go from his life over the years that she couldn't keep up. She never understood why he didn't just find a nice girl and settle down, even though the thought of it made her chest ache.

The smile dropped from her face when she opened up the last flap and saw what was in the box.

Garrett bit his lip nervously, worried about her reaction to the gift. Every year for her birthday his friend had showered her with lavish, expensive jewelry: diamond earrings, a ruby necklace, an emerald bracelet. Every year Garrett tried to convince him to give Parker something more meaningful. Something she wanted and wished for. Something that actually showed he cared and not how much money he shelled out. Parker wasn't the flashy jewelry type but every year he draped her in expensive gemstones that Garrett rarely, if ever, saw her wear.

He sat there second-guessing his decision for sixty-eight seconds while Parker stared wordlessly down into the box. Was she sad that she didn't get her usual gift of jewelry? Did it make her miss him even more? Garrett wanted to try and keep things the same for her this year, but it just didn't seem right to buy her something he usually did. That was one thing he couldn't do.

Before he could panic for another second, Parker’s voice rang out, causing several of the other patrons to look their way.

"Oh my God. Garrett, where did you find this? I can't believe you did this!"

The smile on Parker’s face grew so big she thought she might get a cramp in her cheek. She had been looking for a lens to fit her mother's camera for three years. She had called every photography store all over the world and no one carried it anymore. She knew her camera was a dinosaur, but she couldn't bring herself to part with it. That camera was the only thing she had left of her mother since her father had decided to give every single thing to Goodwill two days after she died. Thank God her mother had given her the camera long before then.

Parker delicately pulled the long, black cylinder out of the box and turned it around every which way to get a good look at it.

"Garrett, I can't believe you found this. How in the world...where did...it must have..."

Listening to her fumble with words and reverently inspect the lens made Garrett realize he had made the right decision with the gift. Not to mention the fact that hearing her speak his name made him twitch in his pants. When Garrett and Milo had met Parker, she quickly became one of them and adopted their ingrained military habit of calling everyone by their surname. It had been too long since he had heard his first name tumble past her lips.

"I cannot reveal my sources, Parker. Let's just say that sometimes it pays to have top secret military clearance," Garrett said with a wink.

The funny thing was Parker was pretty sure he wasn't joking. Knowing his way around computers like he did definitely had its perks.

Parker gently placed the lens back in the box, stood up, and made her way around to where Garrett sat. He tossed the napkin from his lap onto the table and stood up quickly as soon as she left her chair, always the gentleman. When she got to him, she didn’t hesitate to mold her body to his and wrap her arms around his neck.

Parker was a hugger. He had learned that about her quickly, and over the years Garrett had to try not to cringe whenever she got too close to him. He would never admit just how much it excited him when she pressed her body into to his and he could feel every single inch of her curves and softness. And therein laid the problem. When she got that close, he got excited—literally. Her skin, her smell, her breasts pushing up against his chest, all of it made his dick stand at attention. But of course he chalked that up to a normal reaction he would have around any gorgeous woman.

Garrett quickly wrapped his arms around Parker and returned the hug. Anything else would just be rude. They were friends, after all, and friends hugged all the time.

“Thank you so much, Garrett. The gift is perfect,” she whispered against his cheek. Her warm breath floating around his ear and the way she softly said his name again made him grind his teeth. She always smelled like coconuts, beach, and fresh air, and tonight was no different. He breathed her in and held the scent inside his lungs, letting it burrow down inside him like he always did.

Parker pulled her head away so she could look at his face, and her breath caught in her throat. His usual pale blue eyes had darkened, and he stared at her like she was something to eat. Butterflies beat furiously in her stomach but as soon as she blinked, the look was gone, replaced by soft eyes and a friendly smile. She forced herself to smile back at him and not make the moment awkward, even though she was still wrapped tightly in his arms. She wondered, not for the first time, what he would do if she leaned forward and kissed him. Their faces were so close she wouldn’t need to move very far. Just a few small inches and her lips could be pressed up against his, and she could finally see if he tasted as good as he looked.

“I’m sure you’d probably rather have a diamond bracelet or watch like all the other years, but my measly gift will have to do.”

Garrett tried to inject humor into his voice, but he knew exactly what he was doing when he said those words.

He was putting the wall back up between them. With one sentence, he made her feel guilty for staring at his mouth and pressing up against him. It was like he knew exactly where her thoughts were headed, and he wanted to put an end to them before they even began. His loyalty was always something Parker admired about him. Even though it wasn’t his idea to apply to the Naval Academy, the education was top notch and the lessons he learned there were part of him now. He was military through and through—and loyal to a fault. She was his best friend’s girl, end of story. It didn’t matter if his best friend was gone. That was just the way it had to be.

Garrett paid the bill and as they walked out into the warm night air, Parker linked her arm through his and rested her head on his shoulder. She wouldn’t allow her feelings to ruin anything between them. Regardless of what she felt, Garrett was her friend first. She couldn’t bear the thought of ever losing him.

He smiled as he looked down at her. Being with Parker was the only time he was ever truly happy. It was also the only time he felt guilty, confused, and pissed off at the way his life had turned out.

They walked arm-in-arm down the sidewalk, the silence between them easy, just like always.

A sparkle suddenly caught his eye when the bright light of the moon hit the diamond ring hanging on a chain around her neck, dousing his good mood like a bucket of ice water. Parker took to wearing the ring around her neck a few months ago. That four carat princess cut solitaire had always been a reminder of just how much he had screwed up when he first met her. Right then it was a reminder of the news he had to tell her.

Garrett wanted more than anything to not have to tell Parker on her birthday, but he had no choice.

Garrett stopped in the middle of the sidewalk right outside her condo and turned to face Parker, a serious expression on his face. She knew immediately that something was wrong. And if she was being honest, she knew something was wrong when she first saw him today. At the time she just chalked it up to the typical melancholy that came with the daily reminders there was one person missing from their threesome.

She knew better now as she watched him shove his hands in his pockets and look down at his feet instead of at her.

Being the receiver of plenty of bad news over the years, Parker held her breath out of habit as he started to speak.

"I'm not going to draw this out or try to sugar coat it. I know you well enough to know you'll see through any attempt I try at making this easier for you. I've been given new orders. I ship out tomorrow," Garrett stated bluntly.

She let out the breath she'd been holding and looked at him in confusion.

"But you're a tech guy. They only use you when it’s an emergency, right? Aren’t you like...their last resort?”

Parker knew the risks of being friends with someone in the military. She was also well aware of the main risk of loving someone that was in the military - they could be ordered away at any time. Being a Navy SEAL obviously meant you were always at their beck and call. Garrett shuffled his feet and smoothed his hand down his face like he was trying to wipe away his emotions. He chewed on his bottom lip and looked anywhere but at her, all telltale signs he was nervously thinking of a way to drop something else in her lap. Parker reached up and placed her hand on his cheek, forcing him to look her in the eyes.

"Thank you so much for the vote of confidence. Technically, yes, I’m only called in when it’s absolutely necessary. But I volunteered to do this job when it was first brought to my attention," he admitted quietly.

Parker searched his eyes, trying to see what was going on inside his head. He was nervous. And it scared the hell out of her. Garrett didn’t get nervous. He was a rock, stable and steady, never losing focus or faltering in any way.