“Okay.” When azure blue eyes lift to meet mine with brows raised, it takes all my strength to tell her the truth.
“I told my old CO I’m reenlisting when I get my degree. He promised me a commission.” I lower my gaze to her belly, reminding me there’s two depending on me.
She places her hands on my cheeks, lifts my face, and I almost change my mind from the sadness there. “You’re leaving me? Is that what this is all about?”
“No, never. I got to do this, for our country.”
“Bullshit.” She climbs off with short angry movements and grabs her bikini from the floor. “First, you send me away, then, you don’t call, now you want to reenlist.”
“I called and called.” I lean over and dig into my jeans for my phone. “Here, see for yourself.”
Her mouth shifts from grim to worse, then her brows scrunch. “My God. I had no idea. I thought I lost my phone. Why didn’t you email?”
“Scroll through the texts. You asked me not to contact you. Even so, I tried but you weren’t online.”
“Shit.” She sits on the edge of the bed, one hand on my knee, the other cupping my cheek to make sure she can capture my gaze. “Surely, you didn’t believe this. These texts are cruel. I would never say anything…”
“After you were hurt, I was in a bad way. I figured you were mad.” I stare at the floor, the pain in her face too much to bear.
“Suds was the one on duty… and yet no one blamed him. What’s going on with you?” Her hand caresses my thigh, then she intertwines our fingers.
“You’re my wife, my responsibility. I didn’t keep you safe.” I need her to understand I’m toxic to her.
“And what? You think you can do better from overseas?” She lifts my chin, all in my face, blue eyes blazing but I’ve thought about this a lot in the past few days.
“You’ll be safer away from Patten and away from me.”
“No.” She stands, grabs the tiny string bottoms, and pulls them on.
“No what?”
“No. I’m not agreeing to this.” She ties the bikini at her thighs, then slips on a short pink sundress.
Guessing we won’t be making love right away, I stand. “It’s not your decision and I already made up my mind.”
“It’s too nice out to argue. Let’s go for a swim and talk about this later.” She throws me a pair of bathing trunks and although she’s angry now, I’m sure she’ll see the wisdom of this later.
