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“Whoa, hey! It was just an idea. Sensitive topic?” It came out more biting than I’d meant it. I’d meant it to diffuse. It ignited.
“Being cheated on? Yes,” she snapped.
“I only suggested it because it’s the most clear-cut breakup.”
“Not gonna happen,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not going to play the villain to the poor, upstanding soldier. If anything, you’d be the one to break it off with me.”
“But how am I supposed to cheat? With someone in my company? No.”
“Then no cheating at all,” she said loudly.
I raised my voice to match hers. “It can’t be out of the blue, though. We need a reason.”
“Don’t yell,” she commanded.
“I’m not!” I yelled. “I’m not,” I corrected, quieter.
“Why are we talking about this? We’re getting ahead of ourselves,” she said.
We continued walking, silent for a moment. Two women passed, chatting, one of them pushing a stroller. I kept my mouth shut. Irreconcilable differences seemed more feasible than the marriage. The divorce would be the easiest part.
“I promise henceforth I will always try to get along with you,” I said.
“Mm.” She walked faster. “You’re going to have to try harder.”
My chest had started to get tight again. Cassie could be harsh at the drop of a hat, but at least I would always know where she stood.
“All right,” she continued as we turned a corner to circle the block, “when do you want to do it?”
Relief. “So you’re still in?”
“Yeah, guy. I’m not a quitter.”
I tried to keep from smiling too big. “Tomorrow?”
“That soon?”
“We need time to put on a little bit of a show before I ship out. So it looks real to everyone I serve with.”
“Yeah, we do.” She grimaced. “I’m not much of an actor.”
I clenched my teeth, sucking in air. “Yeah. Me, neither.”
She checked her phone and sighed. “Okay, I gotta go. You fill Frankie in. I’m free all day tomorrow to, you know, nail down the details.”
“Okay.” My skin was buzzing, ready to take action. I was ready right now. I wanted Cassie to be, too. I gestured for her to hand me her phone and punched in my number. She hesitated again before she got in the car.
“Hey, what’s your last name?” she asked, putting up a hand to shade her eyes.
“Morrow,” I said, glancing at her, my eyes traveling down the tattoos on her arms to the CD cases on her dashboard to the granola bar wrappers at her feet. “You?”
“Salazar,” she said, smiling against the sun.
The quiet was surreal. A breeze licked one of the swings in the playground behind her. My heart was full of something like gratitude, something big and scared and shaking, but my mind kept getting slammed into Johnno’s Bronco. Jake, slammed into Johnno’s Bronco. JJ watching.
No, Cassie was going to help me. She was annoying as hell but she was fierce, and she was going to help me protect them. I wanted to shake her hand or hold her. It seemed absurd that we would just go off in our separate directions, like we had talked about the weather.
But that’s what we did. I glanced back over my shoulder when she reached the road. Though I couldn’t be sure through the afternoon glare, I thought our eyes met, and I waved. She lifted her hand and waved back.
