by Geri Krotow
“I’ve been like an expectant father, Gwen. I couldn’t wait to meet Pax, and it was all I could do not to text you each and every minute. I wanted you home. But I had to be absolutely certain you were coming home to a safe place, to a man who could offer you more than broken dreams.”
“I’d take you no matter what, Drew. I don’t care if you’re a physical therapist, a janitor, a bricklayer.”
“How about a stay-at-home dad?”
She laughed. “Now I know you’re joking.”
“Actually, I’m not. There won’t be any criminal charges against me, and with luck Dottie’s family won’t press civil charges, not with Opal’s confession. But for the time being my practice is done. It’s difficult to lose the taint something like this leaves behind. I’ll be lucky to find a contract job as a therapist at the base hospital or down in Coupeville.”
“I don’t care, Drew. Tell me more about the family part.”
He inched closer and pulled on a lock of her hair. “I want to be with you for the rest of our lives, Gwen. It won’t be like before—”
“Shhh.” She put her fingers to his lips. “No, it won’t. I’m going to get out of the navy.”
“That’s my point. I don’t want you to get out—you love the navy. There’s no reason you can’t continue. If you get reassigned, I can follow you.”
“But what about me, Drew? I’m through with the moving, chasing the next rung in the career ladder.” She glanced at Pax’s sleeping form.
“I want to be here for Pax.”
“You can, honey. You have shore duty from now on if there’s no further war. We can go overseas, and you can take whatever assignment you want. I’ll be the steady one who’s here for Pax. Let me be here for you, too, Gwen.”
They met each other halfway and kissed. Deep, long kisses and reverent caresses of the other’s face expressed the need they’d never lost.
“I love you, Drew.”
“I love you, too, sweetheart. But you already know that.”
After several more soul-rending kisses, Drew lifted his head. “Gwen?”
“Mmm?”
“Is Pax too young to be a ring bearer?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Six Months Later
GWEN HAD NEVER been happier. The baby on her hip as she stood at the podium in front of her squadron was a huge part of that, as was the handsome husband who stood beside her. They smiled for the cameras as her Change of Command ceremony ended; all that would remain of the day were the official photos and the memories. She started her shore job as the Naval Airstation’s Executive Officer in two weeks. No moving for at least three years.
“How much longer do we have to pose?” She complained halfheartedly as she hoisted Pax higher in her arms.
“Want to give them a shot they’ll remember?” Drew’s whispered response made her laugh.
The huge American flag hung behind them as a backdrop to the ceremony. As a reminder of all she’d sacrificed to get to this moment. Gwen smiled. She knew she’d do it all again if the ending was the same—she, Drew and Pax together as a family.
They had a vacation to Disneyland in California planned for part of her leave, after which they were leaving Pax with Brenda and George for a few nights. Drew wanted to take her to Napa Valley for a belated second honeymoon.
It wasn’t just love that buoyed Gwen’s spirits. It was hope.
Hope that she and Drew had a future.
They’d been remarried by the base chaplain within a week of Pax’s homecoming, just two days after Drew and his clinic were cleared of any culpability in Dottie’s death.
Opal had been deemed criminally insane and was far from Whidbey Island, serving time at Western State Hospital. If Drew had gone to prison, Gwen would have convinced him to remarry her, anyway. It’d taken her too long, but she finally understood that although she was fine on her own, capable of taking care of herself, life was infinitely better with the man she loved at her side.
“Let’s go see Auntie Ro!” She eased Pax down to the stage and held his hand as he practiced walking with her support.
Pax screamed and insisted on running toward the edge of the platform.
“Oh, no, you don’t, pal.” Drew scooped him up and placed him on his shoulders.
“Thanks. You always know how to handle him.” She kissed Drew full on the lips, public display of affection regulations be damned. Her dress whites had cake stains on the sleeves from where Pax’s hands had held on to her, and she prized those marks more than any of the ribbons or medals she wore on her chest.
“It’s a guy thing, Mom. Right, bud?” Drew wiggled Pax’s feet.
Pax laughed delightedly.
Before they reached Ro, Cole Ramsey approached them, a statuesque blonde on his arm.
“Congrats, Gwen. I’d like you and Drew to meet my fiancée, Anita.”
“Hey, congrats right back at you, Cole! A fiancée? Hi, Anita, nice to meet you.” Gwen gave Cole a quick hug and smiled at Anita, who beamed with a smile so white Gwen thought she could be a toothpaste model.
“Cole.” Drew gave his buddy a bear hug and offered his hand to Anita. “You’ve got a good man here, Anita.”
“I know.”
Pax ran up to Ro, who’d closed the distance between them. “How does it feel to be done with flying, Gwen?” she asked.
“Strangely calm. Maybe it hasn’t hit me yet.”
“Or something else is distracting her,” Drew said with a wink.
“Stop it.” Gwen punched him playfully in the shoulder.
“What am I missing?” Ro’s glance bounced like a video cursor between them.
Drew gave Gwen a questioning look.
She nodded.
“Fine with me.”
