Page 31 of SEAL's Sky
They played a couple of games of pool before the bar opened, and since her secret was out she didn’t have to hide from Tony when he came in. After her mom told him who she was, he didn’t believe her, and it took him a few minutes of staring at her until he gave her a huge hug. In fairness, he hadn’t seen her in probably two or three years. When she’d visited her mom before moving to New York, it was mostly in the mornings before they had to go to work. They’d sit and have coffee and talk about inane stuff that she couldn’t even remember now. But she’d enjoyed every minute of it and missed it after moving to New York.
“No wonder your mom was acting so strange. It didn’t fit with the friend’s daughter staying with her.”
“Yeah, well in a way, it was true. Amanda is mom’s middle name and Russell was her maiden name. It’s how we came up with the name.”
“And Sky? Where did that come from?”
“It’s my middle name, Jennifer Skylar Turner.”
Tony nodded. His big brown eyes were full of understanding. “The last couple of weeks makes a lot more sense now. Pam, you could have told me, trusted me…”
“Shhh. I know, but the SEALs were pretty adamant about keeping it secret from everyone. I’m sorry if I hurt you.”
“It’s okay, Dollface, I forgive you. But we’re going to have a talk later,” Tony said with a wink then headed into the kitchen to prep for the day.
“Dollface?” Jen asked, barely able to contain her giggles.
“You be quiet too,” her mom answered.
Jen grinned as her mom’s cheeks kept getting pinker. “I think there’s a lot more to you and Tony than you admitted.”
“I’m not going to discuss my love life with you.”
“Ahh, see, you said love life. That implies there is more.”
Her mom shook her head and banked her shot, knocking three balls in and winning the game. “We’re done here now.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jen answered following her upstairs with a huge smile on her face. It was times like this that she felt normal again and could forget for a short time how screwed up her life was at the moment. She prayed that the SEALs were right, and this would be over soon.
Murph would arrive shortly and Jen needed to pack. She didn’t have a lot of clothes that would be good for camping, all she had with her were the clothes she’d picked up at the second-hand store. She’d planned on buying more, but things went sideways. And there was a snowball’s chance in hell they’d let her go shopping.
As she filled her backpack, her mom paced back and forth. The closer it got to the time she was leaving the more upset her mom became. She couldn’t blame her, hell Jen was worried too, but her fear was for her mother. Every night, her dreams were filled with thoughts of Kurt but last night was one of the worst. He’d been in the Ready Room kitchen with one of Tony’s knives against her mom’s throat. The bright red drops of blood stood out stark against her light skin. She’d woken up screaming for him to stop, her shrieks had woken her mother and she’d run into Jen’s room.
Pam begged Jen to tell her about the dream to help make it go away, like when she had bad dreams as a child. Her parents would tell her each time that if she said her fears out loud then they would go away, but her childhood monsters were far different from the real one who haunted her adult nightmares. Unable to fall back to sleep, she stared at the ceiling for hours. She’d never been more relieved to see the sunrise.
Double-checking she had enough socks and underwear, Jen realized she didn’t have any pajamas. It hadn’t mattered until then that she’d only worn one of her dad’s old Navy t-shirts. But there was no way that’s all she was wearing around Murph.
“I don’t have anything to sleep in?”
“What have you been wearing?”
“Dad’s old t-shirts. I had a few of them still stashed in the dresser, but that’s not enough for the cabin.”
“Let me see if I have anything that’ll work.”
Alone, Jen grabbed her current journal from under her mattress. It’s not that she didn’t want her mom to know, she just didn’t want her to knowyet.It was all too fresh and painful, like an open sore that kept getting irritated. They used to share everything, but she couldn’t do this to her. There were thoughts written in the pages Jen didn’t even want to read ever again. She wrapped it in another t-shirt and shoved it into the backpack.
“How about these? I know they’ll be a little big on you, but what do you think?” her mom asked as she held up a pair of thermals with hearts.
“Where did they come from?” Jen said as she broke into a fit of giggles. Her mother had never worn those. No way.
“Never mind where they came from. Do you want to take them or not? At least you won’t freeze if it gets cold.”
“Yeah, and I won’t have to worry about Murph putting the moves on me either.” She was still laughing as her mom tossed them at her head.
“You could do worse than Drew Murphy. He’s grown into a good man. And very easy on the eyes.”
“A good man who knows a zillion expressions for having sex. Mom, I’m not ready to get serious with anyone. I won’t lie, I could see it in the future maybe. But I am still having nightmares about Kurt the twat muffin.”
