Strangers When We Meet Read online

  Nick couldn’t talk after that. Nothing else mattered. The details of their lives he’d catch up on later.

  Rosie was still waiting for him. She’d never given up hope.

  If there was a black cloud on the horizon, it hung over R.T., who had no idea what future awaited him. It wasn’t fair, Nick thought, not when R.T. had just been released from the depths of hell, only to be thrust down all over again if it turned out he’d lost his wife because of a damn war over oil.

  “She isn’t going to be there, Nick.”

  They’d been through too much to lie to each other.

  “Maybe, maybe not. If that’s the case, plan on coming home with me.”

  AS SOON AS HE’D YANKED on a pullover, Zach phoned his secretary at home, but she’d already left for work. When he called his office, he got the answering machine.

  He waited for the beep. “Barb? I’m back from the Caribbean, but I won’t be in until tomorrow. Reschedule all my apppointments for another day.”

  Within minutes he’d locked up his condo, located at the base of the foothills, and sped off on his racing bike toward the mountains. Mid-April meant spring in the valley and snow on the peaks, but he gave no thought to his surroundings as he headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon.

  Strong winds buffeted him during the steep climb to the ten-thousand-foot summit. When he got up there, he hoped he’d pass out from overexertion and find forgetfulness, if only for a few minutes.

  Until two years ago, he’d always lived in California. But after losing his fiancée two years before that to a rare form of brain cancer, he’d needed an outlet for his restlessness. Biking had always been one of his favorite sports, and now it became a necessity of life.

  In the beginning, the pain of his loss had been so acute he’d deliberately pushed himself to the extreme, with the result that for a few hours each day, the physical agony camouflaged his heartache. As time went by, he found a certain satisfaction in seeing how hard he could drive himself. He began entering national bike races and eventually traveled to Europe to race. Two summers ago, he’d ended up in Park City, Utah, not far from Salt Lake. Having turned pro, he’d attended a special racing camp to train for the Tour de France.

  Utah was where he’d met Rosie Armstrong. She’d been out cycling with her son and his friend. They were in the middle of a private mountain road when Zach came upon them at full speed. He’d almost crashed into them on his bike. Once apologies were made on both sides, he realized he wanted to get to know her better. From that moment on, his world had started to right itself.

  Though he continued to compete in cycling races both in Europe and America, he never did enter the Tour de France. Everything he’d wanted was right here in Utah, where he intended to put down roots—where there was the promise of love, marriage and a ready-made family.

  Virtually overnight he’d relocated, expanding his family’s lucrative outdoor-sign business to Salt Lake City. Wilde Outdoors was a successful enterprise he’d helped his father and brothers build throughout high school and college.

  It had taken two years to make Rosie see him, instead of Nick. Finally, on that cruise, she’d turned the tables and reached out to him, telling him she loved him, begging him to ask her one more time to marry him.

  That was what he’d been waiting for.

  He’d pulled out the diamond ring he’d purchased three months after meeting her—a promise to himself that one day he’d win her love and be allowed to put it on her finger—then slid it home with an overwhelming sense of fulfillment and joy.

  All that was shattered by her phone call an hour ago.

  He didn’t die in the war, Zach. The gut-wrenching premonition that the pain he was experiencing now might never go away, might become worse than anything he’d ever known before, tore through him like a jagged shard.

  Visions of his beautiful golden-haired Rosie running into the arms of the man who’d loved her since high school almost destroyed him.

  Zach pedaled harder against the wind.

  It was God’s truth that Nick Armstrong had more right than anyone to return to the land of the living and reclaim the wife and child who’d probably been the only reason he hadn’t committed suicide in prison.

  But it was also God’s truth that when her husband had been reported missing in action and presumed dead, Zach and Rosie had been given every right to meet and fall in love, to enjoy a full rich life with Cody.

  When his first love had been cruelly taken from him, there had, at least, been a sense of closure, because her death was final, irrevocable.

