True Valor (22 page)

She hugged him back.

* * *

“I’m glad you came.” The beach was deserted at the early morning hour and Bruce was taking advantage of it, using walking Emily to give him an excuse to have one last moment with Grace before she left with Jill and Wolf.

“So am I.”

Bruce tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Maybe I could come see you some weekend?”

“I’d like that.”

“Maybe kiss you good-bye?” He’d been thinking about it all weekend.

She just smiled at him. At least it wasn’t a no. He leaned down, tipped her chin with his hand, and gently kissed her. “I’m really glad you came.”

Her hands slid up to his shoulder. “Could you maybe come visit soon?”

He rested his forehead against hers. “I seem to remember I have a key to my sister’s place. I could even bring Emily up with me. Buy you a lunch, another mushy card . . .”

“I promise to make it a less scary movie.”

“That has possibilities. Should we play it safe and make it a double date? I could ask them to join us, and Wolf and I can bat around who’s picking up the tab.”

“Would you buy me a pilot’s special?”

“Better yet, I’ll fix you one. I acquired the official recipe.”

“Did you?”

“Pricey too. It cost me a nice fishing lure.”

“Then by all means, visit and I’ll make sure I have all the ingredients.”

“Grace! You coming?” a voice from the parking lot hollered.

“I’m getting paged.”

“Let him come and find you, then get embarrassed for interrupting.”

She chuckled and stepped back. “You’re dangerous for my peace of mind.”

“Mutual, ma’am. Think about me this week.”

“I probably will, if only to wonder how training is going.”

“Please, I’m too old to be reminded of the coming 0400 hop.”

“Only PJs would think of getting up before dawn to go drop into the sea.”

“True. Bravery and smarts don’t always go together.”

“I’ve got to go.”

“Wolf does seem to be leaning on the car horn.”

She walked backward up the path to the stairs going up to the parking lot. “Are you going to say good-bye?”

“Ladies first.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Then we won’t,” Bruce replied comfortably. He tugged a piece of candy from his pocket. “Catch.”

She caught the tumbling piece of candy. “Where did you find it?”

“Early Valentine’s Day?” It was a heart-shaped piece of chocolate.

“You mean it was left over from earlier this year.”

“Last year more likely,” he corrected. “Stored in my freezer just for you.”

“Romantic.”

“Practical. I need room for the frozen fish.”

She laughed and bit off a piece, starting up the stairs from the beach. “Call me.”

“Count on it.”

“Wolf, I’m coming! I’m not deaf.” She glanced back one more time. “Not before your 0400 hop.”

“Now would I do that?”

She just smiled and waved and disappeared from view.

* * *

Wolf carried her bag upstairs for her. Grace unlocked her apartment and accepted it. “Do I get a hug good-bye?” Wolf asked.

She leaned against him to give him a one-arm hug. “You’re learning. You normally try to duck them.”

“I’m a changed man since Incirlik,” he replied, squeezing her. “Thanks for coming this weekend.”

“I enjoyed it.”

“You and Bruce seemed to be having a decent time.”

She just smiled. Wolf wanted more than that, but she knew when silence was the better course of action. “You’ve got to get Jill home and then get back to Pensacola for the start of the class, and I’ve got to get to work.”

“You are an incredible clam at times.”

“Working on it.”

“I want my chatterbox back who tells me more than I want to know.”

“Good-bye, Wolf.”

“For now, Gidget. For now.” He headed downstairs, whistling, to take Jill home.

Grace tugged the door shut, looked around her apartment, and with a small laugh reached for her bag. And to think on Friday she was convinced she would be coming back to this place wanting to bury her head in the sand after a less than successful visit.

“Did it exceed expectations? Oh yeah,” she said as she carried her bag to the bedroom. She opened her closet and retrieved her uniform. She was due on base at 1300 and it would be good to be early.

The doorbell rang as she polished her shoes.

What had she forgotten? Hopefully not her purse, she’d never hear the end of it.

