by Susan Wiggs
“No, ma’am,” he said. “Thanks again.” With a politely dismissive smile, he turned away to look at the scenery. The toddler started whining again, and the woman wheeled the stroller away. Kate wondered how JD felt about kids, if he wanted a family of his own. And that led her to wonder about the family he’d come from. Who were they and what were they like? Did he miss them? Had he told them about her?
“What are you looking at?” he asked, and she realized he’d caught her staring, with all her dreams in her eyes.
Slipping her arm around his waist, she smiled up at him. “You. I can’t believe I found you,” she said, her heart spilling over with happiness.
“I didn’t know you were looking.”
“Very funny. You know what I mean.”
“Yeah,” he said, “I do.”
Ask him, she urged herself. It’s time. She took a deep breath, felt the summer breeze lift her hair. “What’s going to happen?” she asked him. “I mean, once summer’s over,” she added, cringing inside at how pathetic she sounded. She wasn’t needy, she reminded herself. She had been without JD for twenty-nine years and she had a wonderful life. She could do without him again.
“What’s funny?” he asked her, and she realized she had laughed aloud.
“In the time it’s taking you to think up an answer to that question, I’ve already had an entire love affair and breakup with you.”
“Yeah? How’d we do?”
“We were fabulous together. The breakup was horrible, but we survived, a little worse for wear.”
“Good to know.”
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
“I was hoping you wouldn’t notice that.”
“Why don’t you want to talk about this?”
He took a deep breath, linked his arms loosely about her waist. His gaze darted around the deck, taking in the seagulls flying alongside the boat like a military escort, the dozens of cameras snapping away. “I do want to talk about it, Kate. There are things I need to explain—”
“What things?” A host of possibilities rafted through her mind—he was married, he had a disease, he’d changed his mind about her…
“It’s kind of a long story,” he said. “Let me take you to dinner tonight. Pick your favorite restaurant in all of Seattle, and I’ll take you there.”
Now possibilities blossomed in her head—an evening of romance, a confession of undying love, a proposal on bended knee…
“Mom!” Aaron burst from the stairwell. “Hey, Mom, guess what?”
They separated quickly and Kate offered a rueful smile. “Hazards of the dating parent,” she said, slipping into her mom persona as she turned to Aaron. “What is it, buddy?”
“You won’t believe who’s on the boat,” he said. “You totally won’t believe it.”
Callie joined them, a little breathless. “It’s no big deal, kid.”
“Is too.” Aaron grabbed Kate’s hand, pulled her along the deck. “You come, too, JD. Come and see.” He led them past the boat’s huge painted steam vents and offered a grand gesture. “Eyewitness News!” he declared.
A small knot of people gathered at a safe distance from the reporter, cameramen and crew. It was not unusual to encounter a local or even a national news crew on the ferry. It was one of those settings that defined Seattle. The ferries had been in the news lately, too. Considered potential targets of terror attacks, they were now patrolled by Homeland Security agents and bomb-sniffing dogs. She recognized Melinda Procter of the local news, microphone in hand, taping some broadcast while an assistant kept trying to lacquer her hair in place with a coating of heavy-duty spray.
She glanced at JD and was completely taken aback by the expression on his face. Instead of being impressed by the sight, he looked…guilty.
I’m the world’s worst journalist, she thought.
The news crew seemed to be doing another take on their taping, this time with the reporter talking into the camera as she strolled along the railing. Aaron and Callie, along with a trail of other passengers, found it all fascinating.
Then, as she tried to figure out a way to ask JD some hard questions, someone screamed. At first, Kate thought it was the cry of a seagull, but then she recognized a woman’s frightened voice.
The news crew was drawn to a commotion at the rear. Kate grabbed JD’s arm. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. We’ll be getting to the dock any minute. Let’s go back to the car.”
“Don’t you want to check it out?”
“Couldn’t be less interested.” He headed for the stairway that led down to the car deck.
