Out of Uniform (Wingmen Warriors 14)

Her fingers fluttered to her necklace, the D glinting. She frowned. Her face cleared as her hand fell to her lap. “Dee. Dee Smith.”

“Smith, huh?”

“Yes, Smith.”

Let her keep her little secrets. Maybe she didn’t want her indiscretion to become public knowledge. “I don’t mean to pry, but it’s fairly obvious you’re stranded. Is there someone I can call to give you a ride?”

“There’s no one.”

That stunk. He remembered the feeling from when he was a kid with a dad who didn’t give a crap. Now he had people he could call on 24/7 anywhere, anytime. He could give a shout out to any of his Air Force friends stationed back at Charleston Air Force base in South Carolina. He even had some closer who’d transferred to the C-17 base in Tacoma.

He didn’t take that sense of family for granted, not for one second.

Dee slid her hands under the coat. “If you really meant it about staying in the room another few hours, I’ll just rest, then call a cab when the phones are up and working.”

“No cab’s going to come from Tacoma to this microdot on the map, especially not in this weather. It’s dicey if the roads will even stay open much longer.”

What would she do now to dodge telling him her real story? Playing mind games with each other could be fun, if she didn’t have that bleak expression plastered across her face.

He sat beside her and waited. He was patient and thrived on puzzles, like putting the pieces together in an engine so things worked right again. Restoring order, even to a car, had given him a sense of control as a teen stuck in a chaotic home.

The rust-rimmed truck on the highway slowed and swerved into the parking lot. It bounced along the rutted ice, plowing with methodical sweeps. His ear tuned to listen for any warning noises from the engine, but the hum sounded a helluva lot better now thanks to his tune-up last weekend. Installing the new battery one-handed had been a challenge, but he’d enjoyed the familiar scents, routine, being able to fix something in his hay-wire world. Apparently not much had changed since he’d left.

Dee pointed to the teenage driver. “What about her?”

With each quick turn of the Ford 250, the girl’s ponytail bobbed just above her parka.

“That’s my sister.” Who shouldn’t be out in this storm, and certainly not with her baby in tow. But Emily had run wild on her own for years. Their father had been long on smiles, jokes and unkept promises, but short on maturity, structure and follow-through. He didn’t give a damn what his kids did so long as they didn’t make any demands on him.

Guilt kicked at Jacob all over again for not taking Emily along when he’d left. But the state wouldn’t pull her out of her father’s care to stay with a military brother who was deployed most of every year. His job hadn’t changed, and he needed to figure out some way for a seventeen-year-old unwed mother to care for herself and her baby. “She uses our dad’s old truck to clear driveways and side roads before school for extra money. School’s canceled and she shouldn’t even be out at all. No help for you there, I’m afraid.”

He needed to move this woman along and have a talk with his sister. Emily avoided discussing the future as if somehow that would make their problems disappear.

“Oh.” Dee’s blue lip quivered as Emily’s truck disappeared around the office to clear the back lot.

As much as he needed to move on, he couldn’t just walk away, not when tears hovered on the edges of her eyelids. “Hey, now, are you okay?”

“I’m not crying.” She sniffled.

“Right. Of course you’re not.”

“I’m not!” The starch layered back into her voice and spine.

“Okay!” His hands raised in surrender.

Icy sludge from the plow gathered and slapped to the side. Dee drew her feet in, tucking Jacob’s coat around her ankles. Trim, delicate ankles, like the rest of her.

A slow burn started inside him.

She was prettier up close than he’d originally thought, not that he planned to do a thing about it beyond admiring the view. “I can give you a ride when the storm passes, but you’re probably stuck here for at least another night until the roads clear.”

Her eyes fluttered closed. “How much are the rates?”

“If you need a loan—”

“No handouts. But thank you.”

He wanted to tell her pride had a way of biting folks when they least expected it. He’d been so busy flying around the world to save people in other countries he’d let down his own sister. “I can give you a ride into town later.” He held up a freezing finger to stop her. “Just think it over and get back to me.”