“No,” he answered, his breath steady and even.
“But you’re back here?”
The grin he gave me set my heart racing for much different reasons. “I just like the view.” His eyes flickered to my rear, and I burst into laughter.
“You’re telling me that checking out my butt is more important than beating Will in the task force 5K?”
“December, let’s just get one thing straight.” He stopped running, pulling me to a jarring stop with him as he wrapped his arms around me. Runners raced on either side of us, like we were a boulder in the middle of a rushing creek. “There’s never anything more important to me than a chance to check out your ass.”
I pushed his sweaty chest away with a loud laugh and pointed to the finish line. “Beat me, and I’ll let you do more than check it out.”
He wiggled his eyebrows and shot off at a sprint like he had a sign tacked to him that said WILL RUN FOR SEX.
Josh slowed as I caught up to him, and he kept pace with me, when I knew he could have left me in the dust, but he didn’t. As the finish approached, we locked eyes, and with one more glance at my ass and a grin, he pushed ahead and smoked me, crossing the taped line a full ten seconds before I did.
A bottle of water later, Josh walked me to the corner of the hangar where his company FRG was meeting. “They won’t bite. Make friends,” he whispered into my very sweaty hair.
“Ah, Lieutenant!” Lucille called out with a huge smile in our direction.
Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad. They were just wives, nothing I wasn’t used to being around.
“Ma’am, I’m needed to tear down the route markers, but I’ll leave Ember with you?”
Such a gentleman.
“No problem, we’ll take good care of her. Oh, but I didn’t get an info sheet on your wife. We’ll need that to get her all set up on the roster.”
“Oh, I’m not his wife,” I spit out, then internally cursed when Josh flinched. “I mean we’ve been together two years, but yeah…not a wife,” I finished slowly, feeling more like an idiot with every word I let past my lips.
Shit. Did he think I didn’t want to be? Of course I wanted to be, but I didn’t want FRG-Nazi here putting the awkward pressure on.
Lucille’s eyes widened and dropped to my very naked left hand. “Oh, I see. Of course. You’re welcome to stay today, but deployment information really is for spouses and family only.”
No Dustoff Dolls shirt for me.
“Actually, Lieutenant…” A small young woman with a large binder stepped forward, tucking a strand of her blond bob behind her ear. “If you’d just sign an authorization, your girlfriend is more than welcome on our roster.”
Josh squeezed my hand, and I looked up at him. “What do you say, Ember? Do you want to stay?”
I knew what he was really saying. Are you willing to put up with this? Do you want this? Well, no, I didn’t want this, but I could handle the marriage-police if it meant getting information while he was deployed. I nodded my head once, and he kissed my forehead.
“Well then,” Lucille said, a sugar-sweet smile on her face. “Welcome to Dustoff.”
“Play nice, and I’ll go sign their form,” Josh whispered in my ear, squeezing my hand before he took off to somewhere far less awkward than here…where all the wives were now blatantly assessing me. Well, this is pleasant.
Lucille took up her place at the front of the group and pulled out a clipboard. “Well, shall we get started?”
“Don’t worry,” the petite blonde with the binder said with a kind smile, sitting in the vacant chair next to me. She handed me a roster and information packet. “It’s not just you. She really is a judgmental bitch.”
Her tiny, sweet voice only made the statement funnier, and I barely suppressed a snort of laughter. Lucille cocked her head in my direction, and I tossed a smile back at her.
“You’re just the newbie. Don’t worry,” the blonde said. “I came in last year, and let me tell you, when a crew chief marries a pilot and crosses that whole enlisted/officer line? Well, I fed the gossip mill for a good long while. I’m Carol, by the way.”
“Ember, and it’s really nice to meet you.”
“Are you new to the military?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m an army brat.”
“Ah, so you get the whole ‘you knew what you were getting into’ line, huh?” She sighed. “I get that all the time. But let me tell you, it’s a lot different going than being left behind to wait.”
“Yeah, I bet it is,” I answered, looking up to where Lucille was currently lecturing us on keeping our social media safe for Operational Security.
“How long do you have left with him?”
“A little over two weeks.” Ouch. Not that I didn’t always have a countdown playing in my mind, but saying it aloud made it real—made it hurt.
In a couple of weeks, I’d be alone, sitting, waiting…just like Mom had.
She nudged me with her shoulder. “You look strong, capable. You’ll do just fine, I can tell. You’ll be one of the girls who makes it.”
My eyes found Josh like a magnet as he came back through the hangar doors. He laughed at something Will said and gave me a horizontal thumb, asking for my verdict. He’d bail me out if I asked him to. I forced a smile and gave him a thumbs-up. Sitting where I wasn’t exactly accepted would be the easiest part of this deployment.