Jim throws his hands up as he paces back and forth, his jaw ticking with each step. “I wish they would listen. And it’s not like it’s their job and they have to go.”
Bear lets out a loud snort as his giant form rises, shakes his head as if we’re too thick-headed to understand, and then walks over to the coffee station to pour a mugful. “You girls done crying into your hankies yet?”
Really? Here I’d been expecting Bear to share some kernel of wisdom, and instead, he shit-talks us? I shoot him a glare and Jim pretends to not have heard. Craiger looks up from his phone as if the show’s about to start and Trevor fakes us out by getting up, walking toward the coffee station, and just continues on down the hall. Guess he didn’t want to be a part of this discussion. I don’t blame him.
Bear sips his coffee and steps closer, raking his gaze over both Jim and me. “Support goes both ways. Learned that the hard way with Marge when Splitsville came knocking.”
Excuse me? My gaze jumps between Bear and Jim, and by Jim’s wide unblinking eyes, I’m going to guess he didn’t know this little tidbit of information either. But that can’t be true. Bear and Marge? The perfect couple that all of us aspired to be? I just can’t picture them as anything less than what they are now. They’re so close that it’s gross how close they are sometimes. I swallow and rub the back of my neck. “Had no clue.”
Bear shrugs. “Was a long time ago. We had Hayden young and Marge was barely out of high school when we found out she was pregnant. She was a Valentine’s Day baby.” Bear smiles at the mention of Hayden, which times perfectly with the front-desk clerk coming over to check the coffeepot. She returns Bear’s grin, and he gives her a polite nod that almost makes me chuckle.
“We didn’t plan for her, and I wouldn’t change that bit for anything, but we were so young. Didn’t know what we were going to do, so I did what I had to do—enlisted. And I dragged Marge around, made her move with me.” He pauses and his lips press into a thin line as he remembers.
“Must’ve been tough,” Jim says, taking a seat on the couch.
“Tough?” Bear appears to roll the word around in his head in that unhurried way of his before snickering. “That’s one way of putting it. Never once considered how a SEAL life would affect Marge. She’s so smart, always did well in school, but I didn’t even ask her how she felt about moving with me. About being at home alone with Hayden. Never asked what she had wanted to do after high school.”
I join Jim on the couch, leaning my elbows on my knees as Bear scratches his head. By the looks of it, this story isn’t something he’s comfortable sharing. While we know more about one another than our wives do, some things we just keep to ourselves.
“So, what happened?” Craiger asks.
“After a few years, the trainings and deployments took a toll and one day she told me she was accepted to a college not far from her family. She moved back home, took Hayden with her, and I kept myself busy.”
Craiger mouths a shit and I hang my head, seeing a flash of my possible future.
“Was angry for a long time. Until I missed her. Until I realized what a fool I was being, and all she had given up to be with me.” He takes a seat across from Craiger at the table, setting down his cup and facing Jim and me with a fatherly expression.
Jim grunts and I just nod. There are no words. His story is not unusual. Happens to so many of us. Marriages to those of us in Special Forces fail about ninety percent of the time. Just never figured Bear and Marge had almost become part of that statistic.
“I’ve been blathering for too long already but let me just say this. I’ve been with Marge forever, but it also took me a long time to realize that relationships take a lot of work, and a lot of compromise. It’s give-and-take.”
Jim snorts. “Yeah, well, Tony wants to give it to her but she ain’t takin’.”
I don’t know whether to laugh or punch Jim’s ugly mug, but thankfully, Bear’s booming voice saves us both from either. “Look, you two are scared to death about what is going on back at home, but you can’t take away the one thing those women really care about. It’s not fair to them. Doesn’t matter if it doesn’t pay, it helps them in some weird way. Man, those four years Marge was gone were some of the worst years of my life.” He shakes his head and then pins us both with a knowing glare. “I’m telling you this so you don’t make the same mistakes I did.”
Jim and I both nod. Then I pull out my phone and hit redial. I need to talk to Inara again and apologize. Instead of a ring, I get an automated message. We’re sorry, all circuits are busy. Please try your call again later.
I try two more times only to get the same greeting. The storm must be causing problems already. I slow my breathing, work on calming myself down. She’s with a group of people. She’s not alone. And while that’s what I need to keep telling myself, it’s not enough. I need something to distract me and pushing my body to the limit seems like the perfect plan. “Hitting the gym. I need to train, and then I’m getting some fucking tacos.”
Jim jumps up. “Going with you. Can’t sit here thinking about Taya alone in this storm. Not with everything that happened.”
I pin him with a semi-glare. “You know she isn’t alone. My wife is with her. And let’s face it, they aren’t sitting at home either.”
We head down the hall to the small hotel gym containing some dumbbells and a functional trainer cable machine, and I try to think of how strong Inara is, try to tell myself that she’ll be safe. But all I see is her diamond-shaped face streaked with rain.