“Well,” said Kate under her breath, “speak for yourself.” She broke away and joined the crowd, grabbing Aaron by the hand. “Hold on there,” she said. “Where’s Callie?”
“I dunno.” Aaron climbed up on a green-painted bench to get a better look. “Check it out, Mom. This guy’s sick or something.”
She stepped up next to Aaron. The portly businessman she’d noticed earlier lay on the deck, his face ashen. He didn’t appear to be breathing.
Kate yelled to JD at the same moment as an announcement over the ferry’s PA system, requesting the assistance of a doctor. JD was already at the stairway when she called to him. He didn’t hesitate to return, but the look on his face was one of pure reluctance.
It was Callie who carved a path for him through the crowd. “Move,” she ordered in a voice that unexpectedly rang with authority. “This guy’s a paramedic.”
That proved to be the magic word. The crowd, with the exception of an aggressive cameraman, melted away, leaving a circle around the fallen man.
“What happened?” JD asked, breaking into action. “Did anybody see what happened?” As he spoke, he took off his dark glasses and dropped to his knees. It was a persona Kate had glimpsed before, the night of Callie’s emergency—confident, sure of himself and in control of the situation. She found it both thrilling and comforting at once.
“Is there a defibrillator on this boat?” he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he undid the man’s tie and shirt, baring a barrel-shaped chest sprinkled with salt-and-pepper hair.
“He just collapsed,” said one of the tattooed teenagers. “He was on his phone, and then he keeled over.”
“What’s his name?”
“I don’t know. I think he’s by himself.”
Aaron stood on tiptoe and craned his neck. Kate grabbed his hand but didn’t take her eyes off JD. No one did. The whole boat, including the TV news crew, was spellbound. She had never seen skin quite that shade before. It was the color of cold ash.
“Is the guy dead?” Aaron asked.
“JD’s working on him,” she said.
The answer on the defibrillator came back negative. JD had probably expected that. He was already at work administering CPR. A crew member showed up with a big red box. JD pulled a stethoscope from it and went back to work.
A peculiar energy zipped through the crowd as the emergency unfolded. There was a sense of breath-held tension and a collective spirit that seemed to be willing JD to save the man. Several dozen cell phones were already out as bystanders called 911. The Eyewitness News cameras kept rolling. JD didn’t look up, didn’t break his concentration as he kept working.
Kate heard the ferry’s engines kick in as the boat sped up. Even before it reached the dock, she could see the lights of emergency vehicles flashing onshore. Fortunately for the victim, there was a fully equipped fire station located right at Colman dock, where the ferry would pull in.
JD didn’t let up, not for a single second. Kate noticed something peculiar about the observers gathered around. Incredibly, some of the onlookers took pictures. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It was in unbelievably poor taste. What was wrong with these people?
She kept hold of Aaron’s hand. She didn’t see where Callie had gone, though she doubted the girl would stray far from the action. As the ferry arrived, announcements blared over the PA sys
tem. Drivers and passengers were requested to keep all stairways and exits clear. Docking the boat seemed to take forever.
By the time a team of EMTs arrived, mass hysteria had taken hold. Covered in sweat, his chest heaving, JD stepped back to let the EMTs take over while he filled them in on what had happened. There was too much noise to hear the words exchanged. But the outcome was clear when two of the rescue workers got to work strapping the man to a backboard.
The third rescue worker exchanged a few more words with JD, then shook his hand. With the paddles ready, the emergency crew whisked the man to the waiting freight elevator.
One of the news-crew cameras went along with them. Kate expected the crowd and the rest of the crew to follow. Instead, the strangest thing happened.
JD got mobbed.
That was the only way she could think of it. People pressed in on him, clamoring for attention; cameras were aimed at him from all directions. Shouts of “Sergeant Harris” filled the air. He seemed to be drowning in a sea of people.
“What’s going on?” Aaron tugged at her hand.
