“Commander,” Alison said, breaking into his soliloquy. This was the most he’d ever said to her at one time. “Yes.”
“Yes?” He eyed her quizzically.
“I’d be honored to have dinner with you.”
He seemed tentative, unbelieving, and Ali smiled.
“More than honored,” she added softly and reached for her own coffee. She needed a sip to ease the dryness in her mouth and throat.
“It won’t be for several months,” he warned.
“I’m well aware of that, Commander.”
He sighed and looked away. “Don’t take this personally, but it’s not a good idea for us to continue meeting here.”
Disappointment hit her hard. “Why not?” Their meetings were completely innocent. This was the third night in a row, and not once had they even touched.
“Lieutenant Commander,” Frank said, his voice barely above a whisper. “You tempt me and while I’m a disciplined man, I don’t think I can hold back my feelings for you indefinitely. Give me a date and a time I can meet you in Seattle and I’ll be there.”
Alison met his eyes and smiled. “January twenty-seventh. One o’clock in the afternoon. At the bronze pig in Pike Place Market.”
She’d chosen the date a bit recklessly, perhaps, but that was Peter’s birthday, which made it easy to remember. And she was very sure Peter would approve….
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Aren’t you going to call Uncle Adam?” Jazmine was pestering Shana for about the hundredth time that week.
“Why should I?” Shana muttered, scooping ice cream from the bottom of the caramel pecan container and packing what remained into a quart-size one. This was her life these days. For at least two hours every day, she risked frostbite with her face in the freezer.
“You know,” she said, righting herself and holding up the ice-cream scoop for emphasis, “when I moved to Seattle, I decided I was finished with men. I didn’t need a man in my life then and I don’t need one now. I’m better off without them.”
Jazmine sat on the other side of the counter, her chin propped in her hands. Shana noticed that she was frowning.
“We don’t need boys?”
“We don’t,” Shana reiterated.
“At all?”
“Well, technically we do, but only for reproductive purposes.” This was definitely an area she didn’t want to get into with a nine-year-old.
“But aren’t they kind of fun to have around?”
She realized she was tainting her niece’s mind because of her own negative experiences. That had to stop. Besides, Adam had potential—or he did when he wasn’t overtaken by jealousy. The thing was, he had absolutely nothing to be jealous about. It was almost as if he wanted to be upset with her. Fine, then, she’d just let him.
“Men have their uses,” Shana replied guardedly.
“I thought you liked Uncle Adam.”
“I do…I did…I do.” While Shana was still annoyed with Adam, she missed him, too. That was the point. She didn’t want to think about him, but she couldn’t help it—which annoyed her even more.
“You should call him,” Jazmine suggested again.
Shana refused to do that. “I phoned last time. It’s his turn.”
“Oh.” Her niece sounded distressed.
“What’s wrong?” Shana asked, unsure what had brought the woebegone expression to Jazmine’s face.
Jazmine sighed deeply. “I was just hoping you liked Uncle Adam the same way he likes you.”
Now Shana was the one frowning. “I do like him. It’s just that two people don’t always see eye-to-eye.” This was difficult enough to explain to an adult, let alone a child. “Sometimes it’s best to simply leave things alone.”
“It is?” Jazmine squinted as though confused. “Is that how you felt about Brad?”
Shana thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, in the beginning. When I first broke up with him.”
“But you went to see him again ’cause you didn’t like the way it ended, right?”
“Right. I regretted the fact that I’d run off in a fit of righteous indignation. It was over, and I wanted him to know that in a civilized manner.”
“You aren’t being impulsive now? About not phoning Uncle Adam?”
Coming out from behind the counter, Shana slid onto the stool next to her niece. Sighing expressively, she said, “You’re pretty smart for a kid.”
Jazmine flashed her a bright smile. “How come?”
“You just are.” Her niece had told her what she needed to hear. She’d refused to phone Adam strictly out of pride. Their last conversation had been painful. She’d been lighthearted and hopeful when she called him, but his gruff responses had short-circuited her joy. He hadn’t phoned her since and she hadn’t phoned him, either. They were behaving like children.
“That’s what I don’t understand,” Jazmine murmured, returning to her original pose, chin cupped in her hands, elbows splayed. “You went to talk to Brad, but you won’t go see Uncle Adam.”
“He’s in Hawaii.” It wasn’t like he was a three-hour drive down the interstate. “It isn’t that easy to get to Hawaii.”
“Don’t they have ninety-nine-dollar flights there?”
