Chapter 8 #3
All the stuffing went out of her, and she sagged back, then walked slowly to her big easy chair, staring at him still, her gaze going from Gary, glancing off Cain sitting calmly staring at her, then back to Riley. She let out a heavy breath. “You don’t mince words, do you?”
He shook his head. “No, I can’t afford to.
That recovery was something I desperately needed, not just to survive but to get back to being a real man, a whole man.
Not just your son but an independent and normal man who is able to live, work, and have an independent life,” he explained.
“Yet you wanted me to come home as some invalid or as your baby to take care of.”
She closed her eyes.
Feeling her pain, he added, “I appreciate it and understand it, but it’s not what I needed.”
She sighed. “I can see that. I just … wanted to protect you, and I felt so terrible that you had been so badly injured and that I couldn’t stop it from happening.”
“And that is something that women, mothers, have to deal with all over the world,” he shared.
“At some point in time, we each have to make our own decisions, and our decisions are the price we pay for conquering those consequences. Just so we’re clear, I love you. I always have, and that won’t change.”
Immediately she burst into tears.
He walked over, gave her a hug, and then straightened up. “I sure as hell hope you’ve got coffee though.”
Her tears changed to laughter immediately. She cried out, “Oh my gosh.” Then she got up and bolted into the kitchen to make him coffee.
He turned and looked at Gary, who still smiled at him, and shared, “That was a damn good thing you just did.”
“Well, it was a hard thing,” Riley admitted, “because I do know where she’s coming from, but—”
“But exactly. … Plus, you made sure she knew where you’re coming from, which is so important too,” Gary replied. “I can understand that for sure. So, well done. I know that she can be—” He hesitated.
“She can be masterful,” Riley suggested, with a chuckle. “And, for the most part, it’s all good. Sometimes you absolutely want that in your court. Yet other times? No. That was the last thing I needed back then. She had the nurses in tears like three times while she was there for half a day.”
“I get that,” Gary noted.
When she walked back out, she sat down and asked, “So, you came back. Did you come back for her?” There was a little bit of suspicion in there, her gaze wary.
“Partly,” he conceded. “I needed to get some closure if nothing else.”
“And did you get it?”
“No, I sure didn’t,” he told her. “For the most part, I came back for this guy. So that was a big win.”
Gary was sitting on the ground, cuddling Cain, and the dog, a big lug still so happy to not be alone, just lapped it up.
“I don’t know who this guy is,” Gary said, “but he’s a beauty.”
“That’s Cain. He’s a War Dog,” Riley shared, “the one that I came to look for.”
“What do you mean you came to look for him?” his mom asked.
He explained as briefly as he could.
“And you found him in the tunnels?”
“I did,” he stated, “but I also learned that a young man more or less drowned down there a week or two ago. I’m not sure how bad his condition is, but he’s in the hospital.
I suspect no brain function is left, based on what I’m hearing.
So, there’s a lot of anger as to whether it was an accident or something else, plus an awful lot of innuendos that the dog may have been connected somehow. ”
Gary frowned, asking, “So, what happens now?”
“For now, I’ve removed the dog from the equation, and he’s with me.”
Gary turned to the dog, then back to Riley. “Do you have any experience in this kind of work with dogs?”
“Absolutely. In the service, I was training K9s full-time. Part of that was also investigative training. So, a lot of the work I was doing in the military was problem-solving. So, yeah, I have experience, but—”
“Gary’s an ex-cop,” his mom related. “So everything you’re talking about, I think he understands.”
Riley asked, “I thought you were in the Air Force?”
“I was for twenty years. Then I went into law enforcement. I think I heard about that recent case. It’s Derek’s kid, right?”
“Yes.”
“So, I know about it, but I’m no longer active.”
“Any particular reason?”
“Yeah, I got shot on the job,” he replied. “That was a few years back, and I took early retirement. So now I just get to enjoy life.”
“And enjoying life is what we should all be doing,” his mom stated, looking from Gary to Riley.
“Sure,” Riley agreed, understanding exactly where she was going with this. “That’s why I’m here, making sure that this War Dog also gets to enjoy life.”
“Of course,” she muttered, rolling her eyes. “If it comes to animals, you’re always right there. … You were talking about staying around.”
“I might.”
“And how much of this has to do with Gail?”
“Maybe some. I’m not sure,” he said. He didn’t want to share the ugly details, but he added, “We are talking.” He raised a hand when she went to protest. “No, I’m not sure that anything remains between us, but I’m also not ready to say that there isn’t.”
When her breath let out in a big gust, she muttered, “Wow, that’s not what I expected.”
“And yet you were looking for that answer when you asked me.”