Drew grinned. “Ro, have you noticed that Gwen’s uniform is a little, um, tight?”
Ro cocked her head and studied Gwen. “You’re finally back to your normal weight—oh. My. Gosh. Tell me it ain’t so.”
Gwen grinned.
“Yeah, it’s so. Pax is going to be a big brother.”
Ro squealed and threw her arms around Gwen. Gwen returned the hug as best she could in full dress whites.
“What’s the big celebration?”
“Serena! Thank you for coming. Hi, Pepe.” Drew answered for both of them. “We’re excited because Gwen is going to have a baby.”
Pepe didn’t seem very impressed.
“I’m so happy for you both, Drew.” Serena smiled and hugged each of them. “I wish you’d reconsider the clinic, Drew. You could start again. Your clients love you.”
Gwen watched Drew as he slowly shook his head. “No, not yet. I’ve found a great position over at Beyond the Stars, on San Juan. I’ll be offering my services to the Gold Star families.”
“That’s wonderful! You know how much Pepe and I got out of our time there.”
“What will you do for work, Serena?” Gwen felt awful that Serena was without a job when she had a young child to take care of.
“I’m not sure. We have some time. As you know by now, Dottie was my biological aunt and she left me her house and property. Pepe and I can hang out for a bit before I figure out my next move.”
“There’s a huge backyard for me to play in!” Pepe said excitedly.
“How long is your shore duty here, Gwen?”
“Only a few years. After that—who knows? Maybe we’ll move to San Juan Island. After I hit my twenty I’m looking into flying for the local commuter airline another vet started up a few years ago.”
She smiled up at Drew. “The ‘where’ isn’t the issue for me anymore.” She kissed him. “Right?”
“Mmm.” Drew kissed her back. Ro, Serena and the squadron personnel who’d gathered around
to offer their farewells started to clap. Pax, still on his father’s shoulders, pulled on Drew’s hair and knocked Gwen’s cover off her head.
His parents didn’t notice.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from THE SECRETS OF BELL RIVER by Kathleen O’Brien.
Navy Rescue/Whidbey Island Series Acronyms
AAA – anti-aircraft artillery
Aquatracker – based on actual underwater treadmills, this is my fictional name for the equipment in Drew’s physical therapy clinic
BTS – Beyond the Stars. Fictional therapeutic resort for Gold Star families of service members
CO – commanding officer
Cover – name for a uniform hat, whether it is a squadron’s ball cap, a khaki uniform hat or the traditional navy uniform hat
FE – flight engineer. On a P-3 this is often the senior enlisted person of the aircrew. Sits behind the pilot and copilot in the cockpit
Gedunk – a place in a squadron where snacks, sodas and other food is sold
Gold Star Family – a family who has lost a loved one, usually to war, while on active duty
ICS – internal communications system
KIA – killed in action
LPA – life preserver assembly
MIA – missing in action
NAS – naval air station. Land-based, comparable to an army post or air force base
NCIS – Naval Criminal Investigative Service
P-3C Orion – The U.S. Navy’s long-range aircraft (4-engine turboprop) used for reconnaissance (traditionally antisubmarine warfare, especially during the Cold War). Is being replaced by the P-8
PT – physical therapy, but in the navy it means physical training
PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder
SERE – Survival Evasion Resistance Escape school, training required of all aircrew
SGLI – Servicemember’s group life insurance. Provided for all active duty in the event of their death. Beneficiary is assigned by the servicemember
Skipper – nickname for the commanding officer of a squadron
TACCO – tactical coordinator. A naval flight officer (not a pilot) who is in charge of prosecuting the tactical mission
XO – executive officer (#2 to the CO)
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CHAPTER ONE
IN TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS, Tess Spencer hadn’t ever felt like she truly belonged anywhere, and it took only one look at the snow-covered perfection of Bell River Ranch to know she didn’t belong here, either.
So what if the women who owned it were technically her “family”? She didn’t know them—hadn’t even heard of them until two months ago, when, on her deathbed, her mother had dropped the bombshell about Tess’s paternity.
The Wright sisters didn’t know Tess, either. Not even that she existed.
And they probably never would.
She’d left Los Angeles, where she’d lived all her life, and she’d come to Silverdell thinking she might, just might, tell them. That had been her mother’s dying wish—to leave a safety net for the only child she was leaving too soon. In Tess’s imagination, introducing herself to Rowena, Brianna and Penelope Wright had seemed possible. Terrifying, but possible.
But now that Tess saw the beautiful ranch, nestled in its rolling winter landscape like a warm brown egg in a silver-white fairy nest...
How could she tell these elegant, successful strangers—her “sisters”—anything? According to Tess’s mother, the three women seemed to be decent people. They’d known plenty of heartache as well as privilege. They probably wouldn’t even be terribly shocked to learn about Tess. Their dad, Johnny Wright, had done a lot worse in his life than take a mistress and father one secret illegitimate baby.
Eighteen years ago, he had killed his wife. Their mother.