“I doubt it.” More than likely it would be five hundred dollars. Shana sat up. Then again, going to see him in Hawaii might help clear up this misunderstanding—resolve this stalemate—and she wanted that. She believed he did, too. One of them had to make the first move and it might as well be her.
Shana was shocked at herself. She was actually considering this. She’d spent all that money on the dress she’d worn to see Brad, and now she was about to spend more. She supposed she could always wear her new dress when—if—she went to see Adam. Why not?
“You could check the computer,” Jazmine said confidently. “There are advertisements on TV all the time about airfare deals over the Internet.”
“You think I should?”
Jazmine nodded eagerly. “If you find a cheap ticket to Hawaii, you should go.”
“I can’t close the restaurant.”
“You don’t need to close it. Catherine ran it when we went to Portland,” Jazmine reminded her. “And that was just to see Brad.”
She opened her mouth to claim that seeing Brad was different. Well…it was and it wasn’t. She’d been willing to make arrangements and a few sacrifices in order to talk to him. And she cared about Adam a hundred times more than she did Brad.
“Remember Tim, the single dad who wanted to go out with you?” Jazmine asked.
“Yes. Why?”
“I saw him in the park. He’s back with his wife and he said it was because of you.”
“Me?”
“Yup—he said you were the one who told him he was still in love with her. He knew you were right but the hardest part was telling Heather—that’s her name. He’s really glad he did, though.”
“I’m glad, too. But why are you—”
Before Shana could finish the question, Jazmine blurted out her reply. “Because the hardest part is you telling Uncle Adam how you feel—so do it!”
“I will.” Shana closed her eyes. She wanted this relationship with Adam to work. All the years she’d been with Brad, friends and co-workers had said he didn’t deserve her, and she’d refused to listen. Now the people she loved and respected most were telling her that Adam was a dream come true—and once again she hadn’t been listening. But that was about to change.
“It all depends on whether Louis and Catherine can work while we’re away,” Shana murmured, biting her bottom lip.
“They can,” Jazmine said immediately. “They love it here. And if you marry Uncle Adam, they want to buy the business.” She leaned close and whispered conspiratorially, “I heard them talking about it.”
Now that the idea had taken root, Shana was convinced it was the right thing to do. She knew that if she sat down with Adam for five minutes, they’d get past the false impressions and false pride. She wanted him in her life; it was that simple.
“We’re going to Hawaii?” Jazmine asked, her look expectant.
Shana smiled and slowly nodded. Yes, they were going to Hawaii. Adam might think this relationship was over, but she wasn’t willing to lose out on her best chance for happiness yet. If everything went as she prayed it would, she just might end up with a Navy husband.
Adam’s bad mood hadn’t improved in a week. A dozen times, probably more, he’d lifted the receiver to call Shana. This estrangement was his fault. But for reasons he didn’t want to examine, he’d been reluctant to phone.
Okay, it was time to own up to the truth. He’d been waiting for her to break down and phone him. After more than a week, he might as well accept that it wasn’t going to happen.
“You feeling better?” John asked when Adam arrived at the office Friday morning.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “What do you think are my chances of hitching a transport to Seattle this weekend?”
John perked up. “You’re going to see her?”
Adam nodded. As best as he could figure, this was the only way he and Shana would ever make any progress. He was ready to take responsibility for his part in this fiasco and admit he’d overreacted. After all, she’d said it was over between her and this Bernie character.
From today, from this moment forward, he chose to believe her. His next task was to tell her he’d been wrong. He didn’t like apologizing, but having Shana in his life was worth a few minutes of humiliation.
“This is good news,” John said, grinning broadly. “Finally.”
Adam leaned back in his chair. He’d get to Seattle one way or another, even if it meant paying for a commercial flight.
“Are you going to let her know you’re coming?” John asked.
“No.”
“So you’re going to surprise her?”
“I believe I will,” he said, already deep in thought.
He pictured the reunion: Shana would be at the ice-cream parlor with a dozen kids all placing their orders at once. She was great with kids, great with Jazmine, patient and generous.
She’d be scooping ice cream for all those kids, and then she’d look up and there he’d be, standing in the doorway. He’d wear his uniform. Women were said to like a man in uniform, and Adam decided he needed all the help he could get.
He returned to his imagined scenario. Naturally Shana would be astonished to see him; she might even drop the ice-cream scoop. Their eyes would meet, and everything else in the room would fade as she came around the counter and walked into his embrace. Adam’s arms suddenly ached with the need to hold her. Until this very minute, he hadn’t realized just how badly he wanted Shana in his life. He’d felt the need to link his life with a woman’s earlier that summer, and that need had grown stronger, more irresistible, ever since he’d met Shana.