She didn’t reply, but stepped down from the bench and tried to get to JD. The crush of the crowd was intimidating. She was not the type to go crashing through a mob. She circled the mass of people, looking for a way in. She nearly tripped over the news crew’s power cords. She could hear the reporter saying: “…live breaking news from the MV Wenatchee. Just moments ago, Sergeant Jordan Donovan Harris stepped in to save yet another life…”
Thoroughly confused, Kate called out to JD but she doubted he could hear her. She passed the woman with the stroller and all the kids, who said, “You know, I thought I recognized him. He looks totally different as a civilian.”
Kate felt as though she was losing her mind. Why was everyone calling him Sergeant Harris, as if he was— She froze, still clutching Aaron’s hand.
Sergeant Harris. Sergeant Jordan Donovan Harris.
Kate felt herself go numb, as if someone had given her a shot of Novocain.
What if he wasn’t the person she thought he was? She had accepted without question that he was a friend of the Schroeders. That he was on hiatus from his job as EMT on the East Coast and that he intended to go to medical school. She had not doubted any of his claims, not for a single moment.
“Mom, are we going back to the car or what?” Aaron asked.
Callie showed up from somewhere. In one glance, Kate understood that the girl knew exactly what was going on.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, he somehow managed to break free. The reporter trotted along beside him, peppering him with questions. Onlookers thrust pens and scraps of paper at him, begging for autographs. He ignored the requests, shaking them off. The man who walked toward Kate, his eyes dark with determination and anger, looked exactly like JD. But everything was different now. He wasn’t JD. He had never been JD.
What do you know? she thought, still insulated by the numbness of shock. I’ve been sleeping with America’s hero. She’d been with him all summer long as he hid in plain sight. She’d never questioned his skills, not just as a paramedic, but his knowledge of orienteering, engineering, his ability to speak perfect French. All top-level Special Forces medics had to have those skills, but she had simply accepted him at face value.
Now she found herself in a surreal situation. The man walking toward her was Sergeant Jordan Donovan Harris, hero to a nation, complete stranger to Kate.
Thirty-Three
Of all the luck, JD thought in disgust as he headed down to the car deck, an unwilling Pied Piper followed by an instant fan club. Short of diving over the side, there was no way to elude the crowd or the probing lens of the camera. They followed him en masse to Kate’s Jeep. A barrage of shouted questions rained down on him. Even after the four of them reached the Jeep and got in, people wouldn’t leave them alone.
“Lock the doors,” he ordered Kate.
“What—”
“Just lock the damn doors,” he repeated.
She wasn’t quick enough. Somebody opened the rear door beside Aaron.
“Sergeant Harris,” someone yelled.
He twisted around and slammed the door shut. This time, Kate hit the lock button. The dog was in a frenzy, barking his head off at the curiosity seekers. It was excruciating, sitting there trapped like a fish in a bowl, waiting for the ferry to empty out while people swarmed the vehicle.
When the line of cars finally started to move, Kate glared straight ahead at the exit ramp and said, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Even the ferry workers, who were supposed to be directing traffic, waved wildly at the Jeep as it passed.
“That’s why,” he said grimly.
“It’s so cool that you’re him,” Aaron said. “We read an article about him—about you—in Weekly Reader.” He bounced up and down in his seat.
Callie rested a hand on his shoulder. “Chill, kid, okay? Put on your seat belt.”
Aaron stopped bouncing. “Yeah, whatever,” he said, imitating Callie’s bored tone.
“Someone will probably try to follow you,” he said to Kate. “You might want to take an indirect route.”
“This is crazy.”
He didn’t reply.
“These people are crazy,” she added. “I’m not going to be intimidated by them.”
Great, he thought. Early on, he used to feel that way—defiant, unwilling to compromise his personal liberty. It hadn’t taken long to discover the reality, though. Defiance never worked with a mob.
As they left the ferry and headed up an elevated ramp, a black SUV closed in on them.
“Oh, Lord,” Kate said, checking the rearview mirror, “I take that back. I am intimidated.”
