Chapter 12
Friday, Gillian had to work, and to her surprise, Walker was completely all right with just hanging around her apartment.
He did some work of his own on his laptop, but otherwise spoiled her rotten.
He brought her coffee in her new Wonder Woman mug and made her an amazing breakfast of eggs and bacon with homemade biscuits to top it off.
For lunch, he went out and grabbed them some sushi.
After she’d called a few new clients and got some research done on the events they wanted her to plan, she and Walker had talked more about where he was taking her the next day.
Apparently, the daughter of one of his Army buddies was a tomboy and loved participating in the obstacle course events the base had for kids. She was twelve years old and, according to Walker, one of the cutest kids he’d ever met.
Gillian hadn’t spent a lot of time around children, but was looking forward to meeting Annie and spending time with the guys on Walker’s team. She’d met them, of course, in Venezuela, but hadn’t spent any quality time with them. She was nervous, but looking forward to getting to know everyone.
For dinner, Walker grilled steaks on her cheap outdoor grill—complaining the entire time about how crappy it was, and how he was going to need to get her a new one since he’d be spending a lot of time at her place.
Gillian liked that thought.
That night, they once again fell asleep on her couch, but this time Gillian didn’t overthink it. She wanted to move her relationship with Walker forward, but she wanted him to want that too. It felt a little weird to be the one pushing for more, but even that made Walker more attractive to her.
Saturday morning, they woke up early and, while Gillian showered, Walker once more got her coffee and breakfast ready.
“You’re totally spoiling me,” she mock complained when she emerged from her room dressed and ready to head to Fort Hood.
“Good,” he said with a smile. “Just buttering you up so when I screw up, you’ll find it easier to forgive me.”
Gillian knew he was joking but frowned anyway. “Walker, I don’t expect you to be perfect all the time. You’re going to mess up, just as I am. I’d like to think that, while I might be irritated, I can put it behind me. I like you for who you are.”
“Good,” he said, pulling her into a hug. “Because I like you just the way you are too. And if you drive me crazy by leaving dirty clothes on the floor, I can look past that too.”
She chuckled and playfully hit him in the arm. “I’m guessing that’s your way of telling me you’re a neat freak?”
He smiled. “Yup. The Army trained me well.”
“As long as you don’t leave beard trimmings in the sink, I’m okay with that.”
He looked horrified. “I don’t.”
“Good. Can I use your razor in the shower?”
“Nope. I have to draw the line somewhere,” he said with a smile. “I’ll get you your own razors.”
“Deal.”
Gillian sighed in contentment. She was enjoying spending time with Walker. She knew next week he’d be back at work and she’d be busy with her own business, but she’d hate not being able to wake up with him and banter like they were right now.
“What’s that look for?” he asked with a tilt of his head.
“I like this,” she said.
“What?”
“This. Teasing. Chatting. Having you make my coffee and eating breakfast with you. I was just thinking about how I was going to miss it…you…next week, when we went back to our regular lives. Forty miles isn’t that far, but when I wake up alone on Monday morning, I have a feeling it’ll feel like a thousand. ”
“I know, Di. I feel the same way. We just have to make the most of the time we do get to spend together,” Walker said softly.
She nodded. “I’m looking forward to today.”
“Me too. Come on, enough melancholy. Let’s concentrate on one day at a time.”
“Agreed.”
An hour later they were on their way to the Army base and Gillian couldn’t wait.
They pulled onto the base and, after having their IDs checked, continued to the parking area for the competition.
It was packed, and Walker had trouble finding a place to park, which surprised Gillian.
She had no idea something like this would be as well attended as it was.
Taking hold of her hand, Walker headed around a building to the field where the obstacle course was located. Gillian had a hard time believing kids would be going through the course laid out in front of her.
It had tires and ropes, but there were also wooden boards set up so high, she didn’t think any kid would be able to get over them. “Holy cow,” she said under her breath.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Walker said with a chuckle.
“Yeah.”
“The first time I went to one of these, I didn’t think there was any way a kid would be able to complete it, but I was pretty quickly shown the error of my thinking.
Over there,” he said, pointing off to the side, “is the obstacle course for the kids under six, but everyone from seven and up uses the main one.”
“I’m having a hard time imagining anyone being able to complete this…especially a kid.”
“Just wait. They’re pretty impressive.”
