Chapter Five
CLARA
Saturday nights in Cranberry Pines bustled with activity, especially around Christmas.
With tourists flocking to the area to soak up the small-town charm, a table at one of the downtown restaurants could be hard to come by this time of year.
Clara wasn’t worried, though. Knowing Brent, their reservation had been secured well in advance.
She’d spent the entire day at the hotel, prepping the conference rooms for a busy weekend of holiday parties.
Brent had called her that morning to ask if he could stop by to talk.
At the very least, he’d wanted to pick her up for the date.
It was sweet of him, but she insisted on meeting him at the restaurant instead.
Sure, there was a part of her that wanted Matthew to see her with her new boyfriend, but it was quickly overruled by the side that wanted to keep the peace.
With this promotion hanging in the balance, the last thing she needed was any hard feelings, including jealousy.
Clara spotted him immediately as she entered the restaurant.
Major Brent McNally was hard to miss, even when he wasn’t in uniform.
He sat at the table, his back to her. His tall head of perfectly trimmed hair stood out as a welcome preview to the handsome face she knew would greet her.
Her eyelashes gave way to an involuntary flutter.
She still couldn’t quite believe he was her boyfriend.
She lingered back. Something was wrong. Brent seemed different, even from behind. He normally had a calm presence about him and a confident posture that seemed to be missing tonight.
She continued to watch him from across the restaurant.
She could tell he was upset—or nervous maybe.
His hands were in a pensive steeple on top of the table.
His leg appeared to be in a rapid bounce underneath the tablecloth.
An uneasy feeling crept over her. Clara watched his chin drop to his chest as if it were too heavy to hold up.
Her thoughts jumped to Matthew. They had been on dates that had this same eerie beginning to them. He had never wanted to hurt her when he broke up with her those times. It was hard for him too. It was simply that they needed time apart, or at least that’s what he’d said.
“Can I come by the hotel so we can talk?” Brent had asked her that morning.
The question now gave her an unsettling feeling that it hadn’t then.
He’d just been offering to visit her at work, right?
She chewed on her lip. A queasy sensation formed in the pit of her stomach.
Surely Brent wasn’t going to break up with her already. Was he?
Clara was prepared for a romantic evening, not a breakup.
She forced herself to remain calm and not jump to any conclusions, reminding herself that Brent was nothing like Matthew.
That this relationship was nothing like theirs had been.
She took the time to remove her coat and draped it over her arm.
She wasn’t sure she was ready to confront this yet—whatever this was.
She smoothed out her new black dress and forced herself to take a deep breath, needing a moment to collect her thoughts.
Grateful to have remained undetected, she continued to watch him from afar.
Her mind went back to the first time she had met Brent.
He’d come into the hotel with a few other pilots to plan a retirement party for their squadron commander.
Tall and impressive in his flight suit, Clara immediately took notice.
He had a set of gorgeous dimples, the left one exaggerated whenever he smiled at her.
After he had attempted a few jokes—that didn’t land—she chalked him up to being a cocky flyboy, trying to show off.
She hadn’t known much about the Air Force or about the military in general. Over the years she’d often seen airmen around town, but she’d never known any of them personally or even given them a second thought.
That all changed once Brent asked for her phone number. She couldn’t resist the humble smile and the nervous tone of his voice. It was so different from Matthew’s natural bravado.
Clara was intrigued by Brent. She wanted to know more about this guy who looked like an action hero yet seemed nervous around her.
She’d suggested they have a drink right there in the hotel lounge after work that night, fearing he wouldn’t call.
She knew some women wouldn’t condone her being the one to make the first move, but after all those years with Matthew, it was time she started going after what she wanted.
She’d always let Matthew call the shots and lead the relationship.
She was tired of being pulled along by a man.
Besides, it wouldn’t hurt for Matthew to see her with someone else—especially a good-looking military pilot.
Over a gin martini in the Darlington lounge, Clara discovered that Brent was not only handsome, but he was also incredibly interesting—and thoughtful too.
