Free Hard Landing by Marliss Melton

exited the parking lot and drove in a state of distraction straight to it.
    * * *
    Brant hadn't expected to see the same number pop up on his cell phone any time soon. Concerned, he reached for the volume on his truck radio and turned it down. Luckily, he'd just exited the gate of the naval annex, freeing him to talk on his phone. "Becca?"
    "I'm sorry," she began. "I said I wouldn't bother you again, and here I am calling you already."
    Her shaken tone had him checking his rearview mirror automatically. "What's wrong?"
    He heard her inhale and exhale. "I need to show you something. Can I get you to meet me somewhere soon?"
    Possibilities swarmed his thoughts like a flock of blackbirds. "You mean like right now?" He was headed to the special Jujitsu class Bullfrog was teaching every night that week.
    "No, I can't right now. I need to get home." She sounded antsy, like she ought to be home already and expected to get into trouble for being late. "What about tomorrow evening? Can you meet me after work?"
    "What time do you get off?"
    "Right around 4 P.M."
    "That's pretty early, but I can probably get away. Where do you want to meet?" The bass on someone's car radio vibrated the windows of his old Bronco as he stopped at an intersection.
    He pictured her wetting her rose-tinted lips in a familiar, nervous gesture. "Do you know the park right next to the hospital where I work?"
    "Uh, yeah. Gateway Park, right?"
    "Yes, but the sign says Princess Anne Commons. Let's meet under the pavilion at, say, 4:15?"
    Her nervousness made his blood flow faster. "You going to tell me what this is about?"
    "I need to go. I'll show you tomorrow, okay? You'll be there?"
    "I'll be there," he promised. "Hey," he added before she could hang up.
    "What?"
    "Take a deep breath, hon." The endearment popped out of his mouth without his intending to say it. "It's going to be okay. I'm glad you called me. I'm right here."
    He thought he heard her breath catch, but then she said with commendable poise, "Thank you." With a click, she was gone. He lowered his cell phone onto the console next to his seat and pondered what she could have come across to rattle her so badly.
    Max was probably having an affair. Brant had heard a rumor the first time they were TDY in Malaysia that the CO had hooked up with their female CIA liaison.
    "Bastard," he muttered, hating the man for inciting fear in his own wife.
    It wasn't until he neared his apartment complex that he realized what a hypocrite he was. He'd hooked up with a lady-of-the-night himself while in Malaysia, and at the time, he'd been dating two women back in Virginia Beach. He wasn't any more honorable of a man than his commander was. Poor Rebecca deserved better than either one of them.
    * * *
    In the little restroom inside of the pavilion at Gateway Park, Rebecca checked her reflection in the mirror. Oh, for heaven's sake. It doesn't matter what I look like.
    After a sleepless night in which she'd fought to drown out Max's abrasive snores, she had worked a grueling twelve-hour day. Dark circles ringed her eyes. Her trust in her husband, along with her marriage, was falling to ruin. Yet here she was, trying to look pretty for Bronco, who had half-a-dozen women at his beck and call and thought of her only as a friend—the same way she thought of him.
    All the same, she slicked pink lip gloss on her lips and tugged her hair out of its ponytail before stepping out of the restroom to wait for him under the covered picnic area.
    Situated adjacent to the hospital, the park offered the perfect retreat during warmer months for her to eat her packed lunch in the middle of her workday. Her feet gave a throb of relief as she lowered herself onto a picnic bench and shaded her eyes against the low sun to watch several children clamber on the playground equipment.
    A soft footfall followed by a shift in the air announced Bronco's arrival a split second before he sat down next to her.
    "Boo," he said, grinning at the way she