Tragic, but...still. Soaring Greek tragedy and low, dirty squalor weren’t the same problems. Tess Spencer and the legitimate Wright sisters didn’t speak the same language. One was a struggling, divorced massage therapist who had lived in crummy apartments all her life, hand to mouth—and that was on a good day. On bad days, she went hungry. The Wrights were landowners, Colorado heiresses who, in spite of their childhood calamity, had always possessed every tree, rock, building and animal they could see.
The gap between their worlds was as wide as the gap between earthlings and martians.
Besides, though they might not be shocked to meet a secret sister, they would undoubtedly be dismayed. Obviously Bell River Ranch was working very hard to leave its scandalous past behind. Nothing proclaimed civilized and unsullied more than this well-kept, orderly cluster of buildings with sweet blue smoke curling out of chimneys and sunshine sparkling off pristine windows.
“Sorry, Mom,” Tess muttered as she parked the car beside the charming wood-and-glass building that housed the spa. “A bastard of Johnny Wright would be about as welcome here as a hole in a lifeboat.”
She killed the engine and regrouped. Okay, no thrilled surprise family reunion. She’d always known that was greeting-card schlock, anyhow, not real life.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t work here. Work was something Tess knew how to do—and she desperately needed a good job. Her mother’s illness had cleaned her out emotionally, and the divorce from Craig had done the same financially.
All the Wright sisters had to do was hire her. That shouldn’t be hard to pull off. She was a damn good massage therapist with extensive training, enthusiastic recommendations and five years of experience. Hire her, pay her, maybe appreciate her talents a little, and she wouldn’t ask for anything more.
Well, she admitted as she got out of the car, she’d satisfy her curiosity about her birth father at the same time, of course. But that wouldn’t cost anyone anything.
“Hi,” she said as she opened the door to the spa. She was greeted by soft harp music, and the aroma of expensive lotions mixing with the sharp, piney scent of new construction. The spa had obviously been added quite recently, no expenses spared.
“Good morning,” the young blonde goddess behind the streamlined wooden reception desk said. She gave Tess the official “serenity” smile known to any spa employee. Cool, unflappable, full of grace.
You can be a goddess, too, the look was designed to whisper to the client. A few procedures, a small fee...
Tess felt like applauding. A fabulous, incredibly subtle sales pitch. But all wasted. The goddess obviously hadn’t yet figured out that Tess wasn’t a paying client.
A real client, a late-middle-aged woman in crisp navy blue pants and starched white shirt, sat in the waiting room, perched on the edge of one of the stylish armchairs. She’d been reading a celebrity magazine, but glanced up sharply when Tess entered.
“You haven’t forgotten me, have you? My appointment was five minutes ago.” The woman’s voice was as crisp as her clothes, but held an undercurrent of chronic dissatisfaction. Her frown had been so immediate, and the vertical lines between her eyebrows were so firmly grooved, that Tess had to assume scowling was her instinctive reaction to almost anything.
A fussbudget. Tess smiled—her own inner spa employee taking over—though she didn’t expect the sc
owl to go away, and it didn’t. She’d encountered clients like this, and she knew how hopeless it was. These people wouldn’t ever relax, not if massaged for a week with angel feathers.
“Of course not, Mrs. Fillmore,” the goddess purred, unfazed. “How could we ever forget you?”
Tess glanced at the goddess/receptionist. Was she imagining things, or did Blondie’s placid voice have an undercurrent of irony?
“I’m Tess Spencer,” Tess said. “I have an appointment with Rowena Wright.”
“Ah.” The young woman looked relieved behind that perfect smile. She wasn’t quite as cool and impenetrable as Tess had first thought. She actually said a lot with those blue eyes. “Good to meet you, Tess. I’m Bree. I’m sure Rowena will be here any minute, but—”
“Cancel the search-and-rescue team. I’m here!” Behind Tess, the door blew open with a swoosh of clean, frosty air. “I’m so sorry I’m late, Bree. Don’t shoot me. It’s insane at the house. Absolutely insane!”
Tess turned to see a willowy young woman shaking snow from a tangle of long, black hair. The flakes fell to the floor, adding to the crusty crystals left by the tread of her expensive boots. When she finished, she raked back her hair with one hand and lifted her face.
Tess stopped breathing for a second—not because the newcomer was beautiful, though she was absolutely that. When you worked with a pampered, well-heeled clientele, you got accustomed to physical beauty. This woman took Tess’s breath away with her sheer radiating vitality. And those green eyes—they seemed lit from behind, alive in an almost otherworldly way, like a forest animal, or a fairy.
It had to be Rowena. Or at least one of the other Wright sisters, since the blonde was Bree. Brianna, the middle sister.
Yes, this new woman was Rowena—and she was maybe seven months pregnant, her belly the one rounded spot on an otherwise lean, athletic frame.
Tess had done her homework. Most of the stories she’d found had been either archived ones about Johnny Wright’s murder case, in which most papers had been too delicate to print photos of the motherless daughters, or business stories about the opening of Bell River Ranch and its implications for Silverdell’s economy, also short on pictures.