where they were from. Damn few wanted to talk about where they were at.
"Florida originally, but my family lives in Tennessee now. Where you from?"
"Kansas City," I replied and decided as he led me to his table that he was probably okay. Mentioning his family in the first sentence and not hiding his wedding ring were good signs. Whatever else he was, he was not that bane of the single military nurse, the geographical bachelor.
The table was on the veranda, and at it were two more men in flight suits, one sitting and one standing, his feet spread as if he were about to straddle his chair, his hands on the back of it, his face shrouded in mirrored aviator glasses. Those lenses hide a lot, but I felt them locked on me as surely as if they were the sights of a sniperscope. He wore his hair longer than the other two and it was dark, with a rather rakish forelock brushing the tops of the glasses. He was tanned and rangy and his grin was lopsided and only slightly tobacco-stained.
"Pay no attention to this fellow, ma'am," jake said. "He's just one of your run-of-the-mill dust-off pilots. We let him eat with us, hoppin'
he might learn how to conduct himself in proper company. Tony, you don't propose to eat standin' up, I suppose?"
"Nah. Not that I don't appreciate educational opportunities, sir, but I ate already, as I would have explained if you hadn't gone trotting off after the prettiest girl in the room like a-well, anyhow, I got to get back to Red Beach. I'm on alert. But I wouldn't pass up an introduction."
"I didn't think you would, somehow," jake snorted. "Kitty, this is Warrant Officer Antonio Gutierrez Devlin."
Warrant Officer Devlin gave me the full impact of that slightly snaggle-toothed grin and swept my paw to his lips. "Very pleased to meet you. What was the name? Kitty what?"
"McCulley," I said.
"From over at Single Parent?"
"What?"
"Single Parent, the 83rd. You're Army, aren't you? Your code name over there is Single Parent."
"No shit?"
"I kid you not. Also referred to more casually as Unwed Mother. Where do you work?"
"Uh-ward four, ortho, as of tomorrow."
" Hmm-"
"Didn't you say you were just leaving, Tony? Urgent mission?"
"Yeah, well, I'm sorry, Kitty. I have to go rescue stranded casualties, unlike these heavy-machinery haulers. Since we all work so closely together, I'm sure I'll be seeing you real soon." He tilted his sunglasses down to the tip of his nose and gave me a meaningful look out of hazel-green eyes with curly dark lashes that should have been outlawed on a man, then did a smart about-face, swiveled around again, and said to Jake, "Make sure she comes to the party, Cap'n, sir," then sauntered through the door. Have I mentioned that not all of the masculine attention we girls got was unwelcome?
I was catching my breath when jake gently lowered me into a chair and continued introductions.
"This fine gentleman here is Tommy Dean Kincaid. Say hello to the pretty lady, Tommy Dean."
"Hello, pretty lady. Ain't it awful what you meet on your way to Grandma's house in the middle of this war?"
These two were definitely going to be all right. They sounded like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope on The Road to Da Nang, with me as Dorothy Lamour.
Of course, what I was really wondering about was the Errol Flynn type who had just left, but the comic relief was comforting. I was still feeling a little too fragile to withstand the kind of internal fireworks Tony generated.
But these two good old boys really were good. Like Jake, Tommy Dean mentioned his wife within the first fifteen minutes, and asked my advice about what kind of a present to send her for her birthday. We told each other where we were from, and later jake and Tommy Dean, between mouthfuls of steak and baked potato, talked about aircraft while I ate in what I hoped passed for awestricken silence. I'm a fast eater, though, being used to institutional half-hour lunch breaks during which fifteen minutes was spent in a
"Florida originally, but my family lives in Tennessee now. Where you from?"
"Kansas City," I replied and decided as he led me to his table that he was probably okay. Mentioning his family in the first sentence and not hiding his wedding ring were good signs. Whatever else he was, he was not that bane of the single military nurse, the geographical bachelor.
The table was on the veranda, and at it were two more men in flight suits, one sitting and one standing, his feet spread as if he were about to straddle his chair, his hands on the back of it, his face shrouded in mirrored aviator glasses. Those lenses hide a lot, but I felt them locked on me as surely as if they were the sights of a sniperscope. He wore his hair longer than the other two and it was dark, with a rather rakish forelock brushing the tops of the glasses. He was tanned and rangy and his grin was lopsided and only slightly tobacco-stained.
"Pay no attention to this fellow, ma'am," jake said. "He's just one of your run-of-the-mill dust-off pilots. We let him eat with us, hoppin'
he might learn how to conduct himself in proper company. Tony, you don't propose to eat standin' up, I suppose?"
"Nah. Not that I don't appreciate educational opportunities, sir, but I ate already, as I would have explained if you hadn't gone trotting off after the prettiest girl in the room like a-well, anyhow, I got to get back to Red Beach. I'm on alert. But I wouldn't pass up an introduction."
"I didn't think you would, somehow," jake snorted. "Kitty, this is Warrant Officer Antonio Gutierrez Devlin."
Warrant Officer Devlin gave me the full impact of that slightly snaggle-toothed grin and swept my paw to his lips. "Very pleased to meet you. What was the name? Kitty what?"
"McCulley," I said.
"From over at Single Parent?"
"What?"
"Single Parent, the 83rd. You're Army, aren't you? Your code name over there is Single Parent."
"No shit?"
"I kid you not. Also referred to more casually as Unwed Mother. Where do you work?"
"Uh-ward four, ortho, as of tomorrow."
" Hmm-"
"Didn't you say you were just leaving, Tony? Urgent mission?"
"Yeah, well, I'm sorry, Kitty. I have to go rescue stranded casualties, unlike these heavy-machinery haulers. Since we all work so closely together, I'm sure I'll be seeing you real soon." He tilted his sunglasses down to the tip of his nose and gave me a meaningful look out of hazel-green eyes with curly dark lashes that should have been outlawed on a man, then did a smart about-face, swiveled around again, and said to Jake, "Make sure she comes to the party, Cap'n, sir," then sauntered through the door. Have I mentioned that not all of the masculine attention we girls got was unwelcome?
I was catching my breath when jake gently lowered me into a chair and continued introductions.
"This fine gentleman here is Tommy Dean Kincaid. Say hello to the pretty lady, Tommy Dean."
"Hello, pretty lady. Ain't it awful what you meet on your way to Grandma's house in the middle of this war?"
These two were definitely going to be all right. They sounded like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope on The Road to Da Nang, with me as Dorothy Lamour.
Of course, what I was really wondering about was the Errol Flynn type who had just left, but the comic relief was comforting. I was still feeling a little too fragile to withstand the kind of internal fireworks Tony generated.
But these two good old boys really were good. Like Jake, Tommy Dean mentioned his wife within the first fifteen minutes, and asked my advice about what kind of a present to send her for her birthday. We told each other where we were from, and later jake and Tommy Dean, between mouthfuls of steak and baked potato, talked about aircraft while I ate in what I hoped passed for awestricken silence. I'm a fast eater, though, being used to institutional half-hour lunch breaks during which fifteen minutes was spent in a
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