Cool gray eyes assessed him. “This is your last chance to change your mind about becoming a medic. You have a wife to think about. Being a medic would be safer.”

Would it? Medics went into combat with the infantry. He’d even heard of enemy snipers aiming for the red crosses on medics’ helmets. “Sir, my wife supports my decision. Besides, Major Rudder has a wife, and children to boot. He’s not a medic.”

“We could really use you.”

They could assign him to that duty, and yet they hadn’t. “Sir, if I haven’t failed in my training, please don’t ask me again.”

Taylor sighed. “A waste of a fine mind.”

Clay tapped his wristwatch and lifted half a smile. “If it’s fine with you, sir, I’d like to say good-bye to my wife.”

Lieutenant Taylor chuckled. “Dismissed.”

Clay hustled back to his cot to pack. Finally, he’d silenced that threat to his dream.

TULLAHOMA
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1943

Rain pelted the umbrella Clay held over Leah’s head. Dawn lightened the sidewalk as he hurried her from the King Hotel to her boardinghouse. “We’re set. Our paperwork is complete, and you have my parents’ address and my APO address. The Army Post Office can find me anywhere.”

“All set.” Leah’s voice sounded small, or was it merely lost in the rain?

Over the past month of marriage, she’d become like a sister. “I know you don’t want to show too soon, but eat a nutritious diet. And I know you want to help with the finances, but listen when your doctor tells you to quit your job, you hear?”

She gave him a teasing smile. “Yes, Dr. Paxton.”

He chuckled. With her, he was free to talk about medical matters. With her, he was free to talk about anything. He’d miss that.

Since his letters would be censored by Lieutenant Taylor and hers might not be private, they wouldn’t discuss her pregnancy until she made her announcement when she was four months along—three months along if Clay had been the actual father.

Clay turned up the walkway to her boardinghouse. A golden glow came from a few windows in the two-story white home. Under the eaves, he shook out the umbrella and set it to dry on the porch.

Leah smiled at him in her khaki raincoat and the hat she’d worn at the wedding. “Well, you’re off to have adventures in exciting new places.”

“I am.” He glanced pointedly at her flat abdomen. “You’ll have some adventures too.”

She lowered her chin. “My adventures will be much quieter than yours.”

What should he say? A simple good-bye didn’t seem adequate, but a drawn-out departure didn’t seem fitting.

Leah turned up her face to him with the barest smile.

Something shifted inside him. He’d never see her again.