Page 3 of Burning for Him

His stomach threatened to revolt again at the finality in her voice. It wasn't goodbye for now. It was forever.

He swallowed hard, then cleared his throat. “Goodbye, Jenn. Stay safe.”

She nodded as she turned away and waved at the small crowd. “Goodbye, everyone. See you in a few months. Don’t forget to email me pictures of the kids every day so I don’t miss them too much.” Beau stood at her feet and barked, causing Jenn to let out a burst of laughter. She gave the lab/pit mix an ear scratch. “And all the dogs, too.”

While Beau was trained as a protection dog, he was also considered a pet and Trident’s mascot. He had a key fob on his collar, which opened the flapped doors leading into each of the compound’s four apartments and the two TS buildings. Sometimes, he would hang out in the security company’s garage with the dogs that belonged to the TS mechanics. Tempest “Babs” Van Buren, who was also Trident’s helicopter pilot, adopted FUBAR, a Belgian Malinois that failed protection training, while Jagger, a Rottweiler, was Russell Adams’s PTSD dog. The other four TS protection K9s were on leashes while working or training and stayed in a temperature-controlled building with comfortable kennels and doggie doors to an outdoor play area when off-duty.

Doug knew Jenn loved all the compound’s dogs and spoiled them like crazy as long as it didn’t interfere with their training.He wondered if she would adopt a pet of her own someday. She would make a great mother—of a fur-baby, that is. He didn’t want to think of her having human babies with someone else. That just made unwanted jealousy course through his system.

Minutes later, Ian’s SUV left the parking lot with Jenn and her luggage. When they were out of sight, the group broke up, with some heading back home while others went to work. Doug didn’t know how long he had stood there before he glanced around and noticed that only he and Beau remained in the now-empty lot.

The dog peered up at him and whined. Doug could only manage a weak smile. “I know, buddy. I’m going to miss her too.”

CHAPTER THREE

“Hola,Jenn!”

She smiled warmly at the lively ten-year-old boy and his more reserved seven-year-old sister when they dashed toward her as she emerged from the dining hall, arms full of a large basket of corn. The Spanish classes she took in high school and college were extremely helpful in communicating with the local people. Fortunately, several of them knew some English, which was great when she couldn’t remember specific words or phrases. “Buenos días, Matteo and Elena. ¿Cómo estás?”

“Good,” Matteo replied, switching to the English he learned in school at Dr. Sanchez’s commune. “Can we help you?”

“Sure, if you want to.” She had to shuck the corn, which would then be dried and ground into cornmeal.

Two weeks had passed since she and seven others from all over the United States arrived in San Justino. The commune was much larger than she expected it to be—approximately forty acres. It was once a grand estate in the 1800s, but it was eventually abandoned in the 1950s after the government seized it. About thirty years later, Dr. Sanchez’s predecessor, her uncle, who was also a physician, had purchased the land and created a haven for the impoverished. After completing medical schooland gaining some ER experience in a Chicago hospital, she came to work with him. Side by side, they helped the underprivileged people of the region for three years until his death. He left her the property in his will so she could continue his charitable work. Donations from various sources helped fund items such as medical and school supplies.

The doctor and her primary staff lived in the main house. The volunteers shared two bunkhouses, which reminded Jenn of ones she’d stayed in when she went camping with her Girl Scout troop as a girl. A third bunkhouse had small one-room apartments with a shared living room area for the guards who protected the place—mostly expats from the US and Canada. The property’s other buildings included a clinic with room for a few overnight patients, the schoolhouse, the dining hall and kitchen, a chapel, and several storage units. Along the north perimeter were over a dozen small cabins, occupied by local families, including Matteo and Elena. About five acres of the property were sectioned off for livestock, and another seven for a large garden—both providing most of the commune’s food. Several men and women who lived in the cabins helped care for the livestock and tended to the garden in exchange for their children’s education and the security provided by the guards. Others worked various jobs in the town of San Justino or on nearby coffee bean farms and contributed what they could to the commune.

Jenn dumped the corn atop a rustic picnic-style table and set the basket on the ground beside it for the ears after they were shucked. Matteo and Elena got to work, peeling the husks from the corn. It was Saturday, so the school was closed. All around the compound, other children played or helped the adults with chores and repairs. A few volunteers were fixing a hole in the chapel’s roof, while others assisted in the clinic, garden, or kitchen. It was a sunny day, with the temperature hoveringaround sixty, which was normal for the summer here. However, the heavy humidity had Jenn’s T-shirt and cargo shorts sticking to her skin. Rain was expected later in the day, but from what she had already learned, it wouldn’t change the humidity level by much.

“Hey, everyone. Mind if I join you?” Tony Barone, a twenty-six-year-old high school Spanish teacher and hockey coach from Hazard Falls, Kansas, set a basket filled with carrots on the table.

“Si!” Matteo responded while grabbing two ears of corn and handing one to his sister. He was a good big brother, always including Elena when possible, and very protective of her. She was shy and didn’t talk as much as the other children, but she loved to read. Even though she was only in second grade, Elena had read everything available in the small school library up through the fourth-grade level several times. Last week, Jenn emailed Uncle Ian a lengthy list of supplies and other items she wanted him to send to her, including more books for the younger ones in both Spanish and English.

Tony pulled a paring knife and a carrot from the basket, then sat across from Jenn, giving her a smile and a wink. The dark-haired man was handsome and friendly, and Jenn had taken an immediate liking to him. On the flight to Colombia, they chatted for over an hour before getting into conversations with the other volunteers. This was his third summer volunteering at the commune. While the rest of them would be there for three whole months, he had to cut his time short by two weeks to be home in time for the start of his school year.

“Matteo, ven a jugar con nosotros!” one of his friends called out, waving him over to playfútbolwith them, or soccer as Jenn knew it.

The boy looked at Jenn with a silent plea in his eyes. She smiled at him. “You don’t need my permission to go play.Thanks to you and Elena, the corn is almost done, and I can finish the rest.Gracias.”

“De nada.” He glanced at his sister, and his brow furrowed. “Pero Elena...”

“She can stay with me. But before you join your friends, could you run and get a few of her favorite books?”

Matteo jumped up, grinning from ear to ear. “Si! Gracias, Jenn!”

He returned in less than two minutes with several books for Elena. As her brother went to play with the other boys, the little girl climbed onto a wooden rocking chair on the dining hall’s porch, not far from Jenn and Tony. Opening one of the books, she got lost in the story.

“They’re great kids,” Tony said while peeling another carrot. “I miss them so much by the time I get home. And then, when I come back down nine months later, I can’t get over how much they’ve grown.”

“What made you choose to volunteer here?”

“My first year, I came with one of my colleagues. Jeff was a social studies teacher, about ten years older than me, who wasn’t married and had no kids of his own. He volunteered here for almost a decade. By the end of that first summer, I knew why he loved it so much and swore I’d be back. Unfortunately, Jeff was diagnosed with cancer about a month into that school year. It was aggressive, and we lost him in the middle of the third semester. I like to think I’m carrying on his tradition by coming here.”

While Tony talked, Jenn felt the blood drain from her face. When his gaze lifted, and he saw how pale she was, his eyes narrowed. He dropped the paring knife and carrot and reached for her trembling hand, covering it with his own strong one. “Jenn, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

She shook her head and used her free hand to swipe at her watery eyes. Her heart ached, but she couldn’t blame that on Tony. “I’m sorry. You just caught me off guard when you said your friend’s name. Jeff was my dad’s name too.”

“Was? He’s gone?”

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