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Uchh. He gives me the creeps.”
    “If you want him to back off, I have the perfect solution.”
    “Really? And what would that be?”
    “We could pretend the two of us are going out. He’ll back off if he thinks I like you.”
    “He won’t be mad at you for moving in on me?” I asked. “Don’t you guys have some sort of man code?”
    Justin laughed. “Nah, Don’s a former Marine. I’m practically a hero to him.”
    “I thought all you military people had some sort of rivalry thing going on between the different branches.”
    “We do. But I was a Corpsman when I was in the Navy, and if there’s one thing a Marine respects, it’s a Corpsman. He’d still be calling me Doc if I didn’t make him stop.”
    “What’s a Corpsman, and why would Don call you Doc?”
    “A Corpsman is kind of like what the Army calls their medics. We go out into the field with the Marines and if one of them gets injured we’re there to give them first aid. That’s where the nickname Doc comes from.”
    “I didn’t know that.” I felt kind of ignorant for not already knowing what Justin had just told me, but he didn’t seem offended by my lack of knowledge. “Is that how you got injured?”
    “Yeah.” Justin answered. He cast his eyes downward. Clearly his injury was something he didn’t feel comfortable talking about. I understood that, since I had a whole slew of things I didn’t like to talk about either. The weird thing was Justin looked totally normal, no scars at all. If he hadn’t told me about his medical discharge I wouldn’t have guessed that he’d suffered some sort of injury. Although, when I really thought about it, earlier it had looked like Justin walked with a slight limp. Maybe he’d had some kind of back or leg injury. Or maybe I was just imagining the limp. Maybe what he had was PTSD. I didn’t know too much about it, but I knew it was the type of injury that left people with invisible scars. An impulse came over me to reach for his hand across the table, but of course I didn’t actually do it.
    “So what does this pretend dating entail?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.
    “Nothing major. If Don sees the two of us spending time together he’s gonna put two and two together, and just assume we’re going out. And when he asks, I promise to be a perfect gentleman and not give him any juicy details about you.”
    “What juicy details?”
    He shrugged. “The tattoo you have on your shoulder.”
    I laughed. “I don’t have any tattoos.”
    “Yeah, but Don doesn’t know that.”
    “True, and he never will,” I said. “So I guess this means I owe you twice now.”
    “Twice?”
    “Once for lunch and then for rescuing me from Don.”
    Justin smiled again. The way his eyes sparkled made it hard to peel my eyes away from him. Good Lord, he was cute. Too cute, I reminded myself. Which meant getting involved with him wasn’t going to be anything but trouble for me.

Chapter 5
    Justin’s plan to trick Don into thinking we were dating, thereby making me off limits, didn’t take long to work. Don stared at me and Justin as we came back from lunch together, not quite holding hands, but familiar enough with each other that it got Don’s attention. We ate lunch together in the break room for the next few days. On Friday, before I started my first tutoring session, Don stopped by my classroom. He walked inside and leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest.
    “So, you and Justin, huh?”
    “Well, kinda.” I wanted him to think we were together without coming right out and admitting it.
    “You know, Justin’s a real good guy. You be good to him.”
    “I will.” Apparently, Justin had been right, Don really did seem to care for him genuinely. And for the past two weeks I’d been convinced that Don was nothing more than an old perv. Maybe there was actually more to him after all. Or maybe it was just the way Justin affected the people around him. Everyone at the