It was when he departed that the problems began. No, he couldn’t say where he had to go. He was unable write, or call or text or email. She wandered from day to day wondering if he were alive. For many months after he left, the worry kept her up at night, settling into her gut as a tight knot. Whether it was sheer exhaustion or the simple fact that there was no way for her to fix situation, the worry eased a bit. Just as she decided that maybe it was time to move on, he showed up again, his timing as accurate as the World Time Clock. Frankly, she had grown tired of giving him chances. Well, being honest with herself, she simply didn’t think she could take it anymore. If he was able to tell her he’d be staying, that would be something different…but he never did.
She looked down at the ground, noticing that she had spilled something on her white tennis shoes. She slowly shook her head, and met his eyes again. “I don’t think this
chica
can take any more chances.” Tears welled in her eyes.
Chapter Four
Landon winced at her words as if a fist hit him instead of a few highly accented syllables. It wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but he had to convince her to give him another chance. He needed her like the ocean needed the tide. Thoughts of her kept him warm at night, whether he slept on some cot that was too small, or in some trench he had dug. Seeing her face in battle always renewed his desire to stay alive. He had nothing—no family, no home...just her. Before him stood the motivation for his miserable to heart beat in his chest for any other reason than it had to, and Landon hoped, prayed and wished with everything in him that he would be able to stay this time, that there would be no goodbye.
But he didn’t know that yet, and Landon wasn’t about to tell her things or make promises he couldn’t keep.
He had to convince her to be with him while he was here and quickly decided he wasn’t above begging. However, before getting to that point, he would try a few other things.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Landon studied her. Sweet Jesus, his memory of her didn’t do her justice. She stood there with her hands on her hips, her white tank top hugging the curves of her chest while the black shorts were snug against her slim hips and upper thighs. He let his gaze drop to her long brown legs to her white tennis shoes. Flashes of them making love went through his mind, and his groin responding accordingly. It certainly wasn’t a good time to get an erection.
But what killed him a little bit was the shimmer in her eyes. Landon hated being responsible for it, and knew he would hurt anyone who ever made her cry, and wondered how he could punch himself in the face and do some damage.
“Hey, sweetheart,” the guy next to him slurred, “bring your pretty ass over here and get me two more beers.” The guy took another sip from his cup, turned and whispered something to his friend, making them both laugh.
Landon closed his eyes, feeling his anger spike, hating this part of her job. Absolutely hated it, especially during Spring Break. These college-age men who acted like thirteen-year-old boys were so obnoxious and crude. Landon hoped the kid didn’t say anything else or he might have to break his neck. Getting a grip on his emotions and opening his eyes, he watched Maya pour a couple of beers out of the tap and handed them to the kid.
“Last ones, guys,” she said.
“What? C’mon, honey. Don’t cut us off.”
“Sorry. Last ones.”
Landon could tell the kid was angry, and his friend was upset as well. He hoped they just moved along and went to pass out in a lounge chair.
“We’re coming back when we want more, and you’re going to give it to us,” the kid said.
Great. A little boy with a big attitude.
“No, I’m not. Now scoot before I call security and have you banned from my bar.”
The kid took a sip, swayed a bit, whispered something to his friend, and then threw the half-f cup at Maya.
Without hesitation, Landon had the kid face first on the ground with a bloody lip before the last drop of beer landed, and he watched out of the corner of his eye while the kid’s friend made a run for it and the crowd around him stepped back.
“Didn’t your mama teach you any manners, boy?” Landon whispered in the kid’s ear. The way Landon had his knee in the kid’s back, his left cheek pushed down to the ground and his arm bent back behind him, the kid didn’t have a chance of answering.
“Let me give a quick lesson in case your mama forgot, okay? One, you always be polite to women. Two, you don’t throw fucking beer at them, and three, you consider yourself very, very lucky that you’re alive when a guy like me catches you not minding your manners. Understand?”
Tears welled in the boy’s eyes.
