Contents ( 66)
- Cover
- Books by Valerie Fraser Luesse
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Map of Florida
- one
- two
- three
- four
- five
- six
- seven
- eight
- nine
- ten
- eleven
- twelve
- thirteen
- fourteen
- fifteen
- sixteen
- seventeen
- eighteen
- nineteen
- twenty
- twenty-one
- twenty-two
- twenty-three
- twenty-four
- twenty-five
- twenty-six
- twenty-seven
- twenty-eight
- twenty-nine
- thirty
- thirty-one
- thirty-two
- thirty-three
- thirty-four
- thirty-five
- thirty-six
- thirty-seven
- thirty-eight
- thirty-nine
- forty
- forty-one
- forty-two
- forty-three
- forty-four
- forty-five
- forty-six
- forty-seven
- forty-eight
- forty-nine
- fifty
- fifty-one
- Epilogue
- Keep Reading for a Preview of Valerie Luesse’s Next Book!
- Prologue
- one
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Back Ads
- Back Cover
“Mornin’, Robbie! Ginger on duty today?”
“Yes, sir! Waved her in about an hour ago.”
“I got a young man here that needs tendin’ to. You read about the Bike Boy bound for Key West?”
“Sure have.”
“Well, this is him. Peyton Cabot, meet Robbie Sykes.”
“Hey, Peyton!” Robbie said with a smile, stepping up to the truck window.
“Pleased to meet you,” Peyton said.
Robbie frowned as he got a closer look. “If you don’t mind my askin’, what on earth happened to you?”
“Came through a marsh a ways back and the mosquitoes ate me for breakfast,” Peyton said.
Robbie whistled and shook his head. “Man, that’s tough. Thought for a minute there you had the chicken pox. Don’t worry. Ginger’s the best nurse on the whole base. Y’all head on over to the sick bay, and I’ll call up there to let her know you’re comin’.”
“Thank you much,” Wally said as they passed through the gate.
Peyton was about to experience his second stay on a military base—a place where he was starting to feel very much at home. Something about the entrance gates, guarded by soldiers in uniform, gave a promise of protection that you just didn’t find everywhere. There seemed to be a sense of shared pride and purpose. Most of all, Peyton was drawn to the clarity of military life—the certainty of knowing exactly what you were supposed to do and how you were supposed to do it.
Wally escorted him into the sick bay, where a nurse with warm brown eyes and a dimpled smile was waiting for him. “Peyton, this is Ginger, best nurse in the whole Navy.”
She looked over his bites. “Boy howdy, when you make up your mind to get bit, you don’t mess around, do you?”
“No, ma’am, I reckon not,” Peyton said.
“Do they hurt, sugar, or just itch like crazy?”
“Little o’ both. The really bad ones kinda hurt.”
“Bless your heart. Come on back and we’ll see what we can do about that. Step into examining room number 1 and take off your clothes, underwear and all. There’s a sheet on the examining table you can cover yourself with.”
Peyton hesitated. “Take off everything?”
Ginger lightly pinched his cheek. “Don’t be embarrassed, honey. If I see anything that looks suspicious, I’ll alert the Pentagon.”
Peyton awoke to see a Navy nurse he didn’t recognize standing over him, blotting his face with a cold cloth.
“It’s okay,” she was saying, but her voice sounded far away. “You’re running a fever, but the doctor says it’s not malaria. Just a reaction to all those bites. Can I get you anything?”
Peyton couldn’t answer. His ears were ringing, and he felt as if he were floating somewhere above the bed. He tried to tell the nurse, but no words would come.
“Don’t try to talk. Just get some rest. I’ll be right here.”
Peyton couldn’t stay awake anymore. He felt himself drifting away—from the nurse’s voice and the sick bay and Key West . . .