The Traiteur's Ring (17 page)

“I feel pretty good,” he said. “Slept on the plane.”

“Okay,” she said. He guessed she had learned the futility of trying too hard to take care of him. “Want me to grab two beers?”

“Do we have any champagne?” he asked.

Christy laughed out loud.

“Why on Earth would we have champagne?” she chuckled. “I can’t get you to even try red wine.”

Ben laughed, too. “Well, if we’re gonna be an old married couple, we gotta start drinking old married couple stuff,” he said and caressed her face.

“Is that what you think married people drink? Champagne?”

Ben shrugged. “Maybe. Isn’t it?”

Christy laughed again and shook her head as she swung out of the hammock. “I’ll grab us some beers,” she said and disappeared through the screen door. Ben swung out of the hammock, as well, and smiled again. He wondered if he had ever been this happy. For a moment, he flashed on the old man’s eyes and the smell of Jewel against his neck, but shook it off.

Maybe that dream will close the chapter. I feel terrible about a lot of what happened, but it is what it is. Time to move on.

“Your beer, old soon-to-be married man,” Christy said as the screen door banged shut behind her. Ben decided the dream had been his farewell to the haunting from all that had happened in Africa. He took the cold beer from Christy and then took her hand and led her down the three wooden steps to the beach.

They walked for a while and sipped the ice cold, frothy liquid, the clear sky and bright sun warming their skin against the chill in the air. Ben watched the waves roll gently on to the sand and thought for the ten thousandth time how lucky they had been to find this town house on the beach. He loved these walks together.

And, we’ll do them forever.

He smiled and squeezed Christy’s hand, and she looked over at him, her eyes happy. He took a swig of cold beer.

“So how do you wanna do this?”

She flashed a seductive smile at him and grabbed his butt after looking around. “Do what?” she asked coyly.

He laughed.

“You’re hard to satisfy,” he said.

“Nah,” she said and sipped her own beer. “Just like to get satisfied again and again.”

“I’m talking about the wedding,” he said.

Christy squeezed his arm and laughed again. “Who are you?” she asked. “And what have you done with Ben Morvant?”

“I’m serious,” he said. “I want to get married like yesterday, but I want it to be perfect for you.”

“That’s my SEAL,” she said. “The decision is made, so it’s time to plan the op and execute, right?”

Ben shrugged and laughed good-naturedly at himself.

“I guess that’s about right. So do you want a big wedding, a little wedding, church wedding – What?”

“Okay,” she said and stopped. She plopped down in the sand and patted the beach beside her. “Let’s talk about it then.”

Ben sat beside her and took her hand again.

Now we’re talking. Let’s get this thing organized and move along.

“Okay,” he looked at her expectantly.

“Okay,” she said and her eyes danced with happiness. “I know you don’t want a big wedding…”

Ben raised a hand and opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off.

“and neither do I,” she reassured him. “I don’t need a church wedding, but I want a minister to give us a Christian wedding. I would like our friends there, and I want to fly my mom down.” Ben looked at her and waited for more, but she just smiled and raised her eyebrows.

“That’s it?” he asked.

“That’s all I need,” she answered.

Ben shrugged. No wonder he loved her.

“I thought women dreamed their whole lives about their wedding day.”

“Not this one,” Christy took a long pull on her beer. “I have been dreaming for a while about the man I would marry and spend my life with, and you’ve already given me that.”

Ben poked the sand with his feet. There must be more to plan than this.

“Where will we do it?”

“How about the beach behind the lodge over at the Officer’s Club on base?” she asked. They had been to a retirement party there a few months before the last deployment. It would be perfect.

“Perfect,” He looked at her and squeezed her hand. “What will you wear?”

Christy laid her head on his shoulder and kissed his hand.

“I’ll buy a nice dress,”

“A wedding dress?”

“If you like,” she said and looked up at him. “It’ll have to be on sale, off the rack, and fit perfectly to meet our timeline.”

“Which is?” Ben asked. He wanted time to put it together but really would love it to be tomorrow.

