saw she was holding a cell phone out the window, fruitlessly searching for a signal. Throwing his backpack alongside her duffel bag, he opened the door and prepared to climb in beside her.
“Give it up,” he advised drily. “There’s no service over here.”
Drawing her arm back into the vehicle, she turned to him in dismay. “But how am I supposed to communicate with my people? With Tenley?”
Before he could answer, two soldiers rounded the corner. One of them, Sergeant Mike Donahue, called out to Chase.
“Hey, welcome back.” He shook Chase’s hand. “Tough break about the stand-down order. Have you been over to see Charity yet?”
Chase glanced at Kate, seeing the open curiosity in her eyes. “Uh, no. We just got back a few hours ago and I haven’t had time. But as soon as I finish up here, I’ll go see her. How is she?”
Donahue shrugged. “She hasn’t been the same since you left. She just mopes around waiting for you to come back. Man, she is going to flip when she sees you.”
“Uh-huh. Well, thanks for keeping an eye on her. I’ll be over as soon as I can.”
“You bet.”
Chase climbed in beside Kate, but didn’t offer an explanation. He could see the speculation in her eyes and knew she thought he had a girlfriend. How would she react if he told her that Charity was a homeless dog he’d rescued from the streets? He and his men had been performing a house-to-house search in a small village when they’d come across a group of boys abusing the dog. Chase had intervened, but he knew that as soon as he and his men left, the boys would continue to torture the poor animal. She’d looked at him with such soulful eyes that he hadn’t had the heart to leave her. That had been six months ago, and she’d been with him ever since. The K-9 unit kept an eye on her when he was gone and had been teaching her how to track, which she picked up quickly.
He turned toward Kate, who was still trying to find a signal on her cell phone. “Look, I have a satellite phone in my housing unit. You’re welcome to use that.”
“That’s fine for right now, but what about when we leave here and go to the next base?”
Amusement curved his mouth. “You think we have no way to communicate with the States? I promise you that ‘your people’ are only a phone call away, and a phone will be made available to you whenever you wish.”
She continued to look at him, expectation written all over her face. Chase gave an exaggerated sigh. “Fine. C’mon, you can make your call now.”
Climbing out of the Humvee, he opened the door to his CHU and indicated she should precede him inside. As he dialed the code for outgoing calls, he watched her out of the corner of his eye. She was staring with interest and undisguised dismay at his tiny rooms, even going so far as to peek into the bedroom at the rear. In the close quarters of the CHU, he could actually smell her fragrance, and his mind was immediately swamped with images of her spread across his narrow bed.
“Here,” he said, holding out the receiver for her. “You can make your call.”
She turned away from his bedroom and accepted the phone. He stood by her shoulder as she dialed the number, so close that he could see the tiny throb of her pulse along the side of her neck, and he had an almost overwhelming urge to bend his head and drag his mouth over the smooth skin.
Spinning away, he scrubbed a hand over his face. He was losing it. His only excuse was that he’d spent way too much time in the field, away from civilization. What other reason could there be for his unexpected reaction to her nearness?
“Tenley, it’s me, Katie,” he listened to her say. “If you’re there, pick up please.” She paused. “Okay, listen, there’s no cell phone reception over here in Afghanistan, so you’re not going to be able to call me.” Putting her hand over the receiver, she looked at Chase. “What time can I call her back?”
Chase glanced at his watch. “It’s four o’clock now, which means it’s seven-thirty in the morning on the East Coast. What time would you like to call her back?”
“She’s probably at the gym with her phone turned off. How does she expect anyone to reach her if she turns her phone off?” She blew out a hard breath and he watched as she pulled a small planner out of her shoulder bag and quickly flipped it open. As she scanned the appointments on her calendar, Chase watched the expressions flit across her face. Frustration, annoyance and then finally resignation. Removing her hand, she spoke into the phone. “Tenley, I see you have a crazy schedule today, so I’m going to call you back at six o’clock tonight. Please be there.”
Chase wondered if she realized she would need to wake up at two-thirty in the morning in order to place the call. He didn’t mind getting up at that hour, but he was trained to get by on very little sleep. Kate, on the other hand, had shadows beneath her eyes and he knew the extreme heat was sapping whatever energy she had left. With jet lag already kicking in, he suspected it would take more than an alarm clock to rouse her from a sound sleep at that hour. He found he was looking forward to the task.
She hung up the phone and looked at him. “Well, hopefully she’ll listen to her voicemail messages.”
“I’m sure she will,” he said smoothly. “We’ll come back in time to make the call.”
She nodded, looking around, her gaze lingering on a plastic container on his desk filled with red and black licorice drops. They were his one weakness.
“May I?” she asked, indicating the candy.
“Sure, help yourself.”
He watched as she unscrewed the top and reached in to take just two of the small drops. A stack of his mail lay next to the candy, and he didn’t miss how she furtively scanned the top envelope as she replaced the cover on the canister.
“Thanks,” she murmured, delicately popping a candy into her mouth. “Is this really where you live?”
“More like where I sleep, at least when I’m here, which isn’t often. I don’t spend that much time on the base.” He frowned, having told her way more than he’d intended. “C’mon, I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.”
He opened the door of his CHU, and after she’d stepped outside, turned back and grabbed the jar of licorice drops and shoved them into his backpack. Chase followed her to the Humvee, glad to be out of the confines of the CHU. As they drove across the base, he wondered how she would react when she saw the accommodations the USO had arranged for her. When they pulled up in front of a cluster of khaki-brown army tents, he sensed her confusion.
“Here we are,” he said briskly, getting out of the vehicle and retrieving her duffel bag and his backpack. He waved the driver on, and Kate watched in dismay as the Humvee rumbled out of sight along the dusty road.
“What do you mean, ‘here we are’?” she asked, coming to stand beside him.
She stared at the nearest tent, which Chase silently acknowledged looked as if it had seen both world wars. The canvas was faded in spots and sported patches and duct tape where the fabric had ripped or the tent had sprung a leak. The outside had been stacked with sandbags for protection and for insulation, as the temperatures could drop below freezing at night. Several female soldiers came out of the tent, their weapons over their shoulders. They gave Chase and Kate curious looks as they passed. Chase could hear feminine voices from inside.
“This is the best the USO could provide for sleeping quarters,” he explained. “I hope you don’t mind bunking with the troops for one night.”
He watched as Kate pushed back the flap that covered the entry. Two dozen or more army cots were lined on either side of the interior. Several female soldiers were stowing their gear in foot lockers, and the floor was covered with duffel bags and military gear. The women gave Kate a nod, but otherwise ignored both her and Chase. One cot was conspicuously free of gear, with only a pillow and a tightly rolled sleeping bag placed at the foot.
“I’m