Seawolf Mask of Command (21 page)

Kristen estimated Jasmine was maybe four years old, and she watched the delightful child skip off back to her room, taunting her big brothers all the way. “Mark and Sean got in trouble! Mark and Sean got in trouble!”

Penny watched her go and shook her head. “Those boys are as bad as Jason and Sean when they start cutting up,” she explained. Kristen was forming quite a few questions. She’d already guessed that Penny’s eldest son was named after Brodie who, she assumed was also “Uncle Sean,” which spoke volumes regarding the relationship between Brodie and Graves.

“That’s a nice jacket, Kristen,” Penny offered, fingering the leather. “Some old fighter jock give it to you?” she asked as she admired the various patches sewn onto the jacket.

Kristen nodded. “As a matter of fact,” she admitted thinking of her closest friend in the world. “My best friend gave it to me last year for Christmas. She flies an F-18.”

Penny nodded in response, glanced toward the kitchen, stepped a little closer to Kristen, and lowered her voice. “Listen, Sweetie,” she said with the same pleasant smile but with a hint of concern in her voice. “This is my house, and you’re most welcome here....”

“Thank you,” Kristen replied, not sure what Penny was getting at.

Penny gestured toward the kitchen. “I respect you for what you’re doing, and believe me no one cheered louder than me when the President announced you’d be going to sea. But not all of the wives are exactly happy about you being on board.”

Kristen shot a glance toward the kitchen, hearing some laughter. Kristen understood what she was getting at. “All right, what do you suggest?”

“Just stay near me and if the hens get too bitchy, I’ll bail you out, okay?”

“Okay,” Kristen replied, hoping it wouldn’t be as bad as Penny feared.

It was worse.

As Kristen entered the kitchen, the laughter and joking ended as if Death himself had made an appearance. Ten women were crowded into the kitchen, and ten pairs of eyes turned on her. There wasn’t a friendly face among them. A few offered polite, forced smiles as Penny went around and introduced Kristen to everyone. But Kristen got the distinct impression that given half a chance they would scratch her eyes out. Several of them openly looked her up and down, clearly assessing her as a possible threat to their marriage, which Kristen thought was ridiculous. Her entire life thus far had been about work. She’d never found time for a relationship, and she certainly had no intention of starting one with one of their husbands or anyone else on the
Seawolf
for that matter.

Ski’s wife, a tall redhead, was the last to be introduced. She leaned slightly against a counter, a cocktail in her hand, and eyed Kristen with unabashed contempt. Kristen kept her smile fixed on her face as she shook the woman’s hand while the redhead looked Kristen over. “Now I see why Phillip has been working such late nights,” the old crow said with a vindictive smile.

Kristen kept her cool, not having expected such open hostility from the wives. “I’m sure it’s difficult having to share your husband with the Navy, ma’am,” Kristen replied. “But we’ve all been working very hard to get ready for sea.”

“Of course,” the woman said with near civility, but her expression was sending quite a different message.

“A-hem,” Penny interjected politely, apparently realizing the women weren’t quite ready to socialize with Kristen yet. “Kristen, would you mind helping me deliver some more chips to the boys?”

“Of course, Mrs. Graves,” Kristen replied a little stiffly. Things on board had begun to settle down, with the crew at least showing some willingness to accept her. But she hadn’t expected to run into a blizzard among the wives and gladly accepted Penny’s opening to beat a hasty retreat.

“Penny,” Graves’ wife reminded Kristen as she handed over a large bowl of chips.

Kristen followed her out of the kitchen.

“Well,” Penny whispered sarcastically, “that went nicely.”

Kristen chuckled. “Oh, yeah, I’m a big hit.”

“Sorry about that,” Penny apologized. “Give them some time.”

“Of course, and in a millennium I might be able to get the ice knives out of my back.”

A growing chorus of cheers from the living room greeted her as she entered in time to see a midshipman streaking down the sidelines leaving a handful of Army cadets in his wake.

“TOUCHDOWN!” the room roared in a single, resonating collective cry of jubilation.

Penny and Kristen delivered the chips, and Kristen found a spot on a bar stool out of the way. She realized it was best not to appear too cozy with her peers, considering their wives apparently believed she was already sleeping with them. Terry gave her a shit-eating grin from his spot on the couch as the woman on his lap lounged comfortably. She didn’t look sharp enough to handle a door knob, but Terry looked quite comfortable with her.

