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“Julia is a social worker. She often helps Children of the Day and was involved in helping us bring Ali over,” Anna explained. “She’s very interested in Ali’s case and his adjustment to life over here. He’ll be living with his grandfather and guardian, General Willis.”
David nodded. “Dr. Mike went beyond the call of duty to get him here.”
“Can you tell me more about what happened?” Anna asked. “It must have been awful for Ali, losing his mother and being all alone.” Then she shook her head. “I’m sorry. You might not be ready to talk about that.”
“It was a bad day,” David said, memories of dust and death and the roar of choppers always nearby. He hadn’t talked to anyone, not even his friend Maddie, about the day Ali came into the CASH, but he felt strongly that he could trust Anna, that she would understand. So he took her aside and started telling her in a quiet voice, reliving each second of that dark, dust-covered day. “Major Mike Montgomery—Dr. Mike—called me to the CASH with bad news. I figured we’d lost another soldier.”
Anna nodded sympathetically.
“I was tired and ready to hit the sack. We’d had a grueling day transporting the wounded, but when he told me it was Karima and Ali, well, I got over there as fast as I could.”
Anna touched a hand to his arm. “We heard it was a bomb.”
“She was bringing him in for a checkup. Their vehicle got hit by an IED—an improvised explosive device—about five miles from camp. Karima was killed instantly and Ali was in bad shape.”
David remembered rushing across the sprawling tent city and into the camp hospital, adrenaline and shock pushing away his fatigue. “I couldn’t believe it. Karima and Greg Willis fell in love in spite of the odds. Greg fell for her the first time she came into camp.”
“She was a vital part of our organization over there,” Anna said, tears welling in her eyes. “And I know she loved Greg and Ali so much.”
David nodded, wondering what that kind of love would feel like. He’d never had that, not even from his mother and certainly not from his father. “He married her even though General Willis disowned him for it. After Greg’s chopper went down, Dr. Mike and I vowed to watch over Karima and little Ali.”
“From what I’ve heard, you did exactly that,” Anna replied, her tone low but sure, her pretty eyes full of compassion.
David basked in her look and immediately started feeling better about things. “We failed him,” he said. His prayers for little Ali had been front and center in his mind as he’d headed into the chaos of the surgical field hospital. “He looked so fragile and pale. But Dr. Mike and Maddie worked hard to get him stable.”
Anna listened to his story, her gaze holding his as if he were the only person in the busy waiting room. “I’m so glad Ali had the two of you. Thank you again for helping us. I know his grandfather will appreciate it.”
David nodded, feeling humble all over again. “It was my last mission—to get Ali here. I’m glad I did.”
Dr. Mike had explained that the trauma of the boy’s injuries had created a hole between the lower chambers of his heart and it could only be repaired by someone who was highly skilled. According to Mike, Dr. Nora Blake was one of the best cardio surgeons in the country. She lived in Prairie Springs and worked in dual capacity at both the Fort Bonnell Medical Center and at a large urban hospital in nearby Austin. Dr. Mike trusted her with Ali’s life.
And apparently, so had Ali’s paternal grandfather.
David glanced over at the crowd watching and waving to the little boy. “I hear even old Warhorse Willis himself is softening. Guess it’s true if the boy’s going to live with the old man.”
Anna gave him a measured look, the slight disapproval of his choice of labels disappearing from her eyes in a twinkle. “General Willis has come a long way in letting go some of his preconceived notions, yes. He’s invested more than just money in Ali’s care and well-being, I think. This little boy has given General Willis a new lease on life.” She glanced out the double glass doors. “In fact, he’s supposed to be here today.”
David wondered if the ornery old general would show. When he used to complain about never knowing his father, Greg would tell him that might be a blessing in disguise. General Willis had been tough on his only son, demanding that Gregory follow in his footsteps by joining the army. Greg had been good at what he did, a real hero, but he’d angered his father by enlisting straight out of high school rather than going to officer’s training school as the general had planned. Things had gone downhill in the relationship from there on. Two different men, two different mindsets about war. At least Greg had had someone to fight against. Someone to fight with. It was one thing to fight strangers in a war, but another to have family with which to fight…and love and laugh. That kind of intimate relationship, no matter good or bad, was important.
As if thinking of the general had conjured him up, the doors swished open and in walked retired Brigadier General Marlon Willis. David noted how much the general had aged, but the 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 the surprise in David’s words, Anna could only nod. “Yes. Olga Terenkov in the flesh. Get ready.”
“Okay,” David said, noticing the amused expressions on Caitlyn’s and Steve’s faces. “Should I be worried? I mean, she looks harmless.”
That brought a grunt from Steve and a snicker from Caitlyn. But the twins seemed happy to see Anna’s mother. They squealed and waved, calling out, “Miss Olga, Miss Olga!”
The woman waved back, clearly glad to see the cute little girls. “Hello, my darlings!”
“Harmless is not a word I’d associate with my mother,” Anna said under her breath. “She’s been doing things to embarrass me for most of my life and I have a feeling that’s not going to change anytime soon.”
