One Star-Spangled Night (3 page)

“Think twice before bothering me,” he warned as they exchanged numbers.

Gathering her things to leave, she got in one last parting shot. “Oh, and you’re buying. Since I’m only a
lowly lieutenant
.”

Doug couldn’t help but chuckle as he watched her walk away.

“Lieutenant,” he called after her. She turned and walked backward. Doug simply shook his head. How did she get through OCS, Officers Candidate School? The woman had no military bearing whatsoever and if she wasn’t careful she’d step right off the pier. “Wear your running shoes tomorrow. And if you’re late, don’t bother calling. You’ll have a hard time catching up.”

CHAPTER THREE

Lindsey wasn’t a clock watcher by nature. Normally, she had to set her cell phone alarm just to remind herself not to be late, but her mind kept wandering from the premarital inventories she was trying to grade.

Premarital tests weren’t designed to pass or fail a couple. She just wanted to identify key areas the soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Marietta might need to work on.

After checking her watch for the tenth time in as many minutes, Lindsey gave in to the inevitable and hurried off to change into a pink and black racer back tank with built in running bra and matching black running skirt.

She wasn’t about to let the Captain take off without her.

The pier was within walking distance of the chapel annex and she arrived fifteen minutes early to find Captain Reese stretching his quads. Even though she knew he had to be a career officer with twenty or more years in service, she would have guessed him to be much younger. He had the body of a twenty something and dressed like a frat boy in a worn gray T-shirt and shorts.

A sure sign he was a bachelor.

A wife would have thrown out that rag a long time ago.

His martial status was no concern of hers, although she did feel a professional curiosity after noticing his lack of a wedding band yesterday. A lot of married military men and women didn’t wear them because of their jobs. Or wore breakaway bands for fear of losing a finger.

Any speculation on her part was wrong.

As wrong as this nervous anticipation she felt at seeing him again. She’d meant it when she’d said she had no interest in being his counselor. But Admiral Dunning hadn’t given her a choice. So she was kind of stuck with the job.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t look forward to spending time with Captain Doug Reese and getting to know him better. Sucking in her breath, Lindsey strode up to the man who’d remained oblivious to her arrival.

“Warming up without me?” The moment the words slipped past her lips, Lindsey wanted to retract them.

Oh, that didn’t sound like a come on.

When he turned around she saw he wore his usual scowl. But the slight lift to his brow and curl to the corner of his mouth suggested he might be more amused than annoyed. “Just a little stiff.”

Do not even think it, Lin.

“I keep telling myself it’s the mileage, not the years. Been around the world seventeen times, but I’ve never seen anything quite like what you’re wearing.” He looked her up and down. “Should I have brought a racket? Or maybe pom-poms?”

She followed his gaze down her outfit. “It’s a running skirt.”

“Okay, then.” He nodded toward the distance and took off in that direction.

Lindsey was no match for his longer stride, but that didn’t stop her from trying. He led them away from the pier along the seawall. The slight breeze coming off the ocean helped dissipate the petroleum-based odor as they left the shipyard. An occasional runner passed them going in the opposite direction while gulls echoed in the distance. It could have been a pleasant run on a nice warm, but not too warm, late May afternoon.

“Where’s the fire?” she asked after awhile. Her words came in pants despite the fact she’d just spent a year running around in battle dress with a full pack on her back in one hundred and twenty degree desert heat.

“Need me to slow down, Chaplain?”

“Not on your life.” She wished she could muster a burst of speed to prove it. Despite her best effort, she was already beginning to fade as they rounded the point.

He glanced at his watch and adjusted his pace accordingly. “You lasted five minutes longer than I thought you would.”

“Does it look like I’m quitting?”

“Before the questions started,” he clarified. “Two so far.”

“Those weren’t questions so much as sarcasm.”

“You’re just full of surprises.”

“Now who’s being sarcastic? I meant what I said. We don’t have to talk.” She shot him a sideways glance. “But I’m a good listener. It’s part of the job description.”

