“Plus all that experience as a dorm RA has him good at shit like signs and banners and cutesy gestures. And he’s been back in Seattle a couple of months now. He’d do it.”
“I can’t believe I’m actually considering this. How are you going to get a message to him anyway?” The last thing I needed was anyone else getting wind of this ill-advised plan. There was no such thing as privacy on a sub.
“Trust me. I’ve got my ways.” Calder’s voice went from confident to hushed as voices sounded near the front row of bunks.
“Dude. Did you hear about Fernsby?” asked one of the youngest chiefs, a Nuke with a chipped front tooth and no filter. I couldn’t see him or his buddy but his surfer-boy drawl was unmistakable.
“Yep. Fox is gonna be so pissed.” The other person had to be Beauregard, who worked with me in Weapons. The Southern accent gave him away. “It’s a wonder they haven’t murdered each other this whole deployment. If a crew member stole my girl—or guy—I’m not sure I could stand the humiliation.”
“Shush.” A third voice sounded farther back, and then there was a lot of fumbling around before Beauregard slapped his bunk.
“Okay, okay, here’s my new deck,” he announced as the three of them exited the quarters.
“See?” I gestured up at Calder. “It would be justifiable homicide.”
“It would. But wouldn’t revenge be better?”
“I dunno. Fernsby’s head would look pretty great mounted on my wall back on base.” I groaned as I thought about returning to my little room in the barracks. I’d let Steve keep the apartment, because I was such a nice guy and all. Damn it, I was tired of being nice. Tired of being taken advantage of and pitied and gossiped about. Fuck it all. “Okay. Whatever. See what you can arrange.”
“Leave it all to me.” Calder straightened to his full height, which came just shy of the low ceiling. “You won’t regret this.”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure I will.” Dread churned in my too-empty gut, but it was a distraction from all the weeks of hurt and anger I’d been stamping down. At least we had a plan.
Chapter Two
Arthur
“This should be easy.” I hefted my large cardboard sign out of the trunk as Sabrina laughed.
“Uh-huh.” She flipped her cascading bluish-purple hair over her shoulder. She’d prepared for our day on the docks at base with the hair, a shimmery blue top, and a skirt with scales on it. Her whole look gave her the air of a mermaid prepared to lead some poor sailor to his doom. “If this scheme is so easy, why again did you need me?”
“You have a car.” We had the kind of ride-or-die friendship built on insults and inside jokes.
“True.” After checking her lipstick in a fancy silver mirror, she snapped her purse shut as I carefully removed the bunch of balloons next.
“And you have more social media followers than a minor Kardashian.”
“Also true. I’ll get you trending.” Somehow Sabrina had turned a secret obsession with fashion when we were teens into a successful sideline as an influencer as her alter ego The Makeup Witch with followers hanging on her every post.
“Counting on it.” I adjusted my load so that the balloons weren’t in imminent danger of escape.
“We’ll drown out this cheating loser dude who got first dibs on kissing.”
“Your strong opinions on cheaters are only one reason why I love you, Sabrina.”
“And my car.” She shut the trunk with a gold-tipped finger.
“Yup.” I headed in the direction of the community center where the families and friends waiting for the return of the sub were gathering to await buses to the docks. “Anyway, it’s a stupid tradition, but like everything else, the navy takes it super seriously. My mom and dad got the honor at least once, and there are a ton of pics of it. It was when he was stationed in Hawaii, and she got flowers and the boat was decorated with a huge lei. It made the Navy Times.”
“We can do better than some small-time publication.” Sabrina laughed as her heels clicked on the sidewalk.
“Everything is small compared to you.” It was true on multiple levels because she was big in notoriety and personality as well as stature. Even as we joined the throng of people entering the community center, Sabrina still towered over most of the crowd, commanding far more attention than I ever could, even with my giant sign and balloons.
But the sign that had looked so gaudy back at my place with all its colors and glitter was only one of dozens here. Tons of pretty young women in fancy sundresses toted catchy signs proclaiming how many days it had been since they’d seen their guys, and little kids had smaller signs announcing how much they’d grown. Proud Navy Mom T-shirts were everywhere, and more than one guy my dad’s age sported a Navy Veteran hat. The kids raced around the big common room while clumps of people greeted each other with hugs and excited squeals.
“This is something else. They’ve even got balloon animals happening.” Sabrina gestured at a kids’ area set up in the far corner with crafts and a couple of costumed entertainers.
“Yup. When I was little, they had face painting.”
“Tell me you asked for something embarrassing that made your big brothers cringe.” Sabrina bumped my shoulder.
“I asked for a three-fourth scale viola. I got two music notes and a heart instead.”
“You? Ask for something obscure? Never.” Her laugh echoed in the large space, mingling with all the other conversations swirling around us. Outside the large picture windows, a row of buses awaited the signal to load up.
“Quit laughing at me,” I grumbled as I glanced around to see if any of the uniformed event coordinators were herding people toward the buses yet.
“It’s all love, baby.” She gave me an air kiss.
In my pocket, my phone vibrated, and I shifted around my armful of stuff so I could fish it out of my skinny jeans. I was waiting to hear about a big freelance job, so I was more eager to check the messages than I might otherwise have been.
But I should have saved my enthusiasm.
Guess what? We caught an earlier flight! We’ll probably miss the buses, but we should see you at the docks. Can’t wait to see Calder. And you, of course.
And me. Of course. Calder got the bulk of my mom’s enthusiasm, as always. And damn it, this was a complication I hadn’t counted on. All I’d told Mom was that I was going to greet Calder and Derrick. Calder had sworn me to secrecy on the fake homecoming plan, not that I would have fessed up to Mom under any circumstances. Telling Sabrina didn’t count in my estimation because we operated in a judgment-free zone of total honesty. Unlike my parents.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
“What?” Sabrina deftly saved the balloons as I juggled things to pocket my phone.
“My parents are gonna be here.”