CHAPTER 11
“Hello, my soon-to-be-bride.”
Ginny smiled at the sound of Thom’s voice through the cell phone. “Hello, my soon-to-be-groom.”
“I just wanted to say goodnight.”
“Mmm. That’s nice. Thank you.” She snuggled deeper beneath the covers, cradling the cell between her head and the pillow. “So what did you do today?”
“I stopped by the house after work.”
The house was what he called where his ex-wife and children lived.
She tamped down the jealousy that his ex was in town with him and could see him any time she wanted, while Ginny was hundreds of miles away and barely saw him at all.
That was going to change soon. She had to remember that. “Did you tell the kids about us?” she asked.
“No. I haven’t told the kids yet.”
“Why not?” Was he afraid they wouldn’t accept her?
That renewed her worry about the whole stepmother thing she’d managed to forget about in favor of the other big concern—telling her mother.
“I stopped by but they were at a play date. I haven’t arranged a time to see them yet, but I told Debbie.”
“You did? Wow. And?” she asked.
“She was . . . fine with it.”
“Oh? Good. I’m glad.” Though what Ginny would really be glad about was when she was his wife and living down there with him.
His sixty days from license to marriage plan looked better by the second.
“You sound sleepy. Did I wake you?” Thom asked.
“Nope. Just in bed watching TV.”
“There’s not going to be television watching in the bed once you get your sweet self down here after we’re married.”
Ginny cringed at his pronouncement, keeping to herself that her favorite thing to do in bed—aside from sex—was to watch television. But less than a week into their secret engaged life, she didn’t feel the need to argue the point long distance.
Instead, she joked, “Promises, promises.”
“Nope. Just the truth. So did you tell your parents yet that we’re engaged?”
“Um, no.”
“Did you at least tell Molly?”
“Um. No . . .”
“I thought you were excited about this wedding.”
“I am, I’m just afraid some people might have another opinion.”
He sighed. “Your mom.”
“Yes.”
“Okay, take what time you need. But I’m warning you, if you don’t get this thing planned for soon I might just start
trying to commute from Connecticut to Virginia.”
“Could you do that?”
Thom snorted. “A seven-hour drive each way? Uh, no. I was just joking.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know you couldn’t really commute, but I thought maybe you could, I don’t know, get like firemen hours? You know, two days on, three days off. Or something like that.”
He laughed. “That would be very nice but the Navy doesn’t exactly work like that. And actually . . . ”
Crap. She was starting to dread his long pauses. Nothing good ever followed. She braced herself for the inevitable.
“. . . it looks like I might be, um, busy at work much sooner than I thought. And communications might be spotty for a while here and there when I’m traveling.”
Busy. Traveling. Yeah, sure. She smothered a snort, knowing it was all euphemisms for him going away to someplace dangerous to do something deadly.
“When I’m in the same room with you, in the same house, on the base where they sweep for bugs and know that we’re secure from spies, are you going to actually tell me stuff? Or will we still speak in code like this?” she asked.
“Well, first of all, they don’t sweep for bugs, as you put it, in base housing. At least, not as far as I know. But yeah, we’ll be able to talk a little more freely than we can now on the phone. Within reason, of course.”
Within reason. Meaning he’d still keep things from her, but at least she’d be there with him when he did it. That would have to be good enough. “Okay.”
“Are you really? Okay, I mean?” he asked.
“You’re not here, so I’m not exactly the happiest newly engaged girl in Connecticut, but I’ll be all right. Just make sure you come back to me. And in time for the wedding—whenever that is.”
He laughed. “Yeah, about that. Can you get working on that soon—setting a wedding date—so I have some idea when to beg for leave? Please?”
The dreaded task of telling her mother she was moving away hung like a dark cloud blocking the sunshine of her pending marital bliss. But she’d need to do that before she could choose a date. “I’ll take care of it. I promise.”
“Can I believe you?” he asked, with humor in his tone.
Ginny drew her brows low. “Yes. Why wouldn’t you?”
“We might be apart a lot, but I know you. You would procrastinate breathing if you could get away with it.”
Her frown deepened but knowing it was true she couldn’t deny his accusation. She could only be insulted by it. “You’re supposed to be charmed by my little quirks.”
“Oh, I am. Believe me. Completely charmed and in love with you. But right now, I’m going to say good night. I’ve got an early morning tomorrow.”
“Okay. I love you,” she said.
“And I love you. With all my heart. Remember that.” His words sounded a little too final. As if this might be the last time they talked for a while—or ever.
Ginny swallowed hard. “I remember.”
“Oh, and if you aimed for a weekend close to a full moon for the wedding, that would be good.”
She lifted her brows at that strange request. “A full moon?”
“Yup. Just a suggestion.” He was being vague, skirting the issue, which only made Ginny more determined to know.
“Um, okay. I’ll look into that.” As well as why he might be requesting a full moon for their wedding, because she was fairly certain it wasn’t because he thought it would be romantic and pretty for the pictures.
If she hadn’t been the queen of internet research before, dating Thom, with all of his secrets, had made her one.
“Good. All right. Let me go. If I don’t get in touch with you tomorrow, I will as soon as I can. Okay?”
Swallowing the lump of dread from her throat, Ginny said, “Okay.”
“Good night, baby.”
“Good night.” Tears filled her eyes when she heard the call go dead. She missed him constantly and worried about him already even if he hadn’t left the country yet.
The sooner she moved to be with him the better and to do that she needed to suck it up and face the music—or more accurately, face the parents.
Bracing herself, Ginny decided to do that tomorrow and to make sure she didn’t chicken out she would set up a time to see them right now.
She glanced at the clock. It was probably too late to call but she could email. She grabbed her laptop off the coffee table. Her email inbox was open, as usual, so she tapped out a quick message to her mother asking if she could come over for lunch tomorrow and then hit SEND before she could change her mind.
One down, one to go. Drawing in a deep breath, she picked up the cell and typed in a quick text to Molly.
I have news. Call me when you can.
When a reply didn’t come back in seconds—which it would have if Molly had been awake—Ginny let out the breath she’d been holding.
She was about to put down the cell when a brilliant idea struck. She typed in a second text to Molly.
Can you have lunch with me tomorrow?
Having Molly there would be a good buffer. The woman took a long lunch every day to go shopping. She could darn well spend it with Ginny instead when her friend needed her.
Tomorrow, for better or worse, she’d be a publicly engaged woman. And hopefully it wouldn’t be too much longer before she’d be a married one as well.
Which reminded her . . . grabbing her laptop again she opened a new browser tab and typed into the search bar “calendar of moon phases”.
She’d get the dates of the full moon first, and then she was going to move on to trying to find the reason behind Thom’s odd request, even if it took her all night.