man still carried himself like a soldier. Even with leathery lines slashing his face and a distinct slowness to his gait, the general demanded respect. David gave it to him with a salute.
“At ease, soldier,” the general said with a returning salute and a wry smile, his custom-made cowboy hat in his hand as he read David’s name tag. “Chief Ryland, it’s good to see you home safe and sound.” Then the tall, white-haired man turned to where Ali still sat on the stretcher. Glancing down at the boy, the general stood silent for a minute, then looked over at Anna. “Is this my…grandson?”
David watched as Anna touched a hand to General Willis’ shirtsleeve. “Yes, sir. This is Ali.”
The boy stared up at his grandfather with awe and fear, then looked toward his friend Chaplain Steve, a man he trusted since he and Steve had been e-mailing each other through Dr. Mike.
Steve leaned close. “Grandfather,” he said, pointing to Marlon.
Ali grinned, his limited English enough to understand one of the words Steve and Dr. Mike had tried to teach him. “Grand…father,” he said, the one word long and drawn out. Then he grinned. “Grandpa.”
Marlon grunted, but David didn’t miss the mist covering the old man’s steely eyes. “Hello, there, young fellow. I’ve hired a very nice nurse to help us. I figure we’ll both benefit from that.”
David and Anna laughed at the general’s wry humor.
Marlon nodded to everyone, then turned to Dr. Nora. “Tell me everything, doc. And I mean, everything.”
“Let’s get Ali into his room and get some tests going, then we’ll go into my office,” the doctor said.
Marlon nodded then took one of Ali’s tiny scarred hands. “It’s you and me now, kid. Two cowboys fighting off the bad guys.”
Ali nodded back. “Cowboy. Yippee!”
“I see someone has been teaching you how to become a Texan,” the general said with a smile.
David felt as if his world had shifted. Seeing Ali and his grandfather connect for the first time brought back the bitterness he’d felt for so long against his own absent father. And made him miss Gregory and Karima with an aching clarity.
Not wanting to be morose and bitter on this day of celebration, David glanced at Anna. As if sensing his eyes on her, she turned. “Chief, would you like to go get some breakfast with us?”
David looked around. Most of the others had left, even the eager reporters hoping for a heartwarming homecoming sound bite or a gut-wrenching picture for the front page. Maybe it was time for him to do the same. After all, he didn’t have anyone waiting to welcome him home. He’d told his mother to stay in Louisiana, that he’d call her the minute he landed. And he’d gotten that uncomfortable call out of the way earlier, thank goodness. The only thing on his agenda for the next week or so would be the mandatory post-deployment training that all the returning troops had to go through.
When he saw Chaplain Steve’s assessing gaze, he shook his head. “Another time maybe. As the chaplain knows, I have to go through a PDHRA before I can be considered human again.”
Steve grinned. “You look human enough, Chief, even if you are wearing ACUs. But yes, I expect I’ll be seeing you for part of your reintegration process this week. Still…you don’t have to get started on that right away. Sure you don’t want to come to breakfast with us?”
The challenging look in Anna’s eyes made him wish he hadn’t been so hasty in saying no.
David thought about his options.
“Let me see,” he said, scratching his head. “Post deployment health assessment, or breakfast—a real breakfast—with people who aren’t in a big hurry to get to the fight. Hmm.”
Anna lifted her head. “Oh, we’re always in a hurry around here, but we just take our time getting there.”
That brought a smile to his face. “Then I guess I might as well start my debriefing with a big Tex-Mex omelet and some real coffee.”
“I know just the place for that,” Caitlyn said, her arm linked in Steve’s. “You remember Prairie Springs Café, right, David?”
David laughed. “Is Max still there?”
“Still there,” Anna said as she motioned him toward the door. “And if I know Max, he’ll pull out the red carpet for a returning hero. Might even give you a free meal.” Tossing him a smile over her shoulder, she said, “Welcome home, cowboy.”
Anna watched as David wolfed down the last of his big omelet, then reached for another biscuit. “Did you miss American food, Chief?”
David buttered the flaky biscuit, then put down his knife. “It wasn’t so bad. We had something very close to American food on most days. That and our MREs, of course.”
Caitlyn wiped jelly off one of the twins’ mouths. “But a ready-to-eat meal can’t take the place of the real thing, can it?”
“No, I reckon not,” David replied, noticing the way Caitlyn and the chaplain kept smiling at each other. “You two an item or something?”
Steve burst out laughing. “You don’t mince words, do you?”
Embarrassed, David shook his head. “I guess I don’t. I believe in being up front and honest. But I can be too blunt at times, or so I’ve been told.”
Anna looked down at her plate, thinking she believed in honesty herself. They had that in common at least. She didn’t even know David Ryland…but she sure knew of him. He was considered one of the finest medevac chopper pilots at Camp Die-Hard. Or so she’d heard. Dr. Mike couldn’t say enough nice things about him. The devoted doctor had called in several markers just so David could be the one to get Ali safely home. And yet, he’d asked Anna to watch over his friend David, too.
“Take care of him for me, Anna. He’s a good man. But he’s not so forthcoming about himself. Maybe you can draw him out, make him feel welcome.”
Dr. Mike’s words came back to her now as she glanced up at David. “Are you glad to be home?”
He nodded, his dark eyes washing over her intensely. “I guess I am. Time will tell.”
Curious about that remark, Anna was about to ask him why he wasn’t more excited, but the jingling bells on the café door caused her to stop and look up. “Uh-oh.”
David turned to stare at the attractive older woman entering the café, then glanced back at Anna. “Is something wrong?”
Anna lowered her head, her hand going to her necklace. “No, nothing I can’t handle. My mother just walked in.”
Max waved a beefy hand from behind the counter. “As I live and breathe, if it ain’t one of my favorite people. How ya doin’, Olga?”
Olga waved back to Max, her smile somewhere between shy and coy. “I’m just fine, thank you.”
“That’s your mother?”
Hearing