  But there could be no closure if he lost Rosie. Knowing she was living in the same city he was, yet knowing he couldn’t see her. Knowing that the woman he loved was affording her husband the pleasure of her company, her sweetness and humor, her intelligence, her sunny smile.

  Tonight she’d be sleeping under the same roof with Nick….

  Could she forget what she and Zach had shared over the past two years? On the cruise?

  Would she turn to Nick tonight and give him the comfort of the beautiful body her husband must have been craving for seven hellish years? The body Zach had yet to possess?

  Even if she wasn’t physically or emotionally ready to sleep with Nick again, the real possibility that she might make love to him out of the love she’d always felt for him, out of her compassion for all he’d suffered, ripped Zack apart. Agonizing pictures filled his mind, blotting out any awareness of his surroundings.

  It took the blare of a car horn on the narrow stretch of curving road to alert him to the drop-off not two feet from his bike tires. The more he thought about it, the more he welcomed the idea of a nine-thousand-foot plunge to certain oblivion.

  The only thing holding him back was the sure knowledge that she’d fallen deeply in love with him, Zach. So deeply, in fact, that he could never doubt theirs was the forever kind of love. Rosie was with him, heart and soul. He had faith in their love. It wasn’t going to go away just because Nick had come home. Love didn’t work like that.

  No matter how much she still loved her husband, the man had been gone seven years. Tremendous changes had taken place in her, and undoubtedly in him. She was a different person now, in love with a different man—and it wasn’t Nick!

  That was Zach’s edge.

  By all that was holy, he intended to keep that edge until Rosie walked down the aisle with him. Unfortunately Cody would fight him every step of the way.

  Cody was Nick’s edge.

  Cody had never liked Zach. He’d made it plain from day one. Rosie had insisted that, given time, Cody would come around and get over his initial resentment of Zach’s intrusion into their private world.

  To Zach’s chagrin, however, that resentment had grown into dislike—the major reason he hadn’t brought up the subject of marriage a year earlier. They’d taken Cody on the cruise, hoping to forge a bond that included the three of them. But when they’d told her son they were planning to get married, Zach saw the hurt in Cody’s eyes. Worse, Zach felt the boy’s silent brooding anger and realized they had a serious problem on their hands.

  Rosie reasoned that Nick’s parents, who had a lot of influence over their grandson, had fueled some of his negative response by not accepting Nick’s death.

  Zach had been encouraged and relieved when he heard Rosie admit that her son could benefit from some counseling. She’d announced that, in spite of Cody’s problem, she intended to marry Zach. As soon as they got back from their cruise, she would make an appointment for Cody to see a specialist and get the help he needed.

  But with one phone call, everything had changed.

  The boy’s father’s unexpected return from the dead precluded any such appointment. All Cody’s problems began and ended there.

  That bitter irony brought a sardonic twist to Zach’s windburned lips.

  He took the next dangerous curve at full speed, surprised and ashamed of his own jealousy over a man who’d been gone seven years in the servi
ce of his country. A man who continued to inspire unqualified love and devotion in the hearts of those he’d left behind.

  Surprised, because such a destructive emotion was unworthy of him.

  Ashamed, because he planned to fight a valiant, honorable, innocent man for Rosie’s love—and win!

  “GRANDMA! GRANDPA!”

  Before Rosie could turn off the ignition and get out of their compact car, Cody had jumped from the passenger seat to greet Nick’s parents. Rosie locked the door and started toward them. The wind seemed stronger than ever, molding her slim silk coat-dress to her body.

  Cody was so excited his hostility over her engagement to Zach might never have been. The fear that he would bring up the subject before she’d had a chance to tell her in-laws in private was momentarily abated.

  “Dad’s alive! He’s coming home!” His voice cracked; it was changing and came out half an octave lower than it used to. “I can’t believe it!” he shouted.

