Part 42 (1/2)

She leaned forward. ”I don't want you to be anyone but-”

”Yeah, you do,” he said. ”You only want the happy f.u.c.k-me guy.”

Eden laughed at that-a burst of disbelieving air. ”You think I want-”

”I'm leaving,” he interrupted her. ”Tomorrow. You don't need me here, so...I really should get back to the base.”

Now she was looking at him and nodding as if in agreement. But her lips were pressed tightly together, like a little kid who was trying desperately not to cry.

”So that's it, then?” she said. ”I mess up, once. One time once. One time. And you leave leave...?”

”That's not why I'm leaving,” he told her quietly.

”You said said you'd you'd stay, stay,” she started hotly.

”For as long as you needed me,” he finished for her. He sighed. ”Sweetheart, let's be honest here. You don't don't need me anymore. Dan and Jenn are going to help Ben and...He's going to be great with them. It's better this way, not just for Ben, but-” need me anymore. Dan and Jenn are going to help Ben and...He's going to be great with them. It's better this way, not just for Ben, but-”

”For you, you,” she said, sliding down off the sink. ”Yeah, okay, I get it. Sorry to have inconvenienced you. I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore.”

Izzy stood up, too. ”Not for me,” he said, moving to block her path back to the door. ”For you. This way you don't have to sacrifice-”

”Yeah, sorry, I think you're projecting-”

”And this way”-he raised his voice to speak over her-”Ben gets to live in a home that isn't so G.o.dd.a.m.n dysfunctional for a change, where we don't have to keep lying lying to him about why we're together. He's still innocent enough to believe that people get married because they love each other-” to him about why we're together. He's still innocent enough to believe that people get married because they love each other-”

”Oh, like Danny and Jenn?” Eden countered.

”Exactly like Dan and Jenn,” Izzy shot back. ”You know know she loves him. You can't spend more than two seconds in a room with her, without feeling it-the Force is strong in that one.” she loves him. You can't spend more than two seconds in a room with her, without feeling it-the Force is strong in that one.”

”So what?” Eden said. ”She loves him. Big whoop. Doesn't it fit your definition of dysfunctional if it doesn't go both ways?”

”I'm sorry, weren't you there tonight?” he answered her stupid question with a stupid question of his own. ”Have you ever, in your entire life, seen Danny that happy? I thought he was going to s.h.i.+t himself with joy. And believe me, that wasn't about Ben. That was all all Jennilyn. If that's not love? I don't know what is.” Jennilyn. If that's not love? I don't know what is.”

Eden was silent at that, because he was right, and she d.a.m.n well knew it.

”It's better for Ben this way,” Izzy told her, quietly now. ”And yeah, okay, it is is better for me-” better for me-”

”Because you don't want to be Happy f.u.c.k-Me Guy, Happy f.u.c.k-Me Guy,” she said. ”Glad we worked that out. Sorry to have put you through all that inconvenient s.e.x.”

”And it's better for you,” he finished. ”Eden, you can have a life.”

”Getting rich from stripping,” she said, ”because screw you, you can't tell me what I can and cannot do if you're...leaving me.” She started to cry then, with huge gulping sobs, as if something had broken inside of her, and she couldn't keep her emotions hidden any longer.

Izzy was caught by surprise. She was usually so stoic that a single escaped tear was, for her, the equivalent of an emotional explosion that needed to be immediately brushed away and hidden.

She turned and ran-no doubt horrified by her outburst-flinging the bathroom door open so that it hit the wall with a bang.

She escaped into her bedroom, slamming that door, too, and as Izzy prepared to follow, to apologize and-holy s.h.i.+t-to try to talk her out of the stripper thing, which was clearly a knee-jerk reaction, he stuck his head into the living room, to rea.s.sure Ben that everything was okay.

He expected to see the kid sitting up. There was no way he could've slept through those door slams, but he hadn't moved. In fact, he wasn't even stirring, and Izzy went toward him to investigate, concerned that he was sick. The whole diabetes thing was a little scary and he didn't know enough about it, other than the fact that kids with it sometimes went into comas.

