“I knew all sorts of book stuff, but I didn’t have a clue about the world. I’d never played in a ball-game, been on a date or done a lot of the things that other kids take for granted.”
“You led an awfully sheltered life, then,” Patsy concluded. “And you were too young to date college girls and learn about flirting and how to talk to people your own age.”
Ray shrugged. “I never had the chance to spend much time around people my own age. Until I joined the air force, my life was nothing but adults and books and school.”
“How sad,” Patsy murmured. “But you seem pretty caught up now.”
“That’s why I joined the air force. I wanted to learn how to be a real guy.” He sliced off a piece of steak, popped it into his mouth and chewed. “You can’t learn that from books,” he said, his mouth still full.
“No, I guess not.” There was a lot to be said about good, practical experience. And Ray had certainly made up for lost time, Patsy couldn’t help thinking. But then, maybe his experience in school had made him a quick study. A very quick study, she amended. She glanced across the table to the strong, handsome man sitting there. And thank goodness he was.
“My parents are still not speaking to me,” he said.
“For heaven’s sake, why not?” Any parent should be proud of the man Ray had become.
Ray shrugged. “I was accepted to MIT for graduate studies in mathematics, but instead I enlisted in the air force. I think they had hopes of me becoming the youngest Ph.D. on record or something.”
“But that obviously wasn’t what you wanted for yourself,” Patsy concluded. “Even if the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a very prestigious school and difficult to get in to.” She reached across the table and took his hand.
“They refused to understand that.” He closed his hand over Patsy’s and she felt a thrill of warmth and comfort from it. Funny, she’d offered her hand as a gesture of reassurance to Ray, but he’d made her feel good, as well.
“I think they’re afraid I’ll do something reckless like get myself killed and waste their investment.”
“I hope you straightened them out on that,” Patsy said, showing her indignance at his family’s presumption.
“I tried. They wouldn’t listen.”
He was trying to be nonchalant about it, but Patsy could see the hurt in his eyes.
“I finally quit trying.”
There wasn’t much more Patsy could say, but now she certainly could understand why Ray had seemed so different from the other men who came through the clinic. And why she had liked him so quickly.
They were both outsiders. They both had emotional baggage to carry. He’d helped her with hers. Maybe some day she could return the favor.
RAY HAD FINISHED his own steak, and now he sat back and watched as Patsy polished off hers. “I do enjoy watching a woman eat,” he said, hoping he wouldn’t offend her.
“This woman enjoys eating,” Patsy said, scraping at the skin of her baked potato. “Especially, when the food is as good as this, and she doesn’t have to cook it herself. This seasoning is divine.”
“That’s the Secret Radar Sauce,” Ray said.
Patsy arched an eyebrow and cast him a questioning look as she sliced off another morsel of meat.
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” He slipped another scrap to the dog. “And I’d hate to have that happen.”
“I’ll second that,” Patsy said, her mouth full. “And I don’t care if you don’t tell me the secret recipe as long as I can keep you around to fix it for me. The way to a woman’s heart is definitely through her stomach,” she declared.
Ray wondered if she actually meant it. He thought he’d be more than happy to hang around and keep her satisfied, and not just in the dining room. He loved doing things for Patsy. No, he loved Patsy. And that thought nearly knocked him out of the lawn chair.
When had love entered this equation? They hardly knew each other. Surely, it was too soon to be entertaining notions of love?
He glanced across the table to Patsy, obviously relishing every bite of the meal he’d cooked for her, and wondered what she was thinking. One thing was certain: it was far too early for broaching the topic of love with her. He would declare his feelings one day. He just wanted to be sure that those feelings were reciprocated before he did.
Patsy cut off a tiny morsel of her steak and slipped it under the table to Tripod and Ray had to smile. She tried to be tough and icy toward the guys she took care of at the clinic. If they only knew what a soft touch Prickly Patsy Pritchard really was….
RAY KISSED HER quickly on the lips, then turned to leave.
