Page 39 of Chasing Amanda

“Thank you, ma’am. I appreciate that.”

She hung up, and Amanda’s father cleared his throat. “Listen, son. It’s not that I don’t appreciate what you did for my daughter. I do.”

Uh-oh.

This couldn’t be good.

“But you’re obviously quite older than she is.”

“Six years.” He refrained from adding the only, though it was on the tip of his tongue.

“It’s not just the years,” Paul said. “You’re a soldier, about to go off to war.”

A Marine, not a soldier, but he didn’t correct him as he wandered down the hallway and stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. Whatever her father wanted to say, Mark had a feeling he might need some privacy.

“My brother went to Vietnam,” Paul continued, “and it changed him. You might not come home the same.”

Mark heard what the man wasn’t saying.

You might not come home at all.

“I’m sure you’re a good guy, but she’s my daughter, and I’m only trying to protect her. I’m just saying, maybe you shouldn’t make her any promises. Just keep it casual until you get home. Encourage her to see other people, and you do the same, and then, when you get out, if you both still feel the same way⁠—”

“You’re right.” The words twisted his insides, but he forced himself to add, “Of course you’re right. I told her the same thing last night, but she can be persuasive, and… Well, she’s amazing, so I let her…” He took a breath.

He didn’t want to end things with Amanda.

But he needed to.

He’d decided a long time ago that he didn’t want to get married. He didn’t want to commit himself to a woman. His dad had stuck it out with his mother throughout their long, terrible marriage, when Mark would’ve bailed years before. He’d told his father as much, more than once.

The Marines wouldn’t have to change him. Battle wouldn’t have to change him. Mark already didn’t want what Amanda would expect from him. Mark already knew he wasn’t the man for her or any woman. And he didn’t want to be.

No matter what he felt for her, this weekend had been a fantasy.

One Amanda’s father had seen right through.

“I’ll end it today.”

“I’m not saying⁠—”

“Don’t worry.” Mark swallowed all his feelings. “This has nothing to do with you. She needs someone who can be with her now, not some Marine half a world away.” Not a guy who, even if he kept himself from getting blown up in Afghanistan, would bail at the first sign of trouble.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Amanda had been tempted to listen through the door at Mark’s end of the conversation. What was he hiding from her? Didn’t he know her parents would tell her everything?

Knowing that, she hadn’t bothered. She was elbow-deep in dishes when Mark walked in. “I need to go. I have to call my parents and let them know I won’t be home today. And make sure it’s okay with Justin if I stay until tomorrow.”

Her heart did a backflip. “You’re staying?”

“I have to give my statement tomorrow.”

“Should we do something, or⁠—?”

“I’m sorry.” He set her phone on the counter. “This thing between you and me… It’s not going to work.”

“What?” She must have misheard him. But her heart thumped, and her pulse raced, and her voice was barely a whisper. “I don’t understand. What…what are you saying?”