Where or When: A Pearl Harbor Romance

by Bretton, Barbara

  And still there was a tiny part of her that couldn't help but wonder how he would have felt if she'd been a waitress or a plain-faced clerk at the commissary.

  She used to believe that being pretty and popular and an admiral's daughter was more than enough to make her happy. She was beginning to understand just how wrong she'd been.

  Chapter Nineteen

  December came to Pearl Harbor, although to Rick it seemed more like springtime. To him, winter meant howling winds and six-foot snow drifts, not flowering hibiscus and endless sunshine. Not that he got to enjoy a hell of a lot of that endless sunshine. Now that his chauffeur days were over and he was back in Forrester's office, things were busier than ever. He was putting in slave hours, starting at seven in the morning and going until ten or eleven at night. It was only Tuesday, the second day of the month, and he felt like he'd been at it for weeks. Right now he was buried in a storeroom tucked away in an adjacent building, trying to gather information the admiral needed for a report he was preparing for the Pentagon. The parade of bigwigs in and out of Forrester's office would be impressive if he had time to take note. Unfortunately Rick was too damn busy to appreciate his window on the world. There'd be time for that later, he promised himself optimistically, once he was a career officer himself.

  For some reason, rumors about the Japanese were running rampant. Depending on what hour of the day you heard the gossip, Japanese submarines were either washing up on the shores of San Diego or unable to make it out of their own harbors. The Japanese delegation to Washington D.C. maintained that they were America's friends, if not exactly their allies, but there were those in high places who didn't believe it for a minute.

  The clues were there, if you looked hard enough. Back in August the Japanese government had stopped all ships from sailing to the United States, save for a late autumn sailing of both the Tatsuta Maru and Taiyo Maru to enable citizens of the United States and Japan to return to their respective home lands.

  You didn't need some fancy Annapolis education to see which way things were headed. Rick had no doubt that before the Fourth of July rolled around, the entire world would be at war. He wasn't an isolationist like old Lucky Lindy or someone who looked forward to risking his life in a foreign country but there were some things that were unavoidable. He didn't want his kids to grow up in a world where evil reigned supreme.

  Of course, it wasn't all work. He spent every minute he could with Eden, but those minutes were getting harder to come by. Her sister-in-law Lilly was under the weather and since Mali only worked days and the admiral worked around the clock, Eden had to spend most nights close at hand.

  They did manage to see The Maltese Falcon and The Philadelphia Story. Eden said Katharine Hepburn was too snooty for her own good and she couldn't imagine the actress having much of a future. He had to laugh because, in her own way, Eden could be every bit as snooty as Katharine Hepburn, but he knew she'd never see it that way in a million years. November was barely over, and already Fort Street glittered with Christmas lights. He blinked each time he saw them, twinkling from the branches of tropical candlenut trees and lush palms. Eden said he'd get used to seeing Santa Claus wearing shorts but somehow he didn't believe her.

  There was one big thing to look forward to, however: he'd managed to call in a few favors and snare a pair of tickets for the big Shrine football game at Honolulu Stadium this coming Saturday. People came from all over the islands for the game each year and snagging tickets was an amazing feat. He couldn't wait to see the look on her face when he told her. So what if he blew a month's pay. Dinner would have to be burgers at Pappa's Shack but the day would come when he'd be able to manage everything.

  One thing he hadn't managed lately was a return to "their" cove. The emotions between them were too intense, too powerful to risk the dangerous solitude to be found there. He didn't trust himself away from prying eyes. Better to keep temptation at bay, at least until the time came when he could offer her the future she deserved.

  Now that he wasn't driving her around in her daddy's big white Oldsmobile, the differences between them were painfully apparent. He relied on buses, taxis, and hitch-hiking to reach Eden. Once he got to the Forresters' home, there was Eden's sporty red car but he hated driving around in his girl friend's auto because he was too poor to have one of his own. Not that any other enlisted man had his own car, mind you. That was a luxury reserved for officers. It would happen for him one day, but that unknown day in the future wasn't much help right now.

  Lately he'd become more acutely aware of the gulf of privilege between him and Eden. He couldn't take her to the Windward Club for drinks or to the Royal Hawaiian for dinner or to any of the ritzy nightspots in Waikiki for dancing. She said it didn't matter but he'd seen the longing in her eyes when she saw a laughing couple in evening dress heading into one of the hotels.

  Now that her cast was off her leg, she was filled with energy to spare. He doubted if she'd ever spent more than two nights in a row at home since she was thirteen years old and now there she was cooped up with her sister-in-law while she waited for him to call. Not much fun for a beautiful woman accustomed to better things.

  His gut twisted. It won't be forever, he thought as he dug through a mountain of files, searching for some papers for Forrester. His time was coming. One day he'd be an officer, with all the respect that came with the territory, and these insecurities would vanish. He'd fit in her world as if he'd been born to it. Growing up poor would no longer matter.

  But, right now it mattered so much that it hurt.

  #

  Owen Forrester leaned forward and pressed the button on his intercom. Back in the old days, admirals didn't have to work on Saturdays, but times had changed. Sometimes he devoutly wished he'd been born a few decades earlier.

