“This could be tough. It affects you directly.”
The eyebrow dropped. “Make it fast,” she said. “Rip that Band-Aid off.”
He took a breath. “I have a mole in HR,” Buzz said. “I’ve been cultivating him for a long time. I want as much warning as possible for my next change of assignment. What I didn’t expect was to learn that one of my ‘men’ was being looked at for a reassignment. An early reassignment because of compelling need. This means you, Dupre.”
Sarah was stunned into silence. Her mouth hung open slightly. She forcibly closed her mouth. “I get an automatic refusal if they don’t know I’m a woman. Right?”
“I wish. I shouldn’t say anything. It could all go in another direction. Between now and notification, someone could put in for those air stations and this could all go away. But I wanted you to have as much time to think about this as possible—we have two retiring commanders and a compelling need with no outstanding applications for those locations and they’re both...” He paused to cough lightly. “They’re both on the east coast. Maine and south Florida. As you might surmise, you’re probably going to be awarded a promotion to commander within the year. I suspect this makes you a better than prime candidate.”
“And I’m not due for either,” she said, sliding forward on her chair a little bit.
“There’s no surprise here, Dupre. You’re good at your job. You’ve had a successful Coast Guard career. You’d make an excellent boss. You’re an excellent leader now.”
She looked at him earnestly, humbly. “I need another year here. Landon...”
“I know your situation and I sympathize. That’s why I’m breaking protocol and leaking this. So help me, you let on and we’ll have a real issue....”
“Crap, there’s gotta be some wiggle room in here....”
“I just gave it to you. I think you’ll be notified by June and then you will have a couple of months to make the move.”
She shook her head. “This plays hell on my family...Landon is prime scholarship material, but not if I move him. That’s saying nothing of the trauma of moving a kid right before his senior year in high school, moving him away from his football team, his friends, his school, his town. He’s done so well here, you have no idea.”
“I have every idea,” Buzz said. “I know exactly how you feel—I’ve gone through two divorces, proof of how the pressures weigh down the family. At least you’re not married.”
But there’s someone I can’t bear the thought of leaving, she thought. “Damn it, I love my job. But I don’t love this part of it.”
“And the Coast Guard loves you, Dupre. I thought you deserved time to think of your options. Aren’t you from Florida?”
“Long ago and far away. I grew up in Boca, practically on the water, but I’ve been north for most of my Coast Guard career. And there’s no family left in Florida—it’s just me and Landon. And I only have one more year with him before he goes off to college, and starts a new phase of his life.”
“You always have that option we’re not talking about, even if you can’t retire yet.”
“Resign my commission? I have no idea what I’d do outside of the Coast Guard,” she muttered, looking into her coffee cup.
“And I know that feeling, too,” he said.
She looked up and made eye contact with him. She gave a half smile—small wonder he’d been married twice, he was a good-looking man. Blond, expressive brown eyebrows, strong, smart and a set of choppers that would put Donny Osmond to shame. All this had earned him the nickname Buzz Lightyear. “Why do you have a mole in HR?” she asked.
“I can retire,” he said. “I want plenty of notice on the next assignment, which should be coming down the pipeline in about six months. I don’t want a new location or a promotion. I’d like to fly forever, I love helicopters and I love the C-130 even more. Being a captain means more desk time than flying time and I have kids in California and Alaska. I’m moving on, Dupre. In probably a year.”
“But what are you going to do?”
“I’m working on that. But I’ve been down this road and I have done twenty years of service. My decision is made. You’re the one who has decisions to make. Maybe there’s some family friends around who can keep Landon in this school for one more year?”
She shook her head. “There’s no one.”
“Good friends?”
The only ones who came to mind were Gina and Cooper. Her friend Gina was trying to develop a new life with Mac—aka Deputy Yummy Pants—and she had a small house crowded with her mother and her sixteen-year-old daughter. And Cooper? Oh, as great a pal as he was for Landon, he wasn’t in the market for instant guardianship. She couldn’t ask either of them for a favor this big. “The Coast Guard has always been inconvenient,” she heard herself say. “Not a lot of stability. But the job itself made up for that most of the time.”
“Where does Landon stay when you sit alert overnight?”
“He’s pretty much okay on his own, as long as he has his phone and my contact numbers. If I have a temporary assignment out of town, like simulator training or something, there’s this guy I’ve been seeing...local guy, civilian. He doesn’t mind Landon duty for a few days or a week, but trust me...”
“Guy?” Buzz said. “Guy? Why don’t I know about this guy?”
Sarah smiled in spite of herself.
“How long has this been going on?” Buzz asked.
She gave a shrug. “Six months or so.”
“You never bring him around. You protecting us from him or something?”
“I could be protecting him from you....”
“Hmm. Well bring him around sometime. Happy hour or something.
“I just wanted you to have a heads-up on the assignments,” he said. “With any luck someone could request a relocation in the next couple of months—maybe just the right person will come along and take these potential east coast assignments off your hands....”
“Two of them?” she asked cynically.
“There are people who would kill for a chance like you have,” he said.
“I know,” she said. She could go far in the Coast Guard; Commander was a prestigious rank in a demanding service and she’d earned it. She was only thirty-three. “I could quit, but I can’t retire....” Quit and do what? There was the little matter of paying rent, buying food, making car and insurance payments...tuition. She stood up. “Well, thanks, boss. I guess.”
“Don’t panic,” Buzz said. “Yet.”
* * *
Sarah wasn’t one to panic, unless her career was about to turn everyone she loved upside down once again. She could tell Landon,