“Lieutenant Yates?”

“Yes.” The deliveryman was holding a huge bouquet. She accepted the vase, delighted. “Hold on a sec,” she asked and made the tip worth his time.

The flowers were from Bruce, she was certain of that. But to have been able to time the delivery so close . . . Wolf must have called him after dropping her off.

The card was tucked inside.
Grace, check your e-mail.

She cleared the desktop and made a place for the vase, then pulled up her e-mail.

Grace ~

I started this note to you last night and wanted to time it for your homecoming. Thank you for filling my weekend with joy. Besides Emily’s embarrassing me by deciding sawdust was good to eat, there wasn’t much I can think of I would have changed. I miss you already.

Bruce

Bruce ~

The flowers are beautiful, and I will think of you often. I wish I had more elegant words to offer to say thanks.

Grace

Grace ~

You just did, beautifully.

Bruce

Twenty-Three

* * *

SEPTEMBER 28

P
ENSACOLA
, F
LORIDA

Bruce unlocked the back door and picked up his duffel bag of clothes he would have to wash in the morning. Lackland Air Force Base in Texas had been hot. The television was on in the den. “I’m back, Rich.” He walked through to the kitchen in desperate need of a drink as he heard his partner turn off the television and come to meet him. “Emily okay? The roofer and the window guys get out?”

“Emily ate you out of house and home and slept, the roofing estimate is on the table, and the window guy laughed first but gave you a quote. I don’t think he was that eager to get selected.”

“Can’t blame him. Those two attic windows are suicide projects. You want the job?” Bruce asked.

“Not if you’re going to get annoyed if they leak.”

“Smart man. I know my own limits. Someone will get paid to replace those two.”

“How was the meeting?” Rich asked.

“Do you want to be tasked to Argentina?”

“Not particularly.”

Bruce studied options in the refrigerator. “Then it was a waste of time. Thanks for staying over and keeping stuff moving for me.”

“Free food, cable that works, I’ve had harder assignments in my life.”

Bruce pulled out the orange juice and in the light of the refrigerator caught sight of what was on the table. The kitchen table was stacked, not with newspapers and the occasional bill but two crates of letters. He turned on the overhead light.

“What’s this?” He picked up one and found it addressed to him, care of his squadron. The pit of his stomach got a tight feeling.

Rich looked at the crates. “Would you believe the Air Force post office lost a sack of mail?”

“What am I supposed to do with it?”

“Answer it?” Rich laughed at his expression. “Didn’t they ever tell you that legends never die?”

“Maybe a bonfire.”

“Admit it, mail is nice. Grace called.”

Bruce set down the orange juice carton. “When?”

“Last night, about nine. I’ve got her number written down around here somewhere.”

“Did she leave a message?”

“Nope. We chatted for about twenty minutes. I asked, and she just said to mention she’d called. Here it is. She’s in Phoenix tonight.” Rich handed him the scrap of paper and smiled. “I’ll make myself scarce so you can call her back.”

“Appreciate it,” Bruce replied, already dialing.

Rich laughed and retrieved a soda. “You’ve got it bad. Can’t blame you. Nice lady.”

“Scram.”

“Scramming.”

“Grace. It’s Bruce. Did I catch you at a bad time? What are you doing in Phoenix?” He reached for the nearest chair.

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Grace pulled another soda out of the ice bucket, now more full of water than ice. “The hotel air-conditioning is struggling to keep up. I’d open a window but it’s like ninety-nine degrees and muggy out and it’s Phoenix of all places. It’s supposed to be dry heat.” She cracked the tab on the soda and got sprayed. “Hold on, Bruce.”

She dropped the phone and scrambled to get a towel. Wonderful. Her white shirt was now going to be forever stained with purple. “So much for the new carbonated grape soda; I just took a bath in it. What a sticky mess.” She started gathering papers together spread out around on the floor. The table had been too small.

“Your trip is sounding more and more like mine.”

