Page 8 of The Soldier's Final Mission

“I love icecweam!”Riley exclaimed.

“Me too. Vanilla’s my favorite. What’syours?”

“Stwawbewwy,”Riley said.

“Strrrawberry,”Becca corrected.

“Strrrbewwy,”Riley tried to sound out.

“Close enough,” Becca conceded. She lookedback to Bob, still not believing he was in front of her. “How long are youhere?”

“Not sure, just got in yesterday.” As helooked at her, she saw him hesitate. Finally he asked if she’d like to gettogether sometime.

“Yes,” she said right away without asecond thought. No way was she going to let another opportunity with him passher by. “Do you still run? We could—” She stopped when she realized he had thelimp. She looked down at his legs then back to his face, feeling awful. “I’m sosorry, I—”

“It’s okay, really. Had an incident on amission. Not running much these days. But I’d love to meet for breakfast ifthat’s okay.”

“That’d be great. Can you come over to myplace in themornin’? Or is that too soon?”

“That’d be fine.” He pulled out his phone,no doubt scrolling to his contact page. “How ‘bout you give me your number andaddress, and I’ll find you.”

As she rattled off the information, Riley reachedout again, touching Bob’s hand that held the phone. “You gotowies, too,” he said, stroking a puckered scar that startedon the back of Bob’s hand and ran up his forearm.

Only then did Becca notice the scar,trying not to be shocked. How could she have missed that? Because she’d beentoo focused on staring at his gorgeous face and reminiscing about the past,that’s why.

She started to reach out, but then stoppedherself. “Oh, Bob,” she couldn’t help herself from saying. She watched Bob’seyes harden for a second before clouding over, trying to brush it off with ashrug.

“Comes with the territory.” He dropped thephone back in his pocket before ruffling Riley’s hair gently. “But hey, bigguy, I got magic powder to heal me, too.”

“You did?” Riley asked with awe.

“Yep. I’m all better.” Bob looked atBecca, smiling. Only the smile still didn’t reflect in his eyes. “I better getgoing. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Yes,” she managed. “How does nine sound?”

“Sounds perfect. Seeya,Riley.”

“Bye.”

Becca watched Bob turn and make his wayinside the center. She stood for another moment before Riley started to fidget,making her turn to head toward the car. “Okay, buddy, how about we hit thestore real quick for some groceries?”

“And icecweam!”

“And ice cream.” She smiled down at herson, kissing his forehead.

“Was that manafwend, Mommy?”

“Yes. A friend from a long time ago.”

“He’s a soldier.”

“Yes, he is. He’s a brave man.” She didn’tquestion why that suddenly came out, just knew it had to be the truth.

“He fights bad guys, huh?”

“I’m sure he has,” she said, more toherself than to her son.

She got Riley and herself settled in thecar. After a quick trip through Albertson’s, they were on their way home. Beccalived east of the San Diego Zoo, just past the freeway, in Azalea Park. Sincethe divorce, she and Riley moved to a nice development close to a good schoolfor him. Patrick maintained his residence at Coronado Shores, close to thehospital.

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