Strangers When We Meet

by Rebecca Winters

  R.T. turned around, a wry smile lifting the corner of his mouth. What a wonder was a woman’s love. Nick hardly recognized the guy.

  “Sergeant Armstrong, sir.”

  Nick’s ears picked up the subtle tap-tap of R.T.’s knuckles on the counter. He was telling Nick the denim shirt and jeans looked “awesome,” one of Cody’s favorite words.

  Chuckling, Nick tapped out a response that said, You should see me in the sweats Rosie bought. Centerfold stuff.

  R.T. tapped, We’re attracting attention.

  It’s my bad arm, Nick tapped back.

  I don’t think so. The clerk hasn’t been able to look at anything but my glass eye since I came in. See? He’s still watching.

  At least you didn’t have a little girl scream that there was a monster with no hand running loose in the grocery store.

  I need to talk to you. Let’s get out of here.

  Amen. Nick gave one more emphatic tap and they headed across the foyer to the guest parking lot.

  R.T. whistled as they climbed into Nick’s new Land Rover.

  Both of them already knew where they wanted to go. The choice had been made years ago. Five minutes later they’d pulled into Hires Drive-In on Seventh East and gave their order: two frosted root beers, two hamburgers and two cartons of french-fried onion rings.

  “Where’s Cynthia tonight?”

  “She’s staying at my aunt’s till I pick her up later.”

  “I don’t have to ask you how it’s going.”

  R.T. blushed furiously.

  “Come on, now. How long did it take her to make you her husband again?”

  “That’s classified…sir.”

  “That fast, huh?” Nick grinned.

  “She wants a baby.”

  “Did you tell her you’re going to have a whole football team, and that the first one—boy or girl—is going to be named after me?”

  “Yeah. I did. She’s planning on it.” Suddenly he was sobbing. “I just can’t believe she loves me. I mean, look at me. Old one-eye.”

  “Old one-eye has all the parts that count. And you’ve got both your hands. You know how important that is, if you follow my meaning.”

  R.T. sniffed hard. “One hand gets the job done, Sergeant.”

  Nick sucked in his breath. “I wouldn’t know.”

  “Why the hell not? You had your chance the other night.”

  A tap on the car window announced that their meal had arrived. Nick paid the waitress, then distributed the food.

  “What are you talking about?” he demanded when they were alone again.

  “You mean, who. Rosie’s been down to our place a couple of times already.”

  Nick almost dropped his mug in surprise.

  “How come you’re divorcing her, Sarge?”

  “She can’t marry Zach Wilde if I don’t do the honorable thing.”

  “She’s not engaged anymore.”

  “A mere technicality, Watson.”

  “I’m not so sure. Perhaps you ought to know that a couple of weeks back, while you were putting on one of your more colorful productions of the late, late show, as Cyn calls them, your wife wrestled you to the ground and held on to you for dear life until morning.”

  R.T.’s words hit him like a boulder dropping from a mountain. His appetite ceased to exist. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Did you ever ask her about that big purple bruise on her jaw?”

  His body went rigid. “She said she ran into a cupboard door.”

  “Well, for what it’s worth, that cupboard did enough blabbing to provide a carbon copy of one of my nights. Just thought you’d like to be informed.”

  “She held me all night?”

  How could that have happened and you didn’t know about it, Armstrong?

  “I guess she sang to you, too. That’s when you calmed down. Cyn’s going to try it on me next time. The point I’m attempting to make is, what’s she doing holding you when she’s got a perfectly good fiancé ready to take her off your hands?”

  “Hand, R.T., hand.”

  “You know what I mean, Sarge.”

  Is that why you’re fighting me on the divorce, Rosie? Because the mother in you has bonded with the terrified child in me?

  “Did it ever occur to you she might’ve wanted an excuse to hold you?”

  “No.”

  Rosie had always felt sorry if an ant got crushed. He could just imagine how sorry she’d feel after witnessing his madman performance.