To top it off, he was funny, in a dad-joke kind of way.
They had shared their first kiss there, another departure from her usual “wait for the right time” mentality.
Clara had felt an undeniable spark and, soon after, they’d shared their second.
Matthew never crossed her mind again that night.
They hadn’t been dating long now, but she was excited to see what would happen with their relationship. So why was she suddenly getting the ominous impression that something was wrong?
Clara decided to brush off the feeling and forced a smile as she approached the table with caution, hoping it was all in her imagination.
One thing she knew about Brent was that he always looked her right in the eye whenever he saw her.
But not tonight. She couldn’t help but notice that he avoided her gaze as he stood to pull out her chair.
Still a gentleman, like always. He leaned down to kiss her on the head, a strange greeting for someone who always went in for the lips.
Her legs gave a slight wobble as she settled in. “What’s wrong?” she asked immediately. Whatever the problem was, she wanted him to get to the point right away. He was clearly uncomfortable. She just didn’t know him well enough yet to understand what it meant.
Brent sat down, and the leg bouncing resumed. He noticed and stilled it. He looked at her with a shake of his head. “Clara, I’m so sorry. You don’t deserve this.” He picked up the bottle of wine in front of him and poured some into her glass. His hand was shaking.
Clara pressed her lips together and closed her eyes.
It felt as if her heart had plunged straight into the ground.
So it was going to be that kind of talk.
Years of experience with Matthew had conditioned her to anticipate what would be coming next.
It’s not you, it’s me. I need some space.
We’re moving too fast. She had heard them all, always from him.
But for as little time as she’d known Brent, she certainly didn’t expect to be hearing this from him. At least not so soon.
She pressed her hands against the sides of her head. She couldn’t believe this was happening. They had been so happy up to this point. Hadn’t they? She couldn’t imagine what could have caused such a sudden change of heart.
She opened her eyes and began to speak. “Brent, I’ve really enjoyed our time—”
“Clara, I’m being deployed.”
He’d blurted out the words so quickly she wasn’t entirely sure she had heard them at all.
“Deployed?”
He nodded.
She allowed herself a deep release of breath as she felt the weight of an impending breakup lifted off her shoulders.
Her entire body relaxed. She let out a slight laugh.
It was just a deployment. Well, that wasn’t so bad.
It was a part of his job. Clara supposed a deployment every now and then was the price one paid to date someone in the military, right?
It would probably be sometime in the new year, and she reasoned he’d be back in a few weeks or so.
She smiled at him, her jaw unclenching. Relief flooded through her body as she took a sip of her wine and leaned back in her chair. “Off to save the world, huh?” She gave him a playful wink.
Brent didn’t smile back. He tried to pick up his wine glass, his hand still trembling. He set it back down. He looked her straight in the eye, his expression grave.
Her concern returned.
“I leave immediately,” he said.
Clara blinked.
“And I’ll be gone for a year.”
Her eyes flew wide open. She wanted to draw in a breath but suddenly couldn’t. The restaurant seemed to go silent. Everything faded into a black vignette around her. Had she heard him correctly? She couldn’t be sure since the only sound was her own heartbeat pounding in her ears.
She leaned forward in her chair, set her elbows on the table, and pressed her palms over her eyes as she tried to get a hold of her bearings.
A wave of dizziness flowed through her head.
She drew in a breath slowly through her nose and tried to calm her racing heart.
“A year—you’ll be gone an entire year?” It wasn’t exactly a question, more a statement of disbelief.
Even so, she looked at him through desperate eyes, waiting for an answer.
He only nodded, a look of defeat on his face.
“Wow.” Clara noticed her chin quiver and commanded it to stop. “And what do you mean by ‘immediately’?”
He lowered his gaze to the table. “I leave tomorrow.”
Her jaw dropped as she clapped a hand over her mouth. Any breath she had in her lungs seemed to rush right out of her.