by Cathie Linz
“Not as tough as you are. Remember that. What doesn’t destroy you strengthens you. Don’t let this destroy you, Joe. Danny wouldn’t want that. Those guys on that helo wouldn’t want that and I sure as hell don’t want that. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
Joe had just hung up when his cell phone rang again. Stupid as it was, he thought it might be Prudence. Which was really stupid. After the way he’d treated her, she’d never come near him again.
Instead the caller was Curt. “Where are you?” he demanded.
“In my Jeep,” Joe replied. “Where are you?”
“In a motel room ten minutes from Camp Lejeune.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“You’re the kidder in life, not me. I’m the brooding loner type, remember?”
“That was your past life,” Joe heard Jessie saying in the background.
“The whole family is here,” Curt said.
“What are you doing down here?”
“We suddenly felt the need for some North Carolina sunshine.”
Joe’s grunt of disbelief made his opinion of that statement clear.
“Not buying that, huh?” Curt noted dryly. “Well, I’ve got this buddy who sounded like he needed my help, so here I am. Are you coming over or do I have to track you down, devil dog?”
“I’ll be right over.”
“I can’t believe you did this!” Curt was waiting for him outside of the small motel unit. Joe walked over and slapped him on the back in a macho version of a hug that expressed emotion without getting sappy.
Curt responded in kind, fiercely thumping Joe’s back before stepping away. Curt’s limp, a result of a sniper attack in Bosnia a little over two years ago, was still visible, although not as much as it once had been. “I couldn’t stay away.”
“You really didn’t have to…”
Curt whacked Joe’s back again. “I know.”
“Where’s the rest of the family?”
“Inside,” Curt replied. “I thought I’d meet you out here in case seeing Blue made you uncomfortable or anything.”
Joe took the opportunity to fill Curt in on what had transpired over the past week.
“Man, that’s a lot to deal with,” Curt quietly acknowledged. “You think you can do what your father ordered? Turn back from that road to guilt?”
Before Joe could answer, the motel room door opened and Blue wailed, “Daaaddddeee!”
“I’m right here, Blue. Daddy loves you, but I’m busy right now. Go on and get back inside now. I’ll be there in a little while.”
“It’s okay,” Joe said, sounding a bit surprised by the realization. “I want to see Blue.”
“Are you sure?” Curt asked.
“Yeah, I am.”
Curt’s little girl had grown since the last time Joe had seen her but she was still cute as a button. She had brown eyes. Like Prudence. Joe’s heart ached but the raw panic was gone.
“Who’s this gorgeous little girl?” Joe demanded.
“It’s me, Blue, Uncle Joe. Don’t you remember me?”
His heart ached some more. Blue was looking up at him with such hopeful anticipation. Prudence had looked at him the same way, only with a woman’s passion and compassion.
“I think I screwed up big-time,” Joe muttered as the truth hit him. He was in love with Prudence Martin. Whether he deserved her or not was another question. He had some things to prove to himself first.
“That’s okay,” Blue assured Joe, patting his arm with her small five-year-old hand still sticky with the remnants of a cherry lollipop she had in her other fist. “My daddy screws up big-time sometimes, too. Mommy loves him anyway and so do I. We love you, too, Uncle Joe, even if you do screw up.”
Man, talk about a power punch to the heart.
Joe had to blink away the tears. Scooping Blue up, he hugged her to him in a way his fellow Marines would no doubt think was downright sappy. He didn’t care, and neither did Blue who happily hugged him back.
It wasn’t until Joe heard Curt’s chuckle that he realized that Blue’s lollipop was now stuck to his nape.
“Thanks, kiddo,” Joe told Blue before setting her down and removing the offending lollipop. “I love you, too. Even if you have a father with a twisted sense of humor,” he added darkly with a warning look in Curt’s direction.
His buddy appeared totally unrepentant. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that Curt was standing there with his wife Jessie in his arms, clearly a happy camper. “I seem to recall a certain instance where you laughed at me when I had happy face stickers stuck to the sole of my shoes,” Curt reminded him.
