Firstborn. Lindsay McKenna

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СКАЧАТЬ she felt her heart breaking once more for her son. She was no newbie to the military system. In fact, Laura had been a military writer for decades, and continued to publish articles within high-command military circles. She knew the dope on transfers as well as anyone. And Jason hadn’t been at Fort Collins long enough to ask for—and receive—a transfer unless something had gone terribly wrong.

      “I just didn’t get along with them, Mom. That’s all.”

      Laura heard the steely defensiveness in her son’s deep voice. Once more he was putting up walls to keep her out. “And they let you transfer? Again?” Laura knew the service would not tolerate something like this for long. She was surprised he’d gotten a transfer at all. And she knew he wasn’t telling her the whole truth. Jason was hedging. He always did when the news wasn’t good.

      “Yeah, they did. Things look good, though. You’ll never guess who I’ve been assigned to.”

      Hearing the hope in his voice, Laura smiled softly. “Tell me.”

      “I’ll be flying with a female pilot, Mom. CWO2 Annie Dazen is her name. She’s a full-blood Apache from Arizona. How about that? She’s one of a handful of women who have ever made it through Apache school, and she was at the top of her class, from what Colonel Dugan told me. He’s my C.O. now, by the way.”

      “A woman. Well, maybe you can get along with her?” Laura chuckled, and she heard Jason give a strained laugh. Her heart lifted. Oh, how she wanted him to have good things happen!

      “I’m going to try,” Jason said, becoming serious once more. “I’m assigned to the B.O.Q. right now. That’s temporary. I want to give you Dazen’s phone number, because her office is my office, in case you need to reach me. You got a paper and pen?”

      Laura turned and pulled out a small plastic box that sat next to the wall phone. “Yeah, go ahead, honey.” Taking out an index card, she wrote down the number he gave her.

      “I’ll be in touch, Mom. I’ll call you next week, okay?”

      “Okay. You sound good, Jason. Better than I’ve heard you sound in the last year.”

      “Maybe this new pilot will be good for me.”

      “Do you like her?”

      “I don’t dislike her. She was real friendly and warm toward me when we met.”

      “Do you think she knows about your past?”

      “I don’t know. If she does, she isn’t showing it. At least, not yet. But we just made intros, so I really don’t know.”

      “What does she look like? Is she married? Have kids?” Nowadays, the Army was family. Back in the sixties, most people in the service had been single. Now it was made up of married couples and families—a huge change for the military to adjust to.

      Jason laughed. “I haven’t a clue. She wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, but in our business, we don’t wear jewelry when we fly.”

      “Well, find out, okay?”

      “Mom, you are so nosy sometimes!”

      She laughed a little. Kamaria waved the spoon and Laura lifted her hand and waved back. “I’m a woman, dear, and those things are important to us. What does Ms. Dazen look like? You said she was Indian?”

      “Yeah, she’s tall and well proportioned, from what I can see. She probably lifts weights. There’s no fat on her. But she isn’t a twig, either. There’s some meat to her bones.”

      “Black hair? Copper skin?”

      “Yeah, that, too. Nice eyes.”

      Laura heard his tone of voice thaw a little. Her heart thumped with hope. Oh, please, God, let Jason get along with this woman. Let there be peace, not war between them.

      “What color? Brown?”

      “Golden color, really. I can see her pupils in them. She has large, alert eyes, Mom. In some ways, she reminds me of an owl. Not because of the shape of her eyes, but that gold-yellow color. Remember that great horned owl that used to nest in the pine trees on the east side of our home?”

      “Oh, Miss Lucy. Sure.” Laura had named the huge brown-and-white owl that used to roost high above their two-story cedar home in the woods.

      “Eyes like that. Pretty.”

      “Sounds as if you like her already.”

      “Well…I wouldn’t go that far, Mom. She’s okay. She’s friendly and seems to want to make me feel at home.”

      “That’s a good sign.”

      “Yeah, maybe. It will probably all change when she finds out about my infamous past.”

      Laura hurt for her son. She knew that gossip followed everyone in the military like a curse. Sooner or later, Dazen would find out about Jason’s shameful history. Gripping the phone a little more tightly, she whispered, “Well, maybe Ms. Dazen isn’t going to hold it against you.”

      Sighing, Jason said, “I’ll find out, that’s for sure.”

      “Do you need anything, honey?”

      “No, just to hear your voice. It reminds me of home.”

      Laura closed her eyes. Jason loved being home. He loved living in Montana. He loved working with plants and animals. In high school, he’d excelled in biology. But Morgan had wanted him to go to a military academy to carry on the proud, two-hundred-year-plus tradition of the Trayhern family. Since Jason was the oldest male he was expected to go into the military. Laura knew he really hadn’t wanted to. Instead, he had wanted to become an ecologist and work outdoors, somewhere in nature. But that wasn’t to be.

      “Well, you can come home on leave, son. Your bedroom is unchanged from the day you left it.” Laura knew Jason would never come home, not until he healed the rift with Morgan. Jason always spent his thirty days of leave overseas, instead. It had been nearly three years since Laura had even seen her son—not since the Five Days of Christmas party right after his first year in Annapolis.

      “Yeah, I know, Mom. I should come home…but, well, you know how it is.”

      “I know…”

      “Listen, I gotta run. I’ll be in touch next week. Love you. Say hi to Pete and Kelly, and give little Kamaria a hug from me?”

      Tears burned in Laura’s eyes. She cleared her throat and whispered, “I always do, honey.”

      “And how’s Katy? What have you heard from her?”

      Laura knew it hurt Jason that his younger sister, two years behind him in age, had taken up the family honor and volunteered to go to the Academy to represent them. Before Jason left, he’d been very close to Katy.

      “She’s doing fine, honey. She’s flying Seahawk down in Columbia for the Black Ops stuff.”

      “Just like Dad….”

      Laura СКАЧАТЬ