“At first.”
“No serious quarrels? Infidelity?”
“No. At least I was faithful. I believe he was until Darlene Strong.”
“When was he deployed to Afghanistan?”
“Summer of 2007.”
“Wasn’t he a little old to be going?”
“He was highly specialized. He was needed.”
“How’d he feel about going?”
“He couldn’t wait. Even having experienced Iraq, he wanted to go. I admit that I didn’t take it so well. I feared for his safety, and I hated that he’d miss so much of Hunter’s infancy. He was only a few months old when Jeremy shipped out.”
“That was shit luck.”
She smiled wanly. “I think I said that myself a few times. But I tried to keep my correspondence with Jeremy upbeat. I didn’t want to make him feel guilty over having to leave us. He didn’t like the timing particularly, but he was excited to be going. More than that, he was willing to make the sacrifice because he considered serving a sacred duty.”
“To his country.”
“Yes.”
“He loved America? He was a patriot?”
“Of course.”
“He never questioned the war, or America’s motives behind it, never said anything negative about the government?”
“He was a Marine. And, anyway, why would you even ask that?”
“I’m not implying anything. It’s just that those are popular topics of debate these days.” He looked into his wineglass, but didn’t take a drink. As a lead-in for her, he said, “When he came home…”
She took a deep breath. “I immediately noticed changes in him. He seemed glad to be back, but he didn’t laugh as much. I’d catch him staring into space, and when he realized I had noticed, he would force a joke. The baby’s crying annoyed him, especially when we…” She cut her eyes up to him, then away. “When he wanted my undivided attention.”
The sexual implication hovered there between them. Self-consciously she waited for another question. None came. For a long moment they only stared at each other. Then she remembered what he’d said about how revealing silences were.
“I feel terrible about saying this now.” She spoke softly as though to underscore her reluctance. “But it was almost a relief when he left for his second tour. He took the tension in the house with him. Hunter became a happier, more contented baby. Which was good, since I discovered a few weeks after Jeremy left that I was pregnant again.”
He shifted his stance against the porch railing and turned his head to one side, giving her his profile. She noted that he was chewing the inside of his cheek, but whether in consternation or simply deep thought, she didn’t know.
Finally he looked back at her. “Did he ever tell you about conditions over there?”
“Only in the most basic of terms. ‘It’s hot.’ ‘It’s turned cold.’ ‘Today I had my first shower in a month.’ Like that.”
“Nothing specific?”
She shook her head. “He commanded snipers. That’s all I know. Most of the time, he couldn’t even tell me where he was. He probably wouldn’t have told me even if it hadn’t been classified. He didn’t want me to worry.”
“You had a baby and another on the way.”
“And with Grant I suffered terrible morning sickness.”
He grinned, revealing that crooked tooth. “Yeah?”
“With Hunter, not a day of it. With Grant, I threw up several times a day for six months.”