“I’m not allowed to put stickers on Daddy’s Marine things anymore,” Blue solemnly declared. “They can only go in my sticker book. Want to see?”
“Sure. Jessie, have you grown tired of this devil dog yet?”
“Never,” Jessie replied with a loving smile. Moving forward she engulfed Joe in a friendly hug. “It’s good to see you, Joe.”
“I can’t believe you guys came all the way down here.”
Her green eyes were warm with understanding. “We wanted to.”
“You still a preschool teacher?”
Jessie nodded, her blond hair bouncing against her shoulders. “That’s right.”
“We seem to share a thing for schoolteachers,” Joe told Curt.
“As long as it’s not the same schoolteacher,” Curt replied, snagging his wife in his arms and kissing her.
Joe was willing to bet a year’s salary that Jessie and Prudence would get along. While Jessie was a blonde and Prudence had darker hair, both women possessed a warm and giving nature that went beyond surface beauty. And both women possessed a combination of practical femininity that didn’t need layers of makeup and red-hot lipstick to make them sexy.
Later, after Joe had carefully gone over all of Blue’s sticker books with her and read her several stories—including her favorite, The Wishing Tree—he got a chance to talk alone with Jessie while Curt tucked Blue in.
They were just outside the motel room, sitting at a wooden picnic table and drinking sodas. Joe had felt it only fair to give her an abbreviated explanation of what was going on with him.
Her gentle smile told him she understood. “One of the ironies of the healing process is that you have to delve into the past in order to put it behind you,” she said. “I had to do that, about my past with Curt going back to our high school days. It sounds like you’ve done that with your father today.”
“Yeah, I did. And being with Blue today…well, I didn’t panic once.”
“I’m glad, Joe.”
When Curt came out, Jessie returned to the motel room to give the two men some privacy.
“So, Wilder, you said earlier that you’d screwed up,” Curt noted. “Care to elaborate?”
“Not really.”
“I can probably guess.” Narrowing his eyes, Curt fixed him with a speculative look. “Let’s see…you somehow did something stupid or rotten or both to scare Prudence away, thereby accomplishing the goal of your commanding officer’s order of not seeing his daughter again while simultaneously making sure that she didn’t get too close to you so that you could keep your own personal perimeter wall in place. Affirmative?”
Joe nodded before grudgingly admitting, “Damn, you’re good.”
Grinning, Curt shrugged and said, “Yeah, well, I’ve had some help over the years.”
“Hindsight is twenty-twenty, isn’t that how that phrase goes? You know all that extreme sport stuff—the bungee-jumping and the kayaking and the bike racing—it was all a way to prove my courage over and over again.”
“Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s the strength to overcome fear,” Curt quietly said. “Do you really still wish it was you that went down in that helo? Because I, for one, am damn glad it wasn’t. Instead of this guilt stuff you should be looking at this as a second chance. And God knows those don’t come around very often. I’m speaking from exp
erience here. I got a second chance at a life with Jessie and I’m grateful for that every hour of every day. Don’t blow your second chance, Wilder. Don’t blow it.”
Prudence was kneeling in her small back garden, yanking out weeds with a vengeance when her portable phone rang from the white resin table nearby. Shoving her sweaty hair out of her face, she tugged off her ladybug gardening gloves and picked up the phone, only then realizing she’d just smeared dirt all over her forehead. “Hello?” She sounded like the Wicked Witch of the West.
“Prudence, is that you? It’s Vanessa. I just got the birthday packet you sent. Thank you so much.”
Gratefully sinking into a lawn chair, Prudence had to smile at her friend’s enthusiasm. At the moment Princess Vanessa Alexandria Maria Teresa Von Volzemburg sounded like a kid instead of European royalty. “I’m glad you liked it. I thought every princess should have her own rubber ducky.”
