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“No, Mom.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders. “Don’t cry. I look like you.”
She offers me a soft smile as her hand runs down her cheek. “I always want you to do what you love. God knows I didn’t at first, but I found my love here. I always knew this wasn’t for you, but I wanted us to do it together like girl bosses.”
I smile and kiss her cheek. “Bring another girl from the family in.”
“I hope someone wants to. I’m getting tired.” She stands. “But you have somewhere to be, so go. Do you already have a plane ticket?”
“I have Lance.”
She shakes her head. “Thank goodness for the Whitmores, huh?”
I leave my mom and feel a weight come off my shoulders as I leave the building. I’m not sure how I’ll support myself financially, but it’s time to put all the things I love first.
It feels as though it takes forever for me to get to the airport, though thankfully, the Whitmore private plane is all ready to take me to Kodiak. Doubts fill me during the nearly three-hour flight as I wonder how we’ll make the long distance work. But I have to get him back first.
The plane lands, I rent a car, and I drive to the base. I’m allowed a visitor pass, and the guard gives me a map and tells me where I should go. I nod as if I got it, but the map seems turned around and why can’t I have GPS?
I reach a dead end and pull the map out again, wondering what I did wrong. A knock on the window startles me, and I look to my left to see an older man in blue slacks and a button-down with a jacket. He has a lot of pins on his left side, which must mean he’s important.
“Hi, sir,” I say, rolling down the window. “I’m lost.”
He laughs. “I figured. Where can I direct you?”
“The records department. I’m trying to get a report from an incident a few years ago. There was an accident.”
He rocks back on his heels. “When did it happen?”
“Roughly four years. It was my husband, and I have proof I was his wife.”
“It’s you,” he says.
I frown. “Excuse me?”
“Brinley Kelly?”
My eyebrows shoot up. “How do you know that?”
“Let’s say we both care about a certain guy.” He points at the empty seat beside me. “May I?”
“Um, sure.” I clear off the seat and toss everything in the back. “Are you going to show me to the records department?”
“I’m not sure you’ll get the report even if you do find your way there. Besides, it’s not going to tell you what you really want to know. How about you let an old man treat you to a coffee?”
I’m so confused, but I decide to go with it. “Okay.”
“We have to go off base.”
“All right, just point the way.”
He gives me directions, and we end up at a little café just outside of the base. We grab our coffees—he insists on paying—then we sit down.
“So, you know Van?” I ask.
He nods. “Since he was eighteen. First off, on behalf of myself and the guard, we are very sorry for your loss.” Sincerity rings through his words.
“Thank you.”
“It’s a shame that this situation is making life even harder on the both of you.”