Another good reason to leave the parenting to Danny and Jenn. Izzy would be tempted to check on the kid twenty times each night. G.o.d help him if he ever had a baby of his own...

”Yo, Ben,” he said as he bent down to look. He found himself face-to-face not with a face, but with one of the sofa pillows. He pulled the covers back and, h.e.l.l yeah, it was cla.s.sic high jinks from overnight camp. Ben had put pillows beneath his blankets to make it look as if he were in bed, asleep.

Son of a b.i.t.c.h.

Izzy slapped on the light both in the entryway and in the kitchen, but the kid had definitely left the apartment. In fact, he'd left behind a note on the kitchen table.

Ran to the drugstore on the corner. Be right back.

Son of a b.i.t.c.h. of a b.i.t.c.h.

”Eden!” Izzy grabbed his cargo shorts, and on his way back to the bathroom, he hammered on the bedroom door. ”I know this is bad timing, but Ben's gone AWOL.”

She opened the door immediately, eyes red, and he thrust the note at her, then headed into the bathroom, stepping into his shorts as he went.

This time, he had no problem with the mechanics of taking a leak.

And also because, this time, he'd left the door open, it wasn't that that big a surprise when Eden came in, too, to splash water on her blotchy face. big a surprise when Eden came in, too, to splash water on her blotchy face.

”Do you think he left because he heard us fighting?” she asked as she dried herself on one of her faded pink towels.

”I don't know,” Izzy said as he flushed and zipped, moving past her into the living room to jam his feet into his boots. ”But I'll ask him when I find him. After After I kick his a.s.s.” I kick his a.s.s.”

”Yeah, well, you can't kick his a.s.s until I I kick his a.s.s first,” Eden said, hopping as she slipped her feet into her sneakers, even as she fastened the b.u.t.ton on her cutoff shorts and stuck a baseball cap onto her head. She scooped up both her cell phone and her keys and was out the door before Izzy. kick his a.s.s first,” Eden said, hopping as she slipped her feet into her sneakers, even as she fastened the b.u.t.ton on her cutoff shorts and stuck a baseball cap onto her head. She scooped up both her cell phone and her keys and was out the door before Izzy.

SAt.u.r.dAY, MAY 9, 2009.

1:06 A.M.

Jenn wasn't sure which woke her up-the sound of Danny's cell phone ringing in the darkness, shrill and persistent, or his whispering, ”s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t...” as he tried to pull his arm out from beneath her without waking her.

But he couldn't find his phone and he let loose with a whole string of creative sailor words-all sotto voce-until she told him, ”Your pants are over the back of that chair...? By the window...?” as she sat up, turned on the light, and reached for her gla.s.ses.

”d.a.m.n it!” he said as the moment he dug his phone from his pants pocket, it stopped ringing. He turned to look at her. ”G.o.d, baby, I'm so so sorry that woke you.” sorry that woke you.”

”It's all right,” she said, because there were plenty of bad things one could find when turning on the light in the middle of the night. Her naked new husband was not one of them. ”I know you're not supposed to turn off your cell phone, but...Was that...work?”

She knew that, as a Navy SEAL, when he got the call, he had to go.

”No,” he said. ”I'm not...It would have to be World War Three for them to call me in while I'm out on medical leave.” He shook his head as he glanced down at his phone, then looked back at her, trepidation in his eyes. ”This is a different World War Three. That was my mother.”

Jenn glanced over at the clock on the hotel bedside table to find that it read 1:06. What kind of mother returned her son's phone call after one o'clock in the morning? And okay, maybe that was unfair. Maybe a mother who was used to her son being in exotic time zones would call whenever she could, hoping he'd be available. Plus, the messages he'd left had had stressed how urgent it was that she call him immediately... stressed how urgent it was that she call him immediately...

”You could call her right back,” she suggested.