  "Sir?” His assistant's voice crackled through the speaker.

  "Find Byrne for me, will you? Tell him to get his butt over here ASAP."

  He knew Rick and Eden were planning to take in the football game at the Stadium that afternoon and he wanted to get hold of the boy before he left. There wasn't a lot of good news coming down the pike these days. When you finally had some, you couldn't wait to pass it along.

  Forrester reached for a cigarette and his lighter. He was smoking too damn much these days. It had gotten to the point where he couldn't think unless he had a Lucky Strike clamped between his lips. He hadn't managed to squeeze in even nine holes of golf these past two weeks. Come hell or high water, he'd hit the links tomorrow morning, if he had to get there before the sun came up.

  The number of memos moving across his desk could dwarf the Empire State Building. More men in high places were worried about the emperor's fleet than Hitler's U-boats and Owen was bone-sure that sooner or later, the United States would be drawn into the war against Japan--and, as a result, against Germany and Italy as well. Washington alternated between outright suspicion and feigned ignorance when it came to the threat posed by the Japanese and it was anyone's guess as to which way the scenario would play out.

  Just a few days ago, he'd heard from reliable sources that the folks at the Japanese Consulate had burned all their papers. If a rumor like that got out among the general population, there was no telling what would happen. One-third of the population of the Hawaiian Islands were Japanese, or of Japanese extraction. There was enough bigotry in the world. They didn't need any more.

  Of course that didn't change the fact that, one way or the other, the United States was on her way to war.

  However, it wasn't the imminence of war that concerned him today. He glanced down at the sheaf of papers resting on his desk blotter. Patrick Byrne's name was neatly typed on each document. This was what the kid had been busting his butt to achieve: the chance to go to officer's training school. Owen could count on the fingers of one hand how many enlisted men he'd championed to better things. Byrne was the best of the best. Bright. Ambitious. Gritty and determined and unafraid of hard work that might result in nothing more t
han a kick in the teeth.

  Forrester grinned as he exhaled a big fat smoke ring. Byrne was a hell of a lot like he'd been at that age, full of impossible dreams and determined to make them all come true. Well, Byrne had a better chance than most to make those dreams come true and Owen was glad to be the one to start him on his way.

  The only question was how many of those dreams concerned his daughter Eden.

  Young people were notoriously indiscreet when it came to romance. Try as they might to hide the truth, their hearts invariably beat proudly on their sleeves for the world to see. His daughter and the enlisted man were no exception. Mali, their housekeeper, had been the first to notice the difference. "Where's all the young men, Miss Eden?" he'd heard Mali ask one morning over breakfast. "Don't see any of them no more."

  Eden had mumbled something about catching up on her reading and had made certain her eyes didn't meet his. Slowly he added up the clues. She was softer in temperament these days, prone to bouts of daydreaming, a luminous smile on her pretty face. Eager young officers still kept the telephone ringing, but more often than not, Eden begged off. A headache. A date with the hairdresser. Family responsibilities. Owen had lost track of the excuses.

  But he hadn't lost track of his daughter. She and Byrne had been spending most of their time together. Eden would float through the door just in time for dinner, her cheeks flushed, her lips red, whether from lipstick or a man's kisses her father wasn't about to judge. Twice she went out in the evening to an outdoor band concert in Waikiki and once to a luau but not with one of those officers who continued to call.

  One night before she'd had her cast removed, Owen had been standing by the window in the front room, nursing a gin and tonic and some father-sized worries, when he heard the rumble of the Oldsmobile's engine as it rounded the driveway. Stepping back into the shadows, he watched as Byrne climbed out of the car then walked around to the passenger's side to help Eden. Owen waited, expecting Byrne to pull the crutches from the car then escort her up the walkway to the front door. He was wrong. Byrne reached down and swept his baby girl up into his arms. Instead of slapping his face and demanding to be treated like an adult, his fiery daughter looped her arm about Byrne's neck and looked up into his eyes as if he held the secrets of the universe in the palm of his hand.

  It was a tough thing for a father to see. Something Owen had prayed for and dreaded these last few years. As each of her friends met and married the men of their dreams, Owen had wondered who Eden's knight in shining armor would be.

  He sure as hell hadn't expected a tough kid from the wrong side of Chicago to win her heart.

  You're a fine one to talk, he thought ruefully. He'd still carried the stink of the Milwaukee breweries on his skin when he met and married his Marguerite. He'd always been proud of the fact that he'd risen up from the ranks through hard work, not pedigree. Still it had been a long road to success. Marguerite had known lean years by his side and it would always pain him that she died long before he reached his greatest success.

  He couldn't help but wish for an easier road for his daughter.

  Byrne had a lot of training ahead of him before he could become an officer and Eden, the apple of his eye, had a lot of growing up to do. She still believed the world was her oyster and he hadn't the heart to tell her that the days of having all of her wishes come true might be coming to an end. Maybe he hadn't done her a favor, spoiling her the way he had all these years. He hadn't had a lot of time to give her. You didn't climb up through the ranks in the navy by putting in part time hours. But he'd done his best to be there for his kids--or, at least, to let them know he cared. It was easier with Tony. He understood boys, knew what they needed, understood the problems that came with the territory.

