Read Camouflaged (Hiding From Love #0.5) for Free Online Page A

tell you about what happened to Nick someday, but now’s not the time. He’ll be fine though. Back out there wandering around like a lost puppy before I can get home I’m sure.” I took my index finger and gently wiped the tear away.
    She sniffed then blushed again and dropped her head down as she looked at our booted feet. “Sorry. I’m kind of an idiot sometimes. I used to cry over cheesy commercials even.”
    My voice came out gruff when I answered her, and my throat felt thick and awkward. “You’re not an idiot, you care about people. Maybe too much sometimes, but that’s better than caring too little. The world needs people like you, Alexis. If they were all like me everyone would kill each other and civilization would end.”
    She giggled and gave me a little push in the chest. My heart thumped – again, again, again .
    “You know what I think?” she asked. “I think you’re a lot nicer guy than you let on.”
    I shook my head at her, but I was smiling.
    “You said there were two reasons you joined up. Nick was the first, so what was the second?”
    I sighed, wishing I hadn’t started this. “Well, I’ve got a single mom. She’s the secretary for the Lieutenant Governor of California, so it’s a great job, but it’s still government pay and long hours. She really struggled while I was growing up, and as soon as I finished high school, I wanted to help her out. The military was the fastest way to get decent pay that I could send back home to her. I’ve got her putting most of it in an extra retirement account so she’ll be very comfortable when she can’t work anymore.”
    Alexis looked at me with those sweet brown eyes, and the little freckles across her nose stood out in the weird tinted light that accompanied the sandstorm.
    “That’s incredible,” she said to me with awe. “I can’t imagine being the one to support your parent at our age. I mean, I’ve got some loans for school, but I rely on my parents for almost everything. You are a way better guy than you let on.”
    I felt that familiar ache in my midsection. Not this. Not the expectations. Expectations were my enemy because I knew I couldn’t meet them. My full-time job was killing those damn expectations in their infancy before they could take hold and ruin my fucking life.
    “No, babe, I’m really not. I’m every bit the asshole you first thought I was, but even assholes have mothers.”
    She shook her head. “Nope. Not buying it. Why do you work so hard at making everyone hate you?”
    It took every bit of my willpower not to back out of that tiny space and head off into the sandstorm. This was the moment when I’d normally run far, far away. It’s what my dad had done, and I was one hundred percent his boy. But stuck in a situation where I couldn’t escape, I had to figure out a different way to deal.
    I looked down at her beautiful face though, and I couldn’t think of a single thing to say except the truth. It poured out of me against my will, and the whole time some little part of my brain was screaming, This will ruin you .
    “My dad. I was seven when he left me and my mom high and dry. I can hardly remember him, but I do remember that day. Him standing there next to his big pickup truck while my mom sobbed and hit him over and over. He took her by the arms and shoved her away and said, ‘You can cry all you want, darlin’, but I’m not coming back. I wasn’t meant for all this, and you can’t change who I am.’ He couldn’t be bothered to say even that much to me. No ‘Goodbye, kid,’ nothing. After that, it was weeks before my mom could leave the house again. By the time she got it together, child protective services was threatening to take me away and our house was in foreclosure.”
    I heard Alexis suck in her breath, and her face turned pale as her eyes dropped away from mine. Good. Maybe this was the best way. Let her hear it all. Then she’d know who she was really dealing with.
    “Years later,