We pulled out onto the street and I tried to relax into my seat, but it wasn’t really happening. I was always a little nervous riding with new people, and on top of that, I was closed in with the guy I’d been thinking about for weeks.

“Thank you for what you did earlier,” I said, glancing at him.

“Of course,” he replied, flexing his fingers on the steering wheel.

He didn’t say anything else, and the silence stretched into awkwardness while I searched for something to say.

“I thought you told Sean that someone named Clover was going with you?” I finally asked, grasping at straws.

“That’s Keegan,” Alex replied. “His name’s Keegan Clovis.”

“But you call him Clover?”

Alex grinned and glanced at me before turning his gaze back to the road.

“You can’t smile like that and not tell me why,” I said, turning my body toward him a little.

“It goes back to when we first met,” Alex said. “Me and Clover both got stationed here around the same time, and as the new guys, we didn’t have many friends, you know? So we exchanged numbers, planning to hang out at some point, but that same night I get a call at like two in the morning.” He looked at me again, and I felt my heart do this weird thump. He was really gorgeous. “Turns out, the caller is Keegan. He asks me to come pick him up at some house off base. I bitch and moan, but I do it, right? The guy doesn’t know anyone but me, and I can’t just leave him stranded.”

“That was nice of you,” I replied.

“Oh, it was worth it,” Alex said. “I get to this house and all the lights are off, and I’m wondering what the hell is going on. I just happen to glance at the field across the street, and there’s Keegan, doing a little shimmy in nothing but a pair of cowboy boots, using a hat to cover his junk.”

“No,” I said, laughing.

“Oh yeah. Turns out the lady was married, and Keegan had to bail out the window bare-assed naked.” Alex laughed.

“But where did the name Clo—oh,” I said as it all became clear. “He was standing in a field of clover, wasn’t he?”

“Yep,” Alex answered as he pulled into the parking lot. “Kind of perfect that his last name was Clovis.”

I laughed. “What do you two do in the Army?” I asked as he parked and we climbed out of the truck.

“Nothing exciting,” he said with a laugh. “I’m just a grunt—infantry.”

“I have no idea what that means,” I confessed.

“I’m just a soldier,” he said with a grin as he gestured for me to walk into the store ahead of him. “That’s my specialty. Nothing fancy.”