Officer and the Secret (Semper Fidelis. Always Faithful.)

by Murray, Jeanette

  The doctor gave him a small smile. “No intercourse.”

  Dwayne made a face like he’d sucked on a lemon and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like a curse. But Veronica giggled. That he cared was enough of a good sign to her to be happy.

  “So we’re good to go?”

  “You’re all clear, Ms. Gibson. Have a good one. And rest for a little bit.”

  After the doctor left, Dwayne picked her up in his arms. She grabbed around his neck and laughed again. “What are you doing?”

  He shot her a playful grin and affected a thicker-than-normal twang. “That there doc told you to keep off yer feet, missy. I aim to help ya.”

  She slapped his chest and pointed toward the exit. “Let’s go home, Dwayne.”

  Home. With Dwayne. It’s where she wanted to be.

  ***

  Veronica slept the sleep of the dead. More than once, Dwayne had checked just to make sure she was still breathing. She didn’t move, didn’t reposition, didn’t even make those cute, light snoring sounds she was prone to make. But she was so exhausted, both with being up so late at night and the emotional toll the trip to the ER had been, she was dead to the world. But he was wired, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t even sit still. Everything in him pulled him to her, to watch her sleep, protect her, make sure nothing bad ever touched her again. Illogical, but he couldn’t help it.

  As dawn broke through the shades, he crawled out of bed and got dressed. Knowing she would sleep in well past normal time to get up, he left her a note telling her he was running an errand and would be back soon. And to text him if she felt the slightest twinge of pain or worry.

  Then Dwayne shuffled out of the apartment before Veronica would realize he was gone. He hated doing it, when everything in him screamed to stay home and take care of his woman and their kidney bean. Be there if she needed him. And if he hadn’t seen with his own eyes that Kidney Bean was doing fine, he might have.

  But Veronica wasn’t one to be pampered over. Staying there just to wait on her would probably annoy her more than help. She was safe and sound, asleep in their bed.

  Their bed. God, that felt good.

  And he had someone to talk to.

  He drove to the battalion and headed straight for the chaplain’s office. He knocked and waited, but there was no answer. Turning on his heel, he slammed into someone, papers from the man’s hand scattering.

  “Sorry, I—Chaplain. Ah, damn. Darn. Sorry. Didn’t see you there.”

  The chaplain smiled as he bent down with Dwayne to start gathering papers. “I assumed as much. Unless it’s your new greeting to run a man over as you say hello. Just glad I hadn’t brought my coffee with me.” As he stood up, the messy stack of papers in hand, he glanced at his watch. “You’re early.”

  Dwayne rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry, just got an early start to the day.”

  Unlocking his door, he opened and beckoned Dwayne in. Dwayne waited until Major Dunham had settled his folder.

  “Okay, Robertson, I’ve got a few minutes. Let’s talk.”

  Suddenly, Dwayne wished he could make an invisible exit. Words weren’t his thing, and he certainly didn’t make a conscious plan to come in and talk things through. But the minute his mouth opened, his instinct took over. “I just wanted to say thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” The chaplain smiled. “Mind telling me what you’re thankful for?”

  “Mostly listening. Being a neutral ear. Convincing me I wasn’t crazy.” He studied the toes of his boots. “We’re getting married.”

  “Congratulations.” He paused. “I take it this is a happy thing?”

  “It is. It really is.”

  “No problems, questions, or concerns?”

  Dwayne smiled. “All three. But we’ll figure it out.”

  A knock sounded on the door, and Dwayne stood. “I hope I didn’t make you late.”

  “Not at all. He’s a little early. But Captain, my door is always open if you need help weeding through any of the above.” Major Dunham stood up and extended a hand. “I have a feeling our impromptu get-togethers are coming to a close, don’t you? It was a pleasure meeting with you. And I hope you’ll keep me updated on things.”

  “Yes, sir.” Dwayne stood and shook the chaplain’s hand. Odd to think he wouldn’t be walking through the doorway again feeling as broken as he had the first time through. And relieved, on top of that.

