Chapter 65 Spring Break
sixty-five
Spring Break
Doesn’t this fall under the official definition of redneck?”
My head snaps around at the sound of Jess’ voice. She didn’t tell me she was coming home. She’s pointing at the tree with an engine hanging out of it, extracted from the Nag.
I cross the yard and have her in my arms before she can make any more comments. I kiss her long and hard, not even caring that Tyler is watching. “You’re home.” It’s all I can say when we stop kissing.
“For a whole week,” she answers. “Spring break baby.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I haven’t released my hold of her. “Let me guess. You wanted to surprise me?”
“That and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get the time off. I had to do some major switching around of shifts at the hospital. I called in a bunch of favors. I think I may have promised one lady my kidney or my firstborn or something.”
“I’ll try to make it worth it.” I kiss her again.
“Great, just great,” Tyler’s voice behind us. “Now we’ll never get this thing done.”
Jess backs away from my arms and walks over to her brother. She puts her hand on his shoulder. “I’ll stay out of the way, I promise. You guys can still work on rebuilding your car. I’ll just watch. But,” she grins at me, “Jacob is mine from 9:00 at night until Dad kicks him out.”
Tyler says something under his breath, but I’m too happy to care.
I glance at my watch again. I have another hour of this.
We’re at a community fair—PR stuff. Showing kids the Humvees and tanks.
Time’s dragging, and it’s making me crazy.
I want to be done with this already. I want to get back to Jess.
She said she was sleeping in and then going shopping with Jasmine. I won’t see her until this evening.
This kid is getting on my nerves. Asks me a million questions, pokes every button he can find.
Asks me if I’ve ever shot anyone. His mom is a few hundred yards away, yapping on her cell phone.
The other guys are gathered by the tank, evaluating and making comments about the women walking around the fair.
I glance up to see if the kid or his mom heard what they're saying.
The mom shuts her phone and calls the kid over.
“Maybe you should check to see who those ladies are before you say something like that.” Bryan looks disgusted.
I missed who said what, but I know who they're talking about. Jess and Jasmine are coming toward us. Jess is holding a soda, and Jasmine has Little Steve in a stroller.
Since we’re in public, I let the guy’s comments go. I don’t let being in public stop me from showing them that Jess belongs to me.
“No kissing on duty, Jake,” Bryan says.
I pull away, but leave my arm around Jess’ waist. “I’ve seen you kiss Becky when you’re on duty, lots of times.”
“She’s my wife, and I outrank you,” he says. He smiles at Jess. “It’s good to see you.”
“Good to see you too, Bryan.” She hooks her fingers in my belt loop. “How are your boys?”
“Crazy as usual. You should come over while you’re here. Becky would love to see you.” He looks at me. “Do you two want to come over for dinner?”
“We can’t. Jess’ brother would kill me if we deserted him tonight. We’re getting close to finishing the car. We'll probably know tonight if all the work we’ve done is for nothing.”
Jasmine pulls Stevie out of the stroller. As soon as he’s free, he heads for the Humvee. I catch him on the way, pick him up, and hold him above my head with one hand. “Say Uncle Jake.”
He squeals and kicks his legs.
“Say it.”
“You’d better put him down,” Jasmine says. “He just ate. He might throw up on you.”
I bring him down to face level. “Un-cle Jay-ake.”
He mumbles something that sounds more like “bumba bake." I tell him, "good job" and put him down. Then, I follow him to the Humvee and help him in.
Stevie pushes the buttons and says, “Tuk, tuk.” Jess looks inside the Humvee, but I don’t think she’s watching him. I put my arm around her waist.
“Do you know where they were sitting?” She asks suddenly. “Where Matt and Gage were when the grenade hit them?”
I avoid her eyes. I’ve looked into the report, so I know exactly what happened, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to fill her in on the specifics.
She puts her hand on my face and turns my chin toward her. “I want to know.”
I take a breath. “Matt was the gunner, so he was sitting here. Gage was on the left, behind the driver.”
She touches the seat where Matt would have been. “Where did the grenade hit them?”
“Left and back. They’ve ramped up the armor since then. An explosion like that now probably wouldn’t…” I stop when I see the look on her face.
