by Linda Ellen
Finally, Paul broke the bewilderment.
“So that’s what’s been up his—I mean what’s been stuck in his craw all this time.” He turned and gave Gary’s arm a light smack. “It wasn’t you at all, kid, it was your old man!”
Several hours later, Gary watched as his father held Mrs. Wheeler’s chair at the expensive Forge Restaurant on the other end of Miami Beach.
They had toured the school, where Gary had shown them his quarters—enjoyed riding in the elevator for the first time in seventeen weeks, and had introduced them to various instructors and fellow students as they walked through the military district of Miami Beach. They had parted company with his friends not long after Bigelow had made his shocking statement, and Gary knew that Bloch was planning on tying one on and finding a “babe” with which to celebrate his accomplishment. Gary felt a bit sorry for his friend, as he had no family to come and see him or offer congratulations, but he had declined Gary’s offer to stay with them.
“Thank you, Gareth,” Charise murmured, looking up at Gary’s father with blatant affection. It pleased Gary to see his father once again enjoying the love of a good woman.
Once the men were seated, the elder picked up a menu and began to peruse the entrées as he asked casually, “So, Gareth, I assume by what was said out there that Bigelow was rather hard on you.”
Gary couldn’t help the snort that escaped.
“That’s putting it mildly. To be frank, the man did everything in his power to get me to quit. To trip me up. To wash me out. He gave me demerits for things that everyone else got by with, he assigned me to hours of KP for any trumped up reason, more than once made me walk all-night guard duty along the shoreline—for which the punishment for falling asleep is death, and I thank God I didn’t, ordered me to perform hundreds of pushups or running in place with a full pack just for a speck of dust on my uniform.” He stopped and drew in a deep breath, tamping down the evocation of anger and frustration that had begun to reemerge. “But somehow, by the grace of God, I held on and finished—and in the top five. I saw that he wasn’t particularly happy about that, either, since his plan spectacularly crashed and burned.”
The elder snapped his eyes up to meet Gary’s. “And you should be da—pardon me, my dear,” he glanced at the lady to his left, “You should be quite proud that you beat the odds and did so well. I guarantee he won’t forget the day he was bested by a Tucker.”
Gary narrowed his eyes when he remembered the amount of redirected hatred under which he’d been made to suffer. “Did you fire him unduly, Dad?”
“Of course not. On the strength of three separate witnesses, he was drunk—staggering drunk—when he came to work the graveyard shift, and nearly caused a fire. There could have been a massive explosion with dozens of people hurt or killed, not to mention the monetary loss we would have incurred if he’d damaged the wellhead. It wasn’t the first time he’d been reprimanded, either. When I called him into the office the next day, he smarted off to me. I’d simply had enough.”
“Is he right—did you put the word out about him?”
Gareth shrugged. “Several competitor friends called me for a reference when he applied at their fields. I merely told them the unvarnished truth. Nothing added or embellished.”
“What a vile man. You did the only thing you could do, Gareth,” Charise put in as she reached over and laid a hand on his arm. “And Gary, it was wrong of Bigelow to take his hatred and bitterness out on you. We want you to know we are both so very proud of all you accomplished here.”
Gary sucked in a deep breath. It didn’t seem, by what he’d learned, that his father had acted out of vindictiveness. Bigelow, however, surely had. Gary wondered if it would have helped if he’d known the reason behind it all beforehand. But now, he’d never know if it would have helped him weather the pressure or not. Probably not—might have even made it worse, knowing and having to hold the knowledge in, unable to retaliate or challenge. Ah well, I’m just glad it’s over and behind me.
The waitress came and they gave their orders.
“So,” his father began. “What is next on the agenda for Second Lieutenant Gareth Tucker?”
Gary smiled at the sound of his new rank and sat back in his chair. “I get a ten-day leave before I’m to report to the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center at Randolph Field in Texas for the next phase of my training. So—I’ll be traveling back to Louisville with you,” he added with a grin.
Gareth and Charise exchanged a look and she cleared her throat. He reached over and took her hand.