She smiled and wished he wasn’t half the country away. “But I get a super-duper plane to make up for the aggravation.”

“Have you seen it yet?”

“I got an intro hop two hours ago. Sweet, Bruce. Sweet. I bet it could slam past a Tomcat and make that bird look like it was a prop flight. I’m dying to get more than a ferry job out of it.”

“Think the squadron will get the upgrades?”

“Eighteen months, just about the time I get to do sea tour number three. Wouldn’t that be excellent timing? New Hornet upgrades and a new job as chief of a shop. I’d even take maintenance chief to get to care for these darlings.”

“You’re like a guy at a car show.”

“Worse. The things I get heart palpitations over will never fit my budget.” Grace tugged over the spec manual. “I could read the altitude maneuverability indexes. Incredible stats.”

“Better yet, what’s the price tag?”

“Sixty-two million a plane. Cheap compared to what you all in the Air Force are wanting to spend.”

Bruce laughed. “A bargain. What’s your flight schedule?”

She leaned back against the bed and pushed papers threatening to topple back into a stack with her toe. “I ferry it sedately across country to Texas and then to Norfolk. It’s going out for the first carrier landing tests and then to load testing. Wish I got that job too.”

“How’d you swing the ferry job?”

“Peter got the flu.”

“Poor Peter. Did you give it to him?”

“Would have if I’d thought of it,” she admitted.

“You are having a good week.”

“Yeah. Tell me about yours.”

“Let’s not. Yours is more interesting.”

Grace laughed. “One of
those
meetings.”

“They were hoping to snag volunteers for an eight-month TDY in Argentina so they don’t have to decide which units to shuffle around. We’re all over limits on twelve-month travel, and the Air Force hates the red tape of getting waivers issued,” Bruce replied.

“They’ll get the waivers and choose a unit.”

“I know. I felt just a tad guilty about not volunteering until I decided I’d volunteered for Ecuador, and before that Honduras. Someone else can volunteer this month, hopefully someone unattached.”

“If you did say yes, I’d understand.”

“I know, Grace. I just didn’t want to go. On occasion that’s a good thing.”

“Yes, it is. It was nice to talk to your partner Rich.”

“I heard you two had a chat.”

“Did you two really get lost at sea last week?”

“Only in the sense that we knew where we were, but the recovery planes didn’t,” Bruce said.

“You hit the emergency squawk.”

“And had to spend the rest of the day explaining why we turned an exercise into a real-time recovery. Getting a concussion can wash a PJ out of the job forever, and Rich took a pretty good thump when the raft failed to inflate properly. We had the survival gear doing its best to drown us for a few minutes.”

“What a wonderful image.”

Bruce chuckled. “It’s just water, and I can hold my breath a very long time. I was just petrified of the idea I’d have to give Rich mouth-to-mouth. Now that would have been scary.”

“He’s fine?”

“My partner is indestructible. He wrestled the raft back into submission, yelled at the sea for slapping him around, and got us turned around and on track to pick up the other PJs, who were by that time almost half a mile away because of the current drift. It was an all-around good training exercise for the problems it threw at us.”

“And you were doing this while it was still essentially dark,” Grace said.

“The sun was just thinking about coming up,” Bruce said. “It’s not like there were any sharks around to make it interesting or boats to try and run us over.”

“That sounds like both have happened in the past.”

“On occasion,” Bruce agreed. “How many times has Incirlik happened?”

“Point made. Several, most of them more interesting.”

“Thought so. So what are you doing still up at this time of night?”

“Bruce, time zones work to my advantage. It’s still early here.”

“A momentary aberration in math. Had dinner yet?”

“Room service. But the Navy is cheap on the per diem. I had a salad.”

“Wilted lettuce?”

She chuckled. “How did you guess?”

“I’ve lived in enough hotel rooms. Are we still on for this weekend?”

“Saturday morning, 1100, Jill’s. Casual dress.”

“Where are you taking me?”