“Two weeks?” she asked. “Is that enough time for you to be sure?”

He hugged her tightly.

“I’m already sure,” he promised. “I’ll barely be able to wait that long. Can we get it all together by then?”

“Sure,” she said. “What’s to do? We order some food, get my mom a ticket, and tell a few friends where to be.” She pulled her head from his shoulder and kissed his cheek. “The rate limiting step will be giving your teammates enough time to get some clean clothes together,” she laughed at her own joke.

“We’ll do dress uniforms,” he said. “Everyone keeps one of those squared away, just in case.”

Christy turned away and looked out at the ocean, and he wished he hadn’t said that. They both knew what those dress uniforms were kept pressed and in plastic for. They had been to three ceremonies for fallen comrades together since they met. After a moment the awkward silence melted away, and he shooed it farther by taking her hand and pulling them both to their feet.

“Come on,”

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“We gotta go get you a ring,” and hugged her again.

“Okay,” she said with little girl-like excitement in her voice.

They walked back down the beach at quick pace towards their town house, hand-in-hand.

Chapter 14

Reed tipped back the Bud Longneck and wondered if everyone felt this way on the first day or two. That detached feeling – like being the new kid in school, a feeling he knew well after growing up a Navy brat – usually stuck with him for a couple of days and just felt so wrong when he was surrounded by people he loved. And, he really did love these people.

His dad smiled at some joke he had just made, and Reed tried to laugh appropriately and hoped no one could tell how far away he was. They had been close for the last four or five years after a long and bitter period after his mom had given up and left. Reed had been in high school, and Dad had been retired for two years or so. Reed believed now the retirement had been the death of their marriage. Not that it had been great before that, but the time away at sea, and more important the homecomings, had always been just enough to fan the dying embers his parents seemed to have left. But once Dad was home every day – well, he guessed they learned some things about each other and their marriage that neither liked.

The waitress approached, and Reed raised his nearly empty bottle.

“Sure,” she said. “Anyone else?”

“Another round,” Dad said, and three other heads nodded.

“And, some more fried oysters and bread,” his brother Carl added. Reed liked Carl a lot more since he had met Caroline, the pretty girl beside him. There had always been a strain with his brother – they were as different as night and day and had been since they’d been little kids. But after Reed graduated from high school and joined the Navy, things had gotten even worse for a bit. Reed always thought it had been because his brother was in college and had become a pacifist of sorts while Reed was training to be a killer in the Navy SEALs. September 11th had changed all that, and Reed would always remember the night his brother had hugged him and told him through tearful sobs how proud he was to be his brother. Reed had just gotten back from Afghanistan.

He shook his head and tried to dial back into the conversation. Dad’s girlfriend Jessica, whom he had reluctantly admitted to himself about a year and a half ago that he liked a lot, had said something about the news. Reed looked up but was relieved to see eyes focused on Dad and not him.

Just a few days and the depression and constant emotional reminiscing will go away.

“What do you think, Rocky?” his dad asked.

Reed shook off the twinge of annoyance. He had decided a while ago to not let the nickname bother him. He didn’t mind the name, but to him it belonged to Mom. Just as he opened his mouth to sheepishly admit he had no idea what the hell they were talking about, an Aerosmith song chirped from his belt and saved him the embarrassment.

“Excuse me just a second,” he said, hopeful he concealed his relief. He snapped his cell phone out of its holster and headed to the door. He felt even more relief to see Ben’s name flashed on his phone and not some other non-team person who would make him feel awkward and out of place.

But just for a couple of days. Probably the other guys feel this way, too.

“Whassup, bro,” he said into his phone as he stepped out into the chilly air. He stuck his finger in his ear to block the roar of an FA-18 fighter jet that roared in from the ocean across the street, headed to a landing at Naval Air Station Oceana only a few miles away. The tremendous noise drowned out what he thought he heard. “What did you say?”

“Fuckin’ fighter jocks,” Ben’s voice said through the phone. Reed heard a lightness and little boy happiness in the voice that made him feel great. He had been worried about his friend all day, he realized.