“I’m afraid you’ll be making that trip alone, son. You see,” he smiled lovingly into Charise’s eyes. “Charise and I married yesterday, at the courthouse in Miami. We’re…on our honeymoon.”
CHAPTER 15
Julie practically giggled she was so excited, trying to check her makeup in the ladies’ room mirror of the USO.
Giving up on that due to her hands shaking, she turned this way and that in the mirror, checking to make sure that the bottom edge of her blue and white print swing dress, which she had just hemmed that day, was level. For good measure, she took a gander at the seams in her stockings to make sure they were straight as well.
“What’s up, sweetie?” Tess Carlton, the girl standing next to her, inquired as she expertly applied some ruby-red lipstick, adding, “you look like you’re all jitters tonight.”
Julie shot her a look over her shoulder and with warm, twinkling eyes, squeaked, “Gary’s coming home Monday.”
“He is? Well, that’s fine! On leave, right? Did he graduate from that officer school, then?”
“Yes, he did—yesterday. Fifth in his class of over two thousand!” Julie gushed, feeling decidedly proud of the man with whom she had fallen madly in love. “I wish so badly that I could have gone to his graduation, but I just didn’t have the money for the train fare.”
“Well, at least you’ll get to see him when he comes home. That’s somethin’, right?”
Tess had quickly become Julie’s friend and confidant in the months since she had joined the club. Twenty-three, unmarried, and a bold, brassy redhead with bright blue eyes, Tess was a knockout and very popular with the soldiers. She was down-to-earth and humble, however, never thinking herself above any of the other girls, and she and Julie had hit it off at once. Julie felt she could tell Tess anything, and she didn’t have to worry about an adverse reaction, like there would be if she tried to confide in anyone at the plant. Anything, that is, except…she had never told Tess Gary’s last name.
Now, Julie closed her eyes and let herself react the way she had wanted to when she’d first received Gary’s telegram the week before. A shiver of excitement shook her frame and she reached for her purse, taking out a photo that Gary had sent her weeks before. Gazing at the black and white image of four sharply dressed officer candidates, she sighed girlishly. “Yes. Oh, yes. It’s more than something. I can’t wait to see him again.”
“Lemme see,” Tess prompted. Looking it over, she asked, “Which one is him?”
Julie leaned close and pointed to Gary. “Right there. And those are his roommates. That one is Paul, that’s Harrison, and he’s George.”
“Mmm, he’s just as cute as you said. Did he tell ya how he feels about ya, yet?” Tess asked innocently as she reached up to make sure her victory rolls were secure in preparation for an evening of jitterbugging and spinning.
“Well…no,” Julie’s countenance faded a bit and she took one long last look at the photograph before placing it carefully back into her purse. “But no matter. I’ll just be happy to see him and get to spend time with him.”
“Mmm hmm. Well, I wish you luck, honey,” Tess offered with sincerity as she leaned to give Julie a quick hug. “Hope you have a humdinger ten days.”
“Thanks, Tess,” Julie answered as the girls made their way out of the restroom and down to the main floor with ten minutes to spare before the doors would open to the stampede they knew was being hel
d back outside.
Forty minutes later, as Julie and Tess were dancing side by side to the snappy Count Basie tune One O’clock Jump with their sailor dance partners, who were trading good-natured insults back and forth, Julie suddenly began hearing voices and laughter above the sound of the live band. She rose up on her toes to try and see over the heads of the other couples. The commotion seemed to be coming from the doors to the ballroom.
“What’s doin’ over there I wonder,” she mused to the fellow she was with as he shrugged and headed them that way, never losing step or rhythm.
When they got close enough to see, the couple blocking their view of the objects of interest moved over, and Julie saw Gene and Steve standing side by side. They were looking around, and she figured they were searching for her, while bystanders commented on how they remembered them from months before when they’d attended dances.
“Oh, it’s my brother and his brother,” she said, without thinking how that would sound. “I didn’t know they were coming tonight…”
The sailor looked at her, brows scrunched. “How’s that?”
