That’s your pity talking, Rosie.
“It doesn’t matter where I sleep. I just don’t feel like getting into the same bed you’ve shared with Zach.”
“I’ve never been to bed with him.”
Nick’s head flew back in shock. What did you just say?
“After I’d been seeing Zach for a time, I made the decision that I wouldn’t sleep with him, because I didn’t want sex to complicate my feelings for him, whatever they were.”
“And he’s loved you enough to wait?”
She nodded. “Yes. H-he’s a wonderful man.”
Nick had been prepared to hate his guts. But he’d found out during the war that it wasn’t possible to hate an honorable man.
Rosie might be in love with him, but she hadn’t slept with him yet. There might still be a slim chance of winning her back. He’d have to start from scratch. Zach Wilde had two years’ head start on him—and he’d won Rosie’s love without Cody’s cooperation, which meant he was the worthiest of adversaries.
Nick reminded himself that he had another advantage. He’d learned patience.
“Hi!” Cody climbed into the back seat and shut the door. “Sorry it took so long, but there was a group of tourists from that bus over there up ahead of me. Here’s your malt, Dad.”
“Thanks, son.”
He reached for it, no longer worried that he’d have to throw it out when Cody wasn’t watching because he was too sick to eat.
“Does it look good?”
Nick took several large spoonfuls, then couldn’t stop. It was sheer ambrosia. “What I’d have given for one of these…”
While his wife and child looked on in wonder, he devoured the whole thing in a matter of seconds.
“Whoa, Dad!”
Nick flashed Cody a smile. “Does that answer your question?”
“I’d get a brain freeze if I ate mine that fast!”
“The trick is to eat it superfast so your brain doesn’t have time to get frozen.” He deposited his cup in the sack Rosie held open for him.
“Nick, don’t tell Cody that!” she chastised. “In high school you used to pull that stunt on people all the time, and they’d imitate you—to their peril.”
Rosie was pretending to be disgusted, but he saw that she was struggling not to laugh. Another tiny moment to cherish.
“Dad? You’re awesome. I can’t wait for my friends to meet you.”
“I love you, too, Cody. Let’s go home, shall we? R.T.’s been dying for one of these. It would be a sin to let it melt.”
He backed the car out of the parking space, then merged with the traffic going east. Within minutes they’d reached Sunnyside Avenue, which ran past the zoo and into Emigration Canyon.
“You’ll have to direct me now.”
“Turn right on Twenty-second,” Rosie murmured. “We’re the fourth house on the left.”
“This is a nice neighborhood.” Close to the university. Close to Zach?
“There’s Grandpa’s car.”
The redbrick home with white trim was a moderate-size, one-story rambler with a well-groomed yard and several large shade trees.
Out of nowhere came a deep fierce pride in his wife for making a solid life for herself and Cody. Though Nick knew his parents had lent Rosie their support, she’d had to live through these difficult years alone.
She’d been the one responsible for all the decisions, all the choices that had brought her and Cody to this point.
She’d been the one raising their son, making sacrifices to give him the best life possible. Nick felt profoundly grateful that such a woman was their son’s mother.
The next time he got Rosie alone, he’d tell her as much.
“Come on, Dad! Let’s find R.T. I want to show you the house and the backyard.”
“I’m coming.”
Nick got out of the car and went around to help Rosie, but she’d already alighted from the passenger side and had gone to the trunk to get his duffel bag. Was it because she felt sorry for him? Or because she’d grown accustomed to doing everything herself.
To Nick’s mind, she’d become more independent. Though it was a great reminder of how much time they’d lost together, he admired this new facet of her personality. He was also frightened of it.
“I’ll take that.” He pulled out his bag before she could, then shut the trunk.
Once again he faced the sophisticated-looking woman he couldn’t quite reconcile with the wife he’d left behind seven years ago. Their gazes locked. She was getting better at masking her pity. Now he saw a hint of pleading in those lush green irises.
“Cody and I just got back from our trip last night, and there’s literally no food in the refrigerator. Since we have a full house, I’d better run to the store at Foothill and get some groceries. I’ll only buy what we need to get us through to tomorrow. What do you think R.T. would like for snacks? For dinner? What would you like?”
Her errand was a legitimate one, yet he could sense her eagerness to get away. She was going to call Zach, maybe even meet him, and there wasn’t one damn thing Nick could do about it.
“Orange juice, whole milk—gallons of it. Eggs, fruit, corn on the cob, cauliflower, cheese, potato chips, cashews, bacon, sausage, ham, peanut butter, jam, French bread. A big Hershey bar, a Krackle. Any or all of the above will do for starters.”
With every item he mentioned, her eyes filled a little more until the tears overflowed and ran down her cheeks.
On a half sob she cried, “What did they do to you in there?”
The old Rosie had come out of hiding for a minute. If he could just find a way to keep her there long enough to make a real connection.
“I want to tell you. I need to tell you, but only when you’re ready to hear it.”
Her eyes closed tightly. “I’d be a liar if I said I wanted to hear what your life’s been like for the last seven years. Ever since I heard the news that you’d been held prisoner all this time, I haven’t allowed myself to think about the horror of it. But that’s the coward in me talking. No one ever had a greater right to be listened to than you.”
