Maureen Child - The Daddy Salute

“So when’s the wedding?”

Kathy started wandering around the cozy, cluttered kitchen. Her gaze drifted from the crayon artwork proudly displayed on the refrigerator to the dog bowl on the floor to the child-size fingerprints on the windows. This is what a kid’s world should be like, she told herself. And that’s why she’d never have children of her own. A bubble of emptiness rose up inside her, then settled down into the pit she usually kept it in. As much as she would love to have the kind of family Tina had, she knew it wasn’t in her cards. She refused to be a single mother. She’d seen firsthand just how difficult that was. And she would never get married, so that left kids out entirely.

Thank heaven she at least had Tina’s kids to pour all of her maternal feelings into.

“Kath?” Tina’s voice prompted her. “The wedding? When is it?”

The wedding. “Three weeks,” she said, and leaned against the counter.

“She’s been single so long,” Tina mused, “I wonder what made her decide to get married again.”

“Who knows?” Kathy said, throwing her hands high. It had been six years since her mom’s last divorce. Kathy had actually begun to hope that Spring was slowing down. Oh, well.

“Where is it?”

This time Kathy had to chuckle. Really, what else could she do with a mom like Spring. “Where else? Vegas.”

“Well,” Tina said, and reached over to lift Michael out of his high chair, “maybe this time it will work out. Maybe this time she’s really in love.”

Spring had sounded different when she’d called to give Kathy the news about the impending wedding. There’d actually been a little tremor in her voice. As if she was nervous. Though any woman who’d recited the wedding vows as often as Spring had surely shouldn’t have anything to be nervous about. No, it was probably just her imagination working overtime. This was simply another wedding for Spring.

“And maybe our little résumé service will put us both on the Fortune Five Hundred list,” she said, and winced slightly. She didn’t mean to sound bitter, for heaven’s sake.

“Stranger things have happened.”

“Anything you say, partner,” Kathy said, then changed the subject by asking, “Have you got the new ad ready for the newspaper?”

“Yeah, it’s in the other room. Hold the baby for a minute?”

“Sure,” Kathy said, always eager to get a little baby hugging in. She stepped forward to pluck little Michael out of his mother’s arms. Fifteen pounds of warm, cuddly love squirmed against her, and Kathy’s heart melted. She ran her palm gently over the top of his head, smoothing down the wispy, fine, blond hair.

Regret roared through her with a vengeance as she realized again that by denying herself marriage, she was denying herself this. A child of her own to love. And the closer she came to thirty, the harder that truth hit her. The phrase biological clock had become pretty much a cliché these days, and darned if she couldn’t hear hers ticking.

Michael cooed and batted at her shoulders with two small-fisted hands. She caught one of them and rubbed his little fingers with her thumb. “You’re a sweetheart, you know it?” she asked, and grinned when he giggled from deep in his throat.

Tina stepped into the kitchen and paused, watching them. “You’re good at that, Kath.”

Kathy glanced at her. “It’s not hard to love a baby.”

“Or a man,” Tina said.

“Don’t start,” Kathy told her, shaking her head. Tina’s one major flaw was that she insisted on playing matchmaker.

“There’s a guy in Ted’s office who—”

“Stop right there,” Kathy warned her.

“Come on, Kath. There’s no reason for you to live like a nun.”

“I don’t.”

“Really?” Tina laid the manila envelope she was carrying down on the counter and crossed her arms over her chest. “And when was the last time you actually spoke to a real, live man?”

Think fast. “Three days ago,” she blurted.

“Who?” Tina asked.

“My neighbor.”

“The marine?” Tina’s blue eyes widened in anticipation.

Oh, man, she shouldn’t have started this. Perching Michael on her hip, she bounced him up and down.

“Details, Kath. Details.”

“He fixed my car for me,” she said with a shrug. “Then he helped me with my groceries.” And she’d managed to avoid him ever since.

“And…”

“There is no and,” Kathy told her, and walked across the room to hand over the baby. Then she snatched up the ad copy and tried to make her escape.

“There could be an and,” Tina said hurriedly.

“I don’t want any and.” She picked up her purse from the table and headed for the back door. Tina’s voice stopped her cold in the doorway.

“You’re not your mother, Kathy.”

She meant well, but that didn’t change the facts. “No, but I am her daughter.” Glancing over her shoulder at her friend, Kathy added, “We live what we learn, Tina. And I’d be just as bad at marriage as my mother is. I won’t do that. Not to me and certainly not to some poor, unsuspecting baby.”

Then she slipped out the door before Tina could continue the old argument.

Brian listened to the dial tone for a few long seconds, then held the receiver away from his ear and stared at it as though he half expected it to blow up in his hand.

“Brian?”

He blinked and shot a quick glance at Jack.

“Bad news?” the man asked.

“Bad?” He didn’t know if he’d say bad. Maybe catastrophic. Horrifying. But bad? He checked his wrist watch. He only had two hours. Nice of them to wait until the last minute to call.

“Hey, man,” Jack said, watching him. “What’s goin’ on?”

“I, uh…” Carefully, gently, Brian set the receiver down in its cradle. “I have to go.”

“Go? Go where?”

“The airport.”

“Airport?” Jack sounded as confused as Brian felt. But that couldn’t be. No one on earth could possibly be as confused as Brian Haley was at that particular moment.

“Why?”

“I’ll tell you later,” he said. Later. As in, when he was actually able to repeat the words he’d just heard over the phone. Right now he could hardly force himself to think them, let alone say them out loud.

“Jack, I gotta go.” He looked at his watch again. Another minute gone. He felt his life ticking away. The world as he’d known it was about to come to an abrupt end, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

“Damn it, Brian…”

He shook his head and spared his friend a quick glance. “Trust me on this. I have to go.” He pushed away from his desk, glanced at the unfinished reports and said, “I’ll take care of those tomorrow.”

“They’re due today,” Jack told him. Brian looked at him, and some of his desperation must have shown on his face because his friend took one look at him and offered, “Leave ’em. I’ll take care of it.”

“Thanks,” he muttered, and started for the door. He snatched his hat off the coatrack, then settled it firmly on his head.

“Hey!” Jack called out, and Brian stopped. “Is everything all right?”

Rubbing one hand across his face, Brian swallowed heavily and muttered, “Hell, no.”

“Call if you need help.”

Help? Hell, he was going to need all the help he could get. But it went against the grain to ask for it. He was a marine, for pity’s sake. Tough, strong, dependable. He’d stood fast in battle and lived all over the world. It was his job to protect and defend the United States of America against all of her enemies.

How in the hell could he yell help?

He nodded at Jack, muttered, “Thanks,” and left. He ran down the hall, stopping only long enough to help a corporal pick up the files Brian had knocked out of his arms. Then he was out the main door into the California sunshine.