by Geri Krotow
“I’m sorry. I’ve known Gwen longer than anyone and...”
“And?”
“She’s changed. On a deep level. I’m not pretending I have her all figured out, but she’s going to stick by you through this. As are Miles and I.”
“I appreciate it, Ro.” He didn’t doubt that Gwen would continue to be his single best character witness, if not his alibi. He’d been on the phone with her while Dottie was dying.
“It’s okay to begin again, Drew.” Ro leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before she, too, walked away.
Ro didn’t get it that he and Gwen had burned their bridges a long time ago.
Before the traumatic events they’d both suffered this year.
His business was destined to fail, and he’d be out of a job. He might even end up in prison. Gwen was fighting her way back to normal and adopting a baby.
A baby who needed a stable environment.
Start over?
Impossible.
* * *
GWEN PULLED UP to the drive-through Koffee Hut and peered through the rain at the day’s specials. Opal’s place was the only one open this early, and the most convenient to the base. Besides, she didn’t have anything against Opal—not as far as coffee went.
“How can I help you?” A twentyish male greeted her and she let out a sigh of relief. She wanted a latte to take into the squadron with her, but didn’t want to deal with Opal’s crush on Drew.
It’s none of your business.
“Hi. I’ll have a skim, sugar-free almond latte, please. No whip. No, wait—I do want the whip.”
“Coming right up.”
The barista turned to start her espresso and Gwen looked out the windshield as the wipers moved back and forth. She deserved some whipped cream, darn it. She noted several headlights in her rearview mirror as more cars lined up. Other base workers, no doubt. A familiar figure ran up to the side of the trailer that served as the coffee hut and went inside.
Crap.
Maybe Opal would be too preoccupied with work to notice her.
“Hey, Gwen. Great party!”
Nope, not too busy. And of course Opal knew Gwen’s car.
“Thanks, Opal.”
“You on your way to go back to work at the base?”
Gwen clenched her teeth at Opal’s tone. As if Gwen was some kind of head case.
“Yes, going in to my squadron.”
Opal looked at her as if she knew something Gwen didn’t.
“Don’t they have someone else running it, since you’ve been, um, gone?”
“Yes, but I’m still the commanding officer. At least the last time I checked.” She grudgingly offered Opal a smile.
What a bitch.
“I mean, you weren’t here to run it. Someone else had to step in. Didn’t they have someone?”
Gwen wanted to scream as her body shook. Not because Opal was so ignorant of the military way of life or because she was being so passive-aggressive. She wanted to tear Opal from limb to limb for her overt flirtation with Drew.
Primal emotions like that had been part of everyday life in the jungle, on the run.
They were pointless, silly, here at home.
“That’s three-oh-five.” The nice barista held out his hand as he passed Gwen her latte.
“Here you go. Keep the change.” Gwen gave him a five. She didn’t want to be here for the length of time it would take him to count out the change.
“Thanks!”
“See ya!” She wiggled her fingers at Opal’s stunned expression and drove off without answering her question.
Her reaction might be pointless and silly, but her business was none of Opal’s.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE SMELL OF JP-5 hit Gwen the moment she stepped into the hangar, her hangar. It was the fuel she’d used to fly her aircraft ever since she’d earned her aviation wings. The hangar doors were wide open but the wind didn’t erase all the odor.
She shivered in her green Nomax flight jacket and khaki skirt, the chill of the concrete floor freezing her toes in her brown leather pumps.
“Skipper.” A young airman walking to her workstation atop a P-3C that was in for repairs saluted her. Gwen saluted back and aimed her focus on the P-3C that was being towed into the hangar to park alongside the other aircraft. She read the tail number and groaned. It was the airframe she was supposed to have that fateful night nine months ago. But in a split-second decision, she’d taken a different aircraft, an aircraft that lay in pieces at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
You could be there with it.
Yes, she could, and so could her entire crew. But they were all safely back and able to continue with their missions. Reminders of what she’d been through were going to be all over the place. She’d better get used to it.
* * *
“SKIPPER! GREAT TO have you back, ma’am.” Her XO, Brad, smiled widely and motioned to her office door. They stood in the hallway outside the executive offices, which adjoined an admin space that held four desks.
“It’s good to be here, Brad.” She followed his gesture and walked into her office. The office she’d never occupied.
Until today.
“It’s a nice space. I have to admit that.”
“We set it up just like you had it in Japan, Skipper. You’ll want to add your own touches, I’m sure.”
“No, this is fine for now. After all, it’s only for another five months or so.” She sank down into the leather office chair positioned behind the wide, glass-topped, maple desk.
“I know you don’t drink a lot of coffee but there’s an electric kettle and a box of tea bags that the wardroom chipped in on for you.”
“That was nice of them!”
“They never gave up believing that you’d be back.” Brad spoke quietly, with sincerity.
“We don’t know each other, Skipper, but I feel I know you through the squadron. They couldn’t wait to have you take over as commanding officer, and were devastated when you were presumed dead.”