“One more, please,” Patsy begged, greedy to continue experiencing the emotions she’d suppressed for so long.
He bent down to kiss her again, then stepped away. “You know, I’d love to keep kissing you,” he growled huskily. “But if I do, I don’t think I’ll be able to force myself to leave.”
“All right,” Patsy complained, her tone more teasing than disappointed. “But you owe me one.”
“Or two dozen,” Ray added, smiling. “Don’t worry. I want to keep doing this as much as you do.” His smile gentled. “You know, you’ve had a big weekend. I don’t think it would be a good idea to overdo it,” he said, his voice softening. “Do you understand?”
Patsy swallowed the lump of emotion that had come to her throat at Ray’s thoughtfulness. “Yes,” she whispered. “I understand. But there’s always next time.”
“Yeah, next time,” Ray echoed. “It’s a date.” He started to step outside, then turned back again. “I want there to be many more days for us,” he said, then he stepped outside.
Patsy leaned against the doorjamb and watched as Ray climbed into the car. He switched on his headlights in the thickening twilight and Patsy stepped inside the house. She had spent almost twenty-four hours with this man and she’d enjoyed every moment, even the moments of pain because after them had come the release she had needed for such a long, long time.
Patsy parted the living room drapes and waved. She watched through the window as Ray backed his car out of her driveway, then she smiled. She stayed at the window until the twin red taillights disappeared in the distance. What a difference a day made.
Yesterday, she was still hiding her feelings about what had happened to her family. Then Ray Darling had marched into her world and had forced her to talk out the pain, the guilt she had been trying so hard to ignore. Yesterday, she had been hiding from life.
Today, she was ready to embrace it.
And all because of one man.
She smiled again, let the drapes fall back together, and turned back to the family album that she’d left untended for so long. A packet of photographs fell out, and Patsy bent to pick them up.
The glue on the envelope was sealed tight, still unopened after all this time. Patsy held the packet, turning it from front to back, side to side, trying to remember what it could contain. Finally, after several long minutes, she slid her finger under the flap and tore the packet open.
Taking a long, deep breath, for courage, Patsy supposed, she reached inside and plucked out the contents. It had been one thing to unveil the contents of the photo album with Ray there to provide support, but now she was alone. Would she be able to handle the memories? Patsy closed her eyes, and uttered a silent prayer.
Then she unfolded the protective covering from around the photos sealed within and peeked quickly inside. Patsy laughed out loud and looked again, this time longer than just a peek. Smiling, she remembered the day these photos had been taken. It had been so hard to get Jesse to sit still that she and the photographer had begun to despair of ever getting a good shot. Jesse had been suffering from such a case of the wiggles and giggles that he kept slipping off the seat. But Jesse’s giggles had made Alice laugh, so they’d been able to get some great shots of the two of them.
The pictures had been taken the week before the accident, and the processed photog
raphs had arrived in the mail the day of the funeral. No wonder she hadn’t opened them.
Now, looking at them, Patsy was glad that today she had. That had been such a happy day, and today it felt wonderful to remember the good times. She settled onto the corner of the couch, placed the album in her lap and leaned back to look through it again. There were so many good memories enclosed in that one book. Why had she deprived herself of them for so long?
Tomorrow, she was going to get a frame and she was going to put one of the pictures out so she could see it and look at it every day. She’d ignored the memory of her children for far too long. Patsy kissed her fingertip and placed it gently on the smiling faces—one then the other—of her children. “I love you,” she whispered.
Then she looked up into the empty room. “Thank you, Ray Darling. Thank you for giving my children back to me.”
RAY WAS STILL smiling when he loped up the stairs to his second-floor apartment. He hoped that his increasingly morose roommate would not ruin the good mood he was in.
“Well, look what the cat finally dragged in,” Danny Murphey grumbled when Ray let himself in to the apartment. “You must have had one hot date.”
