A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(4)

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.