26
When they left the building a little after 2 p.m. Lee avoided the turnstile by the gate shack. He doubted Randy wanted another encounter with Jennifer today.
When they entered the parking lot a warm wind blew out of the southwest. When the breeze swirled around vehicles in the parking lot Jennifer’s hair danced around the perimeter of her sunlit face.
Jennifer was too beautiful to describe.
Nothing mattered except not letting this woman slip away from him.
He needed more time with her and he needed it now. “Did you eat any lunch?”
“Cake and ice cream.”
“That’s what I thought. Would you like some lunch now?”
She brushed a strand of hair from her eye. “After dessert, I don’t think so.”
He had more suggestions. A lot more. “What about coffee?”
“Sounds great, but I’m driving.”
He forced a frown. “So you don’t want to ride in a plain vanilla car anymore?”
“No. The SUV is like rich chocolate. We’re bonding. Let’s hit the coffee shop drive-through. You probably have to get back to work pretty soon, anyway.”
“Not today.” He sighed and smiled. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
Jennifer’s eyes narrowed. She watched him from the corners of her eyes. “Sounds mysterious.”
They climbed into the car and drove in silence for a few blocks to the nearest coffee shop. After negotiating the drive-through Jennifer pulled into a space in the parking lot.
She took a sip of coffee and placed her drink in the cup holder. “Lee?” There was a long pause. “I have something to tell you.”
“OK. What is it?”
“What we did Friday night. It helped National Aerospace. It helped the USA and it made me feel like I accomplished something good, not just something that furthered my career.”
This was an unexpected direction. There was nothing threatening yet, but he was concerned. “It should make you feel good. It was good. You’re one of only a handful of people in the world who could have accomplished all that you did.”
“Lee, I’m just going to cut to the chase. Getting my Ph.D. is not going to help me one bit. I’ll waste eighteen to twenty-four months jumping through the university’s hoops to learn a few things I can easily learn on my own. Then there’s all the campus politics that impacts Ph.D. students. You know, ‘Do we really want to put our stamp of approval on this young woman?’ You have to prove to them you’re worthy of their approval by doing things you’d rather not do. I’ll have to teach geek courses to underclassmen. They can be an obnoxious bunch.” Jennifer paused. “So, well…I’ve decided to take the job offer from NSA.” Jennifer picked up her coffee cup.
He wasn’t sure what to say. He remained quiet while they both sipped coffee.
Jennifer’s decision worried him. NSA Headquarters was almost three thousand miles away.
“Does this mean you’ll be moving across the country to Maryland?” He stared down at his coffee cup avoiding her eyes and dreading her answer.
Jennifer put a hand under his chin and gently lifted his head. She was looking into his eyes and smiling. “Lee Brandt, sometimes you can be pretty dense. No. I’ll be working locally. Quite a bit of the time with Howie. I can’t tell you more about it than that. But regarding Fort Meade, only occasional trips.”
“So you’ll be staying here, then?”
“That’s what I just said. Do you think I haven’t meant anything I’ve said or done these past three days?”
“No.”
Jennifer always meant everything she said, excluding perhaps the hyperbole about murder.
He sensed a smile growing on his face as hope returned. “But if you really meant everything…in that case, I think I’m dead.”
“Only if you ever lie to me. Remember this. I won’t let you get away like the gunmen did.”
“I’ve got something to tell you, too.”
“The mysterious thing?” Jennifer was frowning.
“It’s related. The reason I don’t have to be back to work at any certain time today is I’ve resigned from National Aerospace, effective in four weeks.” He paused. “I don’t enjoy developing computing systems for corporate America anymore. Most guys who do systems-development work burn out when they’re about my age. I’ve decided to go back to my first love, meteorology.”
“Oh.” Jennifer stared down at her coffee cup, rotating it in her hands. A coy smile crept onto her face. “Maybe I was wrong, but I thought I was your first love.”
“I was only talking about work.”
“Who says I’m not work?”
“You are a lovely work.”
Jennifer ignored his comment. But her smile was morphing to a frown. “And where will you be doing this meteorological work?”
“I have two friends, Dale and Jerry, who’ve been after me to join the meteorological consulting firm they’ve been laying the groundwork for this past year. There’s a strong possibility our first big contract will be either directly or indirectly with NSA, if our facilities and personnel can meet their security requirements.”
Jennifer raised her gaze to his face. “How did you manage to swing that?”
“Did I ever mention I was an intelligence analyst in the Air Intelligence Agency before I got a degree in meteorology and became a weather officer?”
“No, Lee. There’s still a lot you haven’t told me about yourself. But even if you once worked with NSA how are you going to get them to run a top secret clearance for you?”
He peered into her eyes. “Don’t you know you don’t get NSA to run anything?”
Jennifer smiled at his use of her words.
He continued his explanation. “My old DOD Top Secret SCI clearance was recent enough to be reinstated with an update to the background check. They really want our firm to help them with some weather-related issues so NSA is willing to make the clearance update happen.”
Jennifer’s voice softened as she looked into his eyes. “So you’ll be working locally, too?”