Julie laughed and mumbled, “Never mind. Excuse me for a minute, okay?” as she disengaged from him and started toward the guys at the same time that they saw her. As she approached, she watched as they looked at one another with mischievous grins, and then slid to each side, allowing a man behind them to step forward.
Her breath caught and then released in a whoosh as she realized who the man was, complete with an immaculate uniform and the shiny gold bars of a second lieutenant.
“Gary!” the name erupted from her throat before she could stop it. He saw her at once and launched himself forward. When they reached one another, he swept her up in his arms.
“There you are,” he murmured against her cheek.
She couldn’t believe it, and after a few beats, wiggled out of his grasp and leaned back to look him over. Yes, it was Gary. The one she had come to think of as her blue-eyed lieutenant—and he was two days early.
“B…but how…why…when…” she sputtered, confused, and he laughed with pleasure at surprising her speechless. “You said you weren’t arriving until Monday.”
“All of a sudden I was sick of Florida and finagled my way onto a transport plane scheduled for a stopover at Bowman on its way to Knox. Otherwise, I’d be packed onto that troop train like a sardine and thirty-six hours out.”
She continued to allow her eyes to roam over him, from his regulation-short dark hair and sparkling, sky blue eyes, to his flashing grin and Florida-tanned face, to his perfectly knotted tie, to his sharply creased trousers, all the way to his gleaming black shoes. Every inch of him screamed officer—and he looked even better in his uniform than in all of her imaginings combined.
Trying to collect herself and failing, she effervesced, “Oh Gary, I’m so glad to see you. It feels like forever since you left…all those letters flying back and forth…and now you’re a full commissioned officer.” Pausing for a moment as she fingered the gold bar on one shoulder, she cocked her head and indicated Gene and Steve hovering at each side of him with huge silly grins. “Have you made them salute you yet?”
He tilted back his head and laughed out loud. “You bet. First thing.”
Steve winked at her and affectionately smacked Gary’s back. “I think those gold bars have already gone to our little brother’s head.”
Gary shot him a look, playfully growling, “I’ll show you who’s the little brother, Mister ten-minutes-older.”
Just then, Miss Warren gently pushed her way through the crowd that had gathered around the spectacle of three carbon copy soldiers in matching khaki uniforms—the only difference most of the onlookers could see were the stripes on their sleeves. People were shaking their heads and pointing in amazement, never having actually seen identical triplets in person before and murmuring comments like, “Well, have you ever seen the like…” “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle…” “Look at that, I swear I can’t tell them apart…”
“Well, well, who have we here?” Miss Warren began as she looked the men over. “I had thought you two,” she pointed at Gene and Gary, and to Gary and Steve, before shrugging in confusion, “…well…that two of you were twins. But you’re actually triplets?”
“That’s right,” Gene gave her a nod and swept a hand toward his brothers. “We are triplets, but we were raised apart. Miss Warren, you know my brother Steve Wheeler, and this is our brother, Gary Tucker.”
“Now that is a first. Triplet soldiers fighting together.” She looked closer and cracked a bit of a smile. “Hmm, two sergeants and a lieutenant, huh? I bet there’s a story there.”
The guys laughed and elbowed one another like boys.
The woman’s eyebrows furrowed and she stared at Gary. “Gary Tucker? Are you the Gareth Tucker who owns Tucker Manufacturing?”
Gary cracked a half smile and a small shrug. “Well, my father owns Tucker Manufacturing, Ma’am. But, I managed the Louisville plant for a while before I enlisted.”
She gave a nod and then shrewdly offered, “A commendable act, Mr. Tucker. Although I daresay those who have the brains and ability to efficiently run a factory that is producing much needed goods for the war effort are equally important.”
Inclining his head, he murmured, “Yes, Ma’am.”
With that she clapped her hands together once and went on, “But right now, gentlemen, you’re interrupting our dance. So…either hoof it or cut a trail.”
