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“What?”
“Jake’s in a lot of pain, and they dragged him to get X-rays.”
“WHAT?”
“You didn’t see him? He wasn’t eating and holding his side…”
Lena dropped the wet plate that was in her hands back in the sink as she stared at them in horror. She had thought that neither of them eating was because of their problems this morning. He hadn’t eaten at lunch either… was that because of his injury, too?
“Oh my gosh,” she whispered. “Where did they go?”
“I guess into Laramie. I don’t know of any place out this way. We’re on some country road, and I think there is a gas station about five miles away, but I’m not sure.”
“It’s like really secluded out here.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Lena, are you okay?”
“No,” she whispered. “I think I’m going to go sit down.”
Leaving the two girls behind, she donned her coat and started to head toward her cabin, only to see Gideon lumbering forward on his crutches.
“Have you heard anything yet?” he said simply.
“No. I had no idea and I just…” Lena hesitated as she crumbled. “Was this my fault? He was so mad this morning, and I saw him stomp off, but…”
“Whoa,” Gideon said quickly, moving to her side and patting her awkwardly on the shoulder. “This isn’t your fault. He’s got a lot on his mind, and if he was mad – it was probably at himself.”
“Why do you say that? You don’t know and…”
“That he feels like a bumbling idiot when you walk in the room?” Gideon laughed openly as she stared at him. “I’m pretty sure he said bumbling idiot, but it could have been ‘big idiot’… and I think he’s having a tough time. Girls are intimidating and it doesn’t come easy for some of us.”
“What?”
“Talking, charming someone, making someone you like smile or talk to you. Guys are the stupidest things sometimes, and our mouths run away from us nearly a hundred percent of the time.”
“That’s no excuse for being rude to me – a lot.”
“No, it’s not, but maybe there is a reason behind it,” Gideon said quietly, standing there and trying to give his arms a break from the crutches as he moved them out from under him. “Let me tell you a little story about where Ortega is from – and you can do with it what you will.”
“Okay,” she said skeptically, feeling every ounce of the biting wind cutting through her but forging through it because she was curious about what he was going to say.
“I come from a family of eight…”
“Eight?!”
“Yup,” Gideon laughed. “My baby sister is the medic that actually saved Ortega’s life in Ghazni; and it’s funny how small the world really is sometimes. Well, Giselle, heard a rumor about a squad of army guys that were all getting pen pals, so they had someone special back home in their lives. See, it’s really lonely and isolated where they were and…”
Lena put up her hand and swallowed back bile.
“If you are about to tell me that… Ortega,Jake, and your sister were an item? Then I really don’t want to know,” she said tightly.
“No, no. Definitely not. See, Giselle was having the same issue and got a pen pal from the Air Force base – but most of the squad got their pen pals from someone above them.”
“Oh?”
“Yep. Ortega asked for one… and was denied.”
