Page 4 of Jenny
“Sleep and more sleep.” Dare clicked on his email app. He leaned forward to take a closer look at the screen. “No way.”
“Everything okay?” Hamilton asked.
“Yeah.” Dare stared at the email from Jenny. “Just got an email from someone.”
“A woman?”
He half-laughed. “I think she’s a woman.”
“Whoa.” Hamilton’s visible concern made Dare straighten. “Back up, O’Rourke. You think? You don’t know?”
“I…” Might as well start at the beginning. “When I was on leave in the Florida Keys, I found a message in a bottle. There was an email address on it. The person wanted to know where the bottle was found, so I wrote back. This is her reply.”
“Catfish.”
“Maybe.” Dare thought about that reality show. Many people had been strung along by an online scammer pretending to be someone they weren’t. Although, hehadmade it clear he wasn’t looking for romance. “But she had no idea who would find the bottle or if they’d respond. She probably replied because she was lonely.”
Weren’t most people? Even though Dare was surrounded by amazing guys—his brothers-in-arms who would risk their lives for him—he was lonely at times.
“If she replied with a marriage proposal or nude pic, she’s catfishing,” Hamilton said.
If she had, Dare was hitting the delete key. Call him old-fashioned, but no.
“Guess we’ll find out.” He opened the email.
Re: Message in Bottle Found
Jenny <8675309@…>
To: DOR2008@…
You deduced the song reference correctly, however…
Jenny suffered only mild embarrassment, rather than death, after realizing someone read her message in the bottle. That led her to go hiking in the woods nearby. No one has heard from her since. Large footprints and splotches of dark, smelly fur were found at her last-known location.
Sasquatch lives. Possible soul mate? Let’s hope so for Jenny’s sake.
P.S. Embarrassed by Roswell? Never. Just because you haven’t seen a UFO doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
P.P.S. I haven’t seen a UFO myself, but the documentaries on Roswell are fascinating. Watch one if you get the chance. It happened!
Dare laughed. No marriage proposal or nude pic, but Jenny was funny. A little off the wall, but he’d known that from her bottle message.
Hamilton read the email when Dare tilted the phone toward him. “Good sense of humor. Sounds smart. A little geeky. I think you’ve found yourself a girl. Write her back.”
“I have no idea who she is or if she’s even real. Why would I keep this going?”
Hamilton looked around as if to see if anyone was near. No one stood close enough to overhear. “Because this is the biggest smile I’ve seen on your face in over a year. It’s time you moved on, Dare.”
That was the first time he’d heard Hamilton use his nickname in months. Not since Mitch had been promoted to staff sergeant.
“I’ve moved on,” Dare said.
“Really?”
The disbelief in Hamilton’s voice made Dare bristle. What could he say?
There hadn’t been much for him to smile about. A year and a half ago, he’d discovered his girlfriend, Kayla, was cheating on him with his best friend, Brock. Dare had been planning to propose. Instead, his trust had been betrayed by the two people closest to him in the worst possible way. At least Brock had transferred to a different company. Seeing him every day would have sucked.