“I’m going to let you up. You’re going to walk away, find a nice quiet place to lick your wounds, and then you’re going to stay clear of this lady. Got it?”
The kid nodded.
Landon lifted himself up off the kid, dragging him to standing position all in one fluid movement.
“Glad you didn’t fall so hard that your head got cracked or something,” Landon said loudly. The kid stared at him for a moment and left. “That’s right. Better go rest now.”
The kid moved through the crowd with jerky, drunk movements and Landon turned back to Maya. He was expecting him and everyone else at the bar to be getting quite the show of her beautiful breasts.
Instead, she stood there dry as the desert on a summer’s day, obviously a pro at dodging beer thrown by drunks.
She looked at him and shook her head, reaching for the mop. She didn’t say anything for a moment while she cleaned up the beer. Finally, her gaze met his. “I get off at four. Make it good, Walker.”
He smiled widely, and for the first time just under a year, his heart beat with something other than necessity.
He nodded and smiled at her, turning to make his way through the crowd.
If the lady requested a good date, he would make sure that’s what she got.
Chapter Five
Maya finished up her afternoon with a bucket load of tips, tired feet, and anticipation mixed in with some resentment and anxiety.
After she had handed everything over to the night crew, she glanced around. At least a hundred people milled about, yet she found him without any problem as if there was just some type of connection between them that drew them together.
He stood on the walkway, staring at her. Dressed in tan pants and a white shirt, he looked stunning. Her breath caught, and she couldn’t take her gaze away.
Her whole afternoon had been replaying the high points of their relationship, and there were many. Like the time they went jet skiing, and the thrill she felt of having an excuse to wrap her body around him, and the excitement as he took them faster and faster across the ocean. She remembered she had ended up screaming, cursing, and laughing all at once. That had been the first time he had stolen a kiss from her, and he had set her whole being on an explosion of want and desire. When she introduced him to her family, and how they had embraced him. The first time they made love on Lover’s Beach in a secluded cave with the moon high and the stars bright. She was forced to look at the beach each day as it was directly across the water from her job.
“You still up for a date, beautiful?”
Her resentment melted a bit, and her anger ebbed. “I need to change.”
“You don’t, but I figured you’d say that.”
Maya smiled, half expecting him to tell her he brought her something to wear. She raised her gaze to the building above and wondered if he was staying in the usual suite. Her memories swirled to the huge bed and the pleasure they had given each other, to their laughter as they hung out on the balcony while sipping tequila and watching the sun set on the ocean.
“I’ll drive you home,” he said, approaching her. He stopped inches away from her body. “You look exhausted.” He brought his hand up to her cheek and gently caressed it.
Again, she longed to press her body into his, to let him wrap her up in his strength and beauty. Instead she pulled the keys out of her pocket. “Here you go, sailor.” She dropped the keys into his hand when he lifted it. “I believe you know the way.”
Chapter Six
Landon did know the way. He had been there a few times, loved it, and dreamt about it a thousand times. As they cruised the streets of outer Cabo in her black Honda, they were quiet. He pulled into the driveway of the small, quaint, clean house, and worried about the reception he would get. He knew he had hurt Maya last time he left. There hadn’t been much time for goodbye. It had been quick, tearful, and the pain on her face let him know she was hurting. He wouldn’t have been surprised if he weren’t exactly welcome in the Gonzalez home.
They got out of the car and made their way to the front door in silence. The door opened before they reached it, and Maya’s father, Ricardo, stood in the doorway looking surprised.
A hurried exchange of Spanish was conducted between Maya and her father. Landon picked up bits and pieces of it, and from what he caught, his father was asking if he should be happy to see Landon, or should he go get his gun. Landon smiled at the man, and Ricardo gave him a little wink.
“It’s good to see you, Landon,” Ricardo said, extending his hand. He was around five-foot-ten and carried weight around the middle of a man who was approaching sixty and loved beer and his wife’s homemade tamales. His hair had a little more salt mixed in with the pepper than the last time he had seen him, but his eyes still held the spark of youth.
