“Actually, you’d be surprised.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of gum. “The EFMP is the program that makes sure all military dependents with special needs receive it.”
“EFMP?”
“Exceptional Family Member Program. They make sure that my duty stations are only in locations where she can receive the care she needs. It’s easier to get referrals for therapies, and they have advocates in case I’m put in a position where her needs wouldn’t be met. And our military insurance would cover all her basic medical needs and any special needs her doctors thought she required. Or it’s supposed to, anyway.”
Guilt crept up my arms and legs as I listened. When I first met Derrick, I’d been sure he’d just joined to feel macho and for all the traveling. When really, it had cost him a lot. At least where his family was concerned.
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” I said slowly, “But I’m curious.”
“Ask away.” He pushed the popcorn around in his bowl.
“Everything with Amy and your parents and your moving here…everything seems to go back to last spring.” I waited until he met my gaze. “Around the time Jade came to school covered in scratches. She didn’t want to talk for weeks.” I paused. “She…she didn’t fall. Did she?”
“Oh, she fell all right.” His face darkened. “But she did a lot more than that, too.”
“That thing you can’t tell me about, right?”
He leaned back. “Well, you’re here and practically family now, so you might as well know.” Then he leaned forward. “Jade, don’t chase people with sparklers! I’ll have to take those away if you don’t listen.”
Practically family. Did he really mean that?
“My parents,” he continued, “don’t like to talk about it because it makes them uncomfortable. Actually, it’s the reason I fought you so hard when you first got here. You were the first permanent caregiver to come after Jade’s little nanny incident.”
I nearly interjected that I was a summer tutor, but the way his eyes tightened kept my mouth shut.
“The nanny before you worked out okay for a few weeks. But she got distracted on the phone one day and didn’t see Jade slip out.” He ran a hand down his face, and when he spoke again, his voice hitched. “She was lost for hours. We had the neighbors and the cops all looking for her. I can’t…I can’t tell you what it felt like. I was back here visiting from Colorado at the time but was out running an errand when it happened. Those hours, though, not knowing where she was or if someone had taken her or if…” His voice cracked. “If someone was hurting her. It was a worse feeling than I’ve ever had in my life. And when we did find her, she was covered in bruises and cuts and was pretty shaken up.”
“Where was she?” A renegade tear ran down my face as I imagined her lost and crying alone for hours.
“On the golf course behind the house, in one of those big groups of trees. It was a miracle she was there, though, and not in a pond. They’re all over the course. She’d somehow squeezed between some of the fence posts in our back yard and made her escape there. She was crying like a baby. Just…wailing. And when my mom offered to take her from the cop who found her, she wanted me instead.” He finally faced me, his blue eyes standing out even more than usual against his red, tear-stained face. “And I knew at that moment that I had to get back to her. At least while she was little. I had to do my best to keep her safe while I could.” He cleared his throat and sat taller. “So as soon as I got back to Colorado, I prayed hard, pulled some strings, sent in my request to get transferred here.”
I put my empty popcorn bowl down and stretched. “I thought you don’t get to pick where you move in the military.”
He snorted. “You don’t. Usually. And even with friends in the right places like mine, it’s really hard. Thank God I got it, because it would have been really easy for them to say no.”
“That’s why you didn’t want me to stay with Jade.” It was all making sense now. And totally not in the way I’d expected.
He gave me a sheepish grin. “And again, I’m sorry about that. I just didn’t feel like I could—”
“I get it.” I elbowed his arm. “You don’t have to explain.”
“Hey.”
I turned again, this time to see him giving me a genuine smile. It was gentle and yet, unflinching in its intensity. So much intensity. “Thanks again for having us over. We really needed this.”
“And you’re sure you’re okay?” I sipped at my hard lemonade and tried to ignore the weird fluttering in my stomach. Shut up, Jessie. Stop looking at him like that.
“Well, it’s not like I’m jumping for joy. But…I think maybe I knew it was coming. Like I’ve been in mourning since I left Colorado. And now I just feel…peace. I’ve been in limbo so long, I guess, always waiting for her, never knowing when she would actually come. Now I can get on with my life. I feel lighter if that makes sense.”
“It does.” I took a handful of patriotic popcorn and ate it slowly, one piece at a time. “You can be a pain in the rear end, Derrick Allen, but you deserve to be happy.”
“With sentiments like that, how are you still single?”
I threw my head back and laughed, and so did he. When we had quieted, though, he was still looking at me.
“I mean it. You’re a professional. You’re obviously a people person. You’re…” He paused. “Well, all I can guess is that something must be horrendously wrong with you for you to still be single.”
“What were you going to say?” I gave him a dangerous look. “Annoying? Persistent? Frust—”