  As he walked out, he saw Captain Beckett sitting on a chair in the outer office. “Hey, man. Did you need the chaplain? I think he’s got someone coming in, but—”

  “That’d be me.” Beckett gave him an easy smile. “I’m his appointment. You just beat me to it this morning.”

  “Oh, wow, sorry.” He ran a hand over his hair. “So before, when I thought you were running errands, you were…”

  “Coming here for counseling? Yup.” Beckett shrugged, fresh-washed cammies rustling in the quiet of the office. “No big.”

  “Right. No big.” He glanced back to the closed door and waved toward it. “I hope you get what you need out of it.”

  “Yeah. Me too.” He nodded as Dwayne passed by, then knocked and entered.

  That was awkward. But Dwayne felt marginally better knowing he wasn’t alone in seeking help for shit he’d seen, experienced, been through. Of course, he knew instinctively he wasn’t. But it helped to know all the same.

  He headed to his office and did a quick email check, sending some info that was time sensitive and writing down notes for the administrative assistant the captains shared. Then after a quick detour to the CO’s office, he headed down the hall to Tim’s door. Knowing his friend would be there—who was always in first? Tim—he pushed open and waited for his friend to look up from the computer.

  “How did you know?”

  Tim sat back and laced his fingers behind his head. “I’m afraid to ask, but I will anyway. Know what?”

  “Know that you loved Skye?”

  “Ah.” A satisfied look crossed Tim’s face. “That’s a kind of personal question, don’t you think?”

  “Oh, cut the bullshit, O’Shay.” He walked to the window and watched as the first trickle of morning traffic worked its way down the streets behind the battalion building, on their way to their own offices around base.

  Tim chuckled. “You know, it’s just hard to think, physically, how a little thing so small as Veronica can take down such a big guy.”

  “She’s small, but potent.” He smiled wryly. “And she’s got me tied up in knots.”

  “Couldn’t tell,” was the smartass reply. “That right there should tell you something big. That she’s got the power to twist you around.”

  “And that’s how you knew?”

  Tim pointed to a chair. “Sit down, you giant. I’m not having this conversation with my head tilted up to stare at your tall ass.” After he grudgingly sat, Tim kept going. “I knew I loved her because I knew I could move on through life without her.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Of course it does. Do you think I was going to trust some all-consuming sort of feeling where if I couldn’t have her I couldn’t go on? That sort of removal from all things controlled?”

  Dwayne snorted. Feelings like that—the stuff that drove Shakespeare’s best work—would be Tim’s idea of hell. “You would have hated it.”

  Tim stabbed the air with a pen. “Exactly. That sort of stuff, the dramatic, life-or-death fairy-tale stuff, it’s not real. It’s some manifestation of lust and a lack of logic.”

  “Sort of like how you met Skye in the first place?”

  Color swept over his friend’s cheeks. “Okay. Bad example. But the point is, I knew I could live without Skye. But I didn’t want to. That’s the difference. Or at least it was for me. The fact that I could go on. I could move on with my life and fun
ction and be okay. I just didn’t want to. Because all forms of future happiness, in my mind, were wrapped around that one stubborn, completely bizarre woman.”

  He couldn’t hold back the laughter at the way Tim described his wife. And it was all true. “I see what you’re getting at now.”

  “So do you love her?”

  Dwayne raised a brow. “I think that’s something I should be talking to her about.”

  “Well, have fun with that tonight.”

  “Today,” Dwayne corrected. “Just got done with the CO. Told him I needed a few days off. Wedding stuff.” He winked and stood up, stretching his back as he did. “The idea of spending a few days curled up with Veronica and sleeping in are more appealing than I want to admit. I thought I bled red and gold, but damn. Now that there’s something to go home to—”

  “You can’t wait to drop your boots at the door, can you?”

  “Not at all. So I’ll be heading out now. I’ve got a woman to talk to.”