Kristen looked around. Adam Carpenter, the assistant propulsion officer was on duty back at the submarine keeping an eye on the reactor; otherwise, all of the junior officers were present. But she didn’t see the captain. She assumed Brodie had decided to stay on board and hopefully would get some much needed rest. She’d seen him every day at the normal morning meetings, and then periodically throughout the workday, but they had yet to have a lengthy conversation. She was considering this when she heard a low grumbling noise coming from the front of the house. A minute later the front door opened and Brodie came in.

Kristen was momentarily struck speechless. He was supposed to be an officer and a gentleman; a captain of America’s elite—and ultra-conservative—submarine forces. But instead of a designer polo and slacks, he wore black riding leathers over his blue jeans, boots, and a black leather vest over a faded and ripped sweater. On his hands he wore leather gloves with the fingers cut out, and he held a helmet in one hand. His unmanageable hair looked almost alive as he ran a hand through it, trying to discipline the apparently untamable haystack that fell back wherever it so pleased regardless of his intent. If she were to meet him on the street, she would never have believed he was a naval officer, let alone the commander of a submarine. In fact, she thought he looked like an image from a copy of
Easyrider’s
badass edition. Kristen was thankful the game was on and no one was looking at her, because a few moments later she realized her jaw was still hanging open.

Penny appeared, greeted Brodie with a kiss on the cheek, and then hollered down the hall to her children. The three were soon pounding back into the living room, each intent on being the first to greet him.

Kristen watched, once more taken aback as her captain knelt down and greeted the three children as if they were his very own. The boys were now dressed in black leather riding jackets like Brodie’s and carrying their helmets. Little Jasmine was also dressed for a ride in a pink leather jacket, and she wore a matching pink helmet that looked so big on her tiny frame it might cause her to topple over.

“I was ready first!” Jasmine pleaded with Brodie. “I was ready first!”

“Okay, Jaz,” Brodie responded as he scooped her up with one arm and set her on his hip.

“She always gets to go first!” Mark Allen, the younger of the two boys exclaimed.

“Ladies first,” Brodie responded and led them back out the front door, apparently not interested in the game.

Penny followed, stopping at the door. “Sean, you take it easy with my babies,” she reminded him. “Precious cargo!”

Kristen didn’t hear Brodie’s response but assumed it satisfied Penny who closed the door. She came back into the living room with a smile, pausing behind her husband long enough to pat his shoulder. “Your friends,” she said accusingly. Penny then walked over to Kristen.

“Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Some tea or water would be wonderful,” Kristen answered and slipped off the bar stool. The wives were filtering into the living room, and Kristen noticed them move protectively around their husbands as if it were Kristen’s intent to assault one of the men during halftime. Penny returned a few moments later with a glass of wine for herself and a glass of ice tea for Kristen. One glance at the atmosphere brewing in the room was enough for her to realize Kristen was no longer welcome.

“I don’t think you’ve had the tour, yet,” she offered. “Come on, let me show you around casa de Graves.”

Kristen accepted the invitation and allowed Penny to lead her out. They made it as far as the front room where Penny took a seat at the dining room table where she could peer out onto her front lawn and keep an eye on the motorcycle riding. Kristen took a seat next to her.

Penny then offered, “I’m really sorry, Kristen.”

But Kristen waved her off. “It’s all right,” she assured Penny. “Trust me, I’ve had much worse.”

“I can only imagine,” Penny replied. “I don’t know how you coped.”

Kristen briefly thought about the struggle to force the Navy to let her serve on a sub. It had been far harder than she’d ever expected. In fact, she doubted she’d be willing to go through it all over again if she had to. Brutally unpleasant memories came to mind, and because of her eidetic memory, she could recall every detail with sickening clarity. Kristen forced the dark thoughts back into the recesses of her mind where she kept all of her unpleasant memories locked away. Over the years, she’d carefully constructed a mental vault as a sort of defense mechanism to prevent unpleasant memories overwhelming her.