“Did you see them? After they were killed, did you see them?”
“I was flown over by helicopter for the unit memorial service. I was there when they loaded the coffins onto the plane.”
“So you didn’t see what they looked like after?”
I shake my head.
She steps back. “I started my ER rotation last week. The first night they brought in a sixteen-year-old who’d been in a car accident—totally torn apart.
I couldn’t help but think about…” She shakes her head.
“I don’t think I would have wanted to see them, but sometimes I wonder if it would have been easier to say goodbye if I'd seen Matt’s face. ”
I pull her against my chest and kiss her forehead. She leans there for a long time.
Jasmine is talking with the other guys. Post-baby, Jaz looks good. She has on a low-cut blouse and tight jeans, normal for her. I watch the guys close, feeling protective of Jaz, like she really was my sister. Jess looks up and follows my gaze.
“Maybe I should warn her about those guys. They’re a bunch of dogs.”
“Maybe we should have warned her more about Gage. Not that I didn’t try.” She takes a breath. “Don’t worry about Jasmine. Being a mom has changed a lot of things about her. She’s too smart to get mixed up with guys like that.”
Jasmine walks over like she knows we’re talking about her.
She pulls a camera out of her diaper bag.
I set Stevie on the hood of the Humvee, and we all stand in front of it while Bryan takes our picture.
“For your parents,” she says. She picks up Steve and wrestles him into his stroller.
“We need to get going, Jess. He needs a nap.”
I kiss Jess lightly on the lips. “Tell Ty I’ll be over as soon as I’m done here.”
“Love ya,” she says. I watch her walk away.
“Your girlfriend is hot—those long legs—must be pretty good.” Harrison walks by with a load of gear. I’m cleaning up the Humvee. Moving as fast as I can so I can get on the road to Jess’ house.
I don’t look up, but my grip on the hose tightens.
Listening to those guys on the way back to base was about all I could stand.
I keep wondering if I ever sounded like that.
They weren’t stupid enough to talk about Jess and Jaz that way in front of me.
One guy asked me for Jaz’s phone number. I’m not giving it to him.
“So is she?” Harrison stops in front of me so I can’t ignore him.
I don’t answer.
“Must be pretty good for you to drive 300 miles just to be with her.”
I set the hose down and turn it off—slowly.
“C’mon, Ricks,” he starts again. “You never give details. You have to give us something. Help out guys like Vincent over there who are going through a dry spell.”
Bryan glances up from the forms he’s filling out. “Shut up, Harrison. You’ve got work to do so we can all get out of here.”
“Yeah, right, I got it.” He walks a couple of steps and turns around to face me. “You ever get tired of her, send her my way.”
I don’t even realize I’ve moved until I feel his nose explode against my fist. When I pull back, my hand is wet with his blood. I’m ready to throw another one, but two guys have me from behind. Harrison lands one punch on my jaw. Another couple of guys pull him back.
“Cool down, Ricks.” Bryan is holding onto me. “Stop struggling. We aren’t going to let you hit him again. I don’t think you want to spend tonight answering to the MPs.”
He releases his hold on me. “Harrison, go get yourself checked out and cleaned up. You might want to start with your mouth.”
“This isn’t over,” Harrison mutters when they let him go, blood dripping between his fingers as he holds his hand against his nose.
“Yes, it is,” Bryan says. “For both of you. I don’t want to get anyone else involved in this, but I will if I have to.” He moves away from the group. “Sergeant Ricks, you’re with me.” Bryan only uses my rank in official circumstances. He must be pretty mad. “The rest of you finish up here.”
As soon as we're out of earshot, he says, “Listen, Jake, I’m not saying that he didn’t deserve that, or that I wouldn’t have done the same thing, but you have to keep things clean right now.
You’re going before the promotion board in a couple of weeks, and from what I’ve seen, you’re going to need that pay advancement. ”
I stop walking and turn to face him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Looks to me like you’re in love.” He cracks a smile. “If I were you, I wouldn’t wait much longer.”
“Much longer for what?”
“Do the math. We’ve been here almost four years. We’re not going to be at Fort Lewis forever. My guess is you don’t want to leave here without her.”