Chapter Three
Max
I had a dog whose name was Boo
Boo wanted to go to Infantry school
So early one day I took away his chow
And I motivated his bow-wow
I made him walk for 15 days
And put old Boo into a zombie haze
Now my Boo’s a trooper, too
Mess with him and he’ll bite you.
My feet pounded against the hard dirt path, keeping in perfect rhythm and cadence with all the other men running alongside me, behind me and before me. Lake was leading PT today, and his voice rang out. The chants kept us all in sync, which was great, but the lieutenants who called them all tried to come up with new and more outrageous words. I had a sneaking suspicion that Lake scoured the internet late at night, just trying to find the one that was going to push all of us into laughter.
Next to me, Kade nudged my arm without breaking stride. “Doesn’t Lake actually have a dog named Boo? Or did I dream that?”
I shook my head. “Don’t remember. But it could be. He’s got the wife and the kid, why not the dog?”
“True.”
We were silent for a little bit, each of us lost in our own thoughts as we ran. I glanced at Lieutenant Lake at the front of the formation. He was about five years younger than me; he’d been here at Fort Lee for a couple of years, coming in as a platoon leader shortly after I had taken command of this company. A West Point grad, he’d gotten married the same day he’d graduated, and now he and his pretty little wife had a sweet baby boy. I’d been invited to the christening.
Like me, Lake came from a family that had been Army for generations. His father had been a two-star general before early onset dementia had forced his retirement. I respected the young lieutenant, and I genuinely liked him, too, but his life puzzled me. I remember when I had been just out of college and fresh in the Army. The idea of a wife and family had been the furthest from my mind. Hell, even seven years later I didn’t feel the lack there.
My life was full and busy. I gave my all to the job at hand, and when I was off-duty, I knew how to play hard, too. I couldn’t imagine trying to fit a wife into that equation.
“You ever wonder if we’re missing out on something, not doing like Lake there?” As if he had been reading my mind, Kade spoke low between puffs of breath. “Think we should’ve found a nice girl and settled down before now?”
I smirked. “I think finding a girl who’d take on both of us at the same time would automatically qualify her asnotnice.”
“Ass.” He shoved against me. “You know what I mean. Maybe we should’ve each found ourselves a nice girl, done the right thing and then knocked her up and started cranking out babies.”
“Not enough hours in the day, brother.” I squinted across the field that lay along our path. On the far side of the waving grass was a copse of trees, and on the other side of the trees was the battlefield. It was early still; mist was swirling close to the ground, not yet burned off by the morning sun. Samantha Crewe probably wasn’t over there yet. I wondered how she’d get to work without her car, and I wondered whether or not having it would slow down her protest activities. And I wondered whether my buddy Kade had made a move on her last night when he’d driven her home.
“Yeah, maybe.” Kade’s voice pulled me out of my brood. “But it seems like some people can figure out how to make it work. Like Lake there.”
“Hmmm.” I was noncommittal.
“Maybe it’s just that we haven’t met the right chicks yet.” Apparently, Kade wasn’t running fast enough to keep him from going philosophical on me. “We don’t go out of our way to find women who are marriage material. Or even long-term commitment material. I never really thought about it, but after meeting Sam last night—”
A sound came out of my throat that was half way between a grunt and a growl, and Kade shot me a look of surprise.
“You okay there? Got a hair ball?”
I shook my head but didn’t say anything.
“Anyway, as I was saying. You meet someone like her—she’s clearly smart and savvy, she’s got a ton of spunk, and holy hell, her body ... well, nothing to complain about there, huh? Did you get a load of those tits? And that ass ... it was a handful, for sure.”
“Shut the fuck up.” I ground out the words between clenched teeth.
“What was that?” From the teasing undertone, I realized he was playing with me. “Did I say something wrong?”
