Shaking his head, he took her hand in his. It looked very small in comparison. “He thinks you’re out of my league. One day you’ll wake up and realize it, and then where will I be?”

She raised her eyebrows. “What do you think about that?”

With a slow, languid grin, he said, “I think that I really enjoyed kissing you earlier and hope we get to do that again soon.”

A smile lit her face. “Yeah? It wasn’t planned or anything.”

“Says you.” He let her go and sat back as Betsy set their plates in front of them.

“Thanks, Aunt Betsy,” he said, making a kissing motion in the air.

“Humph,” she replied, then stomped off.

Cynthia looked at her retreating back, then at him. “What made her so angry?”

“Betsy takes pride in knowing everything about everyone. Her ear is always to the ground. She never shares it. She just knows it. She didn’t know about you.”

“Ah. Gotcha. If your mom had met me first or something, word would have gotten to her and she wouldn’t have been surprised to see me.”

His eyes widened. “How do you understand small town gossip?”

She snorted. “Please. I know Capitol Hill. Nowhere on earth tops that gossip pit.”

He bowed his head and thanked God for the food and for Cynthia’s safe travels. After she said, “Amen,” they started eating.

In between bites, they chatted about each of their drives from DC to Kentucky. “How come you didn’t get here until yesterday?” she asked before biting the corner off a potato chip.

“I went home via North Carolina. I had to pack, make some arrangements.”

“And you go back there from here, or to your new place?”

“There first. We’ll go back and get ready to move to Fort Campbell, Kentucky.”

“Fort Campbell?” Betsy said from two tables over. “Well.”

He grinned over at her. “Better than Bragg.”

“That ain’t very hard, from what I hear.”

His grin turned into a smile. “Fair enough. But Campbell’s in Kentucky.”

“Ain’t most of it in Tennessee?” she said as if she meant it as an insult.

He chuckled. “Not the part I’ll be in.”

“Humph.”

Cynthia took a bite of her sandwich, then brushed the crumbs off her fingers. “Why do you have to move?”

“Our entire team is moving. There are twelve of us. There’s a strategic reason we’re going from Bragg to Campbell, but it’s not really up to me to guess what it is. I just go where they tell me to go and sign in the day I’m supposed to sign in.” He could see the questions on her face. “It’s part of the military culture.”

Her expression relaxed. “Understood. So, twelve? I only met seven.”