Fin tugged on her tank top again. Kyle’s eyes followed the movement and she flushed, lamenting the fact that she hadn’t bothered to choose her outfit more carefully before leaving the house. “Then you’re the one who’s nuts.”
“Hey.” Kyle grinned. “You’re the one standing on your own in the supermarket aisle, crying because you can’t decide what cereal to buy.” Putting his left hand in his pocket, she heard the jingle of car keys. “Anyway, I better get going. Got physio. Does seven work for you?”
“Probably not, unless you don’t mind me falling asleep on you.” Staying awake past eight p.m. these days was like swimming against the current, and Fin was slowly learning to pick her battles.
“Six then,” he replied as Fin aimed for another furtive tug upwards of her yoga pants. “You look …” Kyle swallowed, high colour hitting his cheeks as he met her eyes. “You’re beautiful. Pregnancy suits you.” With that he turned, offering a brief nod and a “Mrs. Tanner” and a “Laura,” to her mum and cousin before disappearing from the aisle.
“What’s Kyle doing back home?” her mother asked.
Items tumbled from Laura’s arms and into the trolley. “And did I just hear him call you beautiful?”
“Laura! Honestly. He was injured, but he’s okay.” Fin brushed at a rogue wave that had escaped her messy knot of hair. With her swollen body and ill-fitting clothes, she’d never looked or felt more unattractive in her entire life. “Besides, he was just being polite. I’m pregnant for God’s sake.”
“So what if you are?” Laura winked. “That doesn’t mean you can’t have sex.”
“Laura,” Fin hissed and once again, took possession of the trolley to make for another escape.
“I didn’t say to have a relationship with him, Fin.”
Fin gasped. “You did not just say that! He’s one of Ryan’s best friends. This conversation is getting out of control. Can we just get this shopping over and done with? What I need is to park my bum on something cushioned and eat. What I don’t need is to stand in the supermarket aisle while six months pregnant, talking about having sex just because a man was polite enough to call me beautiful when I look like complete ass!” She finished her rant by sucking in a deep lungful of air. All the added weight to her chest and belly had her breaking a sweat just by breathing.
With another irritable tug at her pants and an audible growl, Fin pushed the trolley along rapidly, and the faster she moved, the more she felt herself beginning to waddle.
“Coco Pops? Really?”
Glancing sideways, Fin realised her mother was keeping pace beside her. “Yes. You got a problem with that?”
Her mother shrugged. “Not really. My thing when pregnant with you was double cheeseburgers. I haven’t been able to eat another one since.” She shuddered before stopping in front of the vitamins. “Oh, when we’re done here, we should go pick out some maternity clothes. You’re busting out of those pants, honey.”
Pressing her lips together, Fin focused with wild desperation on getting out of the supermarket alive.
Two days later
FOB Khost
Eastern Afghanistan
“How’s life at the barracks, Brooks?”
“Fucking boring,” came the moan in his ear, “and I’m busy pissing everyone off just to keep myself entertained because there’s nothing else to do. Although they do have a bunch of new recruits due in over the next two weeks. Giving them shit will keep me occupied until my arm heals.”
With elbows resting on his knees and phone to his ear, Ryan laughed. “How is the arm anyway?”
“It’s fine, but if one more asshole makes a joke about my inability to jack off, I’m going to shoot them. I could load and fire a rifle with my left hand while blindfolded and hit a moving target in the time it would take them to find their own dicks.”
Ryan chuckled. “Careful, Brooks. You’re sounding a bit frustrated there.”
Kyle cleared his throat.
“So is that why you’re ringing me at, what time is it there—three a.m.? To talk to me about your sexual frustration?”
“Bet it’s nowhere near as bad as yours is.”
Ryan’s entire body tensed, and it was Kyle’s turn to laugh. “Actually, there is something I’m ringing you about.”
“Yeah?” Tucking the phone between his ear and shoulder, Ryan clenched and unclenched his fists. “What?”
Silence.
“You there?”
“Yeah, I’m here.” Another pause. “It’s Fin.”
His fingers tightened on the phone. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine, Kendall,” Kyle replied. “I, uh, ran into her at the supermarket the other day. She was there with Julie and Laura.”
“How is she?”
“Well, maybe that’s something you could ask her yourself, you know?”
Getting to his feet, Ryan started pacing in short spurts, back and forth, back and forth. Stopping, he scratched idly at the beard forming on his face from their patrol. He hated not shaving, but it wasn’t a high priority in the middle of a life and death operation. “Probably not a good idea.”
Kyle’s growl of anger came through the line.
“Brooks …”
“She told me she emailed you.”
Ryan closed his eyes. Finlay Tanner. The bold words. The empty subject line. It still taunted him.