He smiled. “Why do I feel like I’m talking to an entirely different person?”
“Do you not realize that I know how much I hurt you?”
“I guess I never thought about it. Your actions spoke quite loudly.”
“I was selfish and stupid. We could have had kids.”
“We could have had lots of things, Dana.”
“I’m too old for that now.”
“You’re not that old. Women your age have kids all the time.”
“Curtis is set in his ways. And I’m not sure I have the energy to run after toddlers, Sean.”
“We all make choices.”
She finished her drink. “Can we order some food? And then we can talk more about your kid who needs my roundabout help.”
Later, when their plates were cleared and the coffees had been brought, Dana said, “Okay, talk to me.”
“His name is Tyler Wingo.”
Sean went on to tell her most but not all of what had transpired.
He was about to add something else when his phone buzzed. He looked down at the text he had just gotten from Michelle.
In it she had recounted what Tyler had told her on the drive home about his father.
Dana watched his face and said, “Developments?”
“Could be. Now they’re telling him that his father was first shot and then hit by a mortar. There are no remains left to bring home.”
“They always bring the remains home, Sean, trust me on that. If a mortar shell did hit him, the coffin will be closed and sealed. But the Army is really good about identifying the dead. I know from Curtis that the Pentagon is borderline fanatical about that.”
“I’m sure they are. It’s just curious they didn’t tell him the first time.”
“It could be as simple as they didn’t want to tell the son or the wife something that disturbing when they were already delivering such devastating news. They have protocols for this but each situation is different. You said Tyler was running through the rain with his father’s old collectible gun. It could be the Army reps deemed it unwise to tell him about the condition of his father’s body at that time since he was so clearly upset. They wouldn’t have wanted to risk traumatizing him and his mother further.”
“Stepmother,” he corrected. “But that does make sense. So why the stone wall at the Pentagon?”
“Confidentiality. They take it seriously there, particularly about combat deaths.”
“Tyler seemed like he was holding something back, though. Something that only he knew but didn’t want to tell.”
“Something about his father?”
From Michelle’s text Sean knew exactly what he had been holding back. His father had sent him a message after he was supposedly killed. He debated whether to tell Dana this, but then decided against it. She was married to a general, after all, and owed him far more allegiance than she owed Sean.
“I don’t know. Michelle seemed to think so, and she has good instincts.”
Dana drank her coffee and appraised him keenly. “So are you two a couple as well as business partners?”
“What’s it to you?”
“I’ll take that as a yes. I’ve seen her picture, read up on her. Quite a beauty. Quite an overachiever. I mean, an Olympian who can shoot straight? What a combination.”
“Why did you read up on her? And before it seemed you could barely remember her name.”