Marooned with a Marine

by Maureen Child

  “Yes, ma’am.” They headed for the front door with Bill and Joanne just a step or two behind.

  A chorus of voices called out good wishes as they piled into the car and took off into the night.

  “How long is this supposed to take, anyway?” Sam muttered for the tenth time as he paced the waiting room floor.

  “I don’t know,” Karen said on a sigh, and closed the magazine she hadn’t been reading. Tossing it onto the green vinyl couch beside her, she stretched, then pushed herself to her feet. Glancing from the closed doors at the far end of the room to the stern-faced Navy Hospital Ensign at the receptionist’s desk, she figured it probably wouldn’t be wise to ask for another update on Joanne’s condition.

  In the hour they’d been there, they’d bothered the woman four times already, and she didn’t look happy about it. In fact, she looked downright scary. Like she was wishing she had the authority to throw Sam and Karen in the brig.

  Sam had made the normally fifteen-minute drive to the U.S. Naval Hospital in just under ten. And Karen wasn’t sure if it was concern for Joanne or sheer terror that had spurred him on. But either way, they’d made it and the Coopers had disappeared behind those swinging doors, leaving Sam and her alone. Except for Brunhilde behind the desk.

  Sighing, Karen rubbed her hands up and down her arms and walked to the entrance. The waiting room seemed to be shrinking by the minute. It was as if Sam’s sheer size and the obvious chip on his shoulder had taken up every square inch of space. She stared out through the glass doors at the night beyond and suddenly desperately needed to be outside. Where she could draw a breath that wasn’t clouded by the layer of tension lying like a thick fog over the room. Walking back to the couch, she snatched up her sweater and purse, then headed for those doors.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Outside for a while,” she said, not even bothering to glance back at him.

  “I’m right behind you.”

  Great, she thought as the doors swung open in front of her. Now even the great outdoors wouldn’t be enough to calm her. The source of tension was coming along.

  She kept walking, her black high heels making a staccato click against the pavement, until she was out from under the portico and staring up at the night sky. Swatches of clouds drifted lazily across a moon so bright it almost hurt to look at it. A gentle breeze coming off the river drifted across her bare shoulders, and she shrugged into the short black sweater she’d brought with her.

  “Cold?”

  “Not anymore,” she told him as he stopped alongside her.

  Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Sam followed her gaze and muttered, “Pretty night.”

  “Yep.” Okay, the weather. Safe-enough topic, she supposed.

  “You look pretty tonight, too,” he said.

  She slid him a glance from the corner of her eye. But before she could thank him for the compliment, he continued.

  “At least Dave Mills sure seemed to think so.”

  So much for a thank-you. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I saw you,” he said, his voice low and harsh. “With him. Smiling up at him like he was fascinating or something.”

  “So?” she asked, completely aware that a small part of her was enjoying this.

  “So I know Dave,” he said. “He’s not fascinating.”

  “Maybe not to you,” she said, hiding a smile at the glower on his face.

  “Not to anybody but his mother.” Pulling his hands from his pockets, he grabbed her upper arms and waited until she looked up into his eyes before asking, “What’s goin’ on, Karen?”

  “Nothing.” She shrugged and stepped back out of his hold. “Joanne just wanted to introduce me to a nice man.”

  “Uh-huh.” The gleam in his eyes told her he didn’t believe that one for a minute.

  Well, good. She pushed her hair back from her face with one hand, then folded her arms across her breasts. Cocking one hip, she tapped the toe of her right shoe against the concrete. “I would think you’d be glad to have Joanne introducing me to men.”

  He threw his hands high and let them fall to his sides, again. “Why in the hell would you think that?”

  “Shouldn’t my friend want me to be happy?” she snapped.

  “I’m not your damn friend,” he ground out through clenched teeth.

  “Really?” she asked, unfolding her arms and reaching out to poke him in the chest with her index finger. “It was all a setup, wasn’t it?” she asked, and didn’t give him a chance to answer. “The whole ‘Karen, let’s be friends’ thing.”

  “Setup?” he echoed, and rubbed one hand across his face.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?” she said, taking a step closer. “Darn it, I knew it.”

  Sam looked down into those pale blue eyes, and even in the moonlight, he could have sworn he saw sparks flying from their depths. Okay, this conversation wasn’t going as he’d expected it to.

  “You gave me all that nonsense about us being just friends to throw me for a loop, didn’t you?” she asked, and started walking a slow circle around him.

  Why suddenly did he feel like he had a Doberman stalking him?

  “I just thought—”

  “You thought,” she interrupted, and he swung his head around to meet her gaze, “that if you could just introduce me to Joanne and some of the other wives…if you could get me around enough Marine families and see what it’s really like, then maybe my fears would start to dissolve.”

  “I just thought you might like to meet some nice people.”

  “Who happened to be Marine wives.”

  “Coincidence?” he offered.

  “Right,” she snapped, and kept up that slow walk around him. “And you figured that a week or so in their company would get rid of fears that have been haunting me for years.”

  “It was worth a shot,” he mumbled, and felt the small hairs on the back of his neck go straight up as she glared at him.

  “Yeah,” she said, “from your perspective, I guess it was.” She stopped dead in front of him, tipped her head back and looked deeply into his eyes before she asked tightly, “What’s the plan now, Sarge? Got a list of Marines you’d like me to meet? Nice, eligible men?”

  Just the thought of that was enough to churn his guts and make his spine stiffen until he wouldn’t have been surprised to hear it crack in two.

