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"Honey, I’d just spent a good portion of that tour four hundred feet below sea level We’re trained to speak in subdued, monotone voices If my voice inflections bothered you, why didn’t you say soed "I was so pleased to have you back that I didn’t want to say or do anything to cause an argu, and I would have felt like a fool forit"
Steve took a deep breath "I knohat you lad you were to seelike an insecure jerk – which I was But that’s neither here nor there"
"I wish I’d said so so hard to be the kind of wife you wanted Please know that I was always desperately lonely without you"
Steve took a couple more bites, but his interest in the food had obviously waned "I can understand why you felt the need for… cohteous anger weaved it’s way down her spine "I’ difficulty controlling her treenuinely surprised "Said what?"
Carol siue if she pressed the subject, and she didn’t have the strength for it "Never one, she pushed her plate aside "You used to sit and stare at the wall"
"I beg your pardon?" Steve was finished with his meal, too, and scooted his plate aside
"When you came home from a tour," she explained "For days afterward, you hardly did a thing You were so detached"
"I was?" Steve ht It always takes me a few days to separate myself from the my duties aboard the Atlantis It’s different aboard the sub, Carol I’ at sea several weeks, it takes ti…1 don’t kno to explain it Nothing I’d say or do would get much reaction from you If I proudly showed off some project I’d completed in your absence, you’d s like ‘That’s nice, dear’"
Steve grinned, but the action revealed little aently avoided aboard the sub, too I’m an officer If I panic, everyone panics We’re trained from the time we’re cadets to perfor There’s no room for emotion"
Carol chewed on the corner of her lower lip
"Can you understand that?"
She nodded "I wish I’d asked you about all this years ago"
"I didn’t realize I behaved any differently It was always so good to get home to you that I didn’t stop to analyze my behavior"
The waitress came and took away their plates
"We should have been honest with each other instead of trying to be e thought the other person wanted," Carol corined that they’d been married five years and had never really understood each other
"Yes, we should have," he agreed "I’ it isn’t too late for us to learn We could start over right now, determined to be open and honest with each other"
"I think we should," Carol agreed, and smiled
Steve’s hand reached across the table for hers "I’d like us to start over in other ways, too – get to know each other We could start dating again the e did in the beginning"
"I think that’s a good idea"
"How about walking down to the waterfront for an ice-creaested after he’d paid the tab
Carol was stuffed fro to end Their love had been given a second chance, and she was grabbing hold of it with both hands They iser this time, more mature and prepared to proceed cautiously
"Are you insinuating that I need fattening up?" she teased, lacing her fingers with his
"Yes," he admitted honestly
"How can you say that?" she asked with a soft laugh She ery, but the baby was filling out her tunant "I eat all the ti tastes so good"
"Cherry vanilla?"
"Ooo, that sounds wonderful Double-decker?"
"Triple," Steve answered and squeezed her hand
Lacing their fingers like high-school sweethearts, they strolled down to the steep hill toward the waterfront like young lovers eager to explore the world
As he proe icecream cones They sat on one of the benches that lined the pier and watched the gulls circle overhead
Carol took a long, slow lick of the cool dessert and s her "I told you I’ve really coaze fell to the rounded swell of her stomach "What did Dr Stewart have to say about the baby?"