“Screw that,” Reed said, still unsure what he had heard. “What did you just say?”

“We’re getting married,” Ben said again with a happy laugh. “We’re at the jewelry store right now picking out rings.”

Reed closed his eyes and felt a big grin spread across his face. He couldn’t have gotten happier news.

“She just couldn’t wait for me any longer, huh?’ he said. “Tell her I’m sorry – I’m just not the settling down type. She understands, right?”

He heard Ben talking away from the phone, telling Christy what he had said. He pictured her laughing and rolling her eyes, and he realized he might love her almost as much as his best friend.

“She says she’s going to try and console herself with a night of meaningless sex with me,” Ben laughed, and he heard Christy squeal her good-natured protest in the background. “I want you to be my best man, bro.”

Reed felt a tightness in his belly – a good one like when you try and pretend the happy ending of a chick flick doesn’t matter to you.

“Of course, man. No friggin’ doubt,” he said. “You guys got a date figured out yet?”

“Yeah,” Ben said. “Two weeks – well, two weeks from tomorrow. You’re schedule open?”

“I’ll see if I can pencil you in,” Reed said, his head whirling a bit. Jesus, two weeks? “Wanna make sure she doesn’t have time to change her mind, huh?’

“Something like that,” Ben chuckled. “Were you planning some leave for out of town?”

“Nah,” Reed said. He had thought about a week of fishing at the condo some of the guys owned together in Hatteras, but that would sure as hell wait. “Where the hell am I gonna go?”

“Right,” Ben said. Christy giggled about something in the background. “Hey, dude, as your first official best man shitty job, can you do me a favor?”

“Anything,” Reed said and meant it.

“Can you get the guys together for a beer call tomorrow night at Tunaz? Bros and Bras,” he said, meaning the team and significant others.

“Yeah,” Reed said. “Easy day. How about like eight o’clock. Do it early before the bar gets silly.”

“Awesome,” Ben said. “Don’t tell anyone, okay? Christy and I will announce it together. I just wanted you to know first.”

Reed felt a lump in his throat at that.

Stupid, girly, post-deployment emotional bullshit.

“Thanks, man,” he said. “That means a lot.”

He closed his phone and stood a moment and looked out at the ocean across the street. In the distance, he saw another fighter jet approaching on a magic carpet of black smoke and ducked back into the restaurant before the noise caught up with the image.

Two weeks. Wow, that seemed quick. He knew of no one that belonged together more than they did, though, so why not? He decided he felt more happy than worried now and headed back to the table to try and keep his mind back in the silly conversation and out of the shitty little village full of dead women and children they had left behind in Africa.

Chapter 15

Ben had wanted to take her to Aldo’s, a fancy and fairly expensive restaurant not far away, but to her it made more sense to celebrate where they would feel at home. Chix Beach Café was a comfortable walk from their house and a familiar haunt where the waitresses knew them by sight if not name, and they could relax and be themselves. She felt a little self-conscious about the ring on her finger – a simple one-carat solitaire in a white gold setting. Ben had picked out a ridiculously large rock surrounded by other stones, but it wasn’t really her and it would have taken a decade to pay it off. In the end, she had convinced him it wasn’t just the money – she really liked the simple ring better – it was more her. She stole a self-conscious glance at it under the table. She really did love it. She did her best not to stare at it. They knew people here, and Ben really wanted their friends, and especially his team, to hear it from them together tomorrow night.

She looked around nervously and laughed at herself a little – a girl caught trying on her mommy’s things. A lot of team guys lived in Chix Beach, and word would travel fast. She kept her left hand under the table and reached for her wine glass. When she looked up she saw that Ben watched her, love and a smile on his face, and she blushed.

“Happy?” he asked.

“More than I could have imagined,” she admitted with a smile that almost burst out of her.

She had thought she would be immune to the giddiness of the moment, but the little girl dreams of engagement rings and fairy tale weddings had caught up with her and caught her off guard. She was almost dizzy with excitement.