“I appreciate you telling me that, Brad. They’re a special group of people, and we’d already had a tough deployment up until then.”
Up until then they’d flown antiterrorism missions all over the globe, including the Mid-East and Pacific Rim. They’d almost lost a bird in Afghanistan during a night mission when a rogue surface-to-air missile had been launched at them—similar to the missile that took out her engine on that fateful flight.
“I’m here to do whatever you need me to, Skipper. Of course everyone wants a piece of you now, but I can keep them at bay as long as you need.”
Gwen studied her executive officer. Young, single, good-looking. And eager to become the CO.
“Thank you for taking on all this while I was gone, Brad. I know it’s awkward to have me show up, and now you’re back to being the XO again, but like I said, it’s only for five months.”
“You’ve read me wrong, Skipper. No one’s happier than I am that you’re back.”
“Thanks, Brad. I’ll take my own calls from now on.”
* * *
“YOU NEED TO get out of here, Drew.”
Startled, Drew looked up from his computer screen at Opal.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’ve brought you a coffee and your favorite pastry.” She shook a paper bag and put down a tall cup with her Koffee Hut logo emblazoned across its circumference.
“Thanks, Opal, but I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Evidently not deterred, Opal sat on the corner of Drew’s desk and leaned over. Just enough so he could see her breasts as they popped out of some bionic push-up bra.
“You need to take a break, Drew. Get out of this office. D
oesn’t the quiet drive you mad?”
Actually, it made him wonder what Dottie had thought as she died, all alone.
“Come on, Drew, lighten up. I know it’s been really hard on you to have Gwen come back out of the blue.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I’ve wanted to come over more, talk, make you dinner, but I know she’s fragile.”
“Oh?”
“It’s great that the navy’s letting her go back to work, don’t you think?”
“Yeah. Thanks for the snacks, Opal, but I really do have to work.”
“I can take a hint. What I won’t take is no for an answer, Drew. You and I have some unfinished business.”
“Opal, you were a great worker while you were here, and I’m happy about the success of your business. But as far as you and me...there isn’t anything there. You have so many guys from the base asking you out, you sure don’t need me.”
Her expression went from pouty to pleased in an instant. But not before he saw the flicker of an emotion he hadn’t expected.
Hate? Anger?
“You’re not married and Gwen won’t be around for much longer, Drew. You can’t live like a hermit forever.”
She walked out of his office and he held his breath until he heard the front door click shut. He ran out to the reception area and threw the dead bolt on the door.
A cold shiver ran down his neck.
Opal still had her key to the clinic.
* * *
“THIS IS LIKE when we were mids at the Academy.” Ro plowed her hand into the bucket of artery-clogging movie popcorn she and Gwen were sharing.
“Yeah, but with more money.”
They laughed and Gwen licked the extra butter off her fingers, relishing the salt. Popcorn was one of her favorite vices.
“Are you still mad about running into Opal?” Ro never waited for a better moment to talk about private matters; she’d always been ready to dive into any “issues” either of them had. Gwen knew it was one of the main reasons she’d become friends with Ro in the first place, way back at Annapolis. The Naval Academy had been more than a rigorous environment for them, it had been sterile in terms of girl-talk, gossip and heart-to-hearts. Midshipmen, especially female midshipmen, were supposed to live up to a ridiculously high standard of conduct across all facets of their lives.
Gwen and Ro had done what they had to in order to graduate, but still had fun whenever they could.
“I’m not mad about seeing her. It’s the other things it brought up.”
“Like what?”
“I’ve never been jealous of Drew, not like this. Before, when I thought he had something going on with someone else, I ignored it. We’re divorced, after all. But today, I could’ve wrestled Opal down and strangled her. It was primal.”
“Your brain took over. You view Drew as a father figure for Pax. You’re a mother tigress. You’d kill for your cub.”
“You’re nuts, do you know that? I do not see Drew as a father figure.” He’d have to be a husband again first....
She was distracted by an image of Drew throwing Pax in the air, smiling at the beautiful baby.
“If you say so. Look, I’m just telling you what I’m hearing. I’m not here to suck up to you.”
They both laughed.
“I’d never expect you to be a suck-up, Ro.”
Gwen ate another few kernels of popcorn.
“Maybe it’s time to start over with Drew, Gwen. Pretend you just met him, that the past was with someone else.”
“Hmph.”
“No, really. It’s not often that we find someone who understands us, in uniform and out. You have that with Drew.”
“Look, you might have a wonderful marriage to the greatest guy on the planet, but that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. I’m happy for you, Ro, really, I am. It’s great that you and Miles finally got together. You were headed for him all along. You just didn’t figure it out right away.”
“But?” Ro knew her too well.
No BS.
“But it’s not for all of us. At least, it’s not for me with Drew. We had our chance and we blew it, or time and maturity ended it. Either way, it is what it is. Can you understand that?”