  His daughter was another story. Was there a father out there who really understood his daughter? Or, for that matter, a man who truly understood women? He'd been a hell of a lot better facing down the business end of a cannon than a little girl in tears. And so he'd done everything in his power to keep her from crying. A closetful of frilly party dresses. A string of pearls for her sixteenth birthday. Her own car as a graduation present. The one thing he hadn't done was sit down and talk, really talk, about what she was feeling.

  Owen had to admit he'd never seen Eden like this before. Dreamy and soft and already beginning to move away from the circle of family. He wished he knew what she was thinking, how serious this whole thing was. He didn't want to keep her a child. More than anything he wanted his daughter to know the joys of a happy marriage and children.

  It wasn't so long ago that he'd known that feeling of walking on air. Whirlwind romances seemed to run in the family, like auburn hair and blue eyes. He and Marguerite had met and married quickly, casting caution to the four winds. So had Tony and Lilly. He supposed it was inevitable that when love came to Eden it would come with the speed of an island storm.

  The intercom crackled. "Seaman Byrne is on his way in, sir."

  Owen looked down at the documents on his desk then turned them face down. These papers admitting the sailor to officer's training school were what Byrne had been working toward. Owen had the feeling, however, that the young man's elation would be tempered by the latest turn of events.

  They might think they were in love but love was more than kisses in the rain. Love required testing, a walk through the fire, so to speak. If it was love, it would still be there when Byrne finished his officer's training.

  And if not, wasn't it better to find out now?

  #

  The tickets weren't for the front row on the fifty-yard line, but if you stood up and craned your neck, you could still see the action on the field. Rick was sure Eden had never had such lousy seats before--but then she'd probably never gone to a game with an enlisted man either.

  He kind of liked their seats in the upper reaches of the end zone. No nattily dressed military types would be caught dead up there with the regular people. School kids from up around Moanalua Gardens, grocery clerks from the big island, families from grandma on down to the newest baby. He and Eden were the only haoles around. He felt right at home.

  Next to him Eden shifted in her seat, moving her white skirt out of reach of a big-eyed little boy with a red lollipop. Dark glasses hid her turquoise eyes, but he could tell by the slight furrowing of her brows that her enthusiasm was forced.

  "Come on," he said, extending a hand to her. "Our team's got the ball."

  She gestured toward the football fans who were standing atop their seats and cheering for all they were worth. "Even if I stand up, I still can't see the field, Rick."

  "I can fix that.” He pulled her to her feet then lifted her up until she was perched on his shoulder. "How's this?"

  "Perfect," she said, hanging on to him for dear life. "What do you know--there's a football game going on down there!" Her words were light and teasing, but for some reason they stung. Damn it. Why hadn't he considered the almost one-foot difference in their heights? If it was hard for him to see the playing field, it must have been impossible for her.

  He tried to toss off the dark cloud that threatened his sunny mood. The excitement of the football game ran a poor second to his downright elation over Forrester's news. He was going to officer's training school. The long awaited plum had finally dropped from the tree and into his waiting hands. The admiral had been almost fatherly in his pride when he told Rick that he'd been accepted into the next class. On January 1, 1942 Rick would report for duty in Norfolk, Virginia.

  All afternoon Rick had been trying to come up with a way to tell Eden. You couldn't break news like that in the middle of a crowd of cheering football fans. Hell, he wasn't sure exactly how you told the woman you loved that you were going away. It was the best thing that had ever happened to him--but at the worst possible time. If she'd been anybody but who she was, the daughter of an admiral, Rick would have thrown caution to the winds and rushed her off to a justice of the peace the minute she'd answered her front door. But how did you
ask a girl who'd grown up surrounded by the best life had to offer to toss it all aside and throw in her lot with a penniless sailor, standing on the first rung of the ladder to success. You didn't, that's how. If you loved a girl from the old neighborhood, you didn't think twice. Life was risky. Everybody back home knew that. Why not fight the odds together?

  Risk, however, wasn't in Eden's vocabulary. Aside from the loss of her mother, Eden had lived a protected existence from the moment she'd drawn her first breath. The thought of her clipping coupons to save a few pennies was downright laughable. She wouldn't know where to begin.

  The future was starting to scare him. They said absence made the heart grow fonder, but there were those who believed out of sight, out of mind. Eden had been part of him since that night at the Royal Hawaiian. She'd always be part of him. Neither time nor distance would change that for Rick. But how would she feel? They'd never put a name to the emotions that filled their hearts. He hadn't thought they needed to, but now he wondered if he'd been wrong. He wasn't asking her to follow him to school. But he could ask for a promise, a pledge that when the day came that he could take care of her, she'd be his forever.

  He was running out of time. Before the month was out, they would be saying goodbye and he'd be damned if that goodbye would be forever.

  To hell with his pride. It was time to make a move before he boarded the plane that would take him away from paradise.