Chapter 11

Caden let out a deep breath. "Mallory, I couldn't take you to basic training with me. I asked you to wait for me and you broke up with me."

She folded her arms across her chest, pushing out her lower lip. "Well, I wanted to go."

"Mallory, you couldn't wait just eight weeks for me?" He pulled the car to a stop onto the side of the road, but kept the engine running. "Mallory, I asked you to marry me."

"When?" Mallory's eyes flared. "Yeah, and then I'd be engaged to a man that wasn't here. Then I'd be the wife of a sailor and I would have lost my chance at making it in California."

"Then why didn't you go?"

"I didn't want to go alone. Then after my parents died- I had my reasons." Mallory looked down, defeated. When she looked up, tears were in her eyes. "I thought you were going to take me away from all this. We had made plans to go to California together, and then you went and joined the Navy. Why?"

He shrugged. "For one thing, I wanted to serve my country, just as my father had.