  “I know what you’re thinking, Sarge, but it isn’t that way. For one thing, Cyn said that Rosie was so happy to finally connect with you she practically went to pieces for a while. According to my wife, Rosie said some stuff that kind of puts a different slant on things.”

  “I don’t want to hear it.”

  “Well, you’re going to,” R.T. persisted doggedly. “Rosie told Cyn that she’d been cheated out of seven years with you, and now she’s jealous of me because I know things about you that she doesn’t know. When you had that bad night, she felt like she was right there in that cell with you, sharing it. She said it made her feel close to you again, like she used to feel before the war when she knew things about you nobody else did. She said—and this is a quote—’It was like I was given a little present, one I’ll treasure forever.’”

  She said that?

  Nick couldn’t talk, couldn’t think.

  “Sure as hell doesn’t sound like pity to me. Sure as hell doesn’t sound like Zach Wilde could’ve squeezed his way in between you two.” After a long pause, R.T. muttered, “She said something else, but I guess you don’t want to hear that, either.”

  “Go ahead,” Nick half grunted.

  “Is that an order, sir?”

  “What do you think?”

  “Just checking. Well, according to Cyn, Rosie’s terrified you’re going to divorce her and share those seven lost years with some blond bimbo who’s only out for your body and won’t connect with you on any other level.”

  Nick’s mouth quirked, despite his pain.

  “She has one more secret fear.”

  “Go on.”

  “Just checking to see if you’re still with me. What Cyn says is that Rosie’s afraid you’ll find the bimbo’s, uh, performance better than hers. Apparently she’s nervous about being able to make all the right moves after seven years of abstinence. She’s afraid you’re dying to experiment now, and Zach has given you the excuse you’ve been looking for.”

  Quiet reigned.

  “Could she be right, Sarge? Have you been holding out on me all this time?”

  More quiet.

  “I wasn’t supposed to tell you all that. It was top secret. Classified. You never heard it from me.”

  “I never heard it from you,” Nick repeated.

  R.T. turned his head and stared at him. “What’s eating you?”

  “She’s been in love with another man for two years.”

  “Correction. She’s been seeing another man for two years and couldn’t commit to him until the eleventh hour. And we know why, don’t we, Sarge? Because she was in love with another man for seven years before that.”

  Nick gritted his teeth. “She’s in love with Zach now!”

  “You were there first, Sarge. She still loves you, yet you’re practically throwing her at him.”

  “Because Zach’s the man she wants to marry.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is, you’re not giving this thing half a chance. If I thought for one minute that Cyn was hanging on to me out of pity, I’d be long gone, so I can understand your reasoning. But I’ll tell you, what Cyn heard coming out of Rosie’s mouth the other night—that wasn’t pity or anything close to it.”

  Nick groaned. “You think I don’t want to believe you?”

  “I think maybe you ought to visit a shrink at the Veterans’ Hospital.”

  “Rosie told me the same thing earlier today.”

  “Maybe you ought to take her advice.”

/>   “Maybe. But it won’t solve a damn thing if in the end she’d still rather be Mrs. Zach Wilde.”

  “Excuse me, sir, but you don’t sound like the same man who kept me alive all those years and wouldn’t let me give up!”

  “That man died the morning we flew into Hill, R.T.”

  “CODY?”

  It was a couple of hours since Nick had dropped Cody off. They’d finished supper, and Cody had settled down to his homework at the kitchen table.

  “Yeah, Mom?”

  Rosie rushed through the kitchen and grabbed her purse. “While you finish your math, I’ve got to run to the drugstore.”

  “If you’re meeting Zach there, why don’t you just tell him to come over to our house, instead?”

  Rosie came to a complete standstill and turned around. She’d never imagined the day she’d hear something like that from Cody.

  “What makes you think I’m meeting Zach?”

  “Well, aren’t you?”

  Rosie expelled a deep sigh. “No. But I was going to phone him.”

  “Then phone him from here.”

