“Your veggie kabob, babe.” Tim slid the last plate across the table toward his wife and settled himself in front of his burger. “You wanna tell them?”
Skye picked a piece of green pepper off her skewer and popped it in her mouth. “Nope, you go ahead.”
“Right. Everyone knows my parents want to do a big commitment ceremony thing, since nobody made our first wedding.”
“That’s what happens when you get shitfaced and marry a stranger in Vegas,” Dwayne pointed out. He knew Skye wouldn’t be insulted, given that it actually worked out.
The odds, huh.
As predicted, Skye just rolled her eyes and pulled off a piece of squash to nibble on. “So thanks to my mother-in-law’s flair for planning, it’s turning into something a little bigger than we originally planned. And as our best friends, we were hoping you guys would stand up with us.”
“Wait. Who?” Madison sat up suddenly, plate tipping to the side. She caught it before her burger could splat on the wooden deck.
“All of you. I need two bridesmaids, so I was hoping you and Veronica would say yes.” Skye gave them hopeful looks.
Madison, in all her usual subtlety, jumped up on the lounge chair and gave a whoop.
Skye laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes. How about you, sweetie?”
Dwayne looked at Veronica for the first time since he sat back down outside. Her eyes were wide, face pale. Her fingers were tearing a napkin into little pieces that the wind whipped off the table and across the lawn.
“Stand up. Like, in front? By you?”
“That’s usually where the girls in matching dresses go,” Jeremy pointed out. All tact, that guy.
“Are you sure there’s nobody from Vegas you would rather have?”
Skye smiled a little. “I’d love to have a dozen bridesmaids, but that would make Tim look a little lonely with only two groomsmen. Besides, you’re family. If you don’t want to, I won’t be offended.” She reached across the table to cover her cousin’s hand. And Dwayne could feel the camaraderie there. Skye’s soft heart understood Veronica was afraid of the attention, that she was already scared of the idea.
Just how he thought he understood Veronica’s thoughts as well, he didn’t even begin to know.
“No. No, I’ll do it. I’d like to.” The words were quiet, but the resolve was firm. And her eyes, those smoky eyes, said she’d push through hell and back to do it. Dwayne’s admiration of the quiet one grew another size.
“Which leaves me with you two jackwagons for groomsmen.”
“Hello, bachelor party.” When Madison snorted in disgust, Jeremy playfully pinched her in the waist, causing her to twist and laugh. “What? Like you girls don’t do the bachelorette thing.”
“They’re not bachelor and bachelorette. They’re already married.” Madison picked up a cherry tomato and bounced it off Jeremy’s cheek before it fell to the wood deck with a soft splat.
“Doesn’t the bride’s family usually do the planning? Will your mom want to get involved?” Dwayne asked Skye.
She smiled. “My own parents aren’t even married. To them, it’s just a piece of paper with no significant meaning. I think it’s a mild disappointment that I’m not cohabitating instead of ‘buying into marital oppression.’ They’ll come, to support me. But it’s not really their thing.”
“Which suits my mother to the ground. Give that woman the chance and she’d run her own small country.” Tim saluted the group with his beer. “To our wedding party. Best group of friends a guy—”
“Or girl!” Skye chirped.
“—could ask for.”
“Hear, hear!”
***
Veronica waited until her shift was over and she cashed out with the swing shift manager before heading over to the office. She found her cousin sitting at the desk, the room empty otherwise, and breathed a sigh of relief.
“I think I’m ready to start dating.”
Skye looked up from the catalog she was flipping through. Commercial kitchen supplies for restaurants. She waved at the office door and Veronica shut it behind her, then took a seat at Skye’s desk.
“You want to start dating.” She said the words with care as she folded the magazine back up and placed it at the edge of her cluttered desk.
No. No, I’m not ready. “Yes. I do.” She’d never be ready if she didn’t have someone to push her along. Time to grow up and get out in the world. She wanted a family someday. That would need to include a man at some point. She was just old-fashioned enough to want it that way.