No, Ray told himself. He would not let Danny’s bad mood ruin his. “And that would be a problem, why?” Ray said as he lowered himself to the couch where Danny had apparently been watching a baseball game.
“Depends on who it was.”
Ray chose to ignore the statement. He was pretty sure that Danny wanted to know who he’d been with, but Ray wasn’t telling. His time with Patsy was too private, his feelings for her too new, to share. “Who’s winning?”
Danny ran a hand through his uncombed rusty hair, shrugged and reached for a sweating bottle of beer amid the clutter of several empties. “Don’t know. Don’t care. It was on, that’s all.”
“You know, man, you gotta pull yourself out of this blue funk you’ve been in lately. If you’re not careful, you’re going to screw up on the job.”
“Get off my back,” Danny snapped. “I’m stone-cold sober.” He made a sweeping gesture toward the mess on the coffee table. “This is left over from last night. You’d know that if you’d been here.”
Ray held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, okay. It’s none of my business, anyway,”
“Got that in one.” Danny lifted the beer to his lips and took a long swig.
“Any more where that came from?” Ray pushed himself up and headed to the refrigerator in the cluttered kitchen. Danny really needed to pull himself together; the place was a mess. So far, Murphey had been holding his own on the squad, but he damned sure wasn’t holding up his end in the apartment.
“I bought a twelve pack this morning,” Danny called. “Help yourself.” His tone had lightened some, and Ray took that as a good sign.
He got himself a beer, then snagged some sliced cheese, and slapped it between a couple of pieces of bread. He’d just enjoyed a wonderful meal with Patsy, but Danny’s morose mood had left a sour taste in his mouth. Maybe, if he ate something, it would take the bad taste away.
And while he was chewing, he wouldn’t have to talk.
PATSY HAD BEEN counting the days since her breakthrough with Ray. It had been so long since she’d actually looked forward to a Friday night that she felt almost giddy with anticipation.
Smiling, she finished her paperwork, policed the area around her desk, and switched off her computer. She’d make a quick stop to pick up her uniforms from the laundry, and then she’d be free.
She smiled again as she looked at the framed photo of the kids she’d placed on her desk.
“Cute kids,” Mary Bailey, the head nurse commented from the doorway behind Patsy. “They your niece and nephew?”
“No, they’re mine. They died with their father in a traffic accident a long time ago,” Patsy replied simply. She’d thought that saying it would hurt, but it wasn’t so bad. She felt a pang of sadness, of course, and she supposed she always would, but it was nothing compared to what she’d been carrying around, hidden inside her heart, for all these years.
“Oh,” Mary said, startled. “I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t tell,” Patsy said. “It took me a long time to get over it. I’ll always miss them, but I’m planning on looking ahead from now on.”
Mary smiled. “I always thought you had something heavy to deal with. I’m glad you have. You seem so much happier now. It’s wonderful to see the change.”
“Thanks,” Patsy said. She wasn’t quite ready to tell Mary how she’d achieved the change. She’d walked around under a dark cloud for so long, she was afraid to let in too much light so soon.
Ray had practice with his team before their date tonight, but she wasn’t going to watch this time. She’d been putting off giving Tripod a bath and the balmy afternoon temperatures made it a perfect time to get the deed done. Tripod made a mess in the bathroom, and today she’d be able to hose her off outside.
Patsy hurried through her errands, humming as she went, even picked up the gourmet dog food that Tripod liked. She might have to give the dog a treat after subjecting her to a bath. It would be several hours before Ray was finished coaching, so she had plenty of time to anticipate their evening together.
“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?” Ray called over the sound of frenzied barking and running water.
Patsy called from the backyard. “We’re out here. Tripod is not in the mood to be bathed.”
Ray opened the gate to the chain link fence and stepped into the backyard. He took one glance and had to laugh. Patsy, looking as though she’d been caught in a sudden rainstorm, was holding a rubber hose, water trickling from the nozzle. She was soaking wet, her blond hair dripping, her makeup smeared, and Tripod was doing a three-legged dance, running back and forth, seeming to taunt her mistress with playful barks. The dog was wet, muddy and far dirtier than she’d probably been to start with.
