Flying High by Gwynne Forster

Author:Gwynne Forster [Forster, Gwynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Multicultural, Series, Harlequin Kimani Arabesque
ISBN: 0373091427
Google: qKRWcsp7cWgC
Amazon: B00CJPYDSY
Barnesnoble: B00CJPYDSY
Goodreads: 17622947
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2003-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

It could be anything. He punched the code and waited. “Lieutenant McCafferty speaking.”

Relief flushed his body with such force that he had to sit down as he realized the problem wasn’t with Ricky, Lena or Audrey. “Colonel Wainwright answering you call,” he said with such calm that he hardly recognized his own voice. “What’s the good news?”

“You may not think it’s so good. You’re wanted at Camp Pendleton tomorrow morning. Be ready to leave this evening. We have a contingent going to Afghanistan, and the officer who was to brief them has become ill. You’re to fill in.”

He threw up his hands and looked toward the ceiling. “My housekeeper is in South Carolina at an address unknown to me, and I’ll have to either make child-care arrangements for my five-year-old or take him with me. I’ll get back to you in the next hour.”

He didn’t recall having previously considered any aspect of his Marine Corps responsibilities a burden. But he regarded the order that would reach him in writing momentarily as an inconvenience, and he didn’t have to be told that domestic life with Ricky and Lena had pared away some of his military crust, shaved off some of his toughness and his disregard of personal inconvenience. The thought arose that Audrey may have played a role in the change he recognized in himself, but he pushed that aside.

He leaned back in his desk chair, made a pyramid of his fingers and braced them against his chin. What were his options? Handing Ricky over to foster care even for two or three days would have a traumatic effect and rob the boy of the sense of security that he’d worked so hard to build. He couldn’t do that.

“I’ll take him with me,” he said aloud. “Nah. That won’t work. He’d have to sit with me in those briefings.” He couldn’t ask Audrey, because she had to work. Still musing over the problem, he answered the phone.

“Wainwright.”

“Hello, Nelson. This is Audrey. How was your weekend?”

“Wonderful. I’ve never seen a person enjoy anything as much as Ricky enjoyed the cruise and the water. He loves the water as much as his father did.”

“Where did you go?”

“St. Michaels, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I think Ricky wouldn’t mind if we moved over there.”

“Sorry I missed that. I couldn’t make myself call you back and tell you I wanted to go, much as I longed to.”

His antenna shot up. “Are you telling me you changed your mind and couldn’t drum up the will to let me know? Huh?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

“Where are you now?”

“In my office. The gov’s man number two is keeping watch. I was wondering if you’d like to go for ice cream or something this evening.”

Her question took his mind back to the problem facing him. “I’d love that, Audrey, but I have to leave for California this evening. Lena isn’t back from South Carolina, and when you called, I was deciding whether to take Ricky with me.

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