“And is there a particular reason why you think you’re ready?” When Veronica stared at her, Skye smiled. “I’m not trying to play therapist or anything; that’s not what I intend. But it seems sudden. You just mentioned the other day that you were getting used to regular conversations.”
“I still have trouble sometimes with slang. But for the most part, I think I’ve adapted to modern society nicely.” Compared to where she was six months ago, that was very true. Coming from living in jungles or barely populated areas of third-world countries didn’t lend itself to modern American social practice. Nobody from the African Zulu tribe was going to ask her to the prom.
And the few months she spent in the states at age ten, and again at fifteen, weren’t enough to help with the social awkwardness. More like cause for her to be gun-shy at the thought of trying again.
“So why now?”
“I just feel ready.” If the spark that had zinged through her when she sat on the couch with Dwayne was any indication, very ready. Ready to make up for lost time, and then some.
“Hmm.” Skye twirled a container of paper clips on her desk, the rattling sound like soothing rain on a window. “Do you have any prospects?”
Yes. “Not that I can think of. I’m just going to look.” Like window-shopping. Only instead of a sweater, she was on the hunt for a man.
Manhunt. That sounded so… not like her. The thought thrilled her.
Skye opened her mouth, but before she could speak, her cell phone rang. She turned the screen forward, then pushed a button and set the phone flat on her desk. “Hey, Madison. Veronica’s here too. You’re on speaker.”
“Hey, guys.” Madison’s voice, firm and loud as always, filled the small office. “Wanted to see if anyone was up for a girls’ night sometime soon.”
“Yeah. First things first, though. Veronica says she’s ready to start dating.”
“Skye!” She wanted to slide off the chair into a puddle of embarrassment.
Madison only laughed. “It’s about time. I wondered when her cute butt was going to start getting out there. So is there a target in mind?”
“She says no. But I’m not sure if that’s true yet.”
“She should start with a gentle model. Someone easy.”
“She is right here,” Veronica grumbled, but couldn’t hold back the smile. It felt right, like what all girlfriends would do. Calling about boys, teasing each other. Only the more grown-up, mature version.
“No bad boys,” Skye agreed and tapped a pen on the desk. “We’ll think about it. Pick someone for a test run.”
Test run. Gentle model. Were they picking out a car?
Skye hung up the phone and smiled. “Madison is a good ally in this.”
“She’s not going to think I’m some… freak? For not having dated until now?”
Her cousin waved that away. “Not at all. Madison’s not a judgmental person. Plus, I didn’t say you’d never dated. Just that you were ready to start dating. How she takes that is up to her. Either way, you heard her. She was excited to help.”
Skye tossed the pen on the desk and crossed her. “So tell me really. Who or what spawned your sudden desire to hop into the dating pool?”
Veronica looked toward the big window. She could never lie worth anything.
<
br /> “Okay. We’ll ignore that for now. How about Madison, you, and I powwow about it this weekend?”
She jumped on the chance to deflect for now. “Sounds good.”
“I have to ask. And you know you aren’t obligated to answer. But I’m curious. Why do you want to keep your past a secret?”
The million-dollar question. “Your parents didn’t mention me. Ever. Did they?”
Skye shrugged. “No, but they aren’t big into sharing their pasts. For all I knew, they were only children. It’s how I was raised, and I accepted it.”
In that, they were the same. “I didn’t even know your mom—my mom’s sister—existed for so long. With my parents dragging me from one ‘God-forsaken,’” she used air quotes, something she’d picked up from Madison, “country to the next, spreading the gospel, I got sick of it. I knew this wasn’t the way normal people lived. Age ten, I begged for us to move back to the U.S.”
“Can’t blame you,” Skye murmured, rocking back in her chair.
