“Public events always look better with family members.” That was what her father had said.
“Especially if the family members are photogenic young women. Hope you didn’t miss anything important.”
“Not much. A couple sorority dances, an honor society induction, a semester in Paris that happened to be the fall term of an election year.”
“A semester in Paris?” He gave a low whistle. “After all, how are you going to keep the girl on the Virginia farm, once she’s seen Paris?”
“All right, that one still bothers me. I studied French for seven years and never even studied anywhere French-speaking. It was too late to even make arrangements to go to Montreal.”
“You can practice your French on me anytime. Course, Cajun French is over three hundred years old, so you may sound a bit out-of-date.”
“Really? I did read that in one of my French classes, but our teacher was Parisian and all she would say is that it sounds strange. Then she sneered a bit.”
“Yeah, well, we Cajuns are the linguistic hillbillies of the Francophone world.”
Claire burst out laughing. “Madame la Professeur always was a snob.”
Luc grunted.
“Have you ever worked with French soldiers?”
He gave her an amused look. “Peut-être.”
“Maybe? Oh, right, you can’t say. Just like Janey. I’m sure she has lots of interesting stories to tell me but she can’t because they’re classified.” The only story Janey had told her recently was about her exploits with the sexually frustrated marine. If only Janey knew how close Claire had come to having an exploit of her own. But no, the darn man was determined to resist her. Rats.
“Loose lips still sink ships. Your friend is smart to keep her mouth closed.”
“That’s right, Janey will keep her mouth closed. Maybe I can call her really quickly to let her know what’s going on.” For some strange reason, Claire trusted Luc to keep her safe but she still wanted to talk to someone, anyone, before going into the deep, dark woods.
“Okay.” Luc dug in the console and handed her a phone. “Use this one to call your friend, and then we have radio silence. No calls unless it’s life or death.” He turned down the rock music.
Claire dialed her friend’s cell-phone number, hoping she wouldn’t get mad that Claire woke her.
Janey answered. “Hello?” she shouted over a pulsing country music beat.
“Janey, it’s Claire.”
“Claire? Why aren’t you asleep? Aren’t you leaving at seven?”
“I’m too nervous to sleep.” That part was true. “Where are you? I thought you were going to the Airborne Inn.” Claire had invited Janey to stay with her but her friend had decided to check in to the base lodging.
“Captain Olson kindly offered to show me around Fayetteville and I took him up on it.” Janey lowered her voice as much as she could, considering the loud music. “He went to the bar for some refills. Holy crap, Claire. He turned into some blond stud once all that hair was gone.” Like any good army officer, Janey preferred clean-cut men. “I almost fainted dead away when I realized who he was. What about you? Why aren’t you in bed getting ready for your big day tomorrow?”
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