Ro took a sip of her diet cola. “I can and I do, trust me. But also trust me when I tell you that Drew still can’t take his eyes off you. He follows your every move, watches who you talk to, how they talk to you.”
“He’s always been overprotective. It’s his nature.”
“Not like this. When you’re around, he has a purpose, a drive, that I haven’t seen in eons.”
“He demonstrated the same kind of purpose when he went after his Ph.D. in physical therapy, after having been a nonmedical undergrad.” Gwen had been so proud of Drew. He’d done his undergraduate studies at Embry Riddle in Florida on an NROTC scholarship. But he’d always wanted to work with people on a more personal basis.
Ro shook her head. “It’s more than that.”
“Shhh!” Several other moviegoers clearly weren’t impressed with their chatter.
Ro lowered herself so that her head was even with the edge of the chair.
“Come down here.”
“This is ridiculous.” Gwen slid down as she whispered, “Can we just watch the movie? We’ll talk later.”
“We’ll be too busy talking about the movie.” Ro’s face changed color as the coming attractions threw light on the audience.
“I know where you’re going with this and it’s not happening. A lot of couples don’t make it in their first marriage, especially when they got married as young as Drew and I did. It’s rarer to stay together in some ways. Enjoy your marital bliss and leave the rest of us out of it.”
“You’re not just any couple, Gwen. You’ll never have the history you have with Drew with someone else. He knew you as a young junior officer, and he grew up right next to you. You helped him leave the navy and get his Ph.D.”
“Which he may not be able to use for much longer.”
“He’ll land on his feet—but he may need you there to spot him.”
Gwen’s stomach dropped and she looked at Ro but refused to respond. “I’m just sayin’, Gwen. He didn’t have to be around for you as much as he has since you came back. He could’ve bolted when you asked him about vouching for your mental health, because of Pax—but he didn’t. It seems to me that he’s going to need a lot of support to get through whatever comes next. You may have to help him stay out of jail.”
“I intend to stay with him through this, Ro. As his friend.”
Ro faced front and appeared to be watching the last of the trailers before the movie.
Gwen’s interest in the light romantic comedy nosedived into the bottom of the bucket of popcorn when Ro used the words Drew and jail in the same sentence. It’d be one thing if Drew had to go through an insurance investigation and possible civil suit over Dottie Forsyth’s death. But a murder conviction? Drew wasn’t a murderer.
He didn’t deserve to go to jail.
She’d been on the phone with him. He’d been in his office.
You might be his only hope.
Crap.
* * *
GWEN GROANED A week later when the doorbell rang. She’d been home for a few minutes, and had just kicked off her brown pumps. Khakis had been the uniform of the day and she’d worn her skirt. She much preferred her flight suit and boots, but was grateful to be back at work.
Her head itched from the hairpins needed to keep her hair up in its neat French braid. She planned to let it down as soon as she chucked her uniform and put on some soft, cozy sweats.
She opened the door to a basket of flowering plants at eye level.
“Hello?”
“I thought I owed you these. After barging
in and all, I don’t want you to think I’m insensitive to what you’re dealing with.” Opal’s face appeared from around the edge of the greenery.
Gwen didn’t even try not to smile at the pretty blooms.
“Thank you so much, but really, you didn’t have to do this. I get it, Opal. I’ve been gone a long time, and there’s no reason you should’ve expected me to be in the house when you stopped by.”
“You were standoffish at your party, and then I noticed how you clammed up at the Koffee Hut.” Opal took a step forward and Gwen was confronted with a decision—either take the basket or let Opal in.
“These are gorgeous.” The basket had wooden handles woven into the sides. Opal held it by its bottom, so it was easy for Gwen to lift it from her arms.
“Wait, it’s very heavy. I’ll put it on the counter.”
“Okay.” Gwen let go and moved back, allowing Opal access to their house.
Drew’s house.
“I made it myself. The flowers are fresh from the nursery, so they should last you awhile.”
Opal walked straight to the kitchen counter as if she owned it.
Drew said he and Opal had never been more than work colleagues, that they’d had a boss-employee relationship. He did run a relaxed office, not like the navy had been, and she supposed it might be easy for a certain kind of woman to think it was always open season on Drew, that he was always available.
Of course, he had been free for five years.
“Be honest with me, Opal. Were you and Drew dating before I came back?”
Opal grimaced. “He told you?”
“Not in so many words...” God, Opal was a trip and a half. Gwen wished Ro was here to see this. She could hardly believe it herself.
Opal put her hand on Gwen’s forearm. “Look, Drew’s a catch, I’m not going to lie. But it seems you two have kept a nice friendship, and it’s great of him to support you while you get better from your ordeal.”
“Yes, it is.” She fought to keep her expression neutral while her mind raced. Whether it had been Opal or another woman, the fact was that Drew had every right to initiate another relationship. They both did.
Why was she letting it bother her so much?