“I’m sorry about this, Kate.”
“I’ll just bet you are,” she murmured.
He understood her anger, her sense of betrayal. He would do his best to explain, but his situation was so bizarre, he wasn’t sure he could make her understand.
“Hey, JD,” Aaron said. “Do I still call you JD?”
“Sure,” he said. “That’s what my friends have always called me.”
“So that guy tried to blow up the President, right?” Aaron said. “I can’t believe you were there. What happened to the guy, huh? Was he a terrorist? Did you blow him away?”
“He wasn’t…no. He was a confused, stupid guy who wanted attention.”
“And instead, you stopped him,” Aaron said. “That’s cool.”
Inevitably, Kate noticed Callie’s uncharacteristic silence. She flicked a glance in the rearview mirror. “Did you know about this?”
“Yes,” Callie said in a quiet, confessional voice. She was obviously relieved to get it off her chest.
Kate’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “You told her and not me?” she asked JD.
“I figured it out on my own,” Callie said in exasperation. “Jeez.”
“It would have been totally cool if I’d known,” Aaron said. “You should have told us.”
JD felt a familiar creeping exhaustion, the dull surrender that had driven him underground and made him want to lose himself in anonymity. He thought of a dozen things to say, none of them adequate, so he said nothing. The dispute stayed open, hanging over them like a thundercloud as Kate drove across the twisted arch of the West Seattle Bridge and down into a neighborhood of cozy, pastel-painted houses and streets lined with too many parked cars.
He checked the side-view mirror out the window. He was fairly sure they hadn’t been tailed, but that hardly mattered. Kate’s address could be traced in a matter of minutes by anyone who had jotted down the tag number of the Jeep.
Everything had shifted by the time Kate turned down a quiet, bluff-top cul-de-sac lined with big-leaf maples. This was Callie’s homecoming, JD reminded himself. Regardless of what had happened on the ferry, they had to shift gears and put Callie first. He hated that his notoriety had taken the focus off of her, but fame had a nasty way of doing that. Kate seemed as
determined as he to regroup. Without even having to discuss the matter, they put aside the drama on the ferry and shared a common goal—to make Callie feel good about her new foster home.
As soon as he saw Kate’s house, JD knew he needn’t have worried. Just like the lakeside cottage, this house resembled something out of a storybook, a neat clapboard bungalow with a white picket fence and latticework up the sides entwined with roses. It was one of four houses on the cul-de-sac. The others were equally charming, and across the way, a neighbor came out and waved, welcoming Kate home.
Callie took it all in with shining eyes, this new world that was to be hers. There was such needy hunger in her gaze that JD wanted to caution her not to get too caught up in all this. He knew something about the unattainable, the futility of hope and the way it hardened into disappointment. But he knew his life experience would fall on deaf ears when Aaron grabbed Callie’s hand and ran to the house, eager to show Callie his world.
“Hurry up, Mom,” he said. The dog jumped up and scratched at the door.
Kate unlocked the house and let Aaron burst inside, bringing Callie along with him. Filled with nervous energy, Kate went around opening windows to let in the late-summer breeze, passing through rooms filled with framed family pictures, books, all the comforts of a well-kept house. “Do you think Callie will like it here?” She caught the look on his face. “What?”
“You live in a Disney movie, Kate. What’s not to like?”
“He’s right,” Callie said, coming into the room.
JD winced, wishing she hadn’t overheard.
She didn’t seem offended, though. At the moment, she simply looked wide-eyed and full of hope. He felt a wave of admiration for this kid. Even after all she’d been through, she held on to hope.
“It’s great,” Callie said. “Totally fly.”
“Really? It’s fly?” asked Kate. Her face lit up, and JD felt a physical pang of love.
“Totally.” Callie shuffled her feet. Suddenly she looked her age, young and awkward. “Um, I’ve been meaning to tell you guys something. Now that you’re here together, I feel like I should speak up.”