Cathie Linz - Stranded With The Sergeant

Yes, she was spending the weekend in the mountains with him, but they were being chaperoned by five sixth-graders. And it wasn’t as if she was dressed like a fashion model or anything. Her hardy hiking boots were hardly the thing to turn a man’s head. She was wearing the same khaki slacks and white T-shirt she’d had on earlier. She’d added a long-sleeved denim shirt and tied a red windbreaker around her waist.

Glancing at her reflection in the van’s outside mirror, she adjusted the silver hair clip she’d fastened her hair back with before turning to inspect her students. She checked each child’s backpack to make sure it was properly positioned, wasn’t too heavy and that the straps weren’t twisted.

Finally they headed off, with Joe in the front and Prudence bringing up the rear. From this vantage point she watched Joe. She’d always had a thing for guys in jeans, which is why she was surprised to find her heartbeat quickening. The man was wearing camouflage utilities, for heaven’s sake. Camies. Hardly sexy attire. But it was the man not the uniform that was getting to her. It was the man who was getting away from her as he set a pace much too fast for this group.

“Sergeant, we’re not on an enforced march here,” she called out. “We’re supposed to be enjoying the wilderness, not marching through it double-time.”

Joe shortened his usual long stride and fast tempo in order for the others to keep up with him. Even so, Prudence wasn’t satisfied, as she indicated when they took their first rest stop.

“Sergeant, you’re supposed to be leading the troop,” she said, “not running away from us.”

Her words were a deliberate red flag. A Marine never ran away from anything.

Prudence was trying to taunt him. He refused to give her the satisfaction of reacting.

Ignoring her comment, he spoke to the really short recruits, addressing them as if they were “poolies”—high school seniors who’d signed up for delayed entry into the Marine Corps upon graduation. “While we’re paused here, I’ll review the Marine Corps Survival techniques. Think of the word Survival. S stands for Sizing Up The Situation.”

The situation was that Joe was stuck in the mountains with a forbidden woman and five kids.

Shoving that thought aside, Joe asked. “What can you hear and see?”

“I hear birds and the wind in the trees,” Sinatra said.

“And I see a squirrel on that tree over there,” Rosa said.

“What about smell?” Joe asked.

“Hey, I took a shower this morning,” Pete declared. “I don’t smell.”

Joe stifled a laugh. “Close your eyes and sniff the air. What can you smell?”

“Pine. I smell pine,” Pete replied. “What about you, sir? What do you smell?”

Perfume. Joe smelled Prudence’s perfume. Like Al Pacino in that movie, Joe was pretty good at identifying a woman’s perfume. But this one had him stymied. It was something citrusy with a bit…of cinnamon maybe?

Erase that thought, Joe ordered himself. He refused to allow her entry into his thoughts. And if she barged into his thoughts, he vowed to toss her out.

“I smell pine, too,” Joe replied. “Now U stands for Undue Haste Makes Waste.”

“My point exactly,” Prudence inserted.

“R stands for Remember Where You Are.” Joe pointed to the topographical hiking map he had with him. “Orient yourself to the terrain, like that mountain over there.”

“The mountains all look the same,” Pete said.

“Not if you look closely,” Joe said. “See how it has that stand of bare trees near the top?”

“Probably killed by acid rain,” Keishon stated darkly.

Joe continued, “V stands for Vanquishing Fear and Panic.” Yeah, right. This was one Joe had to work on himself, big-time. He shoved those thoughts aside. “I stands for Improvise. V stands for Value Living and A for Act Like Natives.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Keishon said. “What natives live in the mountains?”

“Animals,” Gem replied on Joe’s behalf. “Animals live in the mountains.”

“And animals are smarter than people,” Keishon said. “They know stuff, like where water is, right?”

“That’s right,” Joe said. “So we’ve covered S…U…R…V…I…V…A. Which leaves us with?”

“L,” Sinatra supplied.

“And L stands for Live by Your Wits,” Joe concluded. “Learning basic skills helps you develop your self-confidence.”

Sinatra nodded. “I checked out some camping Web sites and learned about wilderness skills stuff. It made me feel better about this trip, made me look forward to it more.”

Keishon added, “And Ms. Martin covered other information in class.”

Covered…oh, yes, he’d like to see Ms. Martin covered, all right. Covered in yards and yards of concealing material, because maybe then he wouldn’t notice the way her T-shirt molded the curve of her breasts. He was watching the woman breathe, for God’s sake. Not a good sign.

“All right, recruits,” Joe barked. “Time to move out!” And time for him to remember the goals of his mission this weekend where Prudence Martin was concerned—survival, not seduction.

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