“I’ve always thought so,” Vanessa agreed, “but for some reason there wasn’t a rubber ducky to be found in the entire castle until you were kind enough to send me a pair of them.”
“I sent you two because I didn’t want one to get lonely on its own.”
“You’re sounding rather lonely yourself at the moment,” Vanessa noted with concern. “Is something wrong?”
“I don’t want to ruin your birthday by raining on your parade,” Prudence replied.
“Here in Volzemburg the sun always shines and we always have perfect weather.”
She laughed. “I thought that was in Camelot.”
“My father wants to turn our country into the equivalent of Camelot.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“Not when he wants to do his Merlin thing and try to turn me into something I’m not,” Vanessa muttered. “But enough about me. Tell me what’s wrong? Is it a man?”
“What makes you say that?” Prudence demanded.
“Feminine intuition.”
“Well, it’s not just a man,” Prudence said. “It’s a Marine.”
“Oh my, that’s much worse, isn’t it.”
“You’ve got that right.” Prudence could feel the tears, always close at bay these days, welling again. She’d already cried buckets over Joe Wilder. He wasn’t worth one more tear. Not one.
“Tell me again why Marines are worse than men?” Vanessa prompted her.
“Because they think they’re better at everything.” Prudence sniffed and reached for a Kleenex. “I’m not crying,” she informed Vanessa. “I’ve got allergies.”
“I suspect you’re allergic to Marines,” her friend noted ruefully.
“I’m definitely allergic to Marines. But that didn’t seem to stop me from falling in love with one.”
“Oh my.” Vanessa’s voice was filled with sympathy. “What happened?”
“He doesn’t feel the same way about me at all.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, maybe it was the fact that he flat out told me to go away and stop bothering him. Or maybe it was the fact that he was kissing another woman when he told me that.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Vanessa agreed.
Prudence laughed unsteadily. “Still the mistress of understatements, I see.”
“Yes, well, it wouldn’t do for me to get too dramatic now, would it? Not very princessy of me. Tell me, does this Marine have a name?”
“Yes. Joe Wilder.”
“Ah. Well, I suppose it’s just as well that things didn’t work out. I mean think of this—if you’d have married the man your married name would have been Prudence Wilder. Think how conflicted you’d be—the prudent side of you versus the wilder side.”
Prudence had to smile. “Only you could cheer me up on a day like today,” she said. “I should have seen disaster coming. I mean, you’d think I’d learn. Each time I do something reckless, someone gets hurt. When I was a teenager, it was my mom in the car accident. And when I decided to go after Joe, I ended up making a fool of myself and getting my heart broken. At least nothing went wrong when I went bungee-jumping—”
“Back up a moment, please,” Vanessa interrupted her to request. “What’s this about bungee-jumping?”
“I finally did it last week.”
“You lucky girl, you.” There was a real sense of envy in her friend’s voice. “I wish I could do something wild like that,” Vanessa added wistfully.
“Why can’t you? You’re a princess, you can do anything you want.”
“I can’t because I’m a princess. My father would have a fit.”
“Hey, your father may be a king, but you are still an American citizen.” Since Vanessa’s mother had been an American citizen and had actually returned to New York City to give birth because of medical complications, Vanessa had dual citizenship with America and Volzemburg. Aside from her time in a New England boarding school with Prudence, Vanessa had spent most of her life in Volzemburg with her widowed father and younger sister. “You could always give it all up and come live the life of a regular citizen here in good ol’ U.S.A.”
“Don’t think there aren’t times when I’m tempted,” Vanessa replied before changing the subject. “I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better. Shall I send you more chocolate from the royal chocolatier?”
“They were delicious,” Prudence admitted, “but the last time you did that I gained ten pounds.”
“Volzemburg is known for its chocolate,” Vanessa noted proudly.
“You’re the one celebrating a birthday. I should be sending you chocolate.”
“I can get the best chocolate in the world anytime I like. But you sent me a pair of rubber duckies and a carton of my favorite White Cat popcorn. Trust me, I’m in your debt.”
