Without remorse - Tom Clancy [43]
'Pretty nice, isn't it?' he asked Saturday evening, just after her shower.
'Maybe,' she allowed.
Kelly lifted a comb from the sink and started going through her wet hair. 'The sun has really lightened it up for you.'
'It took a while to get all the dirt out,' she said, relaxing to his touch.
Kelly struggled with a tangle, careful not to pull too hard. 'But it did come out, Pammy, didn't it?'
'Yeah, I guess so, maybe,' she told the face in the mirror.
'How hard was that to say, honey?'
'Pretty hard.' A smile, a real one with warmth and conviction.
Kelly set the comb down and kissed the base of her neck, letting her watch in the mirror. Kelly got the comb back and continued his work. It struck him as very unmanly, but he loved doing this. 'There, all straight, no tangles.'
'You really ought to buy a hair-dryer.'
Kelly shrugged. 'I've never needed one.'
Pam turned around and took his hands. 'You will, if you still want to.'
He was quiet for perhaps ten seconds, and when he spoke, the words didn't quite come out at they should, for now the fear was his. 'You sure?'
'Do you still -'
'Yes!' It was hard lifting her with wet hair, still nude and damp from the shower, but a man had to hold his woman at a time like this. She was changing. Her ribs were less pronounced. She'd gained weight on a regular, healthy diet. But it was the person inside who had changed the most. Kelly wondered what miracle had taken place, afraid to believe that he was part of it, but knowing that it was so. He set her down after a moment, looking at the mirth in her eyes, proud that he'd helped to put it there.
'I have my rough edges, too,' Kelly warned her, unaware of the look in his eyes.
'I've seen most of them,' she assured him. Her hands started rubbing over his chest, tanned and matted with dark hair, marked with scars from combat operations in a faraway place. Her scars were inside, but so were some of his, and together each would heal the other. Pam was sure of that now. She'd begun to look at the future as more than a dark place where she could hide and forget. It was now a place of hope.
CHAPTER 6
Ambush
The rest was easy. They made a quick boat trip to Solomons, where Pam was able to buy a few simple things. A beauty shop trimmed her hair. By the end of her second week with Kelly, she'd started to run and had gained weight. Already she could wear a two-piece swimsuit without an overt display of her rib cage. Her leg muscles were toning up; what had been slack was now taut, as it ought to be on a girl her age. She still had her demons. Twice Kelly woke to find her trembling, sweating, and murmuring sounds that never quite turned into words but were easily understood. Both times his touch calmed her, but not him. Soon he was teaching her to run Springer, and whatever the defects in her schooling, she was smart enough. She quickly grasped how to do the things that most boaters never learned. He even took her swimming, surprised somehow that she'd learned the skill in the middle of Texas.
Mainly he loved her, the sight, the sound, the smell, and most of all the feel of Pam Madden. Kelly found himself slightly anxious if he failed to see her every few minutes, as though she might somehow disappear. But she was always there, catching his eye, smiling back playfully. Most of the time. Sometimes he'd catch her with