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Lindy nodded. “I’m not fickle and my brother knows that. I didn’t marry you on the rebound. I swear that, Rush. I love you.”
Rush’s face broke into a slow, relaxed grin and he draped his arm over her shoulders. “And I love you, wife.”
Lindy tucked her head beneath his chin and snuggled into his warm embrace, cherishing the closeness they shared. She didn’t expect anyone else to understand something she couldn’t explain herself. Finding Rush was like stumbling upon her other half. With him she was whole.
“What went wrong with Steve and Carol?” Lindy asked quietly as her thoughts drifted back to her brother. She was concerned about the changes she saw in him.
Rush was silent for a long moment. “I’m not sure. Like you, I felt it was his and Carol’s business, but I’m almost certain she was unfaithful.”
“No way.” If Lindy knew anything about her ex-sister-in-law it was that gentle, sweet Carol would never cheat on Steve. “She just isn’t the type.”
“Then I haven’t any idea what went wrong.”
“How sad,” Lindy murmured. It was obvious to her that Steve had changed drastically since his divorce. Although she couldn’t believe Carol had been unfaithful to her brother, that would explain Steve’s statement about not trusting anyone anymore.
“I think we could both learn a valuable lesson from what happened with your brother’s marriage,” Rush said, his voice tightening.
“What?” Lindy asked, and raised her head to study her husband’s face. His eyes had darkened slightly and she wasn’t able to read his thoughts, but she had a good idea what he was thinking. And she didn’t like it. Not one damn bit. “Are you going to start lecturing me, Rush Callaghan?”
“Lecturing you?”
“Yes. I have a fair idea of what you’re going to say.”
The muscles of his face relaxed into a half smile as he leaned against the back of the davenport and crossed his arms. His knowing eyes came alive with mischief. “Oh, you do, do you?”
“You were about to give me some dopey line about what we’re experiencing now being some kind of euphoric stage all lovers go through.”
“I was?”
“Yes, you were. You were going to say we’re experiencing a time when everything and everyone is perfect. There’s no one else on the planet but us and nothing else but our newly discovered love.”
Rush’s brows arched, but if he was portraying anything other than amusement, Lindy couldn’t tell.
“And…”
“There’s more?” he asked, and laughed, his rich baritone sounding relaxed and amused.
“Oh, I’m just getting to the good part.” She stood and rubbed the palms of her hands together, sorting through her thoughts.
“Well?” he pressed, having trouble disguising his amusement.
“You’re about to tell me that the tension is gone. We’ve stepped over the line, entered the bedroom and now that territory has been charted.”
“Not as much as I’d like, but we’ll make up for lost time later.” Rush’s words were more promise than comment.
“Don’t interrupt me.”
“Sorry.” He didn’t look the least bit repentant.
“You’re going to tell me we’re about to step off cloud nine and should expect to be hit with a healthy dose of reality. We could be headed for trouble now. If we aren’t careful, what happened to Steve and Carol could happen to us.”
All traces of amusement faded from Rush’s eyes and his face tightened. Lindy knew she was right. “By this time tomorrow, you’ll be gone.” She forced herself to offer him a brave smile. “And I’m going to be alone.”
Rush stood. His eyebrows were pulled down into a heavy ledge of concern. “That’s right, Lindy. Up until this point everything’s gone smoothly for us. Our whole world has been telescoped into a two-part universe. After tomorrow everything will change, and I doubt that it’ll ever be exactly the same again. In two weeks you could be wondering how you ever imagined yourself in love with me.”
“That will never happen.” She shook her head hard for emphasis.
“In two months, you’ll have forgotten what I look like.”
From his narrowed, tight expression, Lindy knew he wouldn’t listen to any denials. She hadn’t started this conversation to argue with him. The last thing she wanted was for them to spend their remaining hours fighting.
“You’re married to a man you hardly know who’s going to be leaving you for half a year. The next time I see you, it’ll be close to Christmas.”
She crossed her arms and cleared her throat loudly. “Have you finished?”
“Finished what?”
“Your lecture.”
“Lindy, I’m serious. I—”
“You’re not saying anything I haven’t already thought about a hundred times. I love you, Rush, and I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. My feelings aren’t going to change in ten days or ten years.”
Tenderly he wrapped her in his arms then, and held her close. If there was anything more he wanted to tell her, he left it unsaid.
* * *
Hours later Rush lay on his back in bed with Lindy nestled, sleeping, in his arms. He hadn’t been able to sleep, dreading the thought of leaving her. Getting married the way they had was possibly the most irresponsible thing he’d done in his life. But he didn’t care. Given the same set of circumstances he’d marry Lindy again. Gladly.
