“Why not?” Dan Stanley pursued his question. “You’re a beautiful girl, you must have men running after you all the time.” She smiled at that.

“I’m a nurse, Officer, not a movie star. I fly air evac missions all day and bring twenty-four injured men back from the front with every load. And now I do a night shift here. I’m exhausted by the time I go home. But we won’t be doing the extra shifts forever.”

“My family is in the commercial meat business,” he volunteered. “We provide meat, mainly beef, for high-end restaurants and hotels. It’s not glamorous, but it’s a lucrative business. Our family lives well on it. My father owns the business and I run it for him. We have the finest top-quality butcher shop in Philadelphia, and a booming wholesale business in Pittsburgh. That must sound vulgar to you,” he said, and hit the nail on the head. She had been thinking just that, and felt like her mother when she did. She hated her mother’s snobbism and was ashamed to realize that she was thinking something her mother would have. What difference did it make how he made his money? She tried to envision him at one of her parents’ parties and almost laughed out loud. “Was I right when I said you have a fancy accent? Something tells me there is some very blue blood in those veins.” He waved vaguely at her arms.

“Why does it matter?” she asked seriously.

“It doesn’t,” he said simply. “Except maybe to you or your parents.” He pegged that squarely too, about her parents.

“It doesn’t matter to me. That stuff is just an excuse for a lot of snobbery, antiquated traditions, and bad behavior, none of which appeals to me.”

“You’re a rebel, then, or a modern woman.”

“Maybe a little of both.” Though she’d never thought of it that way before.

“Is that why you enlisted? To prove to yourself that you’re not like your parents?”

“Maybe some of that too. But I mostly enlisted to serve my country.”

“That’s admirable,” he said. “You didn’t have to do that. You could have stayed home and paid lip service to it, and gone to parties like your mother.”

“I’m not that kind of woman. I stand up for what I believe in. I just don’t believe in my parents’ value system. Other things are more important to me, like winning this war. And I’m doing everything I can to help that.” Then she looked at him strangely. “Why am I telling you all this?”

“Because I asked you, and you’re an honest person. I’m fascinated by you, Alex. I was from the first minute I saw you. And you’re a woman of your word. You came back with that first cigarette, and you came to see me every time you said you would.”