  Tim glanced at his cell phone. “Well, you might have to save that convo for a few hours. She’s over at the old place with Madison and Skye.”

  Dwayne froze. “What?”

  Unaware of what he’d stepped into, Tim shrugged. “Yeah, Skye texted me a little bit ago. She’s not on ’til late tonight and Madison’s off for the next few days, so the girls are over at Madison’s helping Veronica pack up the last few things she didn’t have time to grab before.”

  “She’s packing?”

  “I’m sure they’re doing more talking than packing. You know females.”

  “She’s packing?” Dwayne thundered. “What the hell?”

  “It’s not a big deal; she’s—”

  “Dammit.” Dwayne stormed out the door and let it shut behind him, cutting off Tim’s conversation midsentence.

  Packing, for the love of Christ. She was supposed to be taking it easy! What the hell did she think she was doing? He would have packed for her. Hell, he would have done anything she asked.

  He passed by Jeremy’s office, not stopping when his friend called out in greeting. A lance corporal scurried out of his way in the hallway, as if the sight of him freaked the Marine out. Luckily, he thought as he started up his truck, traffic heading out the main gate would be all but nonexistent at this time of the day. Because he had a bone to pick with his wife and it was not going to wait.

  Chapter 27

  Skye held up another book. “This one?”

  Veronica squinted. “No, donate.” She rolled over onto her back and sighed. “You guys, I hate this. Can I just do one box? The light stuff, no books.”

  “No,” Madison and Skye said in unison.

  “You’re supposed to be on bed rest,” Madison went on. “So stay up there on the bed and rest. Doctor ordered, nurse enforced.”

  “Thanks, Nurse Ratched. I’m not an invalid. I’m just pregnant,” she grumbled back.

  “Well, then the fetus needs to be on bed rest. And since he can’t rest on a bed without your help, I think that you would want to help him,” Skye pointed out in a softer, more reasonable voice.

  “Oh. Right.” She laid a hand on her stomach, a little confused and a lot amazed that almost overnight, her mostly flat belly had morphed, now with a barely perceptible curve to it. You couldn’t even see it when she stood up, just lying flat on her back. But not like she’d eaten too many cupcakes. It was hard, firm to the touch. Definitely a new development. It still was beyond her comprehension how something so tiny would become a baby in a few months. But according to the book Madison gave her, that’s just how it worked.

  A pounding sound echoed through to the back bedroom. Madison glanced up at Veronica. “Did you call someone to come over?”

  Veronica shook her head. “No. The guys are all at work. I don’t know who that is.”

  Madison shrugged and kept going through another box Veronica had put directly into storage when she’d first moved in.

  The pounding continued.

  Skye looked up at Madison, a sweater dangling from her hands. “Shouldn’t you see who that is?”

  “I’m not expecting anyone. Probably a vacuum salesguy. I saw one of their vans in the complex yesterday. I’m not getting up to answer in my pajamas.”

  “Hmm. Keep?”

  Veronica nodded and Skye moved the sweater to the Keep for Storage pile.

  “Veronica!”

  She sat up quickly, then slouched down a little when Madison gave her a look that said either lie back down or I will strap you down. “Was that—”

  “Veronica!”

  Skye ran to the bedroom window and peered down a little. “Oh my God, it’s—”

  “Open up the dang door, darlin’.”

  “Dwayne?” all three asked simultaneously before Madison jumped up and shuffled to the hallway in her slippers. A moment later, the sound of a door opening and Dwayne’s disgruntled voice filled the apartment.

  “Where is she?”

  “Easy there, cowboy. She’s back in her old bedroom.”

  A moment of thundering almost shook the walls before Dwayne, in full cammies, stopped in the doorway, his head and shoulders centimeters away from actually touching the frame. The scowl on his face probably should have had her knees knocking, but she just wanted to laugh at how disgruntled and adorable he looked.

  “You mind telling me what you’re doing over here?”

  Veronica spread her arms out across the bedspread, as if she were making snow angels. “Packing, of course.”