That’s not the answer I want, Rosie. We’re not talking about rights here! This is about love between a husband and wife. How far you’ve gone away from me, sweetheart.
“Take all the time you need, Rosie. Don’t worry about me—I’ll be here. With Cody.”
NICK’S WORDS still reverberated in her head. He’d always had an uncanny ability to read her thoughts. If anything, his incarceration had sharpened his instincts.
A few minutes after leaving him, she sat numbly in her car, which she’d parked under the terrace opposite the supermarket. Nick had let her know that he was ready to share his story whenever she could handle it. But he’d said a lot more than that.
He knew she needed her privacy to make contact with Zach. In his own way, he’d given his permission.
It’s not fair, her heart groaned. For years Nick had been locked in prison, and now that he was released, she’d locked him out. Unintentionally, inadvertently, but nonetheless she’d locked him out. There’d been too much change. And there was another man….
As for Zach, she could just imagine his pain. With one phone call, his happiness had been wiped away as if it had never been. She wanted desperately to talk to him, but she needed to call Linda Beams first.
There was a phone booth outside the store. Rosie looked up the number and punched it in. The base receptionist said that Linda wouldn’t be in her office until the next day.
Trying to recover from her disappointment, Rosie explained her emergency. The receptionist commiserated with her situation and set up an appointment with Linda at nine the next morning.
Of necessity, Rosie realized she’d have to ask Chow Ping to teach her classes again and decided to make the call now before she forgot.
Finally she was able to phone Zach’s office, but to her consternation, his secretary said he’d asked her to cancel all his appointments, th
at he wouldn’t be in until the next day.
Rosie’s hand shook as she placed a call to his condo, only a few minutes away on Wasatch Boulevard. All she got was the answering machine.
“Zach, darling? It’s one-fifteen. I’m shopping for groceries at Dan’s in Foothill. If you’re home, or if you get home in time to hear this message, come and find me. I’ll be here a half hour, no more. I’ve parked the car in my usual spot. I don’t want you calling the house. If we miss each other, I’ll phone you later.”
Once inside the store, Rosie lost track of time as she went up and down the aisles in search of the items Nick had mentioned, plus a few he hadn’t.
Chocolate-chip cookies. He preferred the dough to the baked cookies. He also loved doughnuts, tuna fish, nachos with cheese and refried beans, apple pie. He needed good food and lots of it. She would make certain he put on the weight he’d lost.
One of the friendly baggers, a young man named Dennis, teased her all the way to her car because he’d never seen her buy so many different kinds of groceries. She told him she had company.
If she’d confided that her husband had returned from Desert Storm, she would have been detained by dozens of questions. Not only couldn’t she take the time, she felt a strange reluctance to let the world in on her secret—that Nick was alive and home again. Once people found out, their house would be deluged with visitors and phone calls.
Nick was the kind of man who had so many friends and contacts, you couldn’t count them all. Everyone would besiege him. He wouldn’t have a quiet moment to himself. This was his first day back. He’d want to spend it with family, no one else.
After stashing all the bags in her trunk, Dennis shook his head. “That must be some company. You practically bought out the whole store!”
It did look that way. Maybe she’d gone overboard, but she wanted Nick to eat to his heart’s desire. Anything that appealed to him, she wanted him to have.
As she was opening the door to her car, she felt a pair of strong male arms slip around her waist from behind. Zach. She’d been so preoccupied, she’d forgotten he might have heard her message and come to find her.
In automatic response, she turned in his arms, seeking his comfortable, solid, familiar frame. But she’d just come from Nick’s arms and would never forget how thin he’d felt beneath his uniform jacket. As for R.T.—
“I don’t know about you, but I need this—” Suddenly Zach’s mouth was on hers, claiming her love without hesitation because she’d given him that right when she accepted his ring.
But everything had changed, just as Zach had prophesied hours earlier.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t erase the memory of the experience in Nick’s arms this morning. Worse, even though they were in a protected area of the parking lot, there were people around—maybe even friends—who would know soon enough that Nick was back and be shocked by her behavior with Zach.
Why on earth had she asked him to meet her here? Her husband was at home, waiting for her!
Fighting another spasm of guilt, she tore her lips from Zach’s, but he refused to relinquish his hold on her shoulders. She knew what was coming next, and she couldn’t look at him.
“Does he know about us yet?”
“Yes.” She nodded. Nick knows. He’d known the truth when he’d conducted a search of her soul and found the one thing she’d been dreading he’d discover.
“Rosie?” Zach gave her a gentle shake.
She could hear the questions he hadn’t voiced, questions to which there were no answers yet, certainly not the answers he needed to hear.
His fingers kneaded her shoulders with more insistence. “I know you love him, darling, but you’re in love with me!”
“I am,” she said emotionally, “but it’s an impossible situation right now.”
“I realize that.”
“No. I don’t think you do.” She stared up at him, dry-eyed. “Nick lost his left hand in the war, Zach. The buddy he brought home with him is blind in one eye from the same explosion. When they got off that transport plane, there was no family to greet R.T., so he’s going to stay with us for a time. The two of them together would make little more than one of you.”
