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“If there’s anything you want or need to know, anytime—if you ask, I’ll answer honestly. If I can.”
If I can. There could be military implications there. Things he wasn’t at liberty to say. Or maybe he was telling her there were things he couldn’t bring himself to talk about.
Either way, she had a feeling what he needed from her most, whether he’d admit it or not, was her patience.
“And that goes both ways,” she told him. “Anything you ask, I’ll answer honestly.” It got quiet between them. Not awkwardly, just like it mattered. Like they’d somehow just repeated vows they’d taken years before. When they’d promised never to lie to each other. She’d never doubted that those vows still lived.
Obviously, he had.
Not sure what to make of that, Emily filed the moment away. She had a feeling that that mental file drawer was going to be growing in the coming days.
And even that knowledge didn’t steal her joy.
Winston was home!
Chapter Seven
Winston almost took Emily up on her offer to drive the rental, leaving the Camaro for him. The sight of the Glacier Blue beauty with the dark blue interior had him gravitating toward it. Just to take a look. He’d put way too much time and money into the machine. Had given importance to it that hadn’t mattered.
At least he’d done a good job.
“You sure you don’t want to drive it?” Emily, in tight white capris, a loose black tank and a pair of black jeweled flip-flops, asked. She had her own set of keys in her hand. He’d pocketed the ones she’d given him.
“You’re not listed on the rental contract,” he said, and climbed behind the wheel of the nondescript four-door sedan.
Duty was what mattered. Serving his country. Breaking the law, even a rental contract law, was not in the plan.
The plan.
It was taking a major detour. But at least it was there. Telling Emily that they weren’t going to work, that her only way to happiness was apart from him, even that he’d betrayed her, wasn’t going to help him reach the goal. Two seconds in her presence and he’d known that. Like his superiors, she’d forgive him anything, put it down to the untenable situation, see the hero in him. She still believed.
The only way to get the truth through to her was to show it to her, directly and unflinchingly, day by day. There’d be painful moments, but they’d fade in time. When she was away and free and living with the happiness she deserved.
His focus had to be on keeping the end in mind.
He led the way to San Diego, watching his rearview mirror and adjusting his speed and turns as needed to allow Emily to stay behind him. And after he dropped off the car, he told her she could drive the short distance from the rental office to the barracks, then he got in on the passenger side, handing her his ID to show at the gate.
So, yeah, the car smelled...good. Familiar. His body recognized the seat’s contour. He could almost feel the leather steering wheel cover beneath his grip. He turned the old but shiny crank to lower the window. Felt the power beneath him as Emily pulled into traffic.
For a second, life felt good.
He was definitely going to keep the car.
* * *
As badly as Emily wanted to traipse right beside Winston to collect his things, she stayed with the car. She had to be able to let him out of her sight.
Needed to give him space.
She didn’t need professionals to tell her either of those things. She was getting cues from him. She’d always known him that well.
And he, her.
It was one of the things that had built such intrinsic trust between them from the very beginning—this ability to read the other. To just know. They’d been fourteen, freshmen in high school, when they’d run into each other rushing to get into the building and out of the rain. She’d just had a fight with her brother. Her irritating sibling had just turned sixteen and with his driver’s license he’d also been given the responsibility for driving her to school. That day, he’d refused to drop her off on her side of the building because in those days he’d refused to do anything she’d asked. He’d ruled. Winston had been late because his mom and dad had had a fight and he’d stayed to referee.
They’d both been bothered by more than the rain. He’d made a joke about it. About rain being fitting for the morning. Knowing she’d agree. And then asked if she wanted to meet him at lunch to see if either of their days had gotten any better.
Such a small thing. But the beginning of the rest of her life. The best part of her life.
