Mariah Stewart - On Sunset Beach

“You didn’t have to do this. And where’d you get the mower?”

“Oh, Linc’s parents still live next door. I saw his dad out back while I was standing at the sink this morning. So I went out and we talked for a while, and I asked him if he had a lawn mower I could use, and he did.” With his right arm, he brushed sweat from his forehead. “Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?” He turned to admire his work.

“It looks great. But what about Lola …?”

“Oh, I met with her at the inn. Mom called and said that she was coming by to have lunch, so I should join them. Which I did.” He paused. “You owe me dinner again tonight. And tomorrow night, and the night after … how many nights did we bet? A full week?”

“She didn’t.” Carly cringed.

Ford shrugged. “What can I tell you? Grace knows all. She said to tell you that she’d love for the chef to try some of your recipes.”

“She didn’t know that, too.” Carly had heard whispers—none of which she’d repeat to Ford—that Grace had some woo-woo abilities.

“Not until I told her. I described the meal in detail, and I can tell you, Gracie was impressed big-time.”

“She’s welcome to the recipes,” Carly told him, “but as far as tonight is concerned … does takeout count?”

He nodded. “Takeout is fine.”

“Well, then, why don’t you return the neighbor’s lawn mower, then come back and take a shower, and we’ll try to think of a way I can thank you for the yard work.”

He wheeled the mower toward the fence. “I’m sure we’ll come up with something …”

Carly awoke around three, the bed shaking just enough to rouse her. In his sleep, Ford was agitated, his head moving from side to side, uttering words she couldn’t understand, except for one: Anna. Her first inclination was to wake him, but she’d read somewhere that if someone was having a nightmare, it was best to let them sleep through it. But after it had gone on for several more minutes, she touched his shoulder lightly, and he jumped. Startled and obviously unsure of where he was, she spoke softly.

“Ford, you’re here with me. Carly. You were having a bad dream.”

“What …?” He appeared momentarily confused.

“You were having a nightmare. Do you want me to turn on the light?”

He nodded, and she snapped on the lamp on the bedside table.

He looked at her for a long moment, then said, “I’m sorry I woke you.”

“It’s okay.” She wrapped the sheet around her and sat up. “Do you remember what you were dreaming about?”

“I always have the same dream.” He rubbed his hand over his face. “I’m used to it. I’m just sorry that I disturbed you.”

“Who’s Anna?” she asked, though she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know.

He leaned against the headboard, his shoulder touching hers. For a while, she thought he wasn’t going to respond.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I shouldn’t have …”

“Anna was the first woman I ever fell in love with for real.”

Her heart sank. She should have figured there’d be a woman. A man like Ford had to have a woman in his life.

“She was with the Peacekeeping operation in Sudan when I first arrived in Africa, my first assignment with that team. She was a pretty, blond Swiss, very idealistic, so out of place in the brush in that world, and I fell like a ton of bricks.” He smiled, thinking, no doubt, of nights he spent with Anna. “So did she. For a while, anyway.” He cleared his throat. “We were together for about eight months, and I started thinking about quitting the military and bringing her back to the States with me.”

“So what happened?”

“Well, the first thing that happened was Stephano.”

“Stephano?”

“Italian guy who joined her group. She took one look at him and it was bye-bye Ford. Within two months, she and Stephano were married.”

“You’re kidding. She dumped you and moved on to this other guy just like that?” She snapped her fingers.

“Just like that.” He snapped his. “But seeing them together, I knew that what they had was the real thing. What she and I had … I guess that was more of a fling to her.”

“But not to you?”

He shook his head. “I was in love with her. I wasn’t happy when she cut me loose, but after a while I realized that it was okay. I still loved her, but it was in a different way. Stephano was quite a guy. I respected him, actually grew to like him. And they were happy together, anyone could see that, so it was a situation I had to accept and adjust to.”

“You said ‘the first thing.’ What else happened?”

“They were both shot and killed, along with two guys from my unit.”

Carly’s jaw dropped. “How …?”

“The area we were in was in the midst of civil war, I think I might have mentioned that. It got to the point where you couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys. Both sides raided the villages, both sides recruited the boys who were old enough to carry a gun—‘recruited’ being a polite term for kidnapped. Both sides burned the villages to the ground, raped, pillaged—didn’t matter, rebel or government forces, they were all the same.” He paused. “Still are. Very little has changed.”

She’d read about such things, about the horrors that were going on still in certain countries where the political situation was volatile and things changed from day to day. She’d never met anyone who’d been in those countries, who’d been caught up in the madness, whose life had been changed by it.

“So Anna and Stephano had found a way to ‘liberate’ a band of nine- and ten-year-olds who’d been abducted by one of the rebel forces. They were leading them to what was thought to be a safe area, where the boys could be put on a plane and taken someplace where they’d be protected till the fighting was over. The kids’ families were gone—killed—their homes gone …

“Anyway, our assignment was to ensure safe passage for the band of boy soldiers and their UN protectors. Anna and Stephano and the two others went on ahead, and the rest of us had dropped back a bit because the boys were tired and were slowing down, so we stopped to give them a few minutes’ rest. Then, without warning, we heard automatic weapons firing for what seemed to be a lifetime. We got the boys to the ground, but we couldn’t return the fire for fear that the kids would be found. So after the firing stopped, three of us went through the brush to the edge of the clearing. Anna, Stephano, and the others lay on the ground, shot to pieces, surrounded by thirty or forty rebel soldiers.”

“Did you kill them?”

He shook his head. “There were six guys left on my team, including me, and thirty or more of them. We had a group of young boys who needed protection. Engaging the rebels would have put the kids at risk. All we could do was wait until they left the area.”

“What about the …” She hesitated. “Anna …”

“When we met the plane, we secured body bags and went back for them … the remains.”

“And that’s when you decided to leave.”

“Yes.”

“That is so horrible, all of it,” she whispered. “I wish …”

“Yeah, me, too.”

“And the boys you ‘liberated’?”

“They’re safe in Capetown, for now.”

“There’s that, at least. I guess one good thing came out of it.”

“Two, actually. Two good things.”

“What was the second?”

“The leader of the rebel band that day has been identified. Raymond Nakimbe. He’s been trying to unite all the rebel factions so that he can stage a coup, overthrow the current government, and put himself on the ballot in next year’s election.”

“Who would vote for someone like that?” Carly was horrified.