“They sent me to live with my father’s parents. I lasted about three months. The kids were merciless. I didn’t know how to make friends, because I hadn’t had anyone my age to talk to.” She smiled a little. “Anyone who spoke English, I mean. I talked funny, I didn’t understand the slang, and I was too hesitant in reaching out.”
“Kids can be cruel.”
“Very,” Veronica agreed. Her fingers automatically picked at, then smoothed over, a fray in the arm of the chair she sat in. “I was sensitive. It hurt. And I thought I would rather be with my parents, so I went back. I tried again at fifteen. Surely, I thought, teenagers wouldn’t be as horrible and mean.”
Skye said nothing.
Veronica smiled a little. “I know what you’re thinking. They’re not as mean as ten-year-olds. They can be worse. I very quickly learned that telling people my parents were missionaries would lead to one of two results. They either thought I was some religious zealot who would try to shove God down their throat at every turn and would avoid me. Or they would treat me like I was some odd science experiment, always asking questions, trying to prove something.”
“At an age when you must have wanted to start dating…” Skye added softly. Intuitive as always, knowing without a doubt what wasn’t being said.
“My parents did not care at all about my comfort or my wishes. I never had friends, because we moved so frequently. I didn’t ever speak the language of wherever we were. And the one time there was someone else who spoke English close to my age to hang out with, it happened to be another teenager, a boy. And we were caught kissing. Just kissing.” She shivered at the memory. “It didn’t go well when my father found us.”
She still had the scar from her father’s belt across the backs of her thighs. Could still hear the harsh, biting tone of his voice as he quoted Scripture like a weapon while whipping her. Could see her mother weeping, crying out why they had been cursed with such a shameful, wicked daughter who couldn’t—wouldn’t—accept her own mission in life… to see to the reform of others.
She still held the shame he beat into her about her desire. Though she’d matured, grown, and done some self-searching and realized her desires were not only normal, but healthy, it was a constant battle. But it was a battle she would win.
“It’s a little hard to vocalize to someone that your parents cared more for their mission than their daughter. And to make sure people don’t think you’re some zealot that will start smacking them with a pocket Bible the moment they transgress. My hope is that I can get to know people for a while and eventually bring it up. Once they know I’m not like that.” Eventually. One of these days. When I get the nerve up to talk about it again.
Skye laid a hand on her knee in silent comfort, then squeezed. “Well, no time like the present to make up for your lack of dating. Think about whether there’s someone you might be interested in.”
Dwayne’s easy smile came to mind. She pushed it aside with effort. Her cousin meant someone who had the chance to be interested back. Dwayne Robertson was not only intimidating, he was out of her league. “Sure. No problem.”
Chapter 5
Dwayne jackknifed up in bed, reaching under his pillow for his Ka-Bar. His hand grasped air. There was a deep, rasping sound that he couldn’t place, and he strained his ears to figure it out.
Damn. His own breathing, rattling his chest. And he didn’t recognize it. He wiped a wrist across his brow and it came away damp with sweat. The sheets were wrapped around his legs like a vine and he kicked them away. Nothing confining. Nothing on top of him. He couldn’t handle it.
What woke him up at—he checked the clock—four in the morning, he had no clue. But there was sure as hell no way he was going to get back to sleep now. And he knew, knew with a bone-deep, gut-wrenching sort of dread, that this was the nail in the coffin he couldn’t ignore.
Despite the time, he reached for his cell and punched in the first contact.
“Sup?” Though he’d probably been deep asleep, Tim’s voice was clear, without a hint of grogginess.
“I need help, man.”
“If you need to be bailed out of jail, call Jeremy.”
Dwayne didn’t laugh at the joke. He ran one hand over his head, noting absently he needed a haircut again. When he said nothing, Tim spoke again.
“Start with the chaplain. Email him, set something up. Go from there. He’s a good guy.”
“I hate that I need help.”
“I know.”
Tim would. Asking for help was a Marine’s worst nightmare. Probably any man’s worst nightmare. “I have to do this, don’t I?”
