Annie's Rainbow - Fern Michaels [144]
Logan blew his wife a kiss before he left the house. Kristine’s heart fluttered in her chest when she heard the front door close.
She headed for the shower, her shoulders shaking with unhappiness. Under the tepid spray she allowed her mind to conjure up the early days of her marriage to Logan Kelly. They were so happy when they said their vows and walked under the crossed swords at West Point. The twins came first, then Tyler came along shortly afterward. Logan had been delirious with joy just the way she had been. It was wonderful living all over the world. Her children spoke four languages, as she did, thanks to their multifaceted education. She was one of the rare wives who loved life in the military, but she didn’t love the stupid rule book Logan insisted they live by. He could recite chapter and verse at the drop of a hat. She also knew the book by heart, which was all the more reason to hate it, and her children hated it even more than she did. Logan lived by it, page by page, word by word. Would he discard it when he got back to the States or would they continue to live by it? Logan’s rationale would be that the book had served them well for twenty years and to tamper with it in the private sector would be sacrilegious.
As Kris stepped from the shower, towel in hand, her thoughts stayed with her. She wrapped her body in one of the few remaining towels, then dabbed at eyes that were now red-rimmed. Early on, Logan had sworn he would make general, go all the way, maybe even become a five-star. They’d played a game in those early years about the things they would do, how they would act when the fifth star was pinned on his shoulder. How sad for Logan that it could never come to pass. He had said he accepted being felled by a rare kidney disease in his seventeenth year in the military, knowing he would get passed over because his medical condition would be a blight on his record. He’d slapped her once, shouting to be left alone when she’d tried to console him. She needed to give him space now to come to terms with what Logan considered betrayal on the army’s part in giving him a medical discharge, something he fought against and lost. He had a right to be bitter, but he didn’t have the right to take his bitterness out on her. She’d wanted tonight to be perfect so that Logan would remember their last night and look forward to the time when they’d all be together again back in the States. Now it was all spoiled. Here she was taking a shower in the middle of the night while her husband was out walking alone. She crossed her fingers and offered up a little prayer that Logan’s attitude wasn’t a harbinger of things to come.
Thirty minutes later, Kristine was in the kitchen, fully dressed and making coffee. She looked in dismay at the small amount of coffee left in the can. Logan liked his coffee black and strong, the way most of his colleagues liked it. There was barely enough left to make two full cups, and at best it was going to be weak. She’d cleaned out everything from the ancient refrigerator because Logan was going to stay at the barracks until it was time for him to leave. The new tenants would move. in the moment their belongings were unloaded from the truck. The army did not sit around sucking its thumb when it came to the comfort of one of its officers.
When the coffee finished perking, Kris poured a small amount into a cup, leaving the rest for her husband. She sipped at the coffee, her eyes on the blackness outside the kitchen window. She shouldn’t be sitting here alone. Her husband should be with her, holding her hand, telling her things would be okay. The kids hadn’t wanted to stay home with her either, preferring to spend their last night with their friends. She’d begged them to stay home with her and Logan, but the three of them had kicked up a fuss. In the end she’d given in rather than stare at their miserable faces all evening. She looked at the clock. Ten minutes past four. Tom Zepack would drive them.