'I Do'...Take Two!

“The wish won’t come true unless all three of us do it,” the irrepressible Dawn insisted.

“That’s right,” Callie chimed in. “All for one...”

“...and one for all.” Kate dredged up another smile. “Okay, okay! Who’s got a coin I can bum?”

“Here.”

Dawn thrust a euro into her friend’s left hand. It was dull and tarnished and banded by a rim of brass. Soon to be replaced, Kate knew from her work at the World Bank, by a newer, shinier model.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Like her life, she thought, although her new was uncertain and her old hurt almost more than she could bear. Her fist closed around the euro while images cut through her mind like shards of jagged glass. Of Travis roaring up to her college dorm on his decrepit but much-loved Harley. Their engagement the day she’d pinned his air force pilot’s wings on his uniform. The wedding two years later that Kate and her two friends had planned in such excruciating detail. The much-dreamed-of trip to Italy that she and her husband had been forced to put off repeatedly while he rotated in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq and a dozen other locales he couldn’t tell her about.

The irony of it ate at Kate as she remembered the hours she’d spent planning this dream trip. She remembered, too, all the days she’d buried herself in her own work to dull her gnawing worry about her husband. And the long, empty nights she’d tossed and turned and prayed for his safe return from whatever hot spot he’d been sent to this time.

Now here they were. She and Major Travis Westbrook. In Italy! Separated by only a few hours’ train ride. The sad part was that Kate hadn’t even known her soon-to-be ex was operating out of the NATO base near Venice until she’d talked to his mother just before she and Dawn and Callie had left for their Roman Holiday.

Venice might lie only a few hours north of Rome, but the distance between Kate and Travis couldn’t be bridged. Not now, not ever. They’d said too many painful goodbyes and spent too much time apart. They’d also grown into different people. Travis, according to the Facebook post his wife had obviously not been intended to see, more so than her.

“Make a wish,” Dawn urged. “Then toss the coin over your shoulder.”

“You don’t have to make a wish,” Callie corrected in her calm way. “It’s implicit in the act. Throwing a coin in the fountain means you’ll return to Rome someday.”

Kate barely heard her two friends. Fist clenched, eyes squeezed shut, she let her subconscious spew out the anger and hurt that came from deep in her gut.

I wish... I wish... Dammit all to hell! I wish the bitch-whore who bragged on Facebook about having an affair with my husband would develop a world-class case of...whatever!

She flung up her arm and let fly. Not even the water gushing through the fountain’s many spigots could drown out the loud thunk as the euro bounced off the basin’s rim, or the amusement in the deep drawl that sounded from just behind her.

“You never could throw worth a damn, Katydid.”

Her arm froze in the middle of its downward arc. Disbelief jolted through her even as something hot and wild balled in her belly. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Her frantic gaze shot to her two friends. Dawn’s ferocious scowl was as telling as the mask of icy disapproval that dropped instantly over Callie’s face. Kate closed her eyes. Sucked in a shuddering breath. Forced herself to turn slowly, deliberately. Her initial reaction to the first sight of her husband in more than four months was purely instinctive. Bunching her fists, she refused to yield to the all-too-familiar worry over the tired lines webbing his hazel eyes. Refused, as well, to let any trace of anger or hurt seep into her voice.

“Hello, Travis. Your mom must have told you that I finally made it to Rome.”

“She did.”

Those changeable green-brown eyes drifted over her face and lingered on her mouth. For an incredulous moment Kate thought he might actually try to kiss her. Flashing a warning, she took a half step back.

Dawn and Callie must have read the same intent. They moved simultaneously, one to either side of Kate. Travis’s glance moved from Dawn’s scowl to Callie’s set mouth.

Was that regret that flickered across his face? Or a trace of the amused wariness he’d always insisted he had to pull on like a Kevlar vest when confronted by the trio he’d dubbed the Invincibles? The look came and went so quickly, Kate couldn’t tell.

“Rome’s a big city.” She managed to maintain an even tone, but the effort made her throat cramp. “How did you find us?”

The amusement surfaced. No question about it now. And with it came the crooked grin that had curled her toes inside her black suede boots the first time he’d aimed it her way.