  “Cody, I know you don’t like him. I’ve tried not to bring him around, because the last thing I’ve wanted to do is upset you.”

  “I know. I’ve been a jerk.”

  She blinked. “Does your father have something to do with this complete turnaround?”

  His guilty face spoke volumes. “Yeah. But Dad’s right. I’ve been really mean to you. I’m sorry, Mom. I love you.” Crying, he got up from the table to hug her.

  She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. “I love you, too, honey.”

  “If you want to marry Zach, it’s okay. I’ll be nice to him. I promise. Now that Dad’s home, it doesn’t matter anymore. Like Dad said, you couldn’t help loving another man. He says it’s natural for you to want to get married. He said that you and he were really happy once, more than other people, and that’s why you want to try it again.”

  We were happy, Cody. Happier than you could possibly comprehend.

  “What else did he say?” she prodded quietly, shaken by everything she was hearing.

  “While we were waiting for him to start his therapy, he said that you’re not getting any younger and you probably want to have a baby with Zach right away ’cause that’s what real joy is all about. And I’ll be its brother and baby-sit and teach it things—you know, stuff like that.”

  Nick…

  “Dad asked me about the saxophone in my closet. I told him Zach was a really good musician, that he’d bought it for me and had tried to teach me to play it. Dad got really mad when he found out I wouldn’t take Zach up on those lessons. He says he would’ve given anything to be blessed with musical talent and thinks I’m lucky to have someone like Zach to teach me.”

  Rosie eased herself away from Cody so he couldn’t tell how badly she was shaking.

  He wiped his eyes on his arm. “Maybe if Zach’s not too mad at me, he’ll start teaching me after you get married. What do you think?”

  I don’t know what I think, Cody. I don’t know anything anymore.

  “Oh, honey, I love and admire you more than ever for telling me all these things! And as long as you’ve been this honest with me, I’m going to be honest back.

  “I haven’t seen Zach for a while and I need to talk to him. If he’s home, I’m driving over to his condo. You have the phone number. If I’m going to be late, I’ll call you. All right?”

  He nodded. “If you’re worried, Dad can always come over.”

  “Not tonight, I’m afraid. I think he had a— I think he had other plans.”

  “Yeah. He and R.T. are hanging out.”

  Nick’s with R.T., not another woman. It shouldn’t matter to you one way or the other, Rosie Armstrong, but somehow it does.

  “They need time together,” she murmured.

  “I know. Dad’s crazy about R.T. They talk on the phone every night now.”

  Rosie had imagined as much. “R.T. feels very close to your father.”

  “R.T. and Cyn want to move up to Heber, too. He’s thinking of buying that other property for sale, the one next to ours, so he and Dad can ranch together.”

  “I—I didn’t know that.” She reached blindly for the back-door handle.

  “I just found that out when Dad was driving me home. They’re even talking about writing a book about their experience. Cyn does word processing, and she’ll help them get the book ready to send to a publishing company. Dad said that while they were in prison they kind of wrote it in their minds. They’re even thinking of going around the country someday to talk to other vets who’ve been disabled, to try to help them. Isn’t that neat?”

  “It is, Cody, and it sounds just like your father. He’s a fantastic human being.”

  “Yeah. I just wish that you and he—” Cody stopped midsentence. “Oh, forget it,” he mumbled before running out of the kitchen.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “ZACH?”

  “Rosie! It’s lucky you caught me before I left for Park City. I’ve been hoping against hope to hear from you. I know I told you I’d keep strictly away, but now that I hear your voice, I can’t take this separation any longer. I’m coming to get you, wherever you are.”

  “I’m downstairs in the foyer of your condo.”

  She heard his gasp. “You wouldn’t tease me…”

  “No, Zach. I’m here. I need to talk to you.”

  “Whenever you get that tone in your voice, I know it’s serious. I’ll give you the code to the inner door so you can come up.”

  “I’ll be right there,” she assured him.