“It isn’t funny, Ray Darling,” Patsy declared, aiming the hose at him.
He didn’t dodge it fast enough. Dripping, he dashed toward Patsy, yanking the hose from her. He got her back, the force of the water hitting her so hard that she lost her balance and sat down in a muddy puddle. “Turnabout’s fair play,” he declared.
Patsy shook off the water, flinging droplets everywhere. “You are not helping, Ray. Look at that dog!”
Tripod, already wet and muddy, was now rolling in a freshly turned flower bed. Her white spotted coat was now brown with dirt. She stopped, looked up, a doggy smirk on her face, then resumed her dirt bath.
“I will never get her clean,” Patsy wailed.
“It doesn’t look like she wants to be,” Ray commented as he dashed after the muddy dog.
“Well, I want her to be, and I’m the boss,” Patsy said, as Ray captured the runaway pooch. “Besides, she stinks.”
“For a three-legged dog, she sure can run,” Ray said, capturing Tripod and carrying the squirming animal to the wash tub. He got a good whiff. “What did she do? Run into a skunk?”
“No, that’s just what she smells like if she doesn’t get her weekly bath. Usually, she enjoys it.” Patsy hosed down the protesting dog, washing the mud off. “Hold her while I soap her up.”
“You sure you don’t want to abandon this project?” Ray asked as the dog, barking at the top of her lungs, tried again to escape. “You’re going to have the animal protection people coming after you.”
“No, I won’t,” Patsy muttered determinedly. “But I will have a sweet-smelling dog.”
FINALLY, THE DOG WAS clean and sweet-smelling, but Patsy couldn’t say the same for Ray. She laughed at the sorry sight in front of her. “I guess we’d better cancel our dinner reservation,” she said.
“Ya think?” he said dryly.
“I think,” Patsy declared. “Why don’t you take a quick shower, and I’ll toss your clothes into the machine. I can probably scare up an old set of sweats or something for you to wear till they dry.”
&nbs
p; “It doesn’t look like I have a choice,” Ray said. “What about our reservation?”
“I’ll cancel it. I don’t think we’ll make it now. You go wash.” Patsy shooed him with one hand and herded Tripod into her crate with the other. “I’m not letting this clean doggie out until she’s good and dry.”
Ray turned to leave the kitchen, then looked back over his shoulder. His polo shirt was so wet that it clung to him and gave Patsy a perfect view of his well-defined muscles. “What are we going to do for supper?”
“Don’t worry,” Patsy said, an excellent, delicious, sneaky idea forming in her mind. “You just toss your wet stuff outside the bathroom door and I’ll take care of everything.”
And you, she thought but didn’t say out loud.
RAY STOOD IN THE SHOWER behind the feminine-looking curtain and relished the feel of the warm water sluicing over his body. Who would have thought that one little dog could get a guy so wet and muddy?
He wished he had a change of clothes here, but the sweats would do for now. He was used to making do. He’d spent many a night in the field in dirty, wet clothes. Dry sweats would be like heaven compared to wet BDUs. And using Patsy’s well-appointed bathroom was not a hardship at all.
He scrubbed himself clean with soap that was definitely too womanly for his taste, then lathered his face with foam from a can of more floral-scented stuff. He sure hoped that nobody from the team would get a whiff of him while he still reeked of it.
He scraped at his five o’clock shadow as best he could, using the pink razor Patsy had left on the edge of the tub. He was shaving blind because he couldn’t see what he was doing, so he ran his fingers over his face, checking for rough spots. Then satisfied, he rinsed the remaining soap off the razor.
As he reached for the taps to turn off the water, a draft of cool air moved the curtain. Ray shivered in reaction to the chilly breeze. Had the air conditioner come on?
Sergeant Darling Page 10
