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I grabbed the front of his uniform blouse and hauled him in for a hug, slamming the door behind him with a kick. He clung to me so tightly I wondered if his shirt buttons would leave permanent impressions on my skin.
I hoped like hell they would.
Doc’s entire body shook, and it took me a couple of minutes to realize he was crying. I cupped the back of his head so I could hold his face tucked into my neck as long as he needed to catch his breath and calm down.
“I’m sorry,” he choked.
“You’d better not be,” I grumbled back. “If you can’t be real with me, then what’s the damned point?”
His hands clutched the back of my T-shirt. I’d just gotten out of the shower after a particularly long and hot day in one of the hangars on base and had thrown on a white undershirt and the clean khaki uniform trousers I’d laid out. The plan had been to meet up with some of the guys at the officers’ club. But now, clearly, my plan was to hold on to Liam Wilde as long as I could.
I finally pulled back enough to cup his face and thumb away the wet streaks on his cheeks. My brain kicked in and started spitting out worst-case scenarios.
“The kids? Betsy?”
His eyes widened in surprise. “What? Oh, no. No. That’s not… Everyone’s fine. I’m just…” He let out a nervous chuckle and stepped back, dashing his palms across his cheeks self-consciously. “Hell, Major, I’m just tired, that’s all.”
It was an understatement, but I didn’t press him on it.
“Come inside. Want a beer? Soda?”
I let him into the small living space with its standard-issue bare-bones furniture. He took a seat on the small sofa and tossed his cover and car keys on the coffee table. “Yeah. Whatever you’re having’s fine.”
In addition to the two cans of beer, I also grabbed a bag of potato chips and slapped together some simple sandwiches before returning to sit next to him. The man looked like he hadn’t eaten in days.
Doc looked at the plate of sandwiches and then met my eyes with soft eyes and a curved lip. “Strawberry jelly?”
“Of course. How many times did I have to listen to you complain about the grape jelly we had on base? Sorry it’s not something better. I don’t keep a lot of food here.”
“No, Christ. This is perfect.” He grabbed a sandwich triangle and took a huge bite, groaning in satisfaction before talking with a full mouth. “I spent the first half the day being a human pincushion for the trainee medics and the second half getting my ass chewed for failing to fill out some form or another.” He met my eye with a twinkle. “Goddamned arrogant majors are a pain in my ass.”
I laughed along with him while he shoved food in his mouth. To give him a chance to keep eating, I told him about why I’d been stuck in the hangar all day.
“Speaking of asshole majors, apparently I scared a grunt so badly he felt he had to show up for class today despite his wife having given birth at oh-four-hundred this morning. He kept wrecking the preflight training protocol until I was about to chew his ass for failing to focus.”
Doc snorted. “Poor kid. What happened? How’d you find out about the baby?”
“His father-in-law is friends with the base commander. One phone call and my commanding officer came storming into the hangar, raging at me in front of the students.”
“What’d you say?”
“I said, ‘Sir, with all due respect, I didn’t even know the warrant officer was married, much less expecting a child. And quite frankly, if my in-flight medic in Nam can get back on a Huey the day after crashing in one, shooting Charlie, spending a dangerous night in the jungle outside Bien Hoa, and performing in-the-field medical procedures with one hand while holding a pistol at the ready in another, I expect this cherry to be able to do a simple preflight check after a night stuck pacing an air-conditioned hospital waiting room. Sir.’”
“No, you did not,” Doc said with a surprised snort.
“Did too.”
“What did he say?”
“He barked out a laugh and looked at the trainee. Asked him if he disagreed. The kid said, ‘No, sir,’ like he was about to wet his pants. As soon as the commanding officer left, I dismissed the kid to go enjoy his new baby.”
Silence for a beat.
“How did you know I went back to work the day after the crash? You were laid up.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Because you just told me.”
We stared at each other.
I blinked. “Doc, you were terrified, and rightly so. And I know you. You had to go back up as soon as you could to get back on the horse.”
