Debbie Macomber - Debbie Macomber Navy Series Box Set

“Tell him what?”

“Everything. How you’ve gotten involved in the wives’ association and that we’re seeing each other regularly. Rush is a smart man, Lindy. Give him credit for some intelligence.”

“Right,” Lindy said, nodding her head once. “He’ll figure it out…. He knows I love him.” Lindy gnawed on her lip, remembering how the women’s group had told her if she had any problems, she should contact Joanna.

A long silence stretched over the wire before Susan spoke. “Should I call Joanna or do you want to?”

* * *

The phone rang just after midnight. Lindy rolled onto her stomach and checked the time. She hadn’t been sleeping well and had only turned off the light fifteen minutes before. The call was probably some prankster and she wasn’t eager to answer it, figuring Steve would. By the third ring, Lindy gave up on her brother and reached for the telephone receiver.

“Hello.” She tried to make her voice sound as gruff and unfriendly as possible.

“This is a ham-radio operator in Anchorage, Alaska,” the male voice explained. “A call is about to be transmitted to you from aboard the USS Mitchell . Talk as you would normally, but each time you’re finished speaking you must say over . Do you understand?”

“Yes….”

“Okay. Go ahead and hang up and I’ll connect you in about fifteen minutes.”

Lindy’s hand was shaking so badly she could barely replace the receiver. Rush. Somehow, someway, Rush had found a means of contacting her. She scooted off the bed and paced barefoot across the carpet, waiting. Fifteen minutes had never seemed to drag by more slowly.

When the phone rang, she nearly tore it off the nightstand.

“Lindy? Over.”

The line sounded as if it were coming from the moon. Static filled the air. Popping and hissing.

“Yes, this is Lindy. Over.”

“I only want to know one thing. Are you pregnant? Over.”

Chapter 12

“You want to know what? Over,” Lindy asked incredulously.

“Are you pregnant or not? Over.” Rush demanded a second time. The long distance wire popped and hissed, making it almost impossible to hear him clearly.

“Not. Stop yelling at me and let me explain.”

Silence followed.

A third voice interrupted. “Over?”

“Over,” Lindy repeated.

“I’m listening. Over.” Some of the bitter anger was gone from Rush’s voice, but his frustration and anxiety were evident even through the poor quality of the connection.

“There was a screwup with the letters. I’ll explain it later. Over.”

“Explain it now. Over.”

“I mailed the letter to Joanna instead of the address you gave me. Over.”

“Joanna who? Over.”

“Joanna Boston. She’s an ombudsman for the Mitchell . I thought she was handling all the correspondence. I didn’t realize it would go through the normal channels. Over.”

“In an entire month you only wrote me one letter? Over.” The words were shouted into her ear.

“It was sixty-two pages long. Over.” Lindy returned at equal volume.

Silence crackled like a morning breakfast cereal, and when Rush spoke again, his voice was more subdued, but still tense. “Do you regret the fact that we’re married. Over.”

“No. Do you? Over.”

Rush seemed to take his own sweet time answering, and when he did his voice was almost a whisper. “Not now. Over.”

“I love you,” Lindy whispered, “I…I told you before you left that I know my own heart, and I do. Over.”

“When I didn’t get any mail, I thought you’d decided to…hell, I don’t know what I thought. Over.”

“I’ll write every day, I promise. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice with the mail business. Over.”

“Damn good thing. I nearly went berserk. Over.”

“I’m really sorry, Rush. I felt terrible when the letter was returned. Over.”

“I understand. Over.”

They were married and hadn’t seen each other in two months and there didn’t seem to be anything more they had to say.

“I have to go. Over,” Rush said, after an awkward moment.

“I know. Goodbye, Rush. Don’t worry about anything at this end. I’m doing okay. Your letters help…. I’m really sorry about what happened with yours. It won’t happen again. Over.”

“Goodbye, Lindy. I need you. Over.”

The line went dead then and she was left holding the receiver in her hand. A tingling, burning feeling worked its way from her fingers down her arm and through her torso to settle in her stomach. Rush had been so angry with her. She couldn’t blame him for being upset, but once that matter had been cleared up their conversation had remained awkward and stilted. They didn’t have a lot to say to each other. His life was so far removed from hers now that there was nothing to share. He was a naval officer; she worked for an airline manufacturer. Their lives had briefly crossed paths for a three-week span and, when it came time to separate, they’d resisted and held on to each other. For the first time since Rush had been deployed, Lindy wondered if she had done the right thing in marrying him. At that moment it didn’t feel right. Not for her, and from the way it sounded, not for Rush, either.

Lindy leaned back against the headboard and released a slow, agonized sigh. The shaking started then, and she gripped her hands together in a futile effort to control the trembling. She had married a man she barely knew, on an impulse. Doubts whizzed through her mind like buzzards circling a crippled animal, waiting for it to die. The picture was all too graphic in Lindy’s troubled mind. She was stumbling and her family, particularly her brother, were all waiting for her to fall so they could tell her what a fool she’d been.

Lindy shook her head to dissolve the nightmarish image. She was being ridiculous. She loved Rush, and he loved her. He’d just ended their conversation by telling her of his need for her. A man like Rush Callaghan didn’t say those words lightly. The circumstances they were trapped in had led to this negative thinking. These doubts would be gone by morning and she’d feel as strongly as ever about her commitment to Rush.

Swallowing at the hard lump in the back of her throat, Lindy turned off the bedside lamp and lay back down, resting her head on the pillow that had once been her husband’s. Everything was going to work out fine. She’d done the right thing by marrying Rush. They were deeply in love with each other and if there were a few rocky roads ahead, that was to be expected. They’d weather those just fine.

But Lindy didn’t sleep that night.

* * *

The tall waiter handed Lindy the oblong menu with the gold tassel. “This is a pleasant surprise,” she said, looking across the linen-covered table at her older brother. Her relationship with Steve had gone much better this past month. He rarely mentioned Rush, and she stayed away from the subject of Carol. It wasn’t exactly solid ground they stood on, but stable enough for the two of them to coexist without too many personality problems. The gesture of dinner was a delightful one, and Lindy wasn’t about to refuse. They both needed a break from the humdrum of daily life.

These last couple of days Steve had been almost like his old self—teasing, joking and laughing. If she hadn’t known him better, Lindy might have been fooled. She toyed with the idea of talking to Steve about the doubts that had been haunting her since the ship-to-shore call from Rush. She was terribly frightened that she’d done the wrong thing in marrying him, and she was unsure what, if anything, she could do about it.

“I figure I owe you at least one evening out before I leave,” Steve said as a means of explanation for the unexpected invitation.