“Lord.”
In the next instant, Zach’s arms provided the refuge she craved. A torrent of fresh pain over what Nick had suffered ripped through her body.
“We have to talk, sweetheart,” he whispered into her hair, “but obviously it can’t be here. Tell me what you want me to do. I’ll meet you anytime, anywhere. Just don’t leave me hanging. I couldn’t stand that.”
She didn’t feel she could stand this untenable situation, either, but neither her pain nor Zach’s could compare to Nick’s and R.T.’s. “I’ll call you.”
“When?”
“When I can!” she cried. “Please let me go, darling. I should have been home ten minutes ago.”
“Rosie…”
As she pulled out of his arms and got in her car, she took in his chiseled features and windburned cheeks. It dawned on her that he’d been out riding his bike to deal with his grief. How much more agony would all of them be called upon to endure?
“I promise I’ll phone you before I go to bed tonight.” It was a rash promise, but she owed Zach that much. She loved Zach that much.
His pain-filled gaze searched hers for endless moments. He didn’t ask her if she’d be sleeping alone. She didn’t tell him her intentions.
How could she? She wasn’t sure of them herself.
Now that her husband was back needing all kinds of physical and emotional help, she could only function from one moment to the next. The future was terrifying to her.
“I love you,” he said in a fierce whisper, leaning inside to capture her mouth one more time before she drove away.
CHAPTER FOUR
NICK NOTICED that a lot of the furnishings in the traditionally styled house were new—but she hadn’t gotten rid of their king-size bed.
Were the memories of the passion they’d shared there too precious for her to part with?
Or had she been planning to sleep in it with Zach as soon as they were married—
“Hey, Dad?”
Nick heard his son’s voice in the hall and turned swiftly toward the bedroom door. His body had gone clammy from another cold sweat; it had broken out at the thought of Rosie loving another man.
“In here, Cody. Where’s R.T.?”
“He’s out in the yard with Grandma and Grandpa eating his malt.”
“Good.”
“Mom let me keep your clothes in my closet. Here they are!”
Cody came into the room carrying Nick’s black-and-gray parka, his midnight blue gabardine winter dress coat, a half-dozen of his old pullovers and crew-neck shirts, sweaters, khaki trousers and jeans, all of which would hang loosely on him for some time to come.
Unfortunately, in his naïveté Cody had thought that of course his mom and dad would pick right up where they’d left off and begin sharing a room again. Sharing a bed…Before Nick could suggest that he leave everything as it was for the present, Cody had gone off again, coming back minutes later with another armload of clothes.
“I kept all your T-shirts and shorts so I could wear them when I grow up.”
Nick’s throat swelled with love and gratitude for this son who filled so many of his needs right now.
“I bet you’re tired of all that military stuff, Dad. Why don’t you put on something else?”
If he’d thought his old clothes would fit, there was nothing Nick would have liked better. But Cody was so anxious to be of help, Nick couldn’t disappoint him. He had no desire to see that eagerness disappear from his son’s eyes. “Do you have a belt?”
“Sure. I’ll get it!”
Once more he raced out of the room, leaving Nick to deal with the thousand and one memories associated with these clothes—especially the thin T-shirts Rosie used to put on after a shower to entice him away from whatever he was
doing in the middle of a lazy Saturday afternoon….
One look at her long slender legs, the way her damp curves transformed the shape of the material, and he forgot the world in the wonder of making love to his gorgeous, giving wife.
He’d experienced enough of life, had heard enough male talk among the men in the reserve long before his capture, to know that his and Rosie’s marriage had been exceptional.
It had taken Rosie until the cruise to get engaged again. That had to mean something, didn’t it?
Deep in thought, he removed his uniform and shrugged into a long-sleeved navy pullover the sleeve of which could hang down over his damaged arm if he wanted. A glance in the mirror above Rosie’s dressing table told him he looked like hell. If anything, the folds of the material emphasized his thinness.
Cody came in as Nick zipped up the old jeans Rosie used to like so much.
“Here you go, Dad.” He offered him the belt when he could see that the jeans wouldn’t stay up. It made Nick more determined than ever to get some flesh back on his bones.
Cody helped him fasten the buckle. “What do you think, son?”
“You look good, Dad.”
Nick flashed him a smile, then pulled Cody onto the bed to wrestle with him. “Liar.”
When their wrestling eventually had them on the floor, Cody cried out, “You may be skinny, but you’re strong! I quit, Dad.”
“Yeah?” Nick sat up, grinning.
“Yeah.”
“Say it like you mean it.”
“I surrender!”
After Nick released him, a broad smile lit Cody’s face. “Your arms and legs are like steel bars.”
“That’s because R.T. and I worked out on a regular basis.”
A haunted look crept into Cody’s expression. “I heard the Iraqi guards tortured prisoners for doing that.”
They did, Cody, in ways you don’t want to know about and will never hear from me.
“Yeah, well, R.T. and I were smart and did our exercising at night when they got lazy and couldn’t see us very well.” It was time to change the subject. “You know, you’re pretty tough yourself.”
Strangers When We Meet Page 5