  “Hell, no,” he said, and even he heard the growl just beneath his words. “You’re all mine, honey. Nobody touches you but me.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Damn straight it is,” he said.

  “You want to be my pal?” she asked.

  “I’ve got enough friends.”

  “You want to be my shrink?”

  “You don’t need one.”

  “That’s right, I don’t.” She took a single step closer, planted her hands at her hips and demanded, “So, just what exactly do you want from me?”

  “I want you to marry me, damn it,” he shouted.

  “All right, I will,” she yelled right back.

  Stunned, Sam simply stared at her for a long moment. Then, as a slow grin eased across her face, his heart started beating again and he felt a warmth he’d never known creep into his soul and settle down for a long stay.

  Reaching for her, he grabbed her and yanked her close, pressing her body along his until he was sure he could feel her melding right inside him. Become a part of him. And still it wasn’t enough. But for now, it would have to do.

  “You’re sure?” he asked, his voice a harsh whisper that brushed her ear.

  “I’m sure,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and hanging on for dear life.

  He lifted one hand to cup her cheek and turned her face up to his. “No more fears?”

  She leaned into his touch and closed her eyes briefly. “There’ll always be some fear,” she admitted, then looked up at him again. “But I’m more afraid of never having you at all than I am of losing you.
”

  “You’re never gonna lose me, honey,” he said, letting his gaze caress her features like a lover’s touch.

  “You can’t promise me that,” she whispered, and swallowed hard before adding, “Nobody could. But I’m willing to take the risks now. I want a life with you, Sam. I want babies with you.”

  An invisible fist closed around his heart and the sweet pain staggering through him nearly brought him to his knees. But it was her palm, gently laid against his face, that finished him off.

  “I love you, Sam Paretti. More than I ever thought possible.”

  “I love you, too, honey,” he whispered, planting a kiss on the tips of her fingers.

  “And wherever the Corps sends us, you take care of the Marines and I’ll take care of selling houses.”

  “Deal.”

  “And we’ll share the baby duties.”

  “Deal,” he said, grinning now and wondering if it was possible for a man’s smile to get so wide it could shatter his face.

  “And you’ll love me forever,” she said softly, those pale blue eyes looking straight into his soul.

  “Count on it, honey,” he said, and bent his head to claim a kiss, sealing their bargain with the promise of forever.

  “Hey, you two!”

  They broke apart and turned together toward the open doors of the hospital. Bill Cooper stood there looking like a man who had just won the lottery. “You can make out later,” he yelled. “Come on in and meet my new baby girl!” Then he was gone, racing back inside to his wife and child.

  “Two new lives began tonight,” Karen said, hooking her arm through Sam’s as they headed back into the hospital. “The baby’s and our life together. May they both be happy.”

  “We can’t lose, honey,” Sam said, smiling down at her. “And you can trust me on that. I’m a Marine.”

  Epilogue

  Three years later…Camp Pendleton, California

  “So I want you all to remember that LINKS is here to help you. Any questions, ask one of us. We’re here to make getting used to military life easier.” Karen smiled at her audience, then checked her wristwatch.

  Running late, as usual, she thought. But between showing houses all morning, the LINKS meeting and a doctor’s appointment it had been a busy day. Now she’d have to hurry or Sam would be home before her and she’d never hear the end of it.

  Stepping down from the stage, she said a quick goodbye to her friends and started for the door at the back of the chapel annex. But just as she reached out for the knob, the door opened and there in a slash of late-afternoon sunlight stood her husband, glowering at her.

  Busted, she thought, and tried to smooth her way out of it.

  “Hi, Sam,” she said, then smiled at the black-haired toddler on his hip. “Hello, Josie. Did you have fun with Daddy today?”

  The little girl nodded so hard one of her barrettes half flew off her head and finally hung by a single, silky strand. Karen’s heart filled to overflowing as she stared into her daughter’s whiskey-colored eyes. So much like her father, she thought. And the two of them were nearly inseparable. Sam and Josie went everywhere together. That included, it seemed, tracking down Mommy when she was late.

  “Don’t ‘hi’ me,” Sam said, and tried for stern but only managed to show his concern. “You were supposed to be home today, with your feet up. You know what the doctor said.”

  Karen ran one hand across her blossoming stomach. There were still two months until the latest Paretti made his debut. But Sam was a worrier. “She said to rest, not hibernate.”

  “Resting does not mean running the LINKS program.”

  “Hey,” she countered, “somebody has to help the new wives get used to you guys.”

  “And you’re just the one to do it, huh?” he asked, dropping one arm around her shoulders and heading for the car.

  “Who better?” Karen asked, realizing just how far she’d come in three short years. She’d gone from letting her fears paralyze her to being so happy she was downright sickening.

  It really was an amazing world, if you gave it half a chance.

  “What do I have to do to make you rest?” Sam asked, shaking his head.

  If he had his way, she’d spend every pregnancy in bed where he could be sure she was getting the kind of rest he thought she needed. But Karen knew that all she really needed was him.

  “Buy me dinner?” She smiled up at him as their daughter said her two favorite words.

  “Daddy, chicken!”

  He sighed dramatically, gave the little girl a loud, smacking kiss on her cheek, then dropped one on top of Karen’s head. “Whatever my girls want is okay by me,” he said. “Chicken it is.”

  Yep, Karen thought as she leaned into her husband’s side and listened to the music of her daughter’s laughter, it’s an amazing world, if you give it a chance.

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-1125-7

  MAROONED WITH A MARINE

  Copyright © 2000 by Maureen Child

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  *Bachelor Battalion