Rebecca moved away from the group to speak to her father, but Diana didn’t even notice for several minutes. Then she caught Gerald staring at her over the top of all the folks in their group. He quickly focused his attention back on Rebecca and then the two of them made their way over to her.

“Who’d have thought our baby girl would ever join the army?” He grinned.

“It was wholly her decision,” Diana said.

Gerald’s wife came from the direction of the restrooms and stepped between them. As usual, she looked like she’d just walked off a fashion-show runway. Every blonde hair was in place, her tight-fitting dress hugged her body, and her matching coat looked as if it had been tailor-made for her. The brooch on her lapel had probably cost more than Diana made in a month, but then, Gerald hadn’t chosen his new wife for beauty alone. There was that beautiful bank account that came along with her.

“Diana,” the woman muttered.

“Vivian.” Diana nodded. “Let me introduce y’all to Luke Colbert. Luke, this is Rebecca’s father, Gerald, and his wife, Vivian.”

Luke shook hands with Gerald first and then Vivian. “Pleased to make your acquaintance. Y’all should be very proud of your daughter.”

“We certainly are,” Gerald said. “I understand that you’re Tootsie’s nephew?”

“That’s right,” Luke answered, and slipped an arm around Diana’s shoulders. “Darlin’, we should be gathering up the crew. We’ve got reservations.” Then he smiled at Gerald. “Would y’all like to join us for the celebration dinner? Nothing fancy. The girls only have four hours off base, and they chose Bubba’s Burgers and Ice Cream. I can call and add two more if you’d like to join us. Then we’re going back to the Baymont lobby to sit around and visit until they have to get back to base.”

“No, thank you.” Vivian smiled. “We’ve got to get home to San Antonio. We have friends and family coming to welcome Gerald back from this last deployment, but thank you for the invitation. Come on, honey. Let’s go tell Rebecca goodbye and get on the road.” She slipped her arm in his and led him away from Diana.

“That went well.” Luke grinned.

“If they had joined us, I would have shot you,” she whispered.

“But now Gerald can’t say that we were selfishly keeping him from spending an important day with his daughter.” With his hand on her lower back, he guided her over to where the rest of their group was waiting.

“I’m going straight to Bullis,” Zoe was saying. “So y’all can come see me on weekends. If you’re still in Sugar Run at Christmas, I can probably have a couple of days off to come home.”

“Rebecca and I fly out Monday morning to Georgia. We didn’t get to go to Goodfellow after all, but we’ve been told that we could probably have a few days at Christmas.” Natalie had an arm around Carmen. “Want to pick us up in Dallas if we can get a flight?”

“Of course we will,” Luke answered.

Rebecca talked with Gerald and Vivian a few minutes, and then she hurried back over to her mother. “I’m so ready to get off base, and I’m starving for a big old greasy burger with french fries and then some ice cream for dessert.”

“Well, darlin’s,” Tootsie said, “we’ve got the motor home parked not far from here. We can all fit in it comfortably.”

“That’s wonderful,” Zoe said. “We wanted to spend the time together with all y’all as much as we can.” She slipped one hand into her father’s and the other one into her mother’s. “Lead the way, Tootsie.”

“Don’t expect us to swing you like we did when you were a little girl.” Brett’s eyes kept shifting from his wife to his daughter. “I’m pretty proud of y’all.”

“Y’all?” Zoe asked.

“You for taking this step to serve your country, and your mama for standing beside me for twenty years,” Brett said.

“With that in mind.” Rebecca stepped between Luke and Diana and, following Zoe’s example, slipped a hand in her mother’s and the other one in Luke’s. “I’d say we’ve all got a lot of pride right now, but walk faster. I meant it when I said I was starving.”

How four hours could pass so quickly was a complete mystery to Diana. It seemed as if they’d only all sat down in the Baymont lobby after dinner when Rebecca pointed at her watch and said, “It’s time to go. We can’t be late or we’ll be in trouble.”

“And army trouble is worse than missing curfew at home when we were seniors.” Zoe tucked a strand of hair back into the bun at the nape of her neck.

“But not by much,” Rebecca giggled. “The only reason I made it through basic was because I had a tough mama.”

“Testify, sister.” Natalie raised her hand. “The drill sergeant was nothing compared to Mama the night she found out I’d had my first beer. But today I love you for all that strictness.” Natalie hugged Carmen for at least the tenth time that afternoon. “This whole day has been amazing, and it’s only two and a half weeks until Christmas. Then we can see all y’all again.”

Luke was on his way out to the motor home to get it warmed up when he heard someone call his name. He turned to find Rebecca jogging toward him. Her long legs and her movements reminded him so much of Diana that he doubted she’d gotten much of Gerald’s DNA at all.

“Hey, wait up,” she yelled.

When she got to his side, she slowed to a walk. “I wanted to talk to you when Mama wasn’t around.”

Together they covered the rest of the distance to the motor home.

“What’s up?” He opened the door for her, and she stepped inside.

“Are you serious about her, or are you just out for a good time? Are you going to break her heart?”

“I hope we’re both very serious, and I want a long-term relationship. I care too much about your mother to ever break her heart. Now, let me ask you . . .” He started the engine and turned on the heater. “How do you feel about me? You’ve only just met me, so that might be an unfair question, but . . .”

“Tootsie has written lots about you in her letters and so have Carmen and Joanie. I hope you’re half the man they make you out to be,” Rebecca replied. “It’s just that Mama has been hurt deeply once, and I want your word that you’ll go easy on her. I can see by the way she looks at you that she . . . that she likes you a lot, maybe even loves you.”