Memories slapped at her again. The gray, blustery November day, the cold wind biting at her cheeks, the icicles hanging like frozen tears from the eaves. Kate and Callie and Dawn had bundled up and were just heading out to the mall when Dawn’s older brother pulled into the drive. All three girls had gone goggle-eyed when Aaron introduced the roommate he’d brought home for Thanksgiving.

Although Travis’s cheery hello had encompassed the three friends equally, he’d soon cut Kate out of the herd. She’d been a sophomore at Boston College at the time, he a senior at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. All it took was two dates that magical Thanksgiving vacation. Just two. Then she...

“Finding you wasn’t hard.”

Her husband’s reply jerked her back to the here and now.

“You told me often enough that tossing a coin in the Trevi Fountain topped your to-do list for Rome.” He hooked a thumb toward a busy café on the other side of the piazza. “So I staked out a table and waited for you to show.”

She hadn’t told his mom where she was staying. Hadn’t told anyone except her assistant, and David knew better than to divulge her itinerary. Kate wasn’t that high up the banking world, but she’d negotiated several multibillion-dollar deals and had recently been featured as one of five up-and-comers on a prominent financial website. Common sense—and her bank’s director of security—had advised her to maintain a low profile while traveling abroad. Trust Travis to have tracked her down.

“How long have you been waiting?” she asked with reluctant curiosity.

“Since early morning.”

Dawn gave a surprised huff. “You anchored a table in this crowded tourist mecca all day? That must have cost a few euros.”

“Only enough to feed a family of four for a week. But...” His glance swung back to Kate. “It was worth every euro.”

Dammit! How did he do it? A grin, a shared glance, and she was almost ready to forget her angry wish of a few moments ago. Almost.

The bitterness that had spawned it came back, leaving a sour taste in her mouth and a ragged hole in her heart. “You wasted your money, Trav. We said all we needed to when we met with the lawyer.”

“Not hardly.” The smile left his eyes. “I was served with divorce papers the day after I returned from a classified mission. The meeting with the attorney was set for less than a week later.”

“At which point you evoked the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act to delay the proceedings for another ninety days!”

“Only because you—”

He broke off and blew out a slow breath. With a nod that encompassed the elbow-to-elbow tourists cocooning them in a bubble of noise and laughter, he tried again.

“Cm’on, Kate. Let me at least buy you a glass of vino. All of you,” he added belatedly.

“You bet your booty all of us,” Dawn shot back.

“And only if Kate feels inclined to accept your invitation,” Callie put in coolly but no less adamantly.

The Invincibles ride again.

* * *

Their united front didn’t surprise Travis any more than their fierce protectiveness. He’d known from day one that Kate and her two friends were closer than most sisters. Different personalities, different family backgrounds, but so many shared interests and experiences that they could finish each other’s sentences.

And as different as they were physically, each one spelled trouble for the male of the species. With her auburn hair, vivacious personality and lush curves, Dawn drew men like a magnet. Callie was quieter, more reserved, the kind of attentive listener who made men think they were a whole lot smarter than they really were.

But it was Kate who’d sparked his interest that snowy November day. She’d been bundled into a bulky jacket, her brown eyes barely visible above the scarf muffling the lower half of her face, her curly blond hair streaming from a colorful knit stocking cap.

Her lower half hadn’t been as bulked up as the upper half. Her snug jeans had given Travis plenty of opportunity to admire world-class legs above calf-high black suede boots, trim hips and a nice little butt. Yet he’d sensed instantly the whole was so much more than the sum of those enticing parts. Maybe it was the intelligence in those cinnamon-brown eyes. Or the smile when she nudged the scarf down with her chin. Or the way she countered Aaron’s teasing with a quick quip.

Whatever it was, by the time Travis headed back to UMass, he was halfway in love and all the way in lust. He’d plunged in the rest of the way in the two years that followed, a hectic time crammed with weekend visits to either his campus or hers and shared summer adventures. Then had come USAF officer training school, followed by the thrill of being accepted for flight school. When Kate flew down to pin on his air force pilot’s wings, he’d capped the ceremony with an engagement ring. Between her grad school and his follow-on flight training, it had been another two years before he slid the matching diamond-studded wedding band on her finger.