Steve burst out laughing and sidled up to her, slipping an arm around her shoulders as he grinned. “Miss Warren, I sure like you. If I hadn’t just got married a few months ago…and if my wife wouldn’t skin me alive…why, I could go for you in a big way.”
The attendees clustered around them laughed as the USO’s director pushed at his chest with a “Pshaw,” and indicated with a swoosh of her hands that everyone should get back to dancing. The twinkling eyes and slight blush on her cheeks, however, betrayed her pleasure at Steve’s teasing words.
“Where’s Viv and Mary June?” Julie asked, belatedly realizing the girls weren’t there.
“We dropped them off at Viv’s parents’ house,” Gene explained. “Her mom is going to make her some maternity clothes and they wanted a chance to visit.”
“Mmm, well, did they give you permission to dance with other girls tonight?”
Steve again chortled. “Come again? Are we talking about the same MJ? She gave me strict orders to cue up at a pool table upstairs, or she’d make sure I went AWOL, and not for pleasure.”
Julie blushed as the first sergeant and the technical sergeant looped their arms around one another’s shoulders and left the room to cut a trail upstairs, chuckling as they went.
Then Gary locked gazes with Julie again. “I guess that means I’m left to hoof it. You know…this is my first time coming to one of these infamous USO shindigs. I hope I’ll get at least a few dances with a certain pretty girl.”
As a huge surprise to everyone, Miss Warren touched his arm and gave him what looked like a wink! “I think I might let one bend the rules just a bit…for a man fresh out of officer training school.”
Julie and Gary’s eyes both rounded and they stared at her, wondering where she’d heard. In answer, she shrugged mysteriously. “I have my ways.”
As the song changed to a slow tune, Fred Astaire’s Night and Day, Gary grinned, those straight white teeth heart-melting in his tanned face, and reached to take Julie in his arms.
She went, registering how perfectly she fit there, and feeling as if she had come home…suddenly she realized she hadn’t felt that way since he had hugged her goodbye at the bus depot seventeen weeks before.
“And they got married?” Julie gasped as Gary finished his amazing graduation tale. She’d made him tell her every detail of the ceremony and all about his silver saber award as well as everything that had happened after.
The revelations about why Sgt. Bigelow had hated him were one thing, but this
! She fixedly peered at him, trying to gage his feelings about his father’s spur-of-the-moment marriage to Steve’s mother.
“Yep. Sure did,” he agreed, taking a deep draw of his Dr. Pepper as they sat together at a table in the corner. Julie had danced every third dance with him, and he obligingly waited on the sidelines during the alternate songs, until they both decided to take a break.
Finally, Julie asked gently, “How do you feel about that? And how does Steve feel about it?”
He pursed his lips as he stared straight ahead for a moment, and then met her eyes. “Truthfully, I’m happy for them both. I know Dad’s been lonely for many years, ever since Mom died. And from what Steve says, Charise hasn’t had it very easy either.”
Recalling the conversation he’d had with his brother earlier, he went on, “He said when he got their telegram, he was actually good with it, but he realized that before he married MJ, he might have felt differently. Now, however, having a wife by his side as his best friend, helpmeet, and confidant, he could totally relate to missing that connection. He also said he has noticed a big change in his mother. Although Steve didn’t say…I think God had something to do with it.” At her questioning look, he continued, “He said when he had first contacted her again after being away so many years, the first thing he noticed was that she exuded a peace and joy she’d never displayed before.” He paused for a moment, picturing the lady. “She seems sincere, gentle, kind…and I think she truly loves Dad. From what I could tell anyway.”
Julie relaxed a bit and reached to lay a hand on his. “But…it was just kind of hard that they sprung it on you like that…right?”
He snickered softly and took another drink of his soda. “Yep. I wasn’t ready for it, that’s for sure.”
“I’m surprised, though, that your father didn’t want to spend time with you while you’re on leave…”
“Oh, well they’re only spending two days in Florida, then they’ll come back here. He said they hadn’t made absolute plans yet about her belongings in Carmel, but for the time being, she’ll share the hotel suite with him.”