Chapter 4
SABBY
S abby sometimes joked that Fort Pickett was the Army’s strangest base.
It belonged to the Virginia National Guard, and most of its facilities were bare-bones.
Yet it had one place that stayed open late and did it all: a bowling alley that doubled as a pool hall, a cafe, and a hangout spot.
Officers had their own club, which they tended to favor, so this alley was mostly an enlisted domain.
At the moment, business was slow. She had only the usual trio of retirees bowling one lane, men who’d probably known each other since they were privates.
Sabby dropped three corndogs in the fryer, humming softly while she let her mind wander to ideas for her next design project.
The alley could be a decent muse; when it was quiet, she had time to think. Most midday hours were like this.
When the timer pinged, she pulled the corndogs from the fryer, gave them a dash of salt, and brought them out on a paper tray along with ketchup and mustard. “Here you go, boys. How’re they rolling?”
“The oil’s thick on the right side,” Jerome grumbled.
“Don’t blame Sabby if you’re hooking it into the gutter,” Robert teased, elbowing him.
She gave a playful shrug, then leaned to plant a light kiss on Robert’s mostly bald scalp. “You get the biggest corndog for defending my honor.”
All three men chuckled, and she stepped back behind the counter. She’d heard bits of their stories, eggs never cooked correctly in some far-off place, a reckless private who always drove too fast. The details mostly tangled in her mind, but she understood that these were unbreakable bonds.
She wondered if Jessica, so hard-nosed and unyielding on duty, would one day do the same, sit around with brothers or sisters-in-arms, half-laughing at jokes only they understood. Sabby wanted that for Jess, for her to have people she could rely on, inside uniform and out.
The retirees wrapped up, handed in their shoes, and headed out.
Sabby was spraying them down behind the counter when the door opened, letting in a soldier she recognized immediately: Brian Manheim.
He was in Jessica’s company though not her platoon.
He had a reliable routine, coming to the alley a few nights or afternoons a week.
Tall, with brown hair and a kind face, Brian looked like he should have been in a happier place, sharing a house with a family.
Instead, a drunk driver had taken his wife half a year ago.
Sabby had met the woman once. The memory still stung.
“Hey Brian. Busy day?” she asked, setting her disinfectant aside.
“Not too bad,” he said, sliding onto a stool. “Ran land nav with the platoon this morning. Nothing stressful.”
She grabbed a cup. “Mr. Pibb, right?”
He chuckled. “You know me too well.”
She filled his cup at the fountain and handed it over. “I’m pretty sure it’s just sugar in a soda disguise.”
“That’s what makes it good,” he replied with a fond grin. Then he sighed. “Anyway, how about you? Slow shift?”
“Barely alive,” she said, waving a hand at the empty lanes. “Gives me time to think about my design projects. The big question is whether I’ll have enough good sketches by next week.”
“You’ll get there. I’ve seen how determined you can be.” He took a long sip of his drink. “You mentioned your sister was in a mood. Still the case?”
Sabby nodded, leaning in. “Any idea why?”
Brian shrugged. “Just heard she has a new private in her team. The man's apparently in good shape, or at least that’s what people say. Goes by Hollywood. She’s probably riding him hard. She’s tougher than people realize.”
“She’s had to be,” Sabby said. “A female NCO in the infantry gets looked at under a microscope.”
“Yeah. I know. Your sister is a damn good soldier, though. She’s earned respect.” He paused, swirling his ice in the cup. “If the new private’s got a backbone, he’ll settle in eventually.”
Sabby tapped her fingertips on the counter. “If he’s on her team, I just hope he can get used to her style. She’s not mean, just intense.”
Brian gave a light laugh. “That’s one way of describing it. She’d scare me if I were a private all over again.”
Sabby grinned. “You’re too old to be that lowly private. You sure you don’t want something to eat? I’ll guess pizza, extra parm for maximum health.”
He feigned a wince. “Call it balanced. Meat and veggies, right?”
