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green hair who had entered the shop.
    Tyler shrugged and shook his head. “Even if I knew, couldn’t say.” He punched Kenny in the arm. “You know that.”
    Kenny rolled his eyes as he complained nonverbally to Kate.
    “Hey, Kenny,” Tyler began. “I got a friend you got to meet. Cooper, our corpsman, that’s our medic. He’s the biggest gadget guy I’ve met, outside of you, of course.”
    “Yeah?”
    Kate had finished her lunch and sat listening.
    “I think you two’d have a good time. You should come down to San Diego, I’ll introduce him to you. You can bring Vonda, if you like,” Tyler said as an afterthought, winking at the tattooed beauty behind the counter. “We have this lady in San Diego who does amazing tats, works on all of us. A fuckin’ knockout, too, named Daisy. She has the softest hands and the biggest—” his cupped hands had gone out in front of his chest until he looked at Kate and abruptly stopped, dropping his hands to his lap.
    At the mention of Daisy’s name, Kate found herself feeling uncomfortable, perhaps a little jealous. Tyler sighed, apparently deep in thought.
    “That depends,” Kenny replied, leaning back on his chair and rocking it precariously.
    “On what?”
    Kenny dropped back forward, placed his palms on the pink, glitter-flake Formica tabletop and stared at Kate, raising one eyebrow. “Is Kate going to be there?”
    He wiggled his eyebrows for effect.
    Kate found herself blushing again as Tyler’s eyes swept from his friend’s to her face. Did he see the flutter in her chest? The red blotchy marks there? The flush on her cheeks?
    “I dunno where Kate will be,” he began in a whisper. “But she’s welcome to come to San Diego when I get back from deployment. Any. Time. She. Likes.”
    She melted into his warm smile, and then looked down. Suddenly, she remembered her sister, who might be waiting for her at the house. “You guys,” she began, “I need to go. How much do I owe?” she asked.
    Both men held out their hands, declining. “We got this,” Tyler said.
    The road to her sister’s house was winding. Freshly rained-on surfaces made the green shrubbery brighter, the blue sky more intense, the grey and white billowy clouds more defined. She’d always loved the faint smell of the huge Columbia River as it snaked around the waterfront. Her sister’s house was on one of the prominent hills overlooking rows of trendy commercial districts and warehouses.
    She’d been quiet while she watched the wisps of Tyler’s hair blow in the breeze blowing in the little crack in his window. The conversation between the two friends was background noise to her thoughts, which began to darken and become heavier. She was beginning to regret the doorway she’d plunged them both through.
    What was I thinking?
    Her ordered life was close to perfect, maybe too perfect, she thought. She’d gotten the handsome guy with the wealthy parents who doted on him and had shown her nothing but affection. Maybe they were a little overbearing at times, like the way Mrs. Heller took over some of the details of their wedding, insisting on using her caterer and ordering all the flowers for not only the reception but the ceremony as well. She could understand the caterer decision, since the reception was going to be held at the family winery and she needed to be able to work with the staff. But the flowers had been done without even consulting Kate’s mother, who had been a little hurt by the gesture, although Mrs. Heller said she’d intended to help.
    A small war was brewing between the two sets of parents as to who could provide the most for the couple. Kate knew her parents felt slightly embarrassed they weren’t able to promise the same lavish gifts Randy’s parents did. To Kate, that was her only concern: how her parents felt. She never wanted to forget where she came from. There were times the Hellers seemed to live in a fantasyland they wanted to suck her into.
    But who am I to