Part 49 (1/2)

He'd been exhausted that day, down to his very bones. Training around the clock, swimming miles every day, and spending hours and hours learning about explosives and detonators and wires and the best way to rig an obstacle to blow while standing in the pounding surf.

But it wouldn't be any easier on the beach, under enemy fire. So each day they pushed themselves to the limit and beyond.

Each night, he fell into bed and dreamed about sweet Charlie Fletcher.

And then one day there she was. Standing by the barracks as if she were waiting for him.

He was cross-eyed from fatigue and overexposure. The Atlantic ocean was cold this time of year and he'd been s.h.i.+vering for hours. His teeth felt as if they were about to rattle right out of his head.

”I had to ask Jerry Parks if he saw you standing there, too,” Vince told Charlie now. ”I thought maybe I was hallucinating.”

”I was terrified,” she said. ”Traveling all that way on the train. Not writing to tell you I was coming was quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever done. And then you looked at me as if you were horrified to see me there. I almost turned and ran.”

”I thought I was cracking up.”

But Jerry had seen her, too. And it was all Vince could do not to cry. ”What are you doing here?” he asked, hardly daring to hope.

”I came to see you,” she whispered. ”Do you mind?”

Vince started to laugh. At least he thought he was laughing. It was hard to tell because he had to keep wiping his eyes. ”No,” he said. ”No, I don't mind.”

He pulled her into his arms, and she came willingly, eagerly even. Her mouth was warm and sweet and G.o.d, he kissed her for about twelve minutes straight and for that entire time, she kissed him back and ran her fingers through his hair and pressed herself against him and d.a.m.n near heated his formerly frozen body to a boiling point.

”Marry me,” he said at his first opportunity.

”Yes,” she said, and he kissed her again. ”Except,” she said, and he stopped kissing her. There was a catch.

”Except what?”

”Don't look so worried,” she said, smiling up at him. ”I just ... I told your commanding officer that I was already your wife. I got his permission to, well, to take you back to my hotel room with me.” She suddenly got shy. ”That is, if you don't mind.”

”You are going to marry me.” He tried to make it into a joke. ”You're not going to just use me for s.e.x and ditch me, are you?”

”I'm definitely going to marry you,” she said. ”But since we can't do it tonight...”

They got a ride into town with a truckload of Marines, one of whom gave up his seat so Vince could sit and hold ”his wife” on his lap.

It was the sweetest night of his life. He learned a heck of a lot. He learned that there were vast amounts of information he'd yet to learn about lovemakinga”so much so that he could probably spend his entire life doing it and still get surprised on a regular basis. He learned that nice women like Charlie Fletchera”Charlie DaCosta, in a matter of hoursa”liked s.e.x as much as men did.

And he learned possibly more than he'd wanted to know when he woke up in the night to find Charlie crying.

She was in the bathroom and the door was closed. It was a long, long time before she came out. And when she did, she slipped back into bed, telling him, ”Shhh. I'm all right. Go back to sleep.”

”I can't believe you lied to my CO,” he told her, almost sixty years later.

”It wasn't a lie,” Charlie said, the way she always did when they reminisced. ”It was a pre-truth. I was going to marry you. It seemed crazy not to grab every second together that we possibly could.”

”Yeah,” Vince said. ”And it wasn't as if I could get you pregnant. Again.”

No, he'd done that quite effectively the very first time they'd made love.

Finding out about it had been something of a shock. And a disappointment.

And suddenly it all made sense. Charlie's swift and sudden change of heart. Her tears at night.

She was marrying him because she had to. Fate had forced her hand.

Vince tried not to care. So whata”she was marrying him and that was what mattered. From here on in, their lives would be joined. He coulda”and woulda”make this work. He'd do everything in his power to make her happy.

And he had, hadn't he?

He looked at her now, sitting with him in the yard behind this home they'd made together, and he knew that he'd made her happya”enough.

James Fletcher's spirit brushed past him. Or maybe it was just the afternoon breeze.

Chapter 24.

”Do you think I'm too polite?”

Joan glanced up from her Greek salad and over at Tom Paoletti before looking at Muldoon.

He was looking at her as if he were rememberinga”in detaila”the third time they'd made love the other night. When she'd... Oh, G.o.d. She had to look away.

This wasn't fair!

”Do you?” he asked again. ”Because recently two different people referred to me as too polite and I don't think it was intended as a compliment.”

”I think there are times when you're too polite,” Tom told Muldoon. He looked at Joan. ”Don't you?”

”Uh,” she said. Not when Muldoon was looking at her like he wanted to take off her clothes. Oh, c.r.a.p. This was what it was going to be like for him to be ”friends” with her. He wouldn't touch her. He wouldn't say a word about s.e.x. But every time he looked at her, she'd be in danger of going up in flames.

”You were one of the people who called me that, sir,” Muldoon told his CO.

”Yeah. I remember. It was right after I didn't grant you permission to kiss me. Who else?”

”What?” Joan said.

”Izzy Zanella.”

Tom laughed. ”Compared to Zanella, Wildcard Karmody is too polite.”

”Wait a minute,” Joan said. ”I think I missed something.”

Tom looked at her over the top of his sungla.s.ses. His face was perfectly straight, but his eyes were laughing. ”Just making sure you're listening. You're awfully quiet over there.”

She was. She risked another glance at Muldoon, who'd stopped smoldering at her, thank G.o.d, and was instead frowning slightly.