Tim sighed, then he must have covered the mouth of the phone because his voice was muted as he spoke to—Dwayne could guess—Skye. Then he was back. “Yeah. You do. I’m just shooting straight here. If it’s affecting you this much that you’re calling me like this, then you need to talk it out. You never know, it might not be all that bad.”
Dwayne didn’t scoff, but he wanted to. Telling some stranger his problems and admitting there were issues, exposing that soft underbelly, the weakness… it didn’t bring good things to mind. But if it had to be done, then it had to be done.
“Okay. I’m on it.”
He set the phone down a moment later, then stared at it. Something had him picking the phone back up, wondering what Veronica was doing. Craving to hear her voice. When he’d been injured in Afghanistan, it was her voice, her calm presence that got him through.
Just as quickly, he let the phone drop back down to the bed in front of him. First off, he didn’t have her number. And second, he wasn’t calling some chick he’d met three times—not including their computer dates—to help him get back to sleep. She’d think he was crazy. Crazier, he corrected with a smile.
Well, at least his sense of humor was still intact. That was something.
He texted his sister instead, asking about his niece and telling her to call him when she got the message. He knew Natalie wouldn’t see it until the morning anyway, so no worry in waking her. She always put the phone on silent after the baby was in bed.
Not a baby anymore. He smiled at the framed photo on the dresser across the room. His niece was growing up too fast. He’d only met her once, thanks to them still being back in Mississippi. But he’d have to see her again soon, or he’d miss too much.
That finished, Dwayne stretched and laid back, hands beneath his head, and stared at the ceiling until exhaustion took him under.
***
“Let’s get shopping!” Skye shut the car door behind her and bounced in the backseat with excitement.
“Do you have a sadistic bent or something?” Madison pulled out of the townhouse driveway and out of the complex. “I thought when you asked us to be bridesmaids you were going to go all nontraditional and let us just pick our own dresses. Or hell, wear tuxes. I’m down for a bow
tie.”
Skye laughed. “Sorry. I have just enough ‘traditional’ in my blood to want you guys to be all prettied up standing next to me. Matching. Like a pair of bookends.”
“Bookends. Hell. What are we—Bobbsey twins now?”
“Maybe your brother and all his conservativeness is rubbing off on me.”
“Other way around, I’d say. You’re rubbing off on Tim. And it’s a good thing. Someone had to yank the stick out.”
Veronica sat in the front seat, watching the landscape and letting the teasing surround her. Their teasing didn’t bother her anymore. Before, she might have taken things too literally. She could almost laugh at herself as she remembered she used to think they were serious when they went at each other like this. She’d come quite a long way. “I think it’s nice to want bridesmaids. I don’t mind.”
“Thank you, sweetie.” Skye’s voice was smug.
“Veronica, where’s my backup? Roomies stick together.”
Veronica shrugged, a smile tugging at her lips. Madison looked so disgruntled in the driver’s seat, her mouth set in a pout like a belligerent child in time-out. “Sorry. I like it.”
“You suck,” was all Madison could say as they pulled into the empty parking lot of the formalwear shop. “At least it’s not birthday ball season, so the place won’t be full of spouses and girlfriends looking for gowns.”
Skye and Madison started to walk in, but Veronica stopped.
“I forgot my purse. You guys go in.” She ran back to Madison’s car, used the keyless entry code Madison had given to her before, and grabbed her purse. As she shut the door, she stepped back and right into a wall.
Or a chest, she realized, as arms steadied her at the elbows.
“Easy now. In a rush?”
She’d know that accent anywhere. The heat from his body almost soaked through her shirt, warming her skin. His thumbs caressed the inside of her elbows. Unconsciously? Or on purpose? And why wasn’t she jerking away? Men made her uncomfortable. Especially this one, she reminded herself as she took a step forward and turned.
Officer and the Secret (Semper Fidelis. Always Faithful.) Page 5
