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“I thought you checked in with her the most?”
“You have to compare that to my brothers, whom I only talk to while ensuring they’re not ending up in jail for being stupid punks.”
“Your sister is sweet. I’m sure she’ll do very well in UCLA if she chooses to go there.”
Mitch paused her steps. “What?”
“There’s Berkeley, of course. SF State. Do you think she’d have a shot at Stanford?”
“Stanford? Her grades aren’t anywhere near good enough for that. Besides… why are you wanting her near us?”
“Thought you might like to have some family in your backyard. Someone you get along with, anyway.”
“I can’t say I’ve ever thought about it. I’m so much older than my siblings that I’ve never had much of a relationship with them, besides working to help support them after our dad left.”
“Your mother works hard for them too. I’m sure she’d be happy to know that your sister is close to us, where you can keep an eye on her.”
“While you’re paying for whatever scholarships don’t cover, of course.”
That went without saying. Vanessa had never argued against paying for the Cruise children’s education. Without a family of her own, she wanted to take care of someone, and Mitch’s siblings were right there. Even if one of them called her a “bitter hag” while she yelled back that he didn’t have the balls to survive Fallujah.
It was their strange language as siblings with a giant age rift between them. Vanessa supposed nobody in that family would mistake Mitch for a second mother. Considering her partner didn’t have a single maternal bone in her body… Vanessa understood. She wasn’t much for maternity, either.
“Do you ever wish you had gone on to college instead of joining the military?” Vanessa asked as they walked.
“I have a lot of regrets about the Marines,” Mitch said, “but I don’t know how good I would have been in a proper college setting. You know me. I prefer to keep to myself. That includes my thoughts. Writing them down or talking about them in a class sounds like hell.”
“I admit, it would be a certain level of charming to see you in a discussion group. At least you would have been safer some place like UC than in… you know.”
“No, Van.” Mitch nudged her partner. “Where?”
“You can’t expect me to know what cities you were in.”
“Cities! You think I was in acity,huh? I’ll have you know that my assignments usually took me to nameless villages and the kinds of places that don’t even make it on a map. Alocalmap. Hell, I’m the reason a couple of those towns ended up on the Pentagon’s maps. Your Arabic gets a lot better when it’s you and a fireteam in a village.” When Vanessa didn’t ask a pivotal question – only because Vanessa didn’t knowwhatto ask – Mitch continued, “I was the assistant automatic rifleman in the team, by the way. But my Arabic was the best, so I spoke the most.”
“I barely know what any of that means, darling.”
“I’d say it’s because you’ve lived a sheltered and pampered life, but I’m also aware of how you spent most of your twenties.”
“I never hear you speak Arabic.”
They entered a neighborhood park. Besides a play structure and a small, empty field, there was nothing to mark it as a place suitable for hanging out on a decent day. There wasn’t even a single tree to provide shade.
“I don’t really remember it anymore,” Mitch said. “It was local dialects I picked up, anyway. Not exactly what you can learn in a class.”
They began a lap around the park. “I think it’s amazing you can learn another language like that. Let alone one considered so difficult.”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“Mitch…”
“What?”
Vanessa stopped in the middle of the concrete path. Mitch took one step ahead of her before turning around. Their mutual gaze met in the sunny park.
“You know I’d do anything for you, right?” Vanessa resisted the urge to bridge the minute gap between her and the woman who continued to leave her in awe every day they spent together. “Anything. Doesn’t matter what it’s for, how much it costs, or how inconvenient it is. Your family is…” It still felt strange to say this even after so much time. “My family, right?”
Mitch chuckled. “You are definitely the odd one out among the Cruises. For one thing, you’re taller than my brother. And that hair…” A grin touched those cheeks made rosy by the cold breeze. “Nah, nobody thinks you’re frommyfamily.”