“I’m already impressed, and I haven’t even seen anyone do it yet,” Gillian told him.
As if he knew exactly where his friends would be, Walker headed up the bleachers to a section in the top right. There were six men already sitting there when they arrived.
“Hey,” Walker said to the group.
A couple of the men gave him a chin lift and the others verbally said hello.
“About time you got here,” one of the men ribbed.
“Whatever,” Walker said. “We’re right on time. Guys, I know you met her before, but this is Gillian Romano. Gillian, this is Lefty, Grover, Brain, Oz, Doc, and Lucky.”
She shook each of their hands as they were introduced, and Gillian couldn’t stop herself from saying, “I can’t wait to find out what your nicknames mean.”
Everyone chuckled.
“I think we’ll wait another day for that,” Walker said with a wink, gesturing to a seat. “I wouldn’t want you to think we’re all completely nuts.”
“Glad to see you looking so good after everything that happened,” Doc said.
Gillian smiled. “Thanks. Every day I get better. I still have a bit of trouble at night sometimes, but otherwise I’m good.”
“It can take a while for the dreams to stop,” Oz told her sympathetically.
“How’d the interview go on Thursday?” Lefty asked.
Gillian shrugged. “As good as it could’ve, I guess. I told them everything I could remember, they warned me that the seventh hijacker could still come after me, and that I should be careful, and that was that.”
Walker frowned at his teammate, and Gillian put her hand on his knee. “It’s okay, Walker. I don’t mind talking about it.”
“I mind,” he replied. He turned to Lefty. “Can we not talk about that now?”
“Sorry,” Lefty said.
“It’s fine,” Gillian stated firmly. “Walker, I don’t want your friends walking on eggshells around me. I want them to feel free to say what they want. It’s no secret what happened, duh, you guys were there. It’s kinda nice that they’re concerned. So back off, okay?”
Brain smirked. “I like her,” he said.
“Me too,” Grover agreed. “If you decide to dump this asshole, I’ll give you my number.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Walker mumbled, kicking Grover’s leg. “She’s not dumping me, and even if she was, she wouldn’t call you.”
Gillian giggled. It was funny how disgruntled Walker sounded.
“I appreciate it,” she told Grover. “But I’m pretty happy with Walker.
But seriously, yeah, the interview wasn’t exactly fun.
I had to look at every single passenger’s photo and tell the investigators what I knew about them.
In most cases, it wasn’t much, which made them frown a lot and stressed me out.
But I told them what I could and that’s that.
I bought a bunch of those video camera things and I’m being as careful as I can.
There’s no reason for me to be targeted, and I can’t live my life shut up inside my apartment. ”
“Sounds like you’re taking this seriously, which is good,” Lucky told her. “We’ve seen way too many people be stupid when it comes to security or their own well-being.”
“Tell me about it,” Lefty muttered. “Sometimes we’re tasked to be security for dignitaries and other bigwigs.
We were in charge of this one guy once who didn’t listen to a damn thing we said.
It wasn’t until he found himself on the wrong side of a picket line, and got caught in a tear gas attack and was almost trampled to death, that he decided to do what we told him. ”
“Lefty,” Walker warned.
Gillian was fascinated. Walker didn’t talk about what he and his team did, but she knew he wasn’t an ordinary soldier. She put her hand on Walker’s knee and squeezed.
“The last thing I want is to end up a sad story on the evening news. While the investigators told me they thought the risk was minimal, they couldn’t reassure me that I wasn’t in any danger. So, I’m keeping a low profile and going about my business…cautiously.”
“Good,” Lefty said, nodding. “If you’re ever uncomfortable for any reason, get yourself out of the situation, even if you think it makes you look rude. You’d rather be alive than be hurt or killed because you were trying to be polite.”
“Has that happened to you before? I mean, to someone you were trying to keep safe?” Gillian asked.
She saw some extreme emotion in Lefty’s eyes before he blanked them.
“Sort of,” he said with a shrug. “She was an assistant to the bigwig I mentioned earlier. She did everything in her power to get her employer to listen to us, but of course when he didn’t, this person was caught up in the danger right along with him.
It sucked to realize she understood she was putting her life in danger, but couldn’t do anything about it because she had to do what her employer wanted or end up without a job. ”
“That does suck,” Gillian agreed. “Did she quit after that? Find someone else to be an aide to?”
“No,” Lefty said flatly. “Not as far as I know.”