A Few Good Men Read Online Free PDF

least two other times, but it still got to her.
    She reached for a paper napkin from the kitchen table. Dabbing at her eyes, she glanced at the skeptical face of her supposed best friend. “See what I mean, Peter? Wasn’t that sweet? How can any guy I date now compete with that?”
    Hand on his hips, Peter set his jaw and shook his head. “Please don’t tell me you’re falling for this guy. He’s married—and do not throw Maurice in my face since I didn’t know he was married at the time.” Peter held up one finger to silence any protest and continued. “And besides the married thing, he’s somewhere in Iraq for Christ’s sake.”
    Maureen threw her hands up in the air. “Jeez, Peter. You too? Why the hell does everyone think I’m incapable of writing an email to a guy without falling in love with him? Am I that pitiful?”
    Peter raised one brow as if to say yes, she was that pitiful. With friends like him, she didn’t need enemies.
    With a sigh, she shook her head. “And to answer your question, no, I’m not falling in love with him. We’re just pen pals.”
    Peter sat in the opposite chair and leaned forward. “Then why does reading his email make you cry? Why haven’t you been on a successful date in months, since about the time you joined this soldier website? Huh? What’s the problem if not him?”
    He was correct about one thing—after she’d started getting to know Jazzy and the other soldiers, regular men paled in comparison.
    Maureen sighed and searched for the words. “What I’m trying to show you is all the letters I receive are like that. Some of them are more formal and call me ma’am, which I don’t particularly like, but they are all grateful and appreciative and tell me how wonderful I am, sometimes for doing as little as sending an email or a postcard. And they talk about risking their lives for each other and for their country. They work seven days a week, even on holidays, sometimes twenty-four hours straight. They’re honorable and hardworking men. And then I go out on a date here with some guy and all he does is talk about himself and tell me he wants to get rich quick on some scheme so he can retire before he turns thirty-five and do nothing for the rest of his life.”
    Peter screwed up his face but didn’t deny the truth of it. He’d heard her complaining about all her bad dates pretty much since he had known her. “That last date you went on was just a particularly bad one.”
    “No, ya think?” She responded with as much sarcasm as she could muster.
    Maureen remembered her last date asking her to cover half the restaurant bill even though he had drunk twice as much as she had and had eaten the most expensive thing on the menu. Although at that point, she didn’t want to owe him anything, so she’d gladly handed over the cash.
    “You can’t judge all males by him. Please don’t, since I’m one of them.”
    “You’re gay. You don’t count.”
    Peter raised his brow. “Thanks, I think.”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “Sure, I know what you mean. You only want to get close to either gay men or soldiers deployed on the other side of the globe. Ridiculously unattainable, safe men who you can’t fall for and get hurt by because you, missy, are afraid of actually getting what you think you want…a real relationship.”
    “That is not it.”
    “No?”
    “No. Think about it. Think of all the single guys I’ve dated lately. They are proof that there are exactly two groups of decent males left in the world. Gay men and military men.”
    Peter smirked. “I have to tell you that this plan of dating only gay men or deployed soldiers doesn’t look so good if you ever want to have sex again. Although from what I found in your bedside drawer when I was looking for a nail file the other day, maybe you don’t need a man to have sex with.”
    Maureen felt her face color when she pictured her little battery-operated friend in the drawer Peter spoke of. He broke out