An easy six hours in the car Sunday found them at Spokane, and they agreed without discussion to stop. This would be their last night together on the road.
His last chance to hold her through the night, smell her hair and feel it in his fingers as he fell asleep. Tomorrow she’d be in her parents’ home, and he’d be at his mother’s trailer until he made decisions about his future.
He hoped Grace would be happy with his choices.
Chapter 21
Salito, Washington
Through the front curtain,Grace saw Rey’s sister drop him in front of her family’s house at exactly six twenty-eight, on time for the six-thirty dinner invitation her parents had issued. He used one cane and carried a poinsettia wrapped in glossy foil.
She broke protocol and beat her mother to the door. This was America, not the old country, so she could and would stand beside Rey in front of her parents.
A bobbing silver-glitter reindeer on a stick poked out of the plant. Her eyes flicked from his, dark brown and amused, to the glowing display of illuminated carolers and reindeer in the yard. “You know they like decorations.”
“Expert recon,” he whispered for her ears only.
“How are you at interrogation?”
“Trained. To resist.”
Maybe if she slipped the poinsettia on the end table she could find a reason to step to the porch for a minute and give him a quick kiss for luck.
“Sergeant Cruz.” Her mother appeared behind her, leaving her no choice but to hold the door wider.
“Ma’am.” He bowed enough to be culturally correct, and Grace remembered he’d been to Korea with the Army more times than she’d visited her parents’ birthplace. “For you.”
When her mother turned, Grace didn’t have to mouthsuck up.Rey puckered at her first.
Her father was deep in Korean abeoji-dad mode, almost to the extent of self-parody. He sat on the couch, hands planted on each thigh like a K-drama warrior, elbows out to control the space. All he needed was a helmet and a set of fish-scale armor to complete the show he was staging for Rey. “Sergeant Reynaldo Cruz. Welcome to our home.”
Rey bowed his head and shoulders. “Thank you for inviting me, Mr. Kim.” The words flowed slowly, but evenly, as if he’d practiced.
Jenni rolled her eyes from the doorway behind Dad.
“Please sit and have tea together.”
“Thank you.” He lowered himself to the opposite chair, like a witness on television.
Perched on the next seat, she wanted to hold his hand, butno touching boyfriendswas the first, second and third rule of making a good impression with Korean parents.
“What do you do now you are not in the army?”
She’d been raised not to interrupt, but— “Dad!”
Rey nodded agreeably. “School first. U—Dub.” He said the abbreviation for University of Washington, her alma mater in Seattle. The two short words fluttered in her stomach. “Finishmy degree.” A folded paper slid across the coffee table toward her father.
He opened it. Studied it.
Grace squirmed to know what that page contained.
Her father nodded, let a smile break his face and called out to her mother in Korean, probably because he knew neither daughter understood much of what he said.
Gasping, her mother hustled in, wiping her hands on her apron, and grabbed the letter.
Grace nudged Rey’s shoulder to get his attention, but he merely shrugged.
Jenni had nothing to lose by bad behavior, so her sister snatched the paper and read out loud. “University of Washington, admission to Medical Anthropology and Global Health major.” She looked at Rey. “That’s like pre-med, isn’t it?”