She astonished him. She was so sure, so absolutely confident they’d done the right thing. Her unwavering trust had been contagious. God knew, he’d wanted her badly enough. Steve seemed to think he’d taken advantage of her, and perhaps he had, but that couldn’t be changed now. Lindy was his wife, and by all that he considered holy, he planned to be a good husband to her.
He closed his eyes and inhaled the fresh scent of jasmine and perfume that was Lindy’s alone, knowing full well that within a few hours he would be walking away from her.
Rush thought his heart would burst with the love he felt for his wife. He softly kissed the crown of her head, cradled in the crook between his neck and shoulder.
Lindy Callaghan was some kind of woman. They’d made love together, their bodies moving in perfect synchronization, as though they’d been married for years. All afternoon and evening, they’d teased and played lovers’ games, pretending they had forever. But it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. Rush wanted her again. Now. But he had the feeling making love to her a thousand times wouldn’t be enough to satisfy him.
* * *
Lindy woke from a sound sleep when Rush pushed the thin fabric of her nightgown aside, his fingers light and quick. She hardly felt his movements until his mouth closed greedily over her nipple. She sucked on her bottom lip to keep from whimpering as the hot stab of pleasure pierced her. Her head ground into the pillow with every moist stroke of his tongue. And when his teeth gently tugged at the raised peaks of her breasts, it felt as if he were pulling at a thread that was linked to the heart and heat of her womanhood. She moaned anew at a pleasure so intense it was akin to pain, and still Rush sucked at the pebbled hardness. Again and again, like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, he sampled the sweetness of the nectar from her breasts until he was pleasurably sated.
When she was sure she was about to melt with liquifying, pulsating need, Rush lifted his head. He lay on his side and slid his hand down the smooth length of her stomach until his caressing fingers tangled in the nest of wispy hair. He paused.
Lindy stopped breathing as his fingers slowly delved deeper, charting fresh territory as they sought the opening to the moist warmth. With his probing finger inside her, Lindy lifted her bottom and rotated her hips, saying without words what she wanted. Rush’s mouth returned to her nipple and the hot cord of pleasure joining her breasts and the core of her womanhood was drawn even tighter as he connected the two ends.
When he had nearly driven her to the limits of sanity, Rush moved his body over hers. In one unbroken action, he entered her.
They both gasped at the strength of the undiluted pleasure.
Their eyes met and locked in the darkness. He was buried as deeply inside her as he could go, and still he didn’t move. Lindy felt his limbs tremble as he struggled to gain control of his raging desire. She moaned in protest and squirmed beneath him, grinding her hips against him until he cried out her name in an agonized plea.
“Honey…please…don’t do that.”
“I can’t help it.” Once more she raised her bottom enough to experience the intimate friction she craved so desperately.
“Lindy.” He hissed her name again through clenched teeth. “For pity’s sake, don’t…. Every time you do that…oh, Lindy….”
She gazed up at his tortured face and lifted her head to kiss him. He responded by thrusting his tongue in her mouth while all ten fingers tunneled through her hair.
He started to move then in a long, slow stroke that plunged him deep within her. She whimpered when he withdrew, but he quickly sank into her again and again and again, bringing them to a shared climax several moments later. Together they cried out, their hearts sailed and they soared into a new shining universe as their voices shouted in joyous celebration.
Still sheathed inside her, Rush whispered urgently, “You’re mine, Lindy. Mine.”
“Yours,” she whispered in return. “Only yours.”
* * *
Lindy had never seen so many people gathered in one place in her life. It seemed the entire navy had come to watch the tugboats tow the Mitchell out of Sinclair Inlet.
Susan Dwyer stood at Lindy’s side on the long pier, looking at the huge aircraft carrier as it sliced through the dark green waters. Helicopters from the local television stations hovered overhead and small planes zoomed past to get pictures of the carrier as it was tugged away from the Bremerton shipyard.
“How do you feel?” Susan asked, shouting above the noise of the cheering crowd.
“I don’t know.” Lindy shook her head, feeling a little numb. A lump rose in her throat. When she’d kissed Rush goodbye, she’d felt the reluctance and tension in him, but no shrinking. As much as he wanted to stay with her, as much as he longed for them to be together, he longed for the sea more. He was going to leave her because it was his duty, his destiny. He belonged to the navy, and she had only been granted second rights.
“I’m not going to cry.” That much Lindy knew.
“Good girl.” Susan was dry-eyed herself. “You’re going to do just fine. We both are. These six months will fly by. Just you wait and see, and before we know it they’ll both be back, randy as hell and—” She stopped abruptly and heaved in a deep breath. “Who am I trying to kid? It’s going to be the pits.” Her gaze clouded and she bit into her trembling bottom lip. “I think I’m pregnant again.”
Lindy didn’t know what to say. “Does Jeff know?”
