Chapter 3
SEE PROLOGUE FOR DISCLAIMERS, ETC.
Sam walked back into the crowd just as the lieutenant commander – Bud? – said, "We're going to call it a night, Captain. We'll see you tomorrow for lunch before you leave?"
The captain – Harmon – stood and took Bud's proffered hand. "You bet. I need to see my godsons and goddaughter before I go."
"That's all we'll hear all morning. 'What time will Aunt Mac and Uncle Harm be here, Daddy?' and 'Are they here yet, Mommy?'" Bud's wife kissed his cheek again. "Make sure Mac calls me in the morning."
Harm. That was important. Harm winked at the blonde. "Yes, ma'am, Harriet, ma'am."
Harriet winked back. "You learn fast, Harm." She turned to Sam. "Mac, you'll have him trained in no time. And make sure he gives you the message from General Cresswell, too. All of it."
Sam looked at Harm. "A message from the general?"
"Tomorrow morning, honey."
Sam couldn't help but smile at the anticipation on Harm's face. Under other circumstances, like if he were inhabiting a man's body and the anticipation were on a woman's face, it would be fun to play with that. He didn't even want to think about what Harm intended to do with Mac tonight – he knew what he would want to do under similar conditions. In all the time he had been leaping, he'd never actually been in a woman's body when . . .
"Mac, honey, are you okay?" Harm's voice took on a gentle, caressing tone.
"I'm fine, Harm. Just tired." And trying desperately to think of a way get out of making love tonight, the irony of which was not at all lost on Sam.
The petty officer looked at her watch. "I guess I should go home to start packing."
"Jen, are you still okay with staying here until Mattie is ready to be moved?"
Al materialized behind Jen and wolf whistled before he gave Sam a quick update over the conversation. "Mattie is Captain Rabb's ward. She's a paraplegic now but in your time is just beginning the long, slow recovery process from a six week coma with full paralysis."
Al disappeared before Sam could even formulate a question, let alone ask one.
"No, ma'am, not at all. It really will be an honor to serve you again in San Diego."
Sam stood up straight and offered his hand in as ladylike a way as he could. "It will be an honor to have you aboard, Petty Officer. Take care of Mattie."
"Yes, ma'am. I'll check in on her everyday now that she'll be at Bethesda rather than all the way out in Blacksburg."
"Thanks. We'll get you out of here as soon as we can."
Sam saw Jen relax at those words before she said her goodbyes and left the bar. For a moment, everyone was quiet, then Harm pulled Sam back into his arms.
The meaningful look the African American commander sent Sam's way made him wonder just what had transpired between Mac and her fellow officer. "I'll get going so you two can . . . go do whatever it is that you're going to do to celebrate, which I'm sure will solve a lot of problems."
Sam inhaled and once again prayed that his non-committal answer would assuage . . . what a time for a blank mind. "Let's hope."
"Sturgis, good luck, man. We'll see you at the wedding?"
Sturgis. Sturgis grinned from ear to ear. "Like I'd miss that historic event. I'll be calling Keeter on my way to the car to start planning the bachelor party."
Harm paled and let go of Sam. "Oh, my God."
Sturgis pulled Harm into a "man hug". Grin still firmly in place, he warned, "Be afraid. Be very afraid."
"Oh, I am. Just don't corrupt Bud in the process, okay?"
Sturgis smiled at Sam. "What, you don't think your wife-to-be would appreciate another round of rescue the barbarians from jail? I'm betting the admiral would enjoy it more now than he did then, seeing as he's retired."
It was times like this during leaps that Sam most wished he retained the memories of the person into whose life he had been dumped. There had to be a very funny story there, if only he could get someone to tell it.
"Yes, but do you want to be the one to get a Marine general thrown in jail? It was bad enough with AJ."
"I can imagine."
"Sturgis, you really had to be there. And don't forget, what goes around comes around, and I'm hearing wedding bells in your future . . ." Harm let the silence speak for itself.
"He's a menace, Mac." He leaned in to kiss Sam's cheek. "Please, take Vukovic."
Just the way Sturgis said the name tipped Sam off to something unpleasant, but Harm's expression of utter disgust made it clear that Mac's answer would be not only no but, "Hell, no."
"I'll pay you."
"Sturgis, Vukovic is your problem. Don't you think Harm will be enough for me?"
Harm's lips flattened into a long-suffering grimace as Sturgis laughed.
"Game, set, and match to the colonel. Good night and safe travels, you two."
Sturgis sauntered off. Sam watched and wished that he could attend that bachelor party as a man, prompting a sigh.
"You really are tired. Let's go home."
Sam felt his forehead wrinkle in confusion and wondered what that looked like on Mac's face. "Whose?" He had no clue where Harm lived. Or where Mac lived, for that matter.
Harm obviously thought he was poking fun. "Damn. The hotel, then. Did I give you your key?"
Sam opened the small red purse beside him on the bar. "No. So much has happened I'm not sure you even told me the hotel."
Harm smiled as he fished inside his jacket and came out with a slim wallet. "Here you go. It's a B&B at 16th and R near Dupont Circle – Jacuzzi tub and king size bed." He handed over a traditional key and a parking tag with the name and address of the inn.
"I'm impressed."
"We got lucky. A last minute cancellation. I'll be there in about an hour. I was afraid I was running late, so I didn't put my suitcases in my car."
Sam had no idea whether there were suitcases in Mac's car or not. And if not, he wouldn't know where to go to get them until he could get a look at her driver's license. Then he realized that she might have a license issued by her state of residence – but he would worry about that when he was alone.
Sam imagined his own wife in her sultry sex goddess mode and hoped his attempt at flirtation didn't come out as a bad imitation of Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot. Why he could remember not only the plot of Some Like It Hot but the stars and several good lines from it as well remained a mystery as inexplicable as women. "Well, then you need to go take care of that, don't you, Captain Rabb?"
"Yes, I do, Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie." He opened his arms.
Sam stepped into them.
"I love you, Sarah."
Sam couldn't explain the sudden warmth that swept through his body at the depth of emotion in Harm's voice. "I love you, Harm." At least he could assume from that warmth that Mac loved Harm.
He always hoped that when he fathered Sammy Jo as Will Kinman, he had felt something like this soothing tide of calm that enveloped him even as Harm kissed his forehead and let go. Sammy Jo herself was a ragged memory hanging by a thread from a leap over a decade ago, but thoughts of her still warmed him.
"If I kiss you now, we won't get back to the inn."
Sam could remember that feeling, having leaped into his own life twice in the years between his marriage to Donna and his first leap. He had never been himself, but he had seen his past self looking at Donna the way Harm looked at the woman he loved. Who just happened to be a man for the moment.
Sam pushed the confusion out of his head. "We can't have that. The sooner you go, the sooner you'll be at the hotel."
"Gotta pay the bar tab. Joanna!" Harm smiled at Sam. "Go on, get settled. I'll call Mattie from the car and be there as quick as I can."
Sam kissed his cheek, picked up the handbag, and, as he was quite sure his hostess would really do, put on a show as he walked out in those ridiculously high heels. He had an hour to figure out how not to have sex tonight.
Oh, boy.