from her Cuban adventure.
“What the hell were you doing? What were you thinking?” she raged,
pounding her fist on his desk. “How dare you criticize Senator
Williams after all he’s done for the military!”
Keith Loggins leaned back in his chair, steepled his fingers in front
of him, and realized that he’d just arrived at another point of no
return. For the past day, he’d been daydreaming about his next meeting
with Pamela, fantasizing about how masterfully he would ask her to
marry him, imagining her ecstatic and eager response. It would have
been, he was certain, a marriage made in heaven. With the right
planning and dreaming, they could have metamorphosed into the most
powerful couple in Washington outside the White House. Her
connections, her inside knowledge of the political process, and his
background in the military would have well, no matter. He studied her
carefully, seeing the anger boiling close to the surface.
“I see you’ve heard about Senator Williams’s indictment,” he said
neutrally. He pointed to a chair. “I think you’ll have to talk to
Senator Dailey if you want any details.”
“I did.” Her rage seemed to seep away, and she collapsed into the
chair he’d offered. “His staff said that you were responsible for
providing most of the information leading to the indictment, and that
you were present when he was taken into custody. Oh, Keith, how could
you? Do you know what that man has meant to my career?”
He shook his head. “Do you know what he almost did to mine?”
She leaned forward. “Tell me. Let’s see if we can salvage anything
out of this situation.”
He took a deep breath. He started to explain about duty, about a
higher cause, and about the service that a man or a woman offers to the
nation while in the military. He saw her eyes glaze over and a sour
expression cross her face.
“I’ve heard this speech before, Keith,” she interrupted.
“You’re starting to sound like Tombstone, you know. He was always on
about that sort of stuff as well. I thought you had more sense.”
“I do. Enough sense to know that what Williams wanted for this country
was bad. Political power is one thing, Pamela. That belongs to the
politicians, the men and women who are elected to represent the people
of this country, not to a military officer. We exist to serve, not to
rule. What Williams wanted was to transform the Pentagon into a
uniformed version of the Senate.” He shook his head ruefully. “And I
almost fell for it, too. Luckily, at the last minute, I came to my
senses.” He looked up, pinned her to the chair with a stern glance.
“I have no regrets about what I did, Pamela. Quite the contrary. If
there’s any way I can make up for what seems to me now to have been bad
judgment, I will. And, if the Navy thinks that includes retiring,
that’s what I’ll do.” For a moment, his voice took on a more hopeful
note. “Pamela, I thought that if I was no longer in the service, that
we might be able to” It was her turn to look grim and shake her head.
“Keith, I thought you understood how the world worked. I’ve already
been in one relationship with an idealistic Navy officer. I don’t need
another.” She stood, offered him a hand.
“Call me if you come back to your senses.” He took her hand, feeling
the smooth skin, noticing the broken nails and grime still embedded
beneath her fingertips. What a woman that she would dare the trip to
Cuba, stand in the middle of bombs to get her story. In so many ways,
they were so much alike.
But there was one critical difference between them.
Regretfully, he realized that that quality was honor. He shook her
hand, resisting the impulse to pull her close, then showed her to the
door.
He sat down at his desk again and glared at the seemingly endless pile
of paperwork crowding his in basket, reflecting that virtue was
sometimes its own reward. And no more than that.
1800 Local (+5 GMT) Battaglio’s Restaurant, Miami “So there we were, at