Chapter 5

06:15 Friday, August 2^nd, 1991

7914-B Arthur Street

Oakland, CA 94621

Hide it from Dan and Kate

"Okay, Gunny. Like Barbara did, something we eat with the hands." Lenore ticked off the points on her fingers. "Something kind of messy, make us all on the same level. Something chilly, since it's summer, something light to go with it, and lots of chilled white wine."

The Gunny nodded. "Not ribs. Corn on the cob, sure, maybe shrimp?" At Lenore's eager nod, he grinned, knowing her love of the shellfish. "Okay, peel-and-eat shrimp. Breaded chicken fingers? And yellow rice?"

"And a salad," she finished, "with a mustard vinaigrette."

"I think I know just the wine," he said. "Only four-ninety-nine a gallon, and that includes the wide-mouth screwtop for easy pouring." They laughed together easily.

"I'll start after we run, and everything will be chill, except for the corn, by then. I'll start the water for that when they get here."

"I'll get the food and wine after work. First, honey, we should talk about what we don't want to talk about and what we do."

Lenore felt a thrill to hear the endearment. I hope that thrill never goes away, she told herself. Aloud, she said, "No mention of what Deb and the Chief might have to do with this."

"Agreed," the Gunny said. "I don't think your father trusts Deb yet, not fully. Maybe after she installs him in office, but until then, I think she's flying under the Admiral's wing."

"Okay, then, how about telling them I'm picking a school on an ROTC scholarship? Since we can't get married yet."

"I'll point out how good the Army has been for Ben, and we both chime in about Sandy and the Admiral as examples of what's good in the service."

"You want to mention that you'll likely be changing jobs?"

"Okay, I think that's a good thing." They smiled, and leaned across the small table to kiss, then the Gunny stood up and went out the back door with his keys. Lenore started to pull down breadcrumbs and spices from the pantry shelves.

18:15 Friday, August 2^nd, 1991

7914-B Arthur Street

Oakland, CA 94621

The men were in the backyard, sitting in lawn chairs, drinking beer from the bottle. Lenore had relaxed the 'three-beer-on-a-weekend-day' rule to 'one-beer-for-Gunny-for-each-beer-Dan-has'. Dan talked for a while about the negotiations with the bank and real-estate brokers.

The Gunny brought the conversation to the likelihood that Deb would indeed work as Dan's campaign manager for a run for the state legislature.

"It's unlikely. Kate'll need me working around the vineyard for the first year, at least. It's nice, a hell of an ego boost, really, to think Harding thinks enough of me, but I can't help but wonder what he needs a state rep for?"

"Maybe if you run from a seat in the Legislature, you could win a seat in Congress?"

Dan nodded grimly. As the beer worked through the men, Dan relaxed around the Gunny. "I haven't had more than one beer in a few weeks, Gunny. My boy brought me to the ballpark, where I managed to get myself hammered."

The Gunny noted the use of the term 'Gunny' – unforced and natural, as if Dan had finally reconciled to the term. "You've done a fine job with Ben, Dan."

Dan snorted. "It was Sandy, and the Army, I think. That boy did more growing since he left in a snit. I got completely caught by surprise when he came to introduce Sandy."

At the Gunny's raised eyebrow, Dan told of how, when Ben and Sandy had gone to El Paso to meet a Border Patrol bigwig, they'd stopped in Sterling County at the ranch for a weekend. Sandy had wowed everyone with her beauty and poise, and then when Dan and his oldest son had ganged up on Ben about turning his pickup into a work truck, Sandy had neatly shown them that Ben wasn't a person to piss off any longer.

"Cool as a cat, she bet me he could shoot cans off a fence, something he could never do before. And after he did it, she fucking nailed cans and then pieces of cans out to near a hundred yards with my little Smith." Dan's language was now coarser after four beers, but far more natural to the Gunny's ear.

"With a K-frame?" the Gunny was impressed.

"Yeah," Dan confirmed. "Shamed me good, they did, and I had the ranch manager write him a check for thirty-plus grand, enough to buy him a good truck and a revolver, too. Her, I gave the K-frame to. You've seen the truck, he chose pretty damned well, I think."

The Gunny snorted, while he gave a backwards jerk of the head. Jesus, what a fucking lead-in. This has got to be Providence or Fate or something, I can't be this lucky, can I? "Dan ... if the Army was good for Ben, maybe the military would be good for Lenore, too?"

"What, can you read my fucking mind? The last time I drank beer, I asked Ben if he thought the same thing. She's just been drifting until she met you. And I've never seen her so alive." He looked away for a moment, and muttered something almost too low for the Gunny to hear. The Gunny thought it could have been "Kate was right, damn it."