Chapter 3
The next week and a half were crazy busy for both Brain and Aspen.
They hadn’t managed to get together again, but they had spoken on the phone at least once a day.
One night they’d talked for over two hours, and another they’d only chatted for about ten minutes.
And with every call, Brain felt even more comfortable with Aspen.
They’d finally been able to make plans to get together two nights from now, a full two weeks after their last date, and he couldn’t wait.
He was jittery and filled with anticipation about seeing her.
Brain hadn’t felt like this about a woman before, and it both thrilled and scared him to death at the same time.
The team had just gotten out of a morning-long meeting about the increasingly unstable situation in Afghanistan and were headed to lunch before returning to continue the discussion.
Army brass were talking about the possibility of sending in troops to try to stabilize the area, and so far the Deltas weren’t on the list of special forces teams to be sent, but that could change at any minute.
“Trigger?” Brain called as they all headed to the cafeteria on post.
“What’s up?” his friend asked.
“Can I talk to you for a sec?”
“Of course. What’s wrong?” Trigger asked.
“Nothing’s wrong,” he quickly assured him. “I just…I’ve been thinking about something a lot lately. How did you know Gillian was more than just another girlfriend?”
Trigger’s shoulders relaxed as he realized Brain didn’t want to talk about a matter of national security.
He waved to the others, letting them know they’d catch up soon.
Then he turned back to Brain with a shrug.
“There was just something about her. It was impossible for me to not think about her constantly. When we went down to Venezuela to take out those plane hijackers, and Gillian was forced to be their negotiator, she was so calm. Capable. There was no doubt she was scared out of her mind, but she was doing her best not to let it show. I was intrigued from the start. It was actually painful to leave her behind when the job was done, and I thought about her every day after.”
Brain nodded.
“Aspen?” Trigger asked.
“Yeah. I admire her. Not only for being a badass combat medic who can keep up with a Ranger team, but for doing it despite how much harder it is because of her gender. Not physically, but because of all the shit she has to go through to prove she’s capable.”
“And?”
“And what?” Brain asked.
“There has to be more to it. I mean, we’ve met a lot of women in male-dominated fields who are more than capable. What makes her different?”
Instead of answering right away, Brain thought about his friend’s question for a moment.
Why was Aspen different from other women he’d met?
“She listens. I mean, really listens, and isn’t just waiting for her chance to take over the conversation.
She’s also very nonjudgmental. I told her about my parents and how I grew up, and she didn’t even blink. ”
“If we go back this afternoon and are told we’re being sent on a mission in two hours, what would your first thought be?” Trigger asked.
Brain inhaled sharply.
“That,” Trigger pounced. “What was that thought?”
“I’d want to call her. Tell her in person what was going on. Tell her that if she didn’t hear from me for a while, it’s not because I’m blowing her off.”
Trigger nodded. “You’re not thinking about calling your neighbor to take care of your plants and gather your mail.
You’re not running through scenarios that we could encounter on the mission.
Your first thought is Aspen and making sure she’s all right, and that she understands why you’ll be out of pocket. ”
Brain nodded.
“That’s how she’s different from other women,” Trigger told him firmly. “When your first thought is for her, whether she’ll be all right while you’re gone.”
“I haven’t known her very long,” Brain argued.
“Doesn’t matter. Just because you’re thinking she’s special doesn’t mean you’re going to get married tomorrow and have a dozen babies.
My advice? Just go with it. Don’t overanalyze it.
You want to talk to her? Call. You want to see her?
Make it happen. Don’t pull the bullshit that us guys sometimes do in waiting a certain number of days before you call just so you don’t look so eager. ”
“Yeah, that’s not an issue,” Brain muttered.
Trigger chuckled and clapped a hand on his friend’s back.
“We’ve talked every night since we met,” Brain admitted.
“Good. The best way to win a woman’s heart is by being her friend first. Let her bitch about her day, don’t offer to fix all her problems; generally, they just want someone to listen.
But when it counts, stand up for her, and don’t let anyone give her shit.
