Debbie Macomber - Debbie Macomber Navy Series Box Set

“And if no one else is going to say it, I will,” an attractive blonde with wide blue eyes piped up. “We’re all anxious to get to know you better.”

“We’ve all been crazy about Rush for years. I’m Mary, by the way.”

“I’m Paula,” the blonde who’d spoken first added.

“Hello, Mary and Paula.” Lindy raised her hand.

Four of the others quickly introduced themselves. Sissy, Elly, Sandy and Joanna.

“Did you get the wives’ packet?” Joanna wanted to know scooting to the edge of her seat.

Lindy’s eyes shot to Susan. “I don’t think so.” The Mitchell had been gone almost a month now and because Lindy had been so busy with her job and worrying about her brother, she hadn’t been able to get together with Susan as soon as she’d wanted.

“I’ll take care of that right now.” Joanna opened a briefcase and brought out a thick packet. She stood and delivered it to Lindy. “This is a little something the navy hands out to new wives so they aren’t completely in the dark about what they’ve gotten themselves into having married a man in the military.”

“A sort of finding-your-sea-legs-while-still-on-land idea,” Susan explained.

Lindy opened the packet to find several brochures and booklets. There was one on the social customs and traditions of the navy—guidelines for the wives of commanding officers and executive officers, another on overseamanship, and several others, including one that gave the history of the U.S. Navy.

“An issue of Wifeline should be in there, too.”

“Joanna’s one of the ombudsmen for the Mitchell ,” Susan explained.

Lindy wasn’t sure what that meant. “Oh,” she said weakly, hoping she didn’t sound completely stupid.

Joanna must have read the confusion in her eyes, because she added. “I act as a liaison between the command and the families. If you have a problem with something, come to me.”

“Wonder Woman here will take care of it for you,” Sissy commented and smiled at Joanna. “I know she’s helped me often enough.”

“I’m not completely sure I understand,” Lindy admitted, with some reluctance. Although Steve had been in the service fifteen years, as long as Rush, Lindy had little technical understanding of the way the military worked.

“Let me give you an example,” Joanna said and tapped her index finger against her lips while she thought. “Let’s say you get sick and need to go to the hospital when Rush is on a cruise, and there’s some kind of screwup there and they won’t take you.”

“Call Joanna.” Seven voices chimed in unison.

“I see.”

Joanna playfully cocked her head and slanted her mouth in a silly grin, which caused the others to laugh. “Mainly my job is to be sure that no one feels they need to face a problem alone. When you married Rush, you married his career, too. You belong to the navy now just as much as Rush does. If you’ve got a problem there will always be someone here to help.”

“That’s good to know.” Lindy hadn’t thought about it before, but what Joanna said made sense. The knowledge that someone was there to lend a helping hand gave her a comforting sense of belonging. Although she knew Susan was her friend, Jeff’s wife had been her only contact with Rush’s life.

“When the guys are around there aren’t that many problems, but once they’re deployed we have to stick together and help each other,” Sissy added, and a couple of the others nodded their agreement.

“What do you mean there aren’t that many problems with the guys around?” Mary, a slim redhead, cried. “I don’t suppose anyone happened to mention to Lindy the hassles of shifting responsibilities and…”

“Hey, the poor girl just got married. Let’s not hit her over the head with everything just yet.”

“No,” Lindy interrupted. “I want to know.”

“It’s just that we—meaning we wives—are left to handle the domestic situations when the men are at sea. It’s not as if we have a whole lot of choice in the matter. Someone’s got to do it. But then once our husbands sail home we’re supposed to return to the docile role of wife and mother and automatically let the men take over. Sometimes it doesn’t work that well.”

“I don’t imagine it would,” Lindy said thoughtfully, and sighed inwardly. Briefly she wondered what problems the years held in store for her and Rush. She’d never thought about the shifting roles they’d need to play in their family life. It was a little intimidating, but she’d only been a bride for a month and didn’t want to anticipate trouble.

“Every time Chuck’s due back home, I get sick,” Mary confessed, looking disgusted with herself. “It’s all part of the syndrome.”

“The homecoming is wonderful, but Wade and I tiptoe around each other for days for fear of saying or doing something that will ruin our reunion,” another wife explained.

“We choose to ignore the obvious problems and pass over strife until it’s time for him to be deployed again.”

“That’s when it really hits the fan,” Susan inserted.

“What do you mean?” Lindy was curious to know. She could understand what the others were saying, although she hadn’t been married long enough to experience with Rush a lot of what the women were warning her about. But the time would come when she was bound to, and she was eager to recognize the signs.

“It seems we’re all susceptible to arguing before our husbands’ leave,” Joanna explained.

Lindy remembered how Rush had purposely picked a fight with her the afternoon he’d learned the repairs to the Mitchell had been completed.

“Rush jumped all over me for putting his book away,” Lindy told the others. “I didn’t understand it at the time. It was so ridiculous, so unreasonable and not like him at all.”

The others nodded knowingly.

“I imagine it was about that time that Rush realized he loved you,” Susan added smoothly. “Jeff pulled the same thing. He always does. The day he comes home and suggests it’s time I go on a diet, I know what’s coming. He’s just learned when he’ll be deployed. Jeff loves what he does, but he loves me and the kids, too. It’s a crazy kind of tug-of-war that goes on inside him. He dreads leaving, hates the thought of all those months apart, and at the same time he’s eager to sail. He can hardly wait to get out on the open seas.”

“Try to make sense out of that if you can,” Mary grumbled. “But this is all part of being a navy wife.”

“And then there’s the constant knowledge that we can be transferred at any time.”

“Say, did anyone else hear the rumor that the Mitchell could be reassigned to Norfolk?”

“It’s just gossip, Sissy,” Joanna answered. “There’s no need to worry about it now.”

“See what I mean,” Susan told Lindy with a soft laugh.

“You mean the Mitchell might transfer its home port to Norfolk?” Already Lindy was thinking about what would happen with her job if Rush was to be stationed in another state. She’d have to go with him and leave Seattle. Of course she could always find another job, but she didn’t relish the thought. A growing knot of concern started to form in her stomach.

“The Nimitz was transferred from Norfolk to Bremerton,” Sissy reminded the group.

“Two joys of navy life,” Mary muttered disparagingly. “Deployment separation and cross-country moves.”

“If worse comes to worst, we’ll survive.”

It was apparent to Lindy that Joanna was the cool voice of reason in this friendly group. Lindy still had trouble keeping track of who was who, but felt that she was going to fit in nicely. It was as though she were being welcomed into a sorority. The other navy wives’ acceptance of her was automatic, their reception warm.