A couple hundred people milled around in the low light of the auditorium. As the DJ spun up a tune, a few couples drifted toward the dance floor.
Amanda waved at a several familiar faces as she scanned the crowd.
Lee leaned in and whispered, "Remember, you're not working tonight."
"What?"
"You're casing the exits as you look for your friends. Need I remind you that you're here to have fun?" Since he'd met her on the back porch and talked her into this, Lee's teasing smile didn't seem to have an off switch. Even after he waited in the car for half an hour so she could change clothes and do her hair, drove across town in rush hour traffic, and stopped for gas. Goodness knows why he was having so much fun with this.
Amanda smiled ruefully and teased her fingers over the fringe on his coat. "Occupational hazard. And don't tell me you don't know where all the exits are and that the guy by the punch bowl is packing heat."
"I do know that. But I also recognize him. Travis…something."
"How on earth do you know Travis Bonner?" Amanda cried. "I've known Travis since the fifth grade!"
Lee pulled her away from a nearby booming speaker so they could hear one another better. "He's a Fairfax County sheriff's deputy. I was an active-duty reservist for Army Intelligence for two years after Harry recruited me. There was a security breach at Fort Belvior and the Army asked Harry if I could help. Car parts were disappearing from the base motor pool. A dozen new tires showed up at a swap meet in Fairfax one Saturday, and two privates with a garage full of U.S. Government property ended up in Leavenworth. Stupid route to a dishonorable discharge. Travis was a new deputy during that case. Nice guy. Eats a lot of sunflower seeds."
Amanda stared at him for a moment, trying to assimilate the fact that Lee knew the kid who puked on her book bag during a sixth-grade math test. "How many years were you in?"
"The Army?"
She nodded.
"Amanda, you've read my file."
"I've read the part my clearance has allowed."
Lee's dubious expression made Amanda laugh. "…and maybe a little more than my clearance allows, through means I will not divulge...but tell me, anyway. Where did you finish high school? And what happened after that?"
"Uh, okay," Lee said. He offered her his arm and Amanda hugged it loosely as they wandered along, weaving around the clumps of revelers. "Uncle Robert, then Captain Clayton, was at Ramstein for my last two years of high school. I was a Ramstein Royal, class of 1967. He stayed in Germany, and I came home for the University of Virgina. I was in ROTC, '67 to '71. I joined up May '71, followed by eight weeks of basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey and six weeks of OCS at Fort Moore, Georgia. Second Lieutenant Lee Stetson was in Vietnam by November '71."
He paused there, pondering something. "The U.S. left Vietnam March 29, 1973. I came home for a six-month posting at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and then Army Intelligence sent me back to Germany for a year and a half. I was based out of Landstuhl, but I traveled a lot. I came home in April '75 and worked at the Pentagon and that's when I met Harry. I separated to the reserves in November 1976. Started at The Agency in early '77 and my reserve duty ended at the end of '78. A little over five years of active duty. It was a blur, honestly. I…" He frowned and shook his head.
"That's enough for tonight. I only wanted some context for that part of your life. Before tonight is over, you're going to know all about my high school years, and you already know a lot about Joe and what came after."
Lee shrugged. "I know what you had to tell me."
Amanda pursed her lips. She wanted to argue but knew she would be wrong. "That's…fair. I owe you more. It's just so complicated."
"But like you said, not tonight." He smiled as he said it, so she'd know he wasn't upset.
She ran her hand down his arm and laced their fingers together. "The fact that you know Travis is so strange. But we did spend a lot of years in the same area. At UVA. And I worked two summers at the capitol." Amanda leaned her head against his shoulder. "I wonder how many times our paths almost crossed over the years."
"You know, I've actually wondered the same thing. After all these years, I've finally decided that we meet people when we need to." Lee squeezed her hand as they walked along, pulling her deeper into the crowd.
A progressively higher and louder squealing noise behind them caused Lee and Amanda to spin around. Amanda was dragged from Lee's grasp and engulfed in a red-headed tornado of bouncing glee.
"Aaahmaaaandaaaaa!"
Amanda embraced Terri Hicks tightly in return. Right behind Terri, a handful of Amanda's dearest high school friends, decked out in their finest 1960s regalia, reached out to embrace Amanda, albeit with slightly less ferocity. Lee stood a little to the side, warmed head to toe by the outpouring of affection for his partner. These people adored Amanda King. He could relate.
Terri shot a loaded look at Amanda and turned to Lee. "Hi there, handsome. You need to get yourself introduced to me so I can decide if you're good enough for the girl who saved me from flunking high school French."
"Terri!" Amanda scolded.
Lee did a doubletake. "Tu ne m'as pas dit que tu parlais français!"
Amanda smirked. "Un peu. Et vous ne m'avez pas demandé. Really, that's almost all I remember."
Lee blinked at Amanda…and turned to her friend. "Terri, that is a challenge no mortal man can live up to, but I am darn well going to try." He took his partner by the hand. "Amanda, introductions, please?"
Amanda's eyes positively twinkled as she looked from Lee to the gang, pointing out each couple in turn. "You have the evening to work out the details, but the short version is, this is Terri and Brad Hicks, Debbie and Hector Martinez, Jill and Warren Church, and Judy and Calvin Moore. Everybody, this is Lee Stetson." She turned back to her date. "Lee, practically all of the laughs I had and all of the trouble I got into in high school occurred in the presence of these wonderful ladies...and Brad."
Brad, a hulking, retired Navy man, who was looking on in amusement and popping cocktail peanuts, lasered in on the cluster of partiers near the entrance. A blonde woman in a particularly form-fitting dress sashayed through the door in a fashion that demanded notice. Brad bumped his wife with his elbow and nodded in the direction of the door. "Here comes trouble."
They all turned toward the entrance.
"Crap." Terri muttered.
"Gird your loins, women," Debbie said.
"Hold on to your men," Jill agreed.
"Oh my gosh!"
Judy muttered something unintelligible under her breath.
The women's expressions of chagrin had Lee on high alert. "Should we be taking cover?" he asked in a stage whisper.
Brad, who was the only Jefferson High Jaguar among the men present, was happy to elaborate for Lee and the other guys. "Gentlemen, that is Marcie Madison, former head cheerleader, current California resident, event coordinator to the stars, and destroyer of men. 'Mercenary Marcie' to those who know her best. In high school, she would have gone on a date with Charles Manson if he'd been better looking than the guy she was dating at that moment, and Manson would have been crying before it was over. She's responsible for more destruction than strip mining, hand grenades and the clap."
Terri bussed her husband on the cheek. "That's accurate."
Amanda leaned toward Terri. "Is it wrong that I'd hoped she'd stay in California?"
Terri frowned. "I heard marriage number two is on the skids. She's probably just trolling for another victim."
Amanda worried her bottom lip with her teeth. "Maybe she's changed?"
Jill scoffed. "And I dreamed up the formula for cold fusion over my corn flakes."
"Well…we can try to be nice," Amanda insisted.
Terri laid a hand on Lee's arm. "Amanda always was our conscience. For my part, I couldn't help wanting to occasionally take Marcie down a peg or two."
Amanda frowned. "If her marriage just collapsed, I doubt she'll need much humbling, even for Marcie."
Debbie looked doubtful. "I guess. But men, if she smells weakness she'll have you in Atlantic City with a lamp shade on your head, your American Express card maxed out and your self-esteem in rags. What I'm saying is, love the one you're with."