“Navy Chaplain.” He seemed to mull over her profession. “Now there’s a calling within a calling.”

“I received my undergraduate degree in theology from Cornell and went on to seminary studies at Wheaton. I entered the Navy’s chaplain candidacy program in graduate school.” She shrugged. “The rest as they say is history.”

“Impressive credentials, Ms. Alexander. But why the Navy?”

“That sounds like a question, Mr. Reese.”

“I’ll give you one, if you answer.”

“Unemployment and student loans.” It was a cop out answer, but no less the truth, even though he looked like he was about to call her on it. Most of the sailors and Marines she counseled just needed to talk. She suspected the Captain needed to build trust before he’d open up.

“I was an archaeology major when my grandmother died. She was a woman of strong convictions and I’d lived with her from the time I was born. My parents were missionaries.” Only the hollowness remained whenever she talked about her mother and father. “I was maybe seven when they were wiped away by a tsunami.”

“That’s rough,” he said without the usual platitude.

“Trust me when I say the last thing I envisioned was going into sea service or ministry. But God works in mysterious ways. With Gran’s passing, I was late to enroll for the last semester of my junior year. Almost all the classes I wanted were full, except for an opening with a brilliant professor considered the Indiana Jones of religious artifacts. He was a passionate man whose insights made me look at things differently. By the end of the course, I had plenty of questions about life and death and love… I had a yearning for answers and that’s how I wound up here.”

“So you had a fling with your professor—”

“I did not say that. He was twice my age and married.” The Captain looked at her with his special brand of skepticism. “Okay, I had a thing for him and we almost kissed once, but I never would have allowed it to go that far.”

“Overcome with guilt, you took a vow of chastity.”

“Quit trying to rewrite my history. I’ve never taken a vow of chastity.”

“But you felt guilty.”

“Everyone feels guilt.”

“Everyone feels sexual attraction. But you’ve never acted on it.” His gaze narrowed as if he’d caught a glimpse into the very depths of her soul. Lindsey swallowed hard and focused on the horizon. “I can see it in your eyes, Chaplain.”

She had yet to find the man who challenged and excited her in quite the same way as Dr. Indiana Jones. Until now. Don’t let him read that in your eyes. “How did we get on this subject?”

“I’m a good listener.” He used her words against her. “You were telling me why you joined the Navy.”

“It wasn’t because of a man,” she said. “Unless you count The Man up top. While searching for the meaning of life, like every other twenty-something, I found myself gravitating toward seminary.”

“Unlike most twenty-year-olds.”

“I had my doubts,” she admitted. “I lacked the experience and conviction for my own ministry. So I prayed for purpose instead. One day a Navy Recruiter showed. He talked about the need for chaplains in Afghanistan. I knew right then and there that was my mission. It’s given me the opportunity to work with a diverse group of sailors and Marines. Since joining the active Reserve I’ve discovered I like working interfaith and going wherever the wind takes me.”

Lindsey swiped at the perspiration across her brow. She should have stopped with her credentials. There was a difference between being authentic and being vulnerable. She’d opened herself up a little bit too much. Her ponytail had come loose and she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You owe me one.”

“Fire away.” He checked his watch again and turned them around at the point. Across the bay, luxury liners and sailboats felt like a different world. Smaller, more intimate than the shipyard.

“Why don’t you just tell me something about yourself?”

He shot her a curious glance. “I’m not that easy.”

Silence stretched out for several foot pounding beats. Their labored breathing became louder than the wind and waves and rush of distant traffic while she thought of a question. She wanted it to be something that would give her a glimpse into his heart. “Why is command of the
Enterprise
important to you?”

He thought about her question for a few beats. “Tony Scott wrote a personal check for $25,000 to turn the ship for the perfect shot of a sunset.”

“Who’s Tony Scott?”

“Ooh.” He made a jab at his heart.