  “Uh-huh.” He shot a hard glance at Skye, who was quietly giggling. “You shouldn’t be encouraging this.”

  Madison snickered behind him.

  Whirling around, he pointed a finger at her chest. “And you should know better. You’re the medical person.”

  “Yes, medical person. I think that’s what it says on my state certification,” Madison said dryly.

  “She’s on bed rest, for God’s sake!”

  “Modified bed rest,” Veronica said. “And where am I?” She held up her hands to prove a point… that she was still flat on her back in bed.

  “Exactly.” Madison slapped his finger away. “Don’t point, Casanova. It’s rude.” And she waltzed around him and plopped back down on the floor as if he hadn’t disrupted their morning of girl-time and work. “This book?”

  “Donate. What are you doing here?” She propped herself up on her elbows.

  “Took a long weekend.” With a sigh of what could only be resignation—Veronica bit back a grin at that—he thudded in with heavy feet and sat next to her on the bed. With one giant hand he gripped her ankles and dragged her feet into his lap, absently massaging her ankles.

  She nearly wept with gratitude. Instead she fell back to the bed and let his hands work their magic.

  “I don’t think you’ll have much to take with you at this rate,” Skye said a few minutes later. “I mean, you didn’t even unpack this stuff when you originally moved in here.”

  “It’s because I didn’t want any of it,” she answered, closing her eyes and letting the amazing feel of Dwayne’s fingers seep in. “It’s just what I had with me when I came over to the U.S. and so I kept it.” Not sentimental, she knew. But something at the time hadn’t let her throw away the things from what she now thought of as her previous life. It was almost as if she knew eventually she would look back and see how far she had come. Like a scrapbook.

  “I think we’re almost done then, unless you had anything stashed in the patio storage.” Madison stood and wiped her hands on her pajama pants.

  “No, I think that’s—”

  “What is that?”

  She turned her head to look at Dwayne. “What is what?”

  He pointed, then placed a hand over her stomach. “That.”

  She covered his hand with one of hers. “That wou
ld be a stomach. It’s usually located above the hips but below the chest.”

  “Oooh, I can play this game. Anyone want to know the scientific name for organs in there?” Madison bounced up and down with her hand in the air like an overeager first grade teacher’s pet.

  He shot her a look. “Smart alecks. Both of you.”

  “It’s why you love me,” she sang as she left the room, Skye hot on her heels. Apparently, under some unspoken agreement, they’d decided to give her and Dwayne some alone time.

  “Why is it all bulgy?”

  “You do make my head spin with your compliments.” When he raised one brow, she sighed. “It’s the baby. It just sort of… popped. This morning.”

  His eyes grew wide and she laughed. “It’s supposed to happen. Calm down. Actually…” She pointed to a bag that was in the keep pile on the floor by the closet. “Go grab that for me, if you could.”

  He shifted her feet off his lap gently and did as she asked. When he handed it to her, she pushed back. “No, open it. It’s yours.”

  He did, letting the plastic bag flutter to the floor as he read the book’s title.

  “It’s a book.”

  That didn’t sound promising. He just kept staring at the cover, as if it was going to morph into something more exciting. “The guy at the bookstore recommended it.”

  He kept staring.

  “It’s supposed to be good for information, but funny too, sort of keeping you in the loop with humor. So you know what’s going on with the baby but don’t get all the emotional mushy stuff… or so said the bookstore guy.”

  “Yeah.” He turned the book over in his hand, inspecting the back cover, the spine, flipping the pages quickly with his thumb.

  “If you don’t like it, I can take it back.”

  “No. No, don’t do that.” He set the book on the nightstand and leaned over her, one hand over her belly. “It’s great. Thank you.”

  They were the right words, but what was he feeling? His face didn’t give anything away.

  “Can I take you home now? I assume Skye drove you, since I’m praying you weren’t crazy enough to drive yourself.”

  She smiled. “I’m crazy, but not stupid. Yeah, take me back home.”