  Zach was waiting for her the second the elevator doors opened to the fourth-floor foyer. He was in his blue sweats—he must have just come back from cycling. It reminded her of the first time she’d met him. He’d looked like a Norse god then, too.

  “Come here,” he murmured huskily, pulling her across the hall to his apartment. He shoved the door closed, then picked her up in his arms and carried her to the couch.

  When she was nestled in his lap, he covered her mouth with smothering force. Rosie let go of a long sigh and kissed him back, deeply, fully. She needed to blot out the world, to experience the rapture she’d felt in his arms during their cruise, when she’d begged him to ask her one more time to marry him.

  “I don’t care why you’re here or what you have to say. All I know at this moment is that I want you,” he whispered, raining kisses on her face, her hair. “I want you so much, it’s agony. Come to bed with me tonight. I can’t wait any longer.”

  “In six weeks, maybe less, my divorce will be final,” she murmured against his lips. “We can fly to Las Vegas and be married, then honeymoon anywhere you say for as long as you want. How’s that sound?”

  His body stilled, then he gently removed her from his lap and stood up, raking a hand through his dark blond hair. “I thought the divorce was called off.”

  She averted her eyes, stirring restlessly. “I thought Nick would call it off when I told him I wanted to try and make our marriage work. But he said he didn’t want me to do him any favors.”

  “When did this conversation take place?”

  Oh, Rosie. You’re going to hurt him again.

  “The night I gave you back the ring. He moved to a hotel after that.”

  Zach’s face went ashen. “And it took you this long to tell me?”

  His voice grated, bringing her to her feet.

  She wrung her hands unconsciously. “Zach… I thought he was bluffing. I couldn’t believe he really meant to go ahead with the divorce, that he’d disappoint Cody like that. So I waited before saying anything to you. Surely you can understand.”

  He stood there unmoving, totally unapproachable. She’d never seen Zach like this. It frightened her.

  “Tell me what he did that’s suddenly convinced you he means business.”

  “I didn’t respond to the first summons. This morning I was served a second. Apparentl
y I owe a fine to the court. Nick is dead serious about this, so I had to retain an attorney today. Mr. Reynolds informed me that because of the unusual nature of the grounds, the divorce should go through quickly.”

  “So nothing’s been resolved.”

  “Of course it has,” she protested. “We can go ahead and make our wedding plans.”

  “What about the three-month waiting period we agreed on?”

  “Nick changed all that when he chose to divorce me!” No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t disguise the tremor in her voice.

  Something about his remote demeanor made her heart sink. “Zach, why are you being like this?”

  He lifted his head, staring at her as if he didn’t know her. “Why do I get the feeling this all sounds too easy?”

  “Maybe because I’ve made you wait such a long time, you’re looking for complications where there aren’t any. Would it help if I told you that Cody gave me his permission to marry you? He told me tonight…”

  Zach’s lips thinned to an angry white line. “Then we have your husband to thank for that miraculous change of heart.”

  “Don’t be this way, Zach,” she pleaded. “Of course Nick has a huge influence on Cody’s behavior these days.”

  “So if I were to move in with you before the wedding, Cody wouldn’t mind?”

  Her eyes closed tightly. Zach wanted the ultimate proof that she loved him. If she put him off again after all they’d been through…

  “Does this mean you won’t move to Park City, after all?”

  Zach gave a deep agonizing groan. “Sweetheart? Do you honestly think I’d go anywhere if I thought we could be together from tonight on?”

  Her mouth went dry. “Y-you want to move in with me tonight?”

  “Well…” His body relaxed and she saw the ghost of a smile soften his stern expression. “Not everything in the condo. How about just me for starters? To give Cody a chance to get used to having me around the house. Every day we’ll move a little more of my stuff over, so he hardly notices.”

  “I—I hope you understand that I haven’t changed my mind about making love before marriage.”

  His mouth quirked. “If anyone knows about that, I do. But there’s no law that says we can’t hold each other all night long, is there?”