Page 8 of Strangers in Love

“Da?”

“You’re lookin’ good there, son.” Da always sounded gruff, but I didn’t doubt for a minute that he loved me, even when I’d been at my worst.

So I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was here.

“You and I will be flyin’ back home together,” Da said, softening his accent the way he did when he was around people who weren’t used to it. A thick Scottish accent could be hard to understand, even after years in the States. “I may have made a few calls to get you closer to home while you finish healin’. And I’ll be flyin’ home with you too.”

My eyebrows went up. He’d gotten me assigned to a base near homeandarranged to be on my flight. He and Mom had been here for two weeks before going back home to California, and we’d been talking almost every day. I hadn’t expected to see them again for a while. Definitely not here.

“What do you say? Ready to go home?”

I wished I could smile and tell him how grateful I was that I’d be near family even though I’d never want to talk to them about what’d happened. That I appreciated all he’d done to help me, to heal me. The favors he’d called in.

But I couldn’t say any of it. Couldn’t let myself be happy.

I didn’t deserve it.

Six

Aline

Graduation day.

For a couple days about six weeks ago, Freedom and I had worried that our dad wouldn’t be sitting here today. He was, though. Dad had made it through the triple bypass without any complications, but he was seventy-three. We all knew recovery would be longer and harder than for someone half his age, but he’d refused to even consider not being here today.

He’d always been lean – Freedom’s curves had definitely come from recessive jeans – but now, as he sat in the wheelchair Mom had forced him to bring, he looked…gaunt. Old.

But he was here.

They both were. Right at the front of all the parents. Neither Freedom nor I could see them from where we were sitting, but just knowing they were here was enough. Freedom must’ve been thinking along the same lines because she reached over for my hand and gave it a squeeze. We hadn’t stayed in L.A. for very long after the heart attack, but it’d been Mom and Dad who’d insisted we go back to school after just a couple days.

Like every other time our parents had told us to do something, we’d done it. Granted, we’d both worked our asses off for our degrees, and if we would’ve stayed away much longer, we probably would’ve had to take another semester to finish things up, and that would’ve screwed up our plans for the fall.

Not that we’d told our parents about that just yet. Freedom and I had been conscientious about the things we’d told either of our parents. They didn’t keep secrets from each other, which meant we couldn’t tell one of them without the other finding out, and informing our recovering father that his two daughters were going to spend more than a month in a dangerous part of the world would definitelynotbe the best way to help him recover.

So Freedom and I had focused on our work and spent every conversation we’d had with them making it about school. Not that we’d had much else to talk about. Freedom had done some stuff for her mentor, Dr. Ipres, that’d been interesting, but that’d technically been work too. The closest thing I’d had to fun had been a weekend with a childhood friend, but I’d visited Mom and Dad while I’d been back home so we hadn’t really needed to talk about it.

Everything in my life had always been about school, I realized suddenly. A funny epiphany to have at graduation, but it wasn’t a regret. Now that Freedom and I wouldn’t be thinking about our upcoming schedules or planning which courses to take or the best way to juggle reading five different books simultaneously, we could have some fun. That sounded good. Fun for the summer and then our trip, then holidays, with a plan to start our respective careers after the first of the year. Freedom could use some fun in her life. She’d been even more serious than usual these past few months, and I didn’t think it was only because of Dad’s heart attack. Not that she’d tell me anything. Then again, maybe if we did some fun stuff together, she’d realize that she didn’t always have to keep everything to herself.

Yes. That sounded perfect.

I’d tell Freedom all about it after today’s festivities were over. For now, I’d focus on the Stanford alumni being introduced as our keynote speaker. Fury Gracen.

While I hadn’t been in the same program that he’d been in, I knew who he was. Sort of. He’d received his MBA about a decade ago and was now an extremely successful businessman, but unlike many other, more famous, alumni, he’d stayed in Stanford. That wasn’t what had made him stick in my memory, though. It was the name. With a fairly unique name myself and having a sister with the name Freedom, it was always memorable when I ran across someone who had an equally interesting name. I’d never seen him though, so I had to admit that I was a little surprised at the man who walked to the podium.

Over six feet tall – though I couldn’t tell by how much – with bronze-colored hair and the sort of muscular build that would’ve been more at home in the gym than the board room, he was ruggedly handsome. The type of man people admired for his looks as well as everything else he had to offer.

Not really my type, but good-looking enough that it was impossible not to at least acknowledge it.

Behind me, someone whispered, “Damn.”

I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing out loud, and I glanced over at Freedom to share the humor, but either she hadn’t heard the comment, or her mind was somewhere else. I leaned toward the latter, given how distant she’d seemed lately.

“Good afternoon,” Fury began. “First, I’d like to thank my alma mater for asking me to speak to you today.”

“Can you imagine hearing that voice growling your name?” The same person who’d sworn behind me spoke again, her voice still quiet enough that only a few of us could hear her. “I want to hear him sayfuck. I could probably come from just that.”

I almost choked and had to turn it into a cough. Freedom shot me a look, concern turning to annoyance when I shook my head, letting her know I was fine. After the ceremony, I’d have to remember to ask her if she’d heard the person behind us. If she had and hadn’t found them funny, then she needed a vacation even more than I’d thought.

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