With a soft smile she said, “I don’t feel that way about Virginia. I think about going home and I just feel deflated.”

He stared at her in the low light for several seconds before he said, “That’s understandable. You left in the midst of pain and humiliation. Even though it’s home, the last feelings you had there still cause warring emotions.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Rather insightful, Captain.”

“It’s not like it’s a mystery, Doctor.” He grinned. “Although that’s about as deep as I dare delve into the intricacies of the female psyche.”

“Very wise.”

A few moments of silence passed as they chewed their bread. She broke the silence with a tone of reflection in her voice. “Still, don’t really want to go back. I have another contract ready to sign to stay here. I can’t believe I only have a month left of my original six months.”

“Ready for you to sign? But not yet signed. Does that mean you were trying to decide?”

“Maybe. The day everything happened at the village, I had decided to sign it. I think my father’s going to tell me I have to go home.”

Knowing what kind of dangers the jungle would bring her, he wouldn’t disagree with her father, but he’d never say that to her. “You’ll have to call him first thing in the morning DC time. Think you can stay awake?”

She shook her head. “He’s here. I already saw him at the embassy. I was just too exhausted to do more than say hi. I’m having breakfast with him in the morning.”

Rick sat up a little straighter. “Your father is here in country?”

“That’s what I said.”

“You probably shouldn’t have told me that. Told anyone, I mean.”

“I trust you, Captain,” she whispered. “Besides, he has a state dinner tomorrow night, so the press already knows.”

Rick took a long, deep swallow of water. “So, what if he says you have to go home? What then?”

“Then I’ll have to tell him no for the first time in my life. I don’t know how he’ll handle that.”

He used the small spoon on the serving tray to spread hummus onto his bread, then topped that with tabbouleh.

“Do you have family in Kentucky?”

As he chewed, he thought about home. He hadn’t let his mind go there while on mission. Now that he was relaxed, sitting in a restaurant eating flatbread and hummus across from a beautiful woman, he thought of his grandfather’s farm with the railroad trestle along the back edge of the property, and his father’s hardware store in the small town of Charula. “I do. My parents are both alive and both have siblings, so I have a county full of first cousins.”