The Homecoming Hero Returns by Joan Elliott Pickart

Author:Joan Elliott Pickart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2005-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

The next morning they drove through the inner city, the Lexus bringing stares from the teenagers standing by the light posts.

“I’m definitely not parking this baby anywhere,” David said. “Man, would you look at all these kids? They’ve got absolutely nothing to do but hang around trying to be cool dudes. It’s sad, it really is.”

“They come in every nationality, size and shape,” Sandra said, “including girls. It’s no wonder the crime rate is so high down here. Boredom breeds mischief. I’ve lost count of how many of those girls have babies on their hips. Well, I shouldn’t talk. I got pregnant very young myself, but still…”

“You know,” David said, narrowing his eyes, “I beat myself up a lot because I feel I’m not providing enough for our kids, but our two have it pretty darn good.”

“Yes, they do,” Sandra said, nodding. “So do we, ol’ Mom and Dad. We’re not lacking for anything, David.” Except ol’ Dad’s contentment with his life, his wife, his very existence. Oh, David. “Right?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure,” David said, stopping at a red light. “Would you look at the size of that kid over there? Take a gander at his hands. I bet he could palm a basketball. I wonder if he even gets a chance to play, give it a try? Oh, check that out. Instead of a basketball, those hands just lit up a cigarette. This is depressing as hell, Sandra.”

“David, the light is green.”

“Oh,” he said, pressing on the gas pedal.

Sandra commented on a skimpy outfit one of the girls she saw was wearing, then looked at David when he didn’t reply.

Gone, she thought. She knew that look. He had turned his thoughts inward, was no longer aware that she was sitting there next to him. She couldn’t reach him when he did this and there was no sense in trying.

It was as though he dropped a wall around himself that no one could penetrate, could only wait until he stepped from behind it and returned. And one of her greatest fears was that one of these days he would choose to just stay behind that wall and separate his world from hers permanently.

Without further conversation, David drove back toward Saunders, finally asking Sandra if she wanted some lunch before she met up with Rachel.

“No, thank you,” she said. “I’m still full from that huge breakfast we had. What are you going to do this afternoon, David?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine on my own.”

I know, Sandra thought miserably. But the mere thought of going through life without David was heartbreaking to her. Big, big difference between those two mind-sets. Oh, yes, heartbreaking.

On the Saunders University campus, David got ready to drop Sandra off with her assurance that she would have no problem walking the couple miles to the hotel later.

“Good luck with the files,” David said.

“I think we’ll need it,” she said, getting out of the car. “Bye for now.”

Sandra stood on the sidewalk and watched as David merged back into the traffic and disappeared from view.

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