Come and Talk to Me by June Kramin Page A

door and offered them to her. “I’ve never really thought about it, Reg. Honest. I want you. That much I do know. I don’t know about feedings and diapers. I do know I’ll go insane if I don’t have you.”
    “You say that now.”
    “No. I mean that now and always.” He held out the ring. “Put it back on, Reggie. Please.”
    She glanced down at it then looked back up at him. “I want the dinosaur one.”
    “God, I love you,” he said as he brought her close. “Where were you going anyway?”
    “Wherever the next flight was heading.”
    “I have next weekend off. Do you think you can wait until we can honeymoon; maybe on Kauai?”
    “I think I can wait,” she said with a smile.
    They drove back to Troy and Sabrina’s at a more reasonable pace. Van drove Reggie in her car as they followed Troy. Sabrina was waiting with champagne. She looped her arm through Van’s and said she wanted to hear everything about how he proposed. Troy held Reggie back for a minute.
    “Did you tell him?”
    “I told him enough.”
    “It’ll only make it harder on you later, Reg.”
    “He knows I can’t have kids, Troy. Amazingly, he still wants to marry me. Let’s go with that for now, okay? Promise me you won’t tell him.”
    “He’ll ask me someday. I won’t be able to lie.”
    “You can and you will. Please? Promise me you won’t ever tell him.”
    “All right,” he said, pulling her in a hug. “I promise.” They walked outside and he told Van. “Florida Keys.”
    “Florida Keys what?”
    “That’s where they’re sending you. A station in Marathon.”
    Van stood and walked over to Reggie. “You’ll still be surrounded by ocean, baby. It’ll just be a different one.”
    “It doesn’t matter. I’ll be with you.”
    ~*~
    The government paid for the rent on the house they shared in the Keys. That was about the best thing that could be said about it. The closest base was Key West. Everyone stationed in Marathon lived in rented townhouses or homes. Van and Reggie were right off a golf course with a canal off the backyard. It was a great location; the house was in a desperate state of neglect, though. The middle of it was almost a whole foot lower that the edges. They couldn’t help but to laugh the first time they laid eyes on the bedroom doorframe; it looked like a funhouse door. Reggie laughed to tears when she placed a deck of cards on the kitchen counter and it spread down to the other end. She thought about buying a slinky just to see what it would do. They didn’t care; it was their first home and they were together. Van teased that the crooked walls might help him by adding more traction. They wasted no time testing his theory out.
    Van’s schedule had him overnight two nights at the station then home the next two. It wasn’t too bad of a deal. Sometimes she wished she was allowed to go to the station, but it was probably best that she didn’t. They were still very much at the ‘can’t keep our hands off each other’ stage, even several months into the marriage.
    Regina accepted a part-time job at the small lumberyard in town. Scotty’s was a chain of stores throughout the Keys. She was hired on the spot once the manager learned of her background. It wasn’t as demanding as her last job. New homes weren’t built with the vengeance that they were on Maui, but it kept her in the same field and she welcomed the familiarity. On occasion, she was asked to help inventory on Islamorada or in Key West; she loved that aspect of the job. Even a trip an hour up or down the small chain of islands was a fun getaway. They had gone to Miami once, but she didn’t care for the rushed pace. It was worse than Oahu and that was always too much for her.
    Even though Marathon was a very demanding station, Van rarely discussed work when he was home. Drug trafficking was extremely high in the Keys and that kept them constantly busy. Only when Reggie read something about the largest cocaine bust in history in the