She might be strong and tough, but it always feels good to have someone in your corner when shit hits the fan. ”
Brain nodded. He knew that better than anyone.
He’d spent most of his childhood being alone.
Kids his own age never wanted to play with him, and when he started high school and college, he was too young to have any true friends among his classmates.
And while he didn’t know if Aspen needed someone at her back, he’d be there if he could. “Thanks.”
“Anytime. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Let’s go eat,” Trigger said.
“I’ll be there in a second. Need to make a call first.”
Trigger grinned. “I’m sure Gilly wouldn’t mind getting to know Aspen better at some point.”
Brain gave his friend a chin lift in response. He wanted Aspen to get to know both Gillian and Kinley better, as well, but at the moment, he was feeling a bit selfish. He wanted to learn what made her tick before his friends did.
He clicked on Aspen’s number and brought his phone up to his ear. He wasn’t sure if she’d answer or not, though he hoped she was able to get some lunch today and maybe was taking a break.
But the phone rang four times and went to voice mail.
He hesitated, wondering if he was being stupid.
If he should hang up and just talk to her tonight.
But before he’d decided, the beep sounded in his ear.
“Hi. It’s me. Brain…er…Kane. We had a break for lunch and I thought I’d see if I could catch you.
I don’t really have a reason for calling…
other than to let you know that I was thinking about you. ”
He winced. God, he sounded like the nerd he was. “Anyway, I hope today’s going better than the past few. I’ll call later tonight. Bye.”
He clicked off the phone and closed his eyes in disgust. He’d sounded like a complete dweeb.
Sighing, he pocketed his phone and started across the parking lot toward the chow hall.
He liked Aspen. A lot. But he didn’t have much experience when it came to relationships, and the last thing he wanted was to scare her away by hovering and seeming too desperate.
But that was the thing, he felt desperate to talk to her. To find out how she was doing. If she’d found out any more information about her team deploying. He wanted to know what she was planning on having for dinner and what kind of television shows she might watch this evening.
In short, he was hungry for every little scrap of information he could get about her.
Taking a deep breath, he did his best to temper his curiosity about Aspen.
He was the brain, the one everyone turned to when they needed answers, and he needed to be sharp and focused when he went back into the meetings that afternoon, not letting his mind wander to Aspen.
He had plenty of time to get to know her.
He didn’t need to learn everything in the first week.
With that somewhat soothing thought, Brain walked into the building determined to put Aspen out of his mind…at least for a few hours.
Aspen was exhausted. It was eight at night and she’d been up since five-thirty.
Derek had been even more of an ass than usual the last few days, and she couldn’t decide if he was just being petty about the fact she didn’t want to go out with him anymore, and taking it out on both their teams, or if he was nervous about escalating tensions in the Middle East and the potential for an upcoming mission.
Regardless of the reasons, the last few days had been brutal.
Her Ranger team, along with two others that included Derek’s, had been training in the “towns” built on Fort Hood’s desolate back country.
They’d been crawling in the dirt and baking in the sun.
As the combat medic to her team, Aspen wasn’t exactly required to complete the same training the men were, but she felt obligated.
If they were in the middle of nowhere in Afghanistan, she’d have to follow alongside her fellow soldiers, treating any injuries that might happen and making sure they stayed hydrated.
And if she didn’t want to be treated differently because she was a woman, she felt as if she needed to sweat and suffer right along with her platoon-mates.
Tonight, they’d done an exercise where they’d had to attempt to sneak up on a Taliban “stronghold” undetected.
It was somewhat of a bullshit mission, because of course the “bad guys” knew they were out there trying to sneak in, and therefore hyper-alert.
In a real-life situation, the terrorists wouldn’t know they were coming.
But, they had to play the game. They’d been caught over and over again, and had been screamed at by everyone from the platoon sergeants to the officers overseeing the training.
It was demoralizing and frustrating, and Aspen was more than ready to collapse into bed and sleep for twenty-four hours straight.
Except she had to get up at five-thirty the next morning and head back to post to do it all over again tomorrow.