“What makes you think I’m not?” he answered with the same devilishly handsome smile Kristen had come to expect from him.
“Won’t you ever quit?” she asked as she rolled her eyes, no longer taking him seriously.
“Hey, I am what I am,” Terry shrugged innocently.
Graves joined the other Seawolf officers, and with him was a British Navy commander. Everyone turned to greet the British officer as the XO introduced him. “This is Commander Alec Gardener of Her Majesty’s Ship, Audacious,” he explained. He was several inches shorter than Kristen and portly with flaming red hair.
Kristen nodded politely as Graves introduced her, “And this is the lady I was telling you about, Alec,” Graves said in a hushed tone.
Gardener clasped her hand with both of his as he shook her hand in greeting. “Indeed?” he asked. “It’s a great pleasure to meet you, Miss.”
Graves then lowered his head and explained to Kristen, “It was the Audacious we picked up heading out of Korea.”
“Jason tells me you heard our power plant signature,” Gardener said with a hint of skepticism.
Kristen nodded, remembering their encounter with the Astute class British submarine being shadowed by the Korean diesel electric boat. “Yes, sir,” she replied modestly. “We got lucky.”
“In my experience, my dear,” Gardener replied, “there is no such thing as luck.” He then spoke to Graves, “Tell Sean to hold on to this one, Jason. Otherwise I’ll steal her away.”
Graves chuckled. “No chance, Alec.”
“Bollocks!” Gardener replied with an engaging smile. “What are you drinking, my dear?”
“Water, sir.” More officers from the Audacious came over to meet Kristen and her fellow Seawolf officers.
“Water?” Gardener asked. “Good heavens, dear child!” he said scandalized. “Haven’t you heard, fish fornicate in water.”
Kristen was about to protest as Gardener ordered one of his junior officers to “fetch her a real drink,” but the XO intervened on her behalf. “The lieutenant has watch later tonight,” Graves explained with a polite lie.
“How do you know the captain, sir?” Kristen asked Gardener, liking the chubby Englishman.
“You mean Brodie?” he asked as he rolled his eyes.
“Yes, sir,” Kristen replied politely.
“I taught the bastard everything he knows,” Gardener told her pointedly.
Kristen raised her eyebrow at the defaming reference to her captain but Gardener continued, “We were students together at the Perisher Course, my dear,” Gardener explained as Brodie appeared in their midst. Gardener turned on Brodie with a mischievous grin. “And I’d have graduated at the top of my class if you hadn’t shown up, you dirty bugger!”
The Perisher Course was the Royal Navy’s submarine command course that any aspiring captain had to pass. It was generally accepted that Perisher was the most difficult command course in any Navy, and it routinely flunked out twenty-five percent of students, making the small number of qualified British submarine captains a truly elite breed.
“Hi, Alec.” Brodie shook his friend’s hand. “How’ve you been?”
Gardener wasn’t satisfied with a simple handshake and gave Brodie a hug, keeping his arm around Brodie’s neck as Kristen asked, “I wasn’t aware we sent officers to the Perisher Course, Captain?”
Gardener answered, pointing a finger in Brodie’s face, “You’re looking at him, Lassie. The one and only!”
Brodie was clearly enjoying seeing his friend again but shrugged off the attention. “Whatcha been up to these days?”
Kristen, recognizing the old friends probably wanted to catch up, extricated herself from the conversation. She joined her fellow officers, listening to their usual banter. But she couldn’t help overhearing the conversation between her captain, XO and their British friend.
“Still not married yet, Sean?” Alec asked.
“Nope,” came the curt reply from Brodie.
“I’d have thought by now you and that little Italian minx you were seeing last year would’ve settled down and started building that house,” Alec offered.
Kristen felt her face flush slightly as she tried to focus her attention on a story Terry was telling everyone.
“No such luck,” Brodie replied.
“Too bad,” Gardener replied. “That’s an awful pretty spot you picked out, Sean ol’ boy.” The Brit took a sip of his drink and then asked, “What’s the name of that damn mountain next to your property?” he asked innocently and then added, “You know, we went fishing up there last year.”
“Mount Olympus,” Brodie answered.
“You couldn’t have picked a nicer view, Sean,” Graves agreed. “The Pacific on one side and the mountains on the other…”
Kristen was no longer listening. In fact, she wasn’t certain she was capable of any conscious action at the moment. Images of the motorcycle ride with Brodie back in Bremerton came to mind, and the realization that he’d taken her to a spot he’d picked out for some future home was a startling revelation. He’d made no mention of owning land there with plans to ever build a home. He could have taken her anywhere, yet he’d taken her there…
As Terry continued his story and the others laughed, she stood in silence, trying to make sense of it all. There was nothing between them. There never would be, and to contemplate the reverse was illogical and foolish. Two things she’d never been.
“You okay, Kristen?” Terry asked, jolting her out of her deep thoughts.
She hadn’t realized it, but she’d been standing motionless for several minutes and the doors to the banquet hall had opened. She looked at Terry dumbly for a few seconds, and then nodded. “I’m fine,” she lied.
He didn’t believe her, but nodded his head anyway. “All right, well…” he began, watching her carefully. “We can go in now.”
Kristen walked in, still struggling with what she’d just learned and with thoughts and feelings she didn’t want to consider. Terry led her to a pair of tables reserved for the junior officers from the Seawolf, with Graves and Ski seated not far away at a table with mid-ranking officers.
Despite herself, Kristen found her eyes wandering over the massive crowd, searching for Brodie. She expected to see him with Gardener, but the British captain was nowhere in sight, and the rest of his officers were at a table next to her own. She finally spotted Brodie near the end of the long line of officers entering the hall flanked by two admirals. Gardener was still with him, and the four of them were conversing intently as they entered.
There weren’t many mere commanders who had admirals actively seeking them out, but Brodie and Gardener were clearly two of the few, and she watched from across the hall as they stopped inside the doorway and continued their conversation as the rest of the guests entered. Kristen assumed the admirals were questioning them about what had happened off the coast of North Korea. Rumors about the Seawolf’s actions had reached the shore-based sailors despite their mission’s top secret nature.
She’d just managed to regain her composure and was about to take her seat when she heard a familiar voice behind her, “Krissie!”
Kristen turned and saw her dearest friend in the world rushing up to her from a few tables away. Kristen was caught completely off guard but held out her arms automatically. “Trish!” Kristen said with joy as they embraced, ignoring the crowd around them.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Patricia Young was a hair shorter than Kristen, had a wild side she never tried to reign in, and had — during her Naval Academy days — a wicked backstroke. Patricia and Kristen had met during their Plebe year, were both on the varsity swim team all four years, and had roomed together. But despite their mutual love of swimming and choice of college hinting they were of similar personalities, there’d seldom been more incompatible friends than Kristen and Patricia.