“Wasn’t what?”
“It didn’t take any time at all. It isn’t clumsy. It’s freaking incredible. She’s freaking incredible.”
Paul shook his head in confusion. “Is there a problem in here somewhere?”
“I’m leaving pretty soon,” he said. “Right after graduation I go to basic, then West Point. For years.” Then he hung his head.
“Aah,” Paul said. So, the boy had tapped the honey pot and found it sweeter than life. He wanted that to be a part of every day for the rest of his life. And West Point was going to lock him up for four years—you couldn’t live away from the academy, couldn’t graduate if you got married. “You won’t be gone forever,” Paul said.
“It’s going to seem like it.”
“I bet it will. But if she feels the same way you do, you have something very nice to look forward to. When the time’s right.” Paul took a sip of coffee. “Hey, man, even if you didn’t have West Point, eighteen’s just too young to do the forever thing.”
“Does it ever happen? Do people like me and Brenda fall in love as kids and stay together?”
“Happens more than you might think,” he said with a shrug. “My buddy Zeke, firefighter from Fresno? Married his high school sweetheart and so far they have four kids. They managed to do that even with being separated by the Marine Corps for at least two years. Phillips and Stephens were married pretty young—have nice little families. And they’re still so crazy about their women, it’s almost ridiculous. You’d think they just met them.”
“I never expected this,” Tom said. “I didn’t expect it to be so natural, so awesome. Makes me feel like I can’t live without her. Makes me feel sick to my stomach to even think about her ever being with another guy. I can’t imagine ever being with another girl. It just has me torn up inside.”
Paul chuckled in spite of himself. “Tommy,” he said, putting a strong hand on his shoulder. “You’re talking about the thing that makes the bucks lock horns, makes bulls tear down barn doors to get to the cow. Men go into battle for less. Makes you think you’d risk anything, give up anything, lay awake at night in a cold sweat…”
“Shew,” he said. “I guess that’s what they mean when they say love hurts,” Tom said.
“No, buddy, it doesn’t. You just said so yourself—it feels wonderful to love someone and to make love. Keep your focus—separation hurts, breaking up hurts, infidelity hurts—but love, man, that’s what we live for. Because it feels good.”
“Sounds like you know what you’re talking about,” Tom said. “But it doesn’t look like you do.”
Paul frowned and gave that shoulder a squeeze. “I know. I just haven’t worked out all the details yet.”
At nine Paul threw his duffel in the back of his truck. He shook Tom’s hand and told him to hang in there, shook the general’s hand and thanked him for his hospitality, and after checking Vanni’s eyes and seeing that she had softened and wasn’t going to bite him or kick him, he slipped an arm around her waist, kissed her forehead and said, “I’m going to call you when I get back to Grants Pass tonight. We have some things to talk about. Maybe without the yelling part.”
She turned her sparkling turquoise eyes up to his face and said, “I’ll be here.”
Before heading up the highway to Oregon, Paul took a swing by Mel and Jack’s. He knocked softly on the door and Jack answered, David still in his pajamas balanced on his hip. “Morning,” Jack said. “Heading out of town?”
“Yeah. But if you have a few minutes, I need to talk.”
“Sure. We can sit out here so we don’t wake Mel. She was up half the night with her back hurting and she’s sleeping in. I have coffee. Want a cup?”
“That would be great,” he said, though he’d already had enough coffee to screw up his nerves pretty good.
Jack handed off David to Paul while he went for coffee and a bowl of dry Cheerios for his son. They settled in the Adirondack chairs, looking out over the valley below. David sat on the porch floor with his bowl of cereal between his legs.
“You don’t look too good,” Jack said.
“I’m not too good. I’ve really messed things up. After little Matt was born, after I went home, I was pretty shook up. All those months of hanging in there with Vanni and not really taking any time to grieve my best friend took a toll, I guess. Might’ve vented a little bit. There’s this girl back in Grants Pass…”