The Sergeant's Baby. Bonnie Gardner
you didn’t spend four years at the Air Force Academy, Sergeant,” the woman retorted. “I didn’t work like a dog trying to prove I was as good as any man there, to be sent to Tamahlyastan on my first assignment and have to go around wearing a tent and trotting behind a man like a trained puppy.”
“I didn’t say you had to wear a burkha,” Allison interjected, knowing that Danny was sure to comment on that. He had never minced words when dealing with “overeducated” academy grads.
Danny held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Nobody said you had to act like a…dumb blonde, Lieutenant,” he said. “Just follow the rules. You can do that, can’t you? Isn’t that what you had to do at the Academy?” He appeared ready to say something else, but Ally shot him a quelling glance, and Danny had the good sense to quit while he was ahead.
“You can still use your brains and your education,” Ally explained, hoping to ease the situation. “You just have to respect the local customs when you are out in public. You’re there to act as ambassadors as well as to work. When you’re at your post, doing your job, you’re under no obligation to observe custom. It’s only when you’re outside. Don’t act like the Ugly Americans so many people in those societies perceive us to be.”
Clearly, the lieutenant didn’t want to leave it at that. “Well, I think it’s ridiculous.”
“Lieutenant Abernathy,” Danny said, and Ally held her breath, hoping that he wouldn’t say something stupid. “Do you stand at attention when the flag is raised?”
“Yes.”
“When you’re in civvies, do you put your hand over your heart and stand when they play the national anthem at ball games?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like it when a man holds the door open for you even when you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself?”
“Yes. What’s your point, Sergeant?” the lieutenant finally asked, obviously tiring of the exercise.
Ally, too, was curious about Danny’s point.
“All those—” he groped for the right word “—gestures are not required by law. They’re traditions—customs, if you want—not laws. We don’t have monitors making sure you do them, but you do them anyway.”
“Yes,” the lieutenant answered slowly, her brows knitted in puzzlement.
“Well, those are all customs that you observe that someone from another country might think are stupid. Am I right?”
Score one for Danny Murphey, Ally thought with approval. Maybe he had matured a little since they’d been together several years ago.
“I get your point,” the lieutenant said begrudgingly. She glanced up at Ally. “I’m sorry, Ms. Carter. Go on with your presentation.”
DANNY REMAINED SEATED until the rest of the class had left for lunch. Today, Ally hadn’t ducked out the rear door. That fact was enough to give him hope. He leaned back in his chair and watched as she deliberately gathered up her materials and stacked them neatly in a pile. She retrieved the disk for her PowerPoint presentation, then turned to him.
“Are you free for lunch, Sergeant?” she asked, surprising the hell out of him. He’d thought he’d have to make the first move.
“Thought you’d never ask, Teach,” he replied, sliding out of his seat. “Your place or mine?” He grinned, knowing she wouldn’t go for that one.
Ally’s mouth twitched as she tried to suppress a smile. “The club will be fine,” she said primly as she buttoned the jacket of the suit over her stomach. The buttons strained across her growing belly. “I’ll pay.”
Danny wouldn’t protest. It was an old argument between the two of them, and one he’d never once won. The best he’d been able to negotiate was Dutch treat.
Danny held the classroom door open and waited for Ally to step through. Even with her belly swelling with his child, she moved with fluid grace. Danny made no effort to disguise his appreciation of the view. For a small woman she had terrific legs, even if she had apparently given up wearing high, high heels in deference to her pregnancy.
“Still a leg man, I see,” Ally said as she brushed by him.
“Can’t get anything past you, can I.”
Ally chuckled. “Not when it’s that blatant. You could make an effort to be more discreet.”
“Oh, I can be when I need to,” Danny said, remembering his stealth campaign of the previous evening. He shrugged, then touched the small of Ally’s back and urged her forward. She seemed a little softer than he remembered, but then, he supposed that was to be expected. “Considering you’re pretty well checked out on all my moves, I figured I didn’t need to hide anything. You know what I want.”
“That I do, Danny,” she said, a lighthearted expression on her face. “That I do. However, you could have learned some new moves since…”
She didn’t continue, but Danny understood exactly what she meant. Since I left you. But, then she’d probably turn the argument around and say he’d left her by not being willing to see things her way.
Danny shook himself out of those morose thoughts. He’d succeeded in getting her to go to lunch with him—well, actually, she’d beaten him to the punch, and that was even better. Score one for his team.
He didn’t try to hide his satisfied smile.
“I saw it, Danny. You never could hide anything from me,” Ally said. “You don’t exactly have a poker face.”
“Only where you’re concerned,” Danny protested, but Ally shushed him with a gentle touch of a finger to his lips.
“Seriously, though. I appreciated the way you handled the lieutenant this morning. I was afraid she was going to be a real problem child.”
“I guess maybe this old dog has learned a few new tricks since we were…together.” Danny grinned. “I may not have been born with a generous helping of tact, but I’m not stupid. I can be taught.” He shrugged as he held open the door that led outside.
The lesson had been difficult and hard to take, but when he’d been angry at the world after Ally had taken off the first time, he’d entered into a real shouting match with the major and had barely escaped serious trouble. Fortunately, Lieutenant Marx, new to the squadron at the time, had taken him aside and given him a few pointers, a lesson he hadn’t been particularly interested in then, but one that had eventually sunk in.
“Good to know,” Ally replied. She stood at the edge of the parking lot and surveyed the scattering of cars still in the lot. “Do you want to walk to the club or drive? It isn’t far.”
The late-September sky was a clear Air-Force-blue; there wasn’t a cloud or even a hint of humidity. A breeze played with a loose strand of Ally’s hair and carried with it a hint of fall. It was a perfect day for a walk.
“Is it okay?” he asked. “With you being…?”
“Pregnant? It isn’t a dirty word, Danny. It’s a natural process. It happens to women all over the world every day.” She turned and began walking toward the club, a few blocks away.
“I know,” he said defensively. “But I’ve never been the…”
Chapter Four
“Father?”
Danny stopped. She’d said the word so easily, voicing the concept as though it was nothing. To him it was still something he had a hard time wrapping his brain around, even if Ally had finally confirmed it.
“Yeah,” he said huskily. “The father.”
“Come on. Both of us are hungry.” Ally tugged on his arm