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“I can’t believe we were on the Jumbotron,” Mariana said.
“Right next to Luke Haynes,” Lizzie added. “Do you think he saw us?”
Should she tell them that she’d seen their favorite player sign something for each of them? No, she’d let Alex have that thrill.
Finally, Alex slipped into his chair, having removed his jacket, right as the first pitch by the Federals ace pitcher flew over the plate for a strike. The Federals were in the middle of the National League championship series. A chance to go to the World Series was on the line, so each team had brought out the big guns on this cool, fall Sunday afternoon.
“Hi, Daddy.” Mariana threw herself into Alex’s arms before he got settled. “Did you see us on the big screen?”
“I did.”
“Do you think Luke saw us?” Lizzie asked. It hadn’t taken long before she started interjecting herself in the middle of conversations between Mariana and her dad, just like Mariana jumped into discussions with Cameron and Lizzie.
Alex’s eyes twinkled while he reached into the pocket of his navy blue jacket. “He not only saw you, but he…” Alex pulled out two baseballs. “… said that his two biggest fans deserved to have these.”
The girls squealed and scrambled over Cameron to get to Alex, throwing themselves into his arms. That was okay. Alex’s arms were wide and strong enough to hold both of their girls. And her. As they went on and on about their baseballs, and Luke Haynes, Alex caught her eye over their shoulders… and he smiled.
If this is what life with Alex would be like, what was holding her back?
The sound in her ear was the final bricks in her wall tumbling down.
Chapter Nine
“You wanted to see me, sir?” Alex snapped to attention after he stepped through Colonel Rossinger’s door. It wasn’t often that he was called in to the boss’s office, and he couldn’t imagine what had prompted the summons today.
“At ease. Have a seat, Mr. Sanchez. I’ve been hearing from Major Williamson that you’ve been doing great things with the VR battlefield system.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“That’s why we’ll be sending you TDY to the field unit, effective twenty-two hundred hours tomorrow evening, to oversee the sign-off and live startup of the system.”
Alex’s heart raced, like it did whenever the prospect of deployment was floated. The Colonel extended a stack of papers to Alex. He studied the temporary duty paperwork, the travel orders, everything he needed for the trip. He knew he’d missed being deployed, but the prospect of heading out had him sitting up higher in his chair.
He studied the paperwork again. The end date was eleven days from now. That shouldn’t be too bad. But now that his parents weren’t nearby, he had things to arrange. Most importantly, who would watch Mariana while he was gone? He hadn’t secured a backup plan for Mariana since he’d moved to D.C. Especially since he was assigned to a non-deployable unit. But none of that mattered now. The trip was set and he was in a pinch.
And what about Cameron? He’d finally started chipping away at the barriers she had thrown up. Her comfort level with their family-style interactions seemed to have grown. He was almost there. Now was a terrible time to leave. Not before he had convinced Cameron that he wasn’t like her ex-husband. That his duty and not his whims were taking him out of town. The duty he’d signed on for the day he scribbled his signature on his enlistment papers. And he wasn’t about to let his unit down.
He rose to his feet. “Thank you, sir. Permission to be dismissed?”
“Permission granted. You’re on leave until your flight at twenty-two hundred tomorrow.”
Alex spun on his heel and exited left the Colonel’s office. He didn’t have much to pack and was able to escape before getting shanghaied into a last-minute meeting. Good. He needed the extra time to get his plans in place.
On the way out of the building, he grabbed his phone and dashed off a quick text to Mrs. Rodriguez. He would pick Mariana up at school early and talk to her about his trip. She’d seemed okay in the past when he’d left her with his parents, but she’d been younger and used to seeing them every day.
Now they were in a new city, with a new school, and a new babysitter. He should have made formal backup arrangements already, but Mrs. Rodriguez had mentioned that she’d watched other children during brief deployments. He’d tucked that in the back of his mind and therefore, making arrangements became a lower priority.
The next text he had to send? That one was a bit tougher. Can I come by tonight? I have some news to share.
Cameron responded almost immediately. Is everything all right?
Was everything all right? He never imagined he’d reach a point where joy and fear, excitement and dread battled for a place in his mind. He hated leaving Mariana, but his little girl was resilient and emails and a few video chats should suffice during such a short deployment. But Cameron might feel that his trip was also an abandonment of sorts.
If she did, he might have to consider a choice between his career and Cameron.
Everything’s fine. I’ll be by after 9. Give Lizzie time to get to sleep.
He dashed off another text to the teenaged babysitter whose father was in the Navy an