“Nope. I went off the Pill last month when they left the first time. There didn’t seem to be any reason to keep taking them when Jeff was going away for all those months. I forgot to take the stupid things half the time anyway. Then Jeff was home and I didn’t even think about it until yesterday morning.”
“Why then?”
“I threw up.”
“Oh, Susan. Are you going to be all right?”
“If I said yes, would you believe me?”
“Probably.”
Her friend sighed. “Well, don’t. I have miserable pregnancies. And I don’t think Jeff’s going to be pleased, either. We’d agreed to wait at least another couple of years.”
Lindy found a tissue in her purse and handed it to her friend, who quickly wiped the moisture from her pale cheeks.
“Tears are another sure sign with me.”
“I’d better keep track of these symptoms,” Lindy muttered absently.
Susan paused, blew her nose and turned to face Lindy. “What do you mean?”
“Rush and I weren’t using any birth control, either…. It wasn’t the right time of the month for me to start the Pill, and well, to be honest, we didn’t discuss it.”
“Oh, Lindy, how do we let these things happen?”
Lindy didn’t have an answer to that. Not once during the last two nights had she given any thought to the fact that she could become pregnant. It certainly wouldn’t be any great tragedy, but she would have preferred to wait a year or two before they started a family. Rush hadn’t said a word, either. It seemed improbable that he hadn’t thought of the possibility.
“You want to come back to the house with me and share a hot fudge sundae and a jar of pickles?” Susan asked seriously.
Lindy shook her head. “My brother arrived yesterday. We haven’t had much of a chance to talk.”
“Keep in touch.”
“I will,” Lindy promised.
* * *
Steve was watching the newscast that showed the Mitchell pulling out of Puget Sound when Lindy entered the apartment. He didn’t so much as look away from the television screen when she entered the living room, and Lindy paused, anticipating the worst.
“If you’re going to yell at me, do it now and get it over with,” she said, standing just inside the room. After saying farewell to Rush she didn’t need anything more to dampen her already low spirits.
Her brother leaned forward and pressed the remote control dial, turning off the television set.
“Dear God, Lindy, what have you done?”
“I just said goodbye to my husband,” she answered him, in a steady, controlled voice.
“Why’d you marry him?”
“For the usual reasons, I assure you.”
Steve wiped a hand down his face. “I wish to hell I could say how happy I am for you, but I can’t. I know you too well, Lindy. This marriage just isn’t going to work. You’re not the type of woman who’s going to accept the life-style the navy demands. How can you possibly expect to know a man well enough to marry him in three weeks?”
“I know everything I need to.”
“I suppose he told you about Cheryl?”
She squared her shoulders and stiffened her spine in a defiant gesture. She knew there’d been someone else, but Rush hadn’t filled in the details. She hadn’t told him everything about Paul, either.
“Did he?” Steve pressed.
“No,” she flared.
“You’re married to a man and you know nothing about his past.”
“I love Rush and he loves me. That’s all I need.” Lindy was painfully conscious of her brother’s adverse feelings toward her and Rush, but she was at a loss to understand his hostility. Unless his divorce had completely tainted his views on marriage.
Steve shook his head, his face pinched in a deep frown. “I’m afraid you’ve made the biggest mistake of your life, Lindy Kyle.”
She stepped into the room and sat on the sofa arm. “The name’s Lindy Callaghan, now.”
Chapter 11
Susan Dwyer met Lindy at the front door. “Welcome,” she said, bringing her inside the house. A group of women sat in the living room and smiled enthusiastically when Lindy entered the room. She recognized several of the faces from the restaurant where she and Rush had eaten their wedding dinner, but remembering all their names would have been impossible.
“Hello,” Lindy said, cordially nodding her head toward the others. She took the only available chair and crossed her long legs, hoping she gave the appearance of being at ease. Susan had invited her over for a late lunch the week before, but her friend hadn’t mentioned that anyone else would be present.
“I thought it was time you got to know some of the other wives,” Susan said as a means of explanation.
“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.
“We always survive,” Susan added softly. “Now, as I said earlier, we’re not going to knock poor Lindy over the head with everything in one afternoon.”
“Yeah, we plan to give it to you in small doses.”
“Has anyone else stopped to figure out how much time married couples are separated if the husband is in the navy?” Mary asked, holding a calculator in her hand. Her fingers were punching in a long list of numbers that she called out at regular intervals. “According to my figures, during a twenty-year enlistment—” her fingers flew over the keys “—the husband and wife will spend six years apart.”
“Six years?” Lindy repeated while the numbers whirled around her head.
“It’s not so bad,” Susan said, and patted Lindy’s hand to tell her she understood her friend’s distress. “In small doses.”
“While I’ve got everyone here,” Joanna added, snapping her briefcase shut and setting it aside. “Remember you need to have your letters mailed by the fifteenth of each month.”