  His cries of joy mingled with theirs as he ran into their outstretched arms, the tears streaming down his happy face.

  I can’t believe it, either. I can’t. Something must be wrong with me. Nick’s supposed to be arriving in a few minutes. I’m afraid it isn’t true, that none of this is real….

  “Rosie?” Janet rushed up to her and gave her a welcoming hug. “It’s a good thing you got back from the cruise when you did. After all he’s suffered, can you imagine how Nicky would feel if his own wife wasn’t here to welcome him home?”

  No. She couldn’t.

  There was more than a hint of accusation in her mother-in-law’s tone. Though she’d practiced restraint by not voicing her opinion about that cruise with Zach, her disapproval had been simmering beneath the surface.

  “This has all happened so fast George and I are still in a state of shock.”

  “So am I,” Rosie whispered. But shock didn’t begin to cover it.

  “Do you think that’s his plane, Grandpa?” This from Cody as they proceeded toward the hangar. All four of them turned to the north to watch the plane’s approach.

  Rosie’s heart leapt into her throat. Could Nick really be on that plane coming in at such a sharp angle?

  George had his camera ready, then lowered it. “Nope. That’s a C-130. Your dad’s coming in on a C-141. Come on. Let’s keep going.”

  “Are you sure this is the right place?”

  “I’m sure.” His grandpa chuckled before throwing an affectionate arm around Cody’s shoulders. “This is the Base Ops terminal, where all the transports come in.”

  “But there aren’t very many people around here. Maybe we got the wrong time.”

  “Maybe your dad’s the only one flying in. After all, he’s a war hero, and that makes him a VIP,” he added with great pride. “When the Days of ’47 comes around in July, he’ll have to ride in the parade, and I know he’ll want you right there with him.”

  “Cool.”

  While they watched the sky, Rosie half listened to Cody’s excited chatter followed by his grandparents’ patient responses.

  They were wonderful people. The two of them had been making the five-hour drive from their home in St. George to Salt Lake City every other weekend since Nick had left for the Middle East. When they weren’t in town, they phoned Cody several times a week to stay in close touch. They’d always doted on their grandson, but when Nick was missing in action and presumed killed during the Desert Shield phase of the war, Cody had become their raison d’être.

  Rosie had never known her own parents, who’d died in a car-bus collision soon after she was born. The grandparents on her mother’s side had stepped in to raise her. Not long after she’d married Nick, they’d died within a year of each other. Yet she considered herself a fortunate woman to be loved by Nick’s parents.

  She owed George and Janet Armstrong everything for making her feel an integral part of their family, for loving Cody like their own. Without their support during that black period when Nick was first reported missing after an enemy attack near the Saudi border town of Khafji, she had no idea how she and Cody would have survived the ordeal.

  Because they’d been so close to her over the years, it never occurred to her that they might be upset when Zach unexpectedly came into her life.

  Throughout the first six months of their tenuous relationship, Rosie had kept it very low-key. He was either working at his business or off winning bicycle races. When he was in town, she urged him to date other women, since she had no plans to remarry and didn’t want to lead him on.

  Rosie explained all this to Janet and George when they began asking questions about Zach. To her surprise, they admitted they were hurt that she would even consider dating. Not until then did Rosie realize that Nick’s parents still held out hope he was alive. Their reaction made her feel guilty, because she was more physically and emotionally attracted to Zach than she was willing to acknowledge. But like her in-laws, she’d never been completely able to accept Nick’s death. The conflict between those emotions tortured her.

  She had decided to put Zach off, but she’d underestimated his determination to have a relationship with her. He demanded to know why she was avoiding him. When she finally told him the truth, he pointed out that even if Nick had been taken prisoner, all of them had been released and accounted for years earlier. The Gulf War wasn’t like Vietnam.

  His argument made sense, and she recognized that she couldn’t go on living in limbo. It wasn’t fair to her or Cody. It definitely wasn’t fair to Zach, who’d confessed he’d fallen in love with her and was willing to wait as long as it took to get a commitment from her.

