His parents were spending Christmas at a movie set this year in Mexico - and while he could have gone, it just didn't seem any fun to hang out in Cancun with his parents when instead he could take over the Malibu beach house with a dozen of his closest friends from the Academy.

Mom had looked pretty skeptical at the idea, but really. 12 future Naval officers. What could possibly go wrong? (Everything, obviously, but he'd never admit it.)

Still, they'd actually been pretty well-behaved. There was obviously drinking - obviously - but unlike his Hollywood friends, they weren't about to get into anything harder. They had careers to think about, and none of them would get the elite assignments they all wanted if they started dabbling in coke and heroin.

Tonight, a bunch of them were talking about taking one of the cars and heading into Malibu proper to go to a club. He'd probably join them if they ever got their asses moving, but for the moment he was perfectly happy to hang out on one of the decks facing the ocean with a beer in hand and watch the tide come in.

Goddamn, Ollie thought as he took a drink, but he'd missed California.