She pulled a frozen pizza from the small freezer in the back and tore away the plastic. “If you can call pepperoni a vegetable. One Fort Pickett special, coming right up.”
While the oven heated the pie, she lingered near Brian, always mindful of his mood. He came here so he could avoid returning to an empty house, and she tried to give him space without letting him stew in silence.
She flipped open the oven door when it dinged and slid in the pizza tray. “By the way, you get a chance to see Jess today?”
He shrugged. “Not really. Different platoons. I just heard about her new private from the platoon sergeants.”
Sabby figured that meant Jessica had locked things down in typical style for the day. “Well, better him than me. She probably made him do a million pushups just for blinking.”
Brian gave half a grin. Sabby thought she saw the ghost of a memory behind his eyes but let him keep it to himself. She opened the oven, slipped on a mitt, and pulled out the steaming pizza. She cut it with a roller, set it on a paper plate, and slid it in front of him. “Bon appétit.”
He grabbed a slice and offered one to her. She hesitated before plucking it from his hand and taking a satisfying bite. “See?” she joked around a mouthful of cheese. “You have such refined taste.”
He shook his head with a small laugh. “I’m just not in a beer mood. You ask me tomorrow, I might want two.”
They ate in companionable silence for a moment. Then Sabby gestured to the dimly lit pool tables. “Up for a round?”
Brian glanced over but shook his head. “Not tonight. Another time, though. I’d hate for you to think I’m letting you win.”
“As if you could beat me,” she said, but her tone was deliberately light. She knew challenging him sometimes helped distract him from darker thoughts.
He chuckled, then took another bite, letting the comfortable quiet settle again.
Sabby caught a look in his eyes and wondered if he was remembering his wife, Gina.
It always came in flickers, like lightning through a storm cloud.
She never pushed him, leaning instead on the quiet hum of the overhead lights and the soft crack of distant pins from the few random bowlers who came in.
Her mind returned to Jessica, the unstoppable force who carried a thousand pounds of expectations on her shoulders.
She pictured that new private, Hollywood, possibly getting smoked by Jess.
Sabby almost felt sorry for him. At the same time, she trusted her sister’s approach, especially in such a male-dominated environment.
Jess needed to be twice as tough to get half the respect.
She finished her slice and checked the clock. “All right, Mr. Pibb Boy, time for me to clean up before the dinner crowd shuffles in.”
Brian nodded and stood. “Thanks for the talk, Sabby.”
“Anytime,” she said, clearing his plate. “You know this place is always open for you.”
He gave her a warm half-smile. “And I appreciate it.”
When he left, she leaned on the counter, letting the moment settle.
Working at the bowling alley might not be a career, but it gave her a rare view of the Army’s inner workings.
Through Brian, she glimpsed heartbreak and perseverance.
Through retired bowlers, she saw the bonds that formed over decades.
Through Jessica, she watched what a determined soldier could become, even if that meant scaring the new guy half to death.
She hoped Hollywood had the mettle to handle her sister’s fire.
If he did, maybe he’d earn someone as unbreakable as Jess at his side.
Maybe he’d learn that behind the scowls and curses, she actually cared about her soldiers.
Sabby wondered if that could ever be more than a working relationship.
Rumors always ran wild in the Army, but she sometimes imagined her sister meeting someone who could handle her spirit.
Laughing at her own romantic speculation, Sabby cleaned the counter.
The door opened, and another group of soldiers stepped in off the street, dusty boots scuffing the floor.
Time to put on her best smile and hand out shoes.
She welcomed them, took down their lane request, and pivoted to gather a set of bowling balls in different weights.
Life rolled on in the Army’s strangest base, full of small collisions between heartbreak and hope, between punishing workouts and corndogs in the fryer.
Whether the new private found a home or not, Sabby knew one thing: anyone who earned Jessica Adams’s trust would have an unshakable ally.
All Sabby wanted was for her sister to return home safe at the end of the day, even if she had to break a few privates along the way.
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