  Since Rosie couldn’t deny the strong feelings between them, they dated each other exclusively when he was in town, despite the senior Armstrongs’ reservations.

  But in doing this, she not only incurred her in-laws’ displeasure, she brought out an ugly side of Cody she hadn’t known existed. All because they could sense the growing bond between her and Za—

  “There’s a plane, Grandpa!”

  “Where?”

  “Right there.” Cody pointed toward the southern sky.

  George shook his head. “Wrong direction.”

  “You don’t think it’s Dad’s?” The disappointment in his voice spoke volumes.

  “I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Rosie stared at the four-engine transport, which had started its descent. The ground crew was scrambling in preparation for its arrival.

  For a moment it felt like déjà vu. Only, the last time she’d seen that type of aircraft, her eyes had been swollen shut from crying, and the plane had been headed into the blue, carrying away the husband she adored.

  Suddenly she was twenty-four years old. The excruciating pain of that moment exploded inside her all over again.

  She gasped for breath as pure revelation flowed through her.

  Nick was on that plane.

  Its wheels came down. In another minute it touched ground and taxied along the runway before making a U-turn toward them.

  “Do you think it’s Dad?”

  “George?” Janet cried, her excitement almost tangible.

  “It’s your father’s plane.” Rosie’s voice shook with conviction. “Come on, Cody.” Galvanized into action, she grabbed her son’s hand, and they began running against the wind. George and Janet weren’t far behind.

  As the plane pulled to a stop and the engines were cut, the ground crew stood ready to help lower the steps to the ground.

  A couple of dark-haired airmen started down. Adrenaline had Rosie almost jumping out of her skin.

  “Mom?”

  She knew what Cody was asking and shook her head. Her gaze fastened compulsively on the door opening.

  A painfully thin man with reddish-brown hair and gaunt cheeks, possibly mid- to late twenties, appeared at the threshold carrying a duffel bag. He was wearing the pine green full-dress army uniform and garrison cap.

  Rosie watched him watchi
ng them before he took his first step down the stairs. The look of disappointment on his face haunted her.

  “Where’s Dad?”

  “There he is!” both grandparents shouted at the same time.

  Rosie’s breath caught as a lean pale man emerged slowly from the interior, half a head taller than the soldier preceding him down the steps. He wore the same green uniform, but was carrying his cap along with a duffel bag in his right hand. His black hair was cut in a buzz.

  She’d already made her first mistake. She was looking for her dashing, twenty-five-year-old husband, who’d worn his hair a little long. Who’d always been tanned and fit. The man who’d been her entire world from the first second she’d laid eyes on him.

  The soldier she was staring at now bore a superficial resemblance to that husband. But this man was obviously older—thirty-two—and thinner. It was like looking at a drawing of someone as the artist might have imagined that person appearing over the passage of time and altered by circumstance.

  Seven years had gone by. Seven! The realization clutched at her heart.

  “Nicky!”

  “Son! Over here!”

  Nick waved.

  “Oh, George—” Janet broke down “—he’s lost so much weight!”

  “None of that, honey. Give him a couple months of Rosie’s home-cooked meals and he’ll put it all back on. Except for that, he looks great,” George muttered gruffly.

  “Dad!”

  Cody broke free of Rosie’s hand and sprinted toward his father. In the next instant, they were embracing. Cody’s initial tears eventually were replaced by joyous barks of laughter as they began inspecting each other. Already that strong father-son bond established during the first six years of Cody’s life was back in full effect.

  How strange to see the two of them together, yet how…right they looked. Cody had inherited his father’s build and coloring. Even certain mannerisms were the same.

  Still, Rosie checked her steps. Like a faulty imprint on a coin, Nick’s image appeared blurry, while Cody’s stood out in stark relief, dear and familiar.