“If you’re not leaving neither am I. Since our weather firm will work closely with NSA for the duration of the contract I’d bet our paths will cross at work.”
Jennifer’s expression morphed again from serious to coy. “What about when we’re not at work?”
“Are you suggesting—”
“What I’m suggesting,” Jennifer looked down, exhaled sharply and then returned her gaze to his eyes. “Is that I would like to date you if you would just ask.”
“So you trust me, then?”
“Yes, I trust you.”
He slipped his palm over his left knee. “Jennifer?”
“Yes, Mr. Brandt?”
“Come on, Jenn. This is a serious question.”
“OK. That’s better. What’s the question?”
Looking through his frown he studied her face. “Why me? What made you trust me?”
She reached across and began tracing the contours of his left hand with her fingers. “Nothing made me. But do you really want to know?”
“Yes, I’d like to know how I got it, because I don’t want to lose it.”
She took his left hand and squeezed it. “Are you sure you want to hear this? Because it’s going to be the whole story—the good, the bad, and—”
“Yes. I want to hear it.”
“Remember you asked for this. When Howie brought me into his office I saw your eyes. You were all gaga just like the guys who give me grief. Don’t you even try to deny—”
“Maybe I was. But you have no idea what it’s like for a guy to have you sprung on them with no warning.” He pounded his right knee. His coffee geysered from its sip hole and slopped onto his right hand. “It’s…it’s—”
She pulled her hand from his and tossed him a tissue. “Sounds like it’s IQ-nulling.”
“Something like that.” He draped the tissue over his right hand.
“But you seemed to recover quickly enough to your full one-hundred forty-five, right?”
Where did that number come from?
His gaze jerked up from his hand to her face. “You didn’t really do what I think you did. Did you?”
“I don’t know what you’re thinking. But I do know I hacked the university’s admin database and got the goods on Mr. Lee Brandt.”
“But I thought you were Miss Honest.”
“Like I said before I’m not perfect. But I did check you out. Admissions records, high school transcripts, complete with IQ scores, college grades, reports from your master’s committee, everything. No way was I going to have this kind of reaction to some gaga-eyed guy without knowing all about him. But you were clean, with a one hundred forty-five—”
“What kind of reaction are we talking here?”
“The kind I’ve never had before and that’s all you need to know.”
He reached for her hand. “What if I need to know more?”
She slapped at his hand. “Don’t push it!”
“What about the trust?”
Her voice softened. “That came when I saw you were putting my needs ahead of yours. Even putting my life ahead of yours. I knew I could trust you when—”
“A few minutes after we entered the cave, right?”
She stared at him. “I should kill you right now. You knew and yet you manipulated me into disclosing personal stuff that—”
“Stuff we’ll share for the rest of our lives—the truth about ourselves—truth we’ll never use to hurt each other. Remember what I told you about a relationship with God being intimate, like between a husband and wife—nothing in between?”
Her eyes widened and she reached for his hand. “Is all that just informational, or are you asking me to marry you?”
He wrapped his hand around hers. “Something like that.”
Go on, man. Tell her.
“Something like what?”
Yeah. Tell her.
“Something like—well, you know I told you I don’t date?”
Jennifer’s head tilted down. Her hand went limp.
His own brain had ganged up on him. Both sides. He just needed to say it. “But I would like your permission to ask the appropriate person in your family if I may court you.”
It’s about time.
Yeah. It’s about time.
It was time. Probably the only time he would ever have.
Jennifer had raised the bar to an impossibly high standard. Despite her fiery temper she stood head, shoulders, and much more above any woman he had ever met. Life without Jennifer—he couldn’t let that happen.
Her face tilted upward, but it wore a frown. “Does courting mean we can’t date?”
“Technically, we can’t date, that is, not until we’ve begun courting. Then we spend a lot of time together getting to know each other better.”
She smiled warmly. “Courting sounds a lot like dating, but it also sounds very—”
“First I need your answer. May I, you know, with the intent that we marry whenever we’re finished courting?”
Her coy smile crept onto her face. “What do you think we’ve been doing for the past,”—she glanced at her watch—”sixty-five hours and forty-five minutes?”
“If you knew that’s what was happening why didn’t you help me out a little? You can be pretty hard on a guy.”
“You had it easy. Most guys just get pepper-sprayed. But who said courting me was going to be easy?”
“If you’re counting this past weekend something tells me it won’t. But I hope the coming months are a lot less eventful than the last sixty-five hours and forty five minutes.”
Jennifer cocked her head. “Are you sure that’s what you want? It would make for a pretty dull courtship, don’t you think?” She studied his face. “Besides, what makes you think we’re talking months, anyway?”
Had he heard correctly? “Not talking months? Then let’s just elope now.”
“You’re jumping the gun. First shouldn’t you get permission to court me?”
“Yes.”
But she said her father died two years ago.
“Who do I need to talk to?”
“My grandfather. But I need to warn you, be careful never, ever to cross Granddad. He never forgives anybody for anything.”
“Sounds a lot like his granddaughter.”
“C’mon, Lee. You can’t complain about me until I make you run the flea cave in your underwear.”