“No. Just here with the military.”
She nodded. “Have you been in the area long?”
“A couple of years. The unit I work for is headquartered nearby.”
“Do you move often?”
“I did.”
“My mother was an officer and my dad was enlisted,” she said. “We moved a lot for her career.”
“Anywhere you call home?”
She shrugged. “Not really. You?”
“Nope.”
“Were you a military brat, too?”
There was an ache in the pit of his stomach. He should have realized the conversation could go this way. It was inevitable, really, the longer they spent in the same house. Best to answer it and get it out of the way now.
“No. I was a foster kid. My mom was a single mom, and she died when I was ten. I had some anger and abandonment issues, so I wasn’t a good fit with some of the families who wanted to adopt me. I got shuffled around a lot.”
She looked a little shocked and a lot sad. “I’m sorry, Noah.”
“Thanks.” He looked at Alice happily eating shrimp. “Sally was my foster sister. We spent five years with the same foster family before aging out. We had the same birthday, so we used to joke that we were twins.” He pulled in a breath and toyed with his straw. “I don’t talk about this stuff usually, but you’re caring for Alice, so I think you should know a little of it. Sally and I were tight for a long time, but stuff happened that affected her. She used alcohol and drugs to cope, and we fought over it. She got clean for a long time, but a few years ago she started taking pills again. That’s when we had our big falling out, and that’s when she stopped speaking to me.”
“She must have gotten clean again,” Jenna said. “For Alice.”
He nodded. “I think so too. I also think she would have called me, but I know her well enough to know she was waiting for the right time. She wanted to surprise me with how well she was doing. It was always her way.”
Sally had lived to please people. When she wasn’t dealing with the fallout of her life with the Parker family, she had an almost imperative need to please. As if by pleasing people, she could prove she was a good person worthy of love.
But it was never enough. She stopped believing she was good, and she slid into the muck again. Over and over.
Noah wanted to shout his anger at the unfairness of it, but he bottled it up and buried it deep. There was nothing he could do for Sally anymore. Nothing except take care of her baby girl and find the best home possible for her. He would do that. He wasn’t going to shuffle Alice out of his life just to get rid of her. He was going to find a forever family who would love and cherish her, and if it took time, then it took time.
“I know it must be difficult for you to talk about this,” Jenna said. “I appreciate that you told me a little more about Alice’s mother, though. I won’t share it with anyone.”
“Thanks.” He nabbed a fry from his plate. Time to shift this conversation to something else. “Where was your parents’ last duty station?”
She studiously divided the coleslaw on her plate. As if she were thinking about what to say. That was interesting.
“Nellis.”
“I’ve been to Vegas a couple of times,” he said, trying to keep it light. Nellis was home to some of the Air Force’s top secret projects. It was also where they piloted the drones that dropped bombs half a world away. “I’m not much for gambling or casinos, but some of them are amazing.”
“I’ve always loved the Venetian. The square in the center where it feels like you’re dining beneath an Italian sunset? Incredible.”
He nodded. “It really is. Did you ride the gondolas?”
“Once. It was fun, but not the same as doing it in Venice.”
“So you’ve been to Venice?”
“My parents were stationed at Aviano Air Base when I was in fifth and sixth grade. Venice was an easy train ride away. For the record, gondolas in Venice do not have trolling motors.”
He snorted. “Yeah, that’s kinda funny, but to be fair it’s easier with the motors than without.”
“True. And the gondoliers at the hotel haven’t spent their lives plying the canals of Venice, so I guess you have to make allowances.”
“No doubt. Sounds like you’ve been a lot of places, then.”
“A few.”
“Have a favorite?”
She seemed to think about it. “I loved Italy, but I was young then. Germany is also pretty terrific. We were in Hawaii, too. That’s spectacular—but there are bugs. Nobody thinks about the bugs when they’re thinking they’d love to live in Hawaii. Centipedes the size of your arm, and flying roaches that could carry your car away. Oh, and then there were the rats that lived in the palm trees and came out at night. I didn’t like any of those things, but the rest of it was great.”
“Did you learn to surf?”
“Nah. Too scared of sharks.”
He wasn’t fond of them himself, but being a Special Operator meant you had to be a combat swimmer. He’d spent a lot of time bobbing in the ocean, waiting on a pickup. You got used to it. “Seems like a reasonable objection.”
“I thought so at the time. I still think so, quite honestly. Did you know there’s a website where you can look up shark attacks in Hawaii? It’s sobering.”
“Is it a hobby to look up shark attacks in your spare time?” he asked a little disbelievingly.
“Not really.” She shrugged. “I’m an information junkie. And the internet is tailor-made for finding out stuff, right? If I start thinking about when we lived in Hawaii and regretting I didn’t learn to surf, I go look at the shark attacks and change my mind. I mean they aren’t frequent, but frequent enough. And some of them are fatal. No thanks.”
He ate another fry. “So what about aliens?”
She blinked. “Aliens?”
“You were at Nellis Air Force Base. Did you research aliens?”
She shook her head, but she was grinning. “Of course I did.”
“And?”
“And what? Are you asking me to confirm the existence of aliens? I’m afraid my skills involve Google, not government servers.”
She reached over and took one of his fries. He’d offered earlier, but she hadn’t taken him up on it. Apparently, she was getting more comfortable with him as they talked. He liked that. “No sightings on the base, huh?”
“Nope.” She popped the P, and he laughed.
“Well, dang,” he said, proud of himself for not swearing. “And here I was hoping you’d tell me something fun.”
“Sorry to disappoint. Never saw an alien, but I saw plenty of people who thought there were aliens in Nevada. They’d hang out at the base gates with signs sometimes. Crazy.”
“I don’t think there are any aliens either. Despite the History Channel—what a ridiculous name for a channel that shows stuff that’s definitely not history, right?” He shook his head before continuing. “Despite the alien crap they show, I don’t buy any of it. Why would aliens with superior technology come here and not take over our primitive asses? And how the hell did they get here? If it takes light from the nearest star over four years to arrive, how in the hell do aliens travel across the universe without it taking thousands of years? Nope, don’t buy it at all.”