“No, I’m in yours. You cheered me up when I really needed it. Thanks, Vanessa. Thanks for being there for me.”
“You’ve always been there for me. Any Marine who doesn’t appreciate what a special person you are should be tossed in the dungeon. We’ve still got one here at St. Kristoff Castle.”
“Thanks for the offer. I’ll keep it in mind should I ever run into Joe again. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. I will get over him,” Prudence vowed.
“I hope you do. But if that doesn’t happen, keep my dungeon in mind,” Vanessa added with her irrepressible humor.
“I will,” Prudence agreed, laughing through her tears.
“Sergeant Wilder, this is a surprise.” Sergeant Major Martin looked at him with the impassive face of a fine poker player. Or a fine Marine.
But Joe was no slouch in the poker or Marine department himself. He no longer felt the office walls were closing in on him, no longer felt intimidated by the framed photos of great moments in U.S. Marine Corps history. Because he was a part of that history. “Permission to speak freely, sir.”
“Granted.”
Joe saw no point in beating around the bush here. “In that case, sir, I feel it only fair to inform you that I love your daughter and I intend to ask her to marry me at the soonest opportunity.”
A good warrior prepared himself for several possible responses from an opponent. Joe had done that. He had his arguments ready for anything Sergeant Major Martin might throw at him. Except for these words. “Well, it certainly took you long enough.”
Joe couldn’t trust his ears. “Excuse me, sir?”
The Sergeant Major clapped him on the back in a congratulatory manner. “I thought I’d never see you two settle down together.”
“Sir?”
“Why else do you think I assigned you to go with Prudence up into the mountains?”
“I don’t understand. The other day you forbade me from seeing Prudence.”
“That bungee-jumping episode rattled me,” the other man admitted. “Besides, it wouldn’t do to make things too easy for you, now would it? Now all you have to do is speak to my daughter. Permission granted to do so. Dismissed, Sergeant. And good luck.”
“Thank you, sir. I have a fe
eling I may well need it.” Joe had the feeling that Prudence hadn’t told her father about Joe’s behavior in the bar or the older man wouldn’t be as confident as he appeared to be.
“You’re a good Marine, Sergeant. I have every confidence in your abilities. Well, what are you doing still standing here, Wilder? Go propose to my daughter. Sweep her off her feet if you have to. Just don’t take her bungee-jumping again or I’ll have to tear your devil dog heart out. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
Unable to wait until she got home from work, Joe returned to her school, the site of his last major panic attack. Classes were over but apparently only recently so because there were still plenty of kids milling around—waiting for school buses, gathering in little groups for the walk home.
He could tell which kids were from Prudence’s class because they were the ones who gave him dirty looks. Outside the door to her classroom he ran into a wall of solid defense in the shape of Gem, Pete, Keishon and Rosa. Even Sinatra was there, although he did give Joe a sympathetic look even as he took his place beside Gem.
“You can’t go in there,” Keishon stated firmly. She was wearing her I’m Mean and Green T-shirt again and clearly meant business.
Joe tried to charm her with his smile.
The kid wasn’t having any of it.
“Why can’t I go in there?”
“Because outsiders aren’t allowed in the school without a pass from the principal.”
“I didn’t have a pass last time I was here.”
“You were an invited guest then.” Her implication was clear. He wasn’t welcome now.
“Look, if this is about my turning down that great gift you guys made for me…”
“We’re not lame enough to be upset about that,” Gem said.
“Then what’s this about?”
“You bummed out Ms. Martin,” Pete said. “We’ve tried to cheer her up but nothing worked, not even flowers from Rosa’s mom’s garden.”
“And they were really nice flowers,” Rosa added. “My mom’s best roses.”
“Sinatra even brought chocolate.”
“It was just Hershey’s kisses, but usually they make Ms. Martin smile,” Sinatra said, giving Joe an accusing look. “Not this time, though.”
