Fighting Fate (11 page)

Much earlier in the evening, he’d stopped by the bakery. He’d picked out a dozen doughnuts and then he’d asked Gretchen about Sarah. Maybe it had been a risky move. But he thought he’d seen something in Gretchen’s expression during that first meeting that had been welcoming. To his surprise, she’d been more than happy to chat about her sister.

In fact, it was Gretchen that suggested he go to Lucky’s Tavern. She promised to make sure that Sarah would be there.

With Gretchen on his side, he’d felt so sure that he’d make some progress with Sarah tonight. Gretchen had been too busy to chat long. But they’d exchanged phone numbers in case anything came up. After the debacle at the bar, Gretchen had called him to ask if she could come over.

And now here she was and he wanted some answers.

“You could have told me her fiancé died!” He dropped himself into the chair across from her. “I didn’t know she was ever engaged.”

“I thought she should be the one to tell you,” Gretchen quietly said.

“When did it happen?”

“A little over a year and a half ago.”

“How? I mean what happened? Will you at least tell me that?”

Gretchen looked hesitant. “It was a car accident. But it was…more complicated than that.”

“How so?”

She shook her head. “She needs to be the one to tell you the rest.”

He slumped back into the chair. “I’m kind of getting the feeling thth e feeliat might not happen.”

Gretchen’s head snapped up. “Are you giving up on her already?”

“I didn’t say that. I just didn’t realize how complicated this might be. I thought she didn’t want anything to do with me because of
me
. I didn’t realize it might have something to do with someone else.” His heart twisted with the realization that it likely had to do with both. Meaning what? It might be twice as hard to win her over.

“She’ll come around.”

“After what happened tonight, you’re here to play matchmaker?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yes.” She gave him a little nod that caused her massive halo of curls to bounce. “I love my sister. And more than anything, I want her to be happy. Right now? She’s not happy. But I think you can change that.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know…” The entire drive home, he couldn’t get the look on Sarah’s face out of his head. How pale her complexion had become. The way her lips had begun to tremble. The tears that had begun to collect on her lower lid but hadn’t quite fallen yet. When he’d briefly touched her, her body had been shaking. He’d wanted nothing more in that moment than to put his arms around her. He hadn’t dared because he wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t have appreciated it one bit. Not then anyway.

“You told me earlier that you wanted her back. Please don’t give up on her already,” Gretchen pleaded. