Free Prince Charming in Dress Blues by Maureen Child

past, red hair flying like a bullfighter’s cape.
    “There she goes,” John yelled. “Catch her!”
    Ten men scrambled for their cars, and in seconds John and Peter were left standing in a cloud of dust kicked up by dozens of spinning tires.
    “That girl’s going to cost her father his next star if she isn’t careful.”
    John stared off after the convoy of white sedans chasing the T-bird and half chuckled to himself. “If the Colonel was interested in being a General, he’d find a way to lock her down.” He half turned to look at his friend. “I think he enjoys the girl’s spirit.”
    “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Peter shook his head. “Still, makes me want to rethink the whole ‘having a kid’ thing.”
    “At least they’re not born teenagers,” John said, remembering Jordan’s sweet face and tiny hands. Howmuch had she changed? he wondered. A week was a long time to a baby.
    “You’ve got that look in your eye again.”
    Yanked out of his thoughts, John shot Pete a quick glare and muttered, “What look?”
    “The look you’ve had ever since you came back from the mountain.”
    Okay, he wasn’t going there. Not with Pete. Not now. “You’re nuts.”
    He turned and headed back toward his office, and Pete was just a step or two behind him.
    “I’m nuts, huh?” he said. “Then how come when you walk around base these last few days, you’re noticing all the babies in strollers?”
    John scowled to himself. “It’s my job to make sure people are safe on base.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    He stopped dead, whirled around and gave Peter a glare that should have fried him. His friend didn’t look impressed. “Butt out, Pete. Leave it alone.”
    “Wish I could.”
    “Why the hell can’t you?”
    “Because Lisa’s driving me crazy.”
    “About what?” he shouted, throwing both hands high.
    “She wants to know what went on between you two when you were at the cabin.”
    John sighed, then reached up to tug the brim of his cover down lower over his eyes. “She knows what happened. I delivered Annie’s baby.”
    “She says there’s more.”
    “She’s wrong.” Of course, she wasn’t. But he couldn’t admit to that. He wasn’t about to give Lisa any moreammunition for speculation until he’d had time to start working on Annie. The plan had been to give her a couple of weeks to settle in with the baby. To miss him. But the plan was about to change. Mainly because he was missing her.
    “I don’t know what’s going on, and maybe it’s none of my business.” Peter gave him a long, level look. “But Annie’s a friend, John. And she’s had a rough time.”
    All right, this he understood. Lisa’s intuition and Annie’s wariness left him perplexed. Peter’s concern was something else, though. But it went against the grain that someone besides him was protecting Annie. Worse yet was that his friend wanted to protect Annie from John.
    “I know,” he said, trying to remember that Pete was only trying to look out for someone he cared about. “And I’m not interested in giving her any more grief.”
    “What are you interested in exactly?” Pete asked, studying him.
    “That’s between me and Annie,” John said tightly.
    And silently he told himself it was high time he threw his “plan” out the window and convinced Annie that he was the man for her.
     
    “She won’t stop crying,” Annie said, clutching the phone in an iron grip.
    “Maybe she’s hungry?” Lisa’s voice sounded as hesitant as Annie felt.
    Oh, this just wasn’t going well at all. She’d wanted to be a perfect mother, and she couldn’t even figure out how to stop her baby from crying.
    It had all seemed so easy that first week in the cabin with John. He’d helped in a quiet, unassuming way, andshe’d hardly noticed her own shortcomings. But now that she was on her own, she had to face the facts. She just wasn’t cut out for this, she told herself. As much as she loved Jordan, she was just a lousy