They heard the rumbling of a massive Harley Davidson V-Rod and Kristen followed Penny’s glance out the window. Brodie had just returned from giving Jasmine a ride. The tiny girl was seated behind him and holding on tight. Immediately, Brodie was assaulted by the two boys, each competing for the next ride.

“Wow,” Kristen thought out loud. The image Brodie maintained about the submarine was formal except with a select few, and she’d yet to be invited into the exclusive club. She’d never seen him off the submarine in fact, and seeing him like this was a bit of a shock. Kristen glanced back at Penny. “I mean,” she added quickly, “it looks like your children really love him.”

Penny nodded and pointed toward a credenza covered in family photographs. Kristen saw that Brodie was in quite a few of them. “Sean might as well be the brother Jason never had. The two of them have been friends for as long as I can remember.”

Curious to learn more about her captain, Kristen asked, “How did they meet?”

“Jason was assigned to the Pentagon after he shattered his left leg while with the Teams,” Penny explained.

“Is that why he left the SEALs?”

Penny nodded. “After he left SEAL Team Two, Jason was considering getting out of the Navy when he met Sean who was in D.C. after his first tour on a fast-attack boat. The two of them were the only officers at the Pentagon who wanted to get out of the Beltway. Anyway, they hit it right off. Sean helped Jason with his rehab and then went to work on resurrecting his career.”

“That’s a neat story,” Kristen replied honestly as she glanced back outside and saw Brodie pulling away with Mark Allen on the back of the big motorcycle.

“Sean’s been part of the family ever since,” Penny concluded. “Hell, after his divorce, he all but moved in.”

Kristen hesitated, trying to hide her curiosity behind a sip of tea. “I wasn’t aware he’d been married.”

Penny rose up slightly out of her seat as her oldest boy looked to be teasing his sister. But one stern look through the window was enough to cause the young man to straighten up. Penny sat back down and explained, “Cheryl wasn’t much of a wife.” She leaned a little closer and whispered, “Jason and I never thought she was any good, but Sean…” Her eyes told the rest of the story.

“What happened?”

“Cheryl wanted a husband, not a sailor. She liked spending Sean’s money, driving nice cars, and being an officer’s wife. But…” Penny paused, a hint of sadness in her eyes, “she left him while he and Jason were stationed in Norfolk. They were on a patrol, and, along with the divorce papers, she sent Sean a letter in the mail saying it was over.”

“Bitch,” Kristen replied thoughtlessly.

“That word describes Cheryl perfectly,” Penny concluded apparently undisturbed by Kristen’s brief profanity. “Sean wasn’t a perfect husband,” Penny admitted. “He was gone a lot, probably more than he had to be because he loved what he did. But he was faithful, and Cheryl always knew where he was at night.”

The throaty roar of the big Harley returned, and Kristen turned her attention back to the front lawn where her captain was pulling back in. Except he no longer looked like a captain. He was now just a decent guy playing with a dear friend’s children. With hardly a glance, it was clear Penny’s children adored him. Over the previous two weeks she’d slowly formed her opinion of each officer on board, and felt she had them all pegged, including the captain. But her assessment of her captain as a workaholic with a bad temper and a hidden agenda didn’t fit with the image she was seeing on the front lawn.

“Did they have any children of their own?”

“No, thank God,” Penny answered in relief. “Sean wanted kids, but Cheryl wasn’t the maternal type if you know what I mean.”

Both women came up out of their seats when they saw the two boys gang tackle Brodie on the front lawn. But any fears were relieved a moment later, when they saw all of them cackling in laughter together.

“Oh, well,” Penny offered, “Cheryl’s loss was my gain. Sean’s been like a second father to the kids, filling in more than a time or two when Jason was gone.”

Kristen found herself growing more intrigued. She toyed with her glass. “Is he seeing anyone?”

Penny paused for a moment, her eyes studying Kristen. “Not at the moment,” she replied easily. “I hooked him up with a pediatrician friend of mine last year. They dated for about six months, but as soon as it got serious, Sean broke it off.”

Kristen didn’t reply; instead, she sipped her tea in silence, allowing Penny to fill the void between them.

“I think he’s afraid of getting hurt again.”

Kristen took another sip then set her tea glass down as the motorcycle sped away yet again, this time with Penny’s oldest boy firmly on the back.