Steve leaned close, his eyes on David. “Be forewarned, David. You’re about to enter the hug zone.”
David did look worried now. “But I—”
“Anna!”
Anna cringed. “We’re in for it.” She sent her beaming mother a feeble wave. “Hello, Mother.”
Olga, still young looking at fifty-four, was dressed in her usual get-up—brown cowboy boots and a denim prairie skirt with a crisp flower-sprinkled cotton blouse. Her golden-blond hair was pulled up in a haphazard coil.
“Anna-bug,” Olga called out, the click of her boots hitting the hardwood floor as she sashayed up the aisle, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Isn’t little Ali just adorable? Can you believe he’s finally here? Did you get to give him a hug? Is he terribly afraid? Oh, I can’t wait to see him again.”
By this time, Olga was standing at the table, her mouth poised for yet another rapid-fire question when she stopped in midbreath to pin David with a wide-eyed appraisal. “Oh, my. And who are you?”
David stood, out of respect, but hesitated, caught in midair as if he wasn’t sure what to do next. “Hello, ma’am.”
Olga held a hand to her face, then giggled. “So polite.”
“Mother, this is Chief David Ryland,” Anna said, hoping the telltale hives she usually got along her jawline and neck whenever she was embarrassed wouldn’t show up today. “He’s the helicopter pilot who flew Ali to meet the C-17 to Germany. He escorted Ali home.”
Olga put a hand to her heart, then touched it to David’s sleeve. “Oh, oh, my goodness, we are so very thankful for you. So very thankful.”
Anna noted her mother’s Russian accent thickening. Olga’s accent always came out whenever she was excited, and that was just about every day. Her mother was such an optimist, always looking on the bright side of things. And right now she had her sights set on David Ryland, which meant she was looking at the bright side of her daughter having breakfast with a returning soldier. When Olga glanced from David to Anna, her big blue eyes full of that hopeful glimmer Anna both admired and dreaded, Anna knew that two things were about to happen.
Olga put a hand on her hip, then looked up at David again. “Did you have anyone waiting at the airfield for you, son?”
David shook his head. “Well, no, ma’am—”
David didn’t get to finish. He was immediately engulfed in a feminine hug and a whole lot of patting on the back. “Bless your heart. Bless you,” Olga said over and over, her smile turned toward Anna as she looked over David’s broad shoulder. “We’re so glad you made it home safely with our little Ali!”
Caitlyn and Steve sat back, observing, grins covering their faces. Even the twins stopped eating to stare up at Olga.
Anna saw her mother’s mirthful wink. Notorious for her outlandish matchmaking schemes, Olga would try to fix up David Ryland with her daughter. And that meant Anna’s already chaotic life had just become even more complicated.
Chapter Three
Two days later, David sat in Chaplain Steve’s office. After having gone through hours of being poked and prodded, questioned and tested, he was now waiting for the required assessment by the chaplain, just to make sure his spiritual health and well-being was intact.
“And I guess that’s where the chaplain comes in mighty handy,” David said out loud.
The door opened and Steve walked in with a smile on his face. “If you’re talking to yourself, you might not pass all those tests you’ve been going through, my friend.”
David laughed, then shook Steve’s hand. “Don’t worry, I’m not having a post-traumatic-stress moment.”
“That’s good,” Steve said as he sank down in the squeaky chair behind his desk. “But you know whatever you say to me is strictly between us. So you don’t have to pretend. How are you, really?”
David shrugged. “I’ve caught up on my sleep and I’ve settled into my lovely post apartment. Well, I’ve got a wide-screen television and a big recliner and a bed at least.”
Steve laughed at that. “What are your plans for the future?”
“For the immediate future? Getting accustomed to being reassigned to Fort Bonnell, for starters. Being a warrant officer on post is not nearly as demanding and exciting as being up in my chopper on the front. I’ll be pushing papers for the next two years. Life here is sure a lot slower. I still can’t get the sound of choppers and gunfire out of my mind, but it’s good to be home.”
“So what are your plans for…after?”
David leaned back, comfortable to be talking about anything but his spiritual well-being. “You know, I haven’t mapped that out. But I wouldn’t mind working as an EMS pilot for one of the nearby medical centers. I’d still pilot a chopper and I’d be able to help save people, but I won’t get shot at—a definite plus for that kind of work.”
“Always a good and noble career choice, too,” Steve said. “They’d be blessed to have you.”
“We’ll see when the time comes,” David replied.
Steve kept tapping his pen against his notepad. “What about right now?”
David glanced around. “You mean, what am I doing with myself these days? Everyone keeps asking me that and I’m not sure. I’ve been away for a long time now. For some reason, it just seemed important to come here before I take an official leave.” Maybe because he had something to prove, even now. Or maybe because he was determined to find out who his father was.
They talked a few more minutes then Steve said, “You know, Children of the Day can always use good volunteers. There’s a need for carpentry, painting, putting things together, taking things apart. Or just doing paperwork, making phone calls and packing care boxes for the troops. You might ask Anna and her mother about the possibilities.”
