to the firing range while Cat’s scheduled to be there. He walks into this bar, and you all but launch yourself at him.”
She flushed, unable to deny his accusations. “You really have no idea what it’s like, do you?”
“Poor baby, all alone, far away from home. Is this where the violins start to play? Tell me, do you go for the married men because there’s less of a chance of actually becoming involved?”
She was seething, her eyes all but shooting sparks. “I was only trying to be friends!”
“Friends?”
“You know, people who hang out together, share meals occasionally, sometimes get together for a game of cards or Scrabble?”
“Friends.”
Harvard let skepticism drip from his voice. “You want to be Cat’s friend.”
P.J. stood. “I knew you wouldn’t understand. You’ve probably never had a friend who was a woman in your entire life.”
“I’m ready to learn—a willing and able volunteer with the added bonus of being unattached. I’m wicked good at Scrabble. Among other things.”
She snorted. “Sorry. From where I stand, you’re the enemy.”
“I’m what?”
“You heard me. You want me gone from this training op on pure principle. You think women have no place out in the field, in the line of fire. You’re judging me not as an individual, but based only on the fact that I don’t have a penis. What’s the deal with that? Do you use your penis to aim your rifle better? Does it help you dodge bullets or run faster?”
This woman could really piss him off, but at the same time, she could really make him laugh. “Not that I know of.”
“Not that I know of, either. You’re a bigot, Senior Chief, and I have no desire to spend even a minute more in your company.”
Harvard stopped laughing. A bigot? “Hey,” he said.
But P.J. was already walking away, her beer barely touched.
Harvard had never been called a bigot before. A bigot was someone narrow-minded who believed unswervingly that he and his opinions were inarguably right. But the fact is, he was right. Women did not belong on combat missions, carrying—and firing—weapons and being shot at. It was not easy to stare down the sight of a rifle at a human being and pull the trigger. And countless psych reports stated that women, God bless ’em, had a higher choke factor. When the time came to pull that trigger, after all those tax dollars had been spent on thousands of hours of training, most women couldn’t get the job done.
God knows that certainly was the truth when it came to women like his mother and sisters and Rachel. He couldn’t picture Rachel holding an MP5 automatic weapon. And his sisters… All four of them were card-carrying pacifists who spouted make-love-not-war-type clichés whenever he was around.
Still, after his sister Kendra had gotten married and started a family, she’d attached an addendum to her non-violent beliefs. “Except if you threaten or hurt my kids.” Harvard could still see the light of murder in his sister’s eyes as the former president of Students Against Violence proclaimed that if anyone, anyone threatened her precious children, she would rip out their lungs with her bare hands.
Put an MP5 in that girl’s hands and tell her her children were in danger, and she’d be using up her ammo faster than any man.
But on the other hand, you’d never be able even to get a weapon into his father’s hands. The old man would gently push the barrel toward the floor and start lecturing on the theme of war in modern American literature.
Harvard could imagine what P.J. would say about that. He could hear her husky voice as clearly as if she were standing right behind him. Just because your father and men like him don’t make good soldiers doesn’t mean that all men shouldn’t be soldiers. And in the same way, women like me shouldn’t be lumped together with softer women like Rachel or your mother.
Damn, maybe he was a bigot.
Joe returned to the table. “I don’t suppose P.J.’s in the ladies’ room?”
Harvard shook his head. “No, I, uh…let’s see.” He counted on his fingers. “I totally alienated her, I incensed her, and last but not least, I made her walk away in sheer disgust.”
Joe pursed his lips, nodding slowly. “All that in only six minutes. Very impressive.”
“She called me,” Harvard said, “a bigot.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve got to admit, you’ve been pretty narrow-minded when it comes to P.J.’s part in this exercise.”
Damn, Joe Cat thought he was a bigot, too.
Joe finished his beer. “I’ve got to go. That was Ronnie who paged me. Frankie’s had an ear infection over the past few days, and now he’s throwing up the antibiotic. I’m meeting them at the hospital in fifteen minutes.”
“Is it serious?”
“Nah, the kid’s fine. I keep telling Ronnie, babies barf. It’s what they do. She’s just not going to sleep tonight until she hears a doctor say it, too.” Joe rolled his eyes. “Of course, she probably won’t even sleep then. I keep telling her it’s the baby who’s supposed to wake the mother up at night, not the other way around. But she has a friend who lost a kid to SIDS. I’m hoping by the time Frank turns two, Veronica will finally sleep through the night.” Joe picked up his jacket from the back of the chair he’d thrown it over.
“You sure there’s nothing I can do to help?”
The captain turned to look at him. “Yeah,” he said. “There is something you can do. You can stay away from P. J. Richards after hours. It’s clear you two aren’t ever going to be best friends.”
There was that word again. Friends.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a commander,” Joe continued, “it’s that you can’t force people to like each other.”
The stupid thing was, Harvard did like P.J. He liked her a lot.
“But it’s not too much to ask that you and she work together in a civil manner,” Joe continued.
“I’ve been civil,” Harvard said. “She’s the one who walked away in a huff.”
Joe nodded. “I’ll speak to her about that in the morning.”
“No, Cat…” Harvard took a deep breath and started again. “With your permission, Captain, allow me to handle the situation.” He wasn’t a bigot, but he was guilty of generalizing without noting that there was, of course, a minuscule amount of the population that was an exception to the rule. And maybe P. J. Richards was in that tiny percentage.
Joe Cat looked at Harvard and grinned. “She drives you crazy, but you can’t stay away from her, can you? Aw, H., you’re in trouble, man.”
Harvard shook his head. “No, Captain, you’ve got it wrong. I just