“Tony Scott was the director of
Top Gun
. Only the biggest recruiting commercial in the history of the Navy. In the summer of ’86 recruiters set up booths right outside of theaters. Officer recruiting was up 500 percent that year. Everybody wanted a cool call sign. I joined the Navy because of Tony Scott and that perfect sunset.”

“Not for the cool call sign?”

“Definitely for the cool call sign,” he admitted.

Lindsey barely registered their return to the Navy Yard where he bought her a mustard dog to send her on her way. He’d kept her entertained the whole way back with
Top Gun
trivia. “What is your call sign, Captain?”

“Another question for another day, Chaplain. But I will tell you launching into that perfect sunset is better than sex.”

Heat infused her already overheated cheeks. “I’ll have to take your word for it on both counts.”

“You know he was a jerk, right? That professor you admired so much. He would have taken advantage of you in a heartbeat. It’s a story as old as time. Older man, younger woman. Man is by far the weaker sex. We just can’t help ourselves.”

Lindsey watched the Captain walk away. She knew that the right man was out there and worth the wait. She just didn’t know he’d be such a good listener. Or have so much honor.

It was okay to have a little crush on the Captain so long as she didn’t act on it.

“Maverick?” she called after him.

“Not even close,” he answered without looking back.

By day five of their mandatory counseling sessions, Doug found himself looking forward to the lunch hour. She didn’t pry and he didn’t offer up more than
Top Gun
trivia and the occasional insight into his personal history. Usually only to get another piece to the puzzle shaping up to be Chaplain Lindsey Alexander.

Lindsey dropped back to finger comb her hair and redo her ponytail while he ordered two hotdogs. If he kept eating this junk he was going to have a heart attack rounding the point. He wasn’t in his twenties any more.

If he was he’d be acting on other urges.

The woman was more Marine than Navy Chaplain.

He’d push himself and she’d push right along with him.

He knew plenty of female pilots with that kind of tenacity, so why should it surprise him in a female chaplain?

A chaplain without conviction.

That is what she’d said. She’d joined the Navy because she lacked experience and conviction. He wasn’t a man of faith, but he’d been raised Catholic and was pretty sure faith was a job requirement for her chosen profession.

But she seemed to have found her purpose in the exact place he’d found his.

They were quite an interesting paradox.

“I bought the CD,” she said. “I’ve seen parts of the movie, of course, but never the whole thing until last night.”

He shook his head with exaggerated disappointment. “Just not the same as seeing it in the theater. But I’ll give you brownie points since you were born on the release date, May 12, 1986.”

She crossed her arms. ”How—?”

“Facebook.” He nudged her into taking a mustard dog. “Steve Marietta is a wing commander and friend of mine. Marie and Steve had me over for dinner last night and couldn’t wait to show me the profile of the girl with the
Top Gun
birthday. You’re what, twenty-seven? God, has it been almost thirty years?” His gazed drifted out toward the ship.

“You can’t be fifty?”

Flattered that she actually sounded surprised, he shifted his gaze back to her. “Forty-eight. Signed on the dotted line the summer before my senior year at Oregon State and then entered right after I graduated.”

She frowned at her hot dog. “I turned down Marie’s dinner invitation for last night…”

“They didn’t tell me it was a set up either. Don’t worry. I forbid Steve to try again.” He propped against the picnic table and peeled the wrapper of his dog. “I sent you a friend request,” he said matter-of-factly before taking a bite.

She pulled her phone from her skirt pocket. “I just accepted.”

“You’re not a cyber stalker are you?”

She raised a brow. “You friended me. How do I know you’re not a cyber stalker?”

“I’m a divorced father of two and only on Facebook to keep in touch with my kids. My son is eighteen and about to enter the Naval Academy. And my daughter is not quite thirteen going on thirty, but she’s getting there.” He hoped Lindsey understood he didn’t extend invitations to just anyone. “I like to keep my personal and professional lives separate, Chaplain.”