you doing all right? You sounded kind of down in your e-mail earlier. I was worried about you.
GABE: No need to be concerned. Things like that never get easier, but you compartmentalize as best you can and focus on the job. Deployments are mentally and physically taxing, so you have to learn to shut out the stuff that’ll make it worse.
SARA: How long do you plan to stay in the Army? Do you have a number of years in mind or maybe a career goal?
GABE: I’m not exactly sure. I’ll be eligible for full retirement benefits when I hit the twenty-year mark. So that will definitely be happening. I wouldn’t mind making Lt. Colonel or even Colonel. But that’s not an absolute must. How about you? What will you do when your niece is older? Do you plan to stay on with them or maybe return to your previous profession?
SARA: That’s a good question. One I don’t have an answer to yet. I can say that I’ve been giving it a lot of thought lately and I know that I want to make some changes in the near future. I love Kaylee dearly, but she’s already in kindergarten.
GABE: I’m guessing what sounds simple will be anything but. You’ve been with her for a long time. It will be rather traumatic for both of you to be separated, won’t it?
SARA: You have no idea. I can’t imagine loving my own child any more than I do her. I’ve been right there to see her grow from a toddler to an amazingly funny, sweet, and loving little girl. Frankly, it will be pure hell not to be with her every day. But . . . she also needs to form a closer bond with her parents and that won’t happen while I’m there fulfilling that role.
GABE: Ah, gotcha. They’re content to sit back and let you handle all of her care? Do you do anything else for them or is your job strictly looking after your niece?
SARA: Lol, oh, I am the nanny, maid, personal assistant, and any other title you can think of at one time or another. But that’s a whole different story.
GABE: I hear that. Guess that’s the risk of working for family. What do you do when you’re not working? You get time off, right?
SARA: Oh sure. I hang out with friends. Take some weekend trips and stuff like that.
GABE: Hey, Sara, sorry to be so abrupt, but I’ve gotta run. I have a meeting at the other end of the base in ten minutes. I’ll hit you up later. Have a great day.
SARA: You too, Gabe. Bye.
She was absurdly giddy at their real-time chat and sad to see it end. She found him so easy to talk to. Of course, the fact that they weren’t face-to-face took the awkwardness away, but still, there hadn’t been any long pauses on either end. The only time she’d even hesitated had been over the flat-out lie she’d told about her social life. It sounded so damned pathetic to admit that she didn’t have one at all outside of spending time with her cousin. I sit at home every night. My best friend is a five-year-old. It made her wish she hadn’t told him about the whole spinster episode. Because now she felt as if she had to avoid being seen in that light by Gabe. Which sucked, because she didn’t like the dishonesty. But she also didn’t want him to see her as some pathetic homebody who had absolutely no life. How could a man as accomplished and obviously driven as he was respect her lack of ambition? Since when is it a bad thing not to be a bed-hopping party girl? But wasn’t there a fine line between too much socializing and not enough? He almost certainly had a lot of friends considering how many people likely worked at his base back home. Probably no shortage of women around either. She still had no clue what he looked like, but she hadn’t been kidding about the wonder-camouflage. Women were drawn to men in uniform, be it policemen, firemen, or soldiers. Geez, am I actually jealous? I’ve never even met this man in person. I have no right to feel possessive about someone I don’t know.
Glancing at her watch, she was surprised to see that she’d been in Starbucks for well over an hour. She got to her feet and tossed her empty cup away before making her way out