Landon took Ricardo’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “You, too, Ricardo.”
Landon heard a flurry of Spanish from inside, and Maya’s mother, Justine, appeared in the doorway. From a distance, Maya and Justine could have been mistaken for sisters. Both had long, black hair, both were thin. It was only when one got up close that one saw the small lines on Justine’s pretty face.
“
Dios mio
!” she exclaimed. “I knew I knew that voice. Come here.” He bent down as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She took his face in her hands and studied him with scrutiny. “You look tired, Landon.”
He nodded, and gave her a smile small. Those four words had so much meaning. Physically, yes, he was tired. But his soul was also exhausted. This past tour he witnessed so much hate, death, and poverty, that after a while it wore on him. He tried to put up a wall around himself and not let it affect him, but it didn’t work. He’d been doing what he did for too long, and although he would never admit it to another, he was scared.
He could never look at the body of a dead child that had been caught in a bombing, or a mother weeping while she held her dead baby who had been accidently shot by the Taliban, or the bloody remains of a fallen fellow soldier he had played poker with the previous evening without it getting to him. On his last deployment, a guy with a rocket launcher tried to take out his unit, but had terrible aim and hit a bus full of women and children instead. Watching the bus explode and the subsequent carnage almost sent Landon over the edge. He still heard the screams in his sleep and saw the terrible images of the aftermath in his dreams. With so much turmoil within him, he was afraid he would one day eventually break and do something stupid. Maybe commit suicide. Maybe gun down a bunch of people or blow some stuff up. So yes, she was correct. His heart and soul were very, very tired.
“Come in, come in,” she said, giving Maya a hesitant look. Landon noted the silent exchange between mother and daughter answered the unasked questions.
Landon stepped into the small house, and as always, he immediately felt the warmth of the home. The dark brown carpet matched the old leather couch that sat against a white wall facing the small TV. Papers and magazines neatly littered the coffee table. On one wall a picture mosaic of the family hung in tidy rows, showing Maya and her older brother, who lived in another part of Mexico, in different stages of their childhood as well as many, many family photos.
“I’m going to go change,” Maya said softly and put her hand on his arm. The sheer energy of her touch never failed to surprise him.
“Okay,” he said, watching her go. Ricardo came back from the kitchen with two bottles of beer, handing one to Landon.
“Sit down, Landon,” Ricardo said while motioning to the couch.
Landon did as he was told.
“You and Maya stay for dinner?”
“No. I have a little surprise for her tonight,” Landon said with a slight grin.
Ricardo smiled and nodded. “You need to get back into her good graces,
amigo
. You broke her heart bad when you left this last time. She worries when she doesn’t hear from you.”
Landon studied the floor. “It’s safer for her, and for me, if no one knows where I’m at. I couldn’t talk to her, but I never stopped thinking of her.”
It was also a matter of national security that no one knew of his whereabouts. He was a SEAL. "Under the radar" was their
modus operandi
.
Ricardo nodded. “Where were you?”
“Mainly Afghanistan. We did a couple other missions in Africa and Iraq, but mainly Afghanistan.”
Ricardo nodded. “Was it bad?”
Landon met the man’s stare. “Yeah.”
Maya came out from the hallway in a sun-yellow dress, her black hair cascading around her shoulders. Landon smiled, positive there simply wasn’t a woman in the world more beautiful than his Maya.
He checked his watch. “We better get going, Maya,” he said. “We need to be…somewhere in about twenty.”
Ricardo stood at the same time as Landon, just as Justine came out from the kitchen.
“You leave already?” she asked, looking hurt.
“
Si
, mama,” Maya said.
“Will we see you again?” Justine questioned, gazing at Landon.
Maya talked a mile a minute in rapid-fire Spanish, and Justine put up her hand to stop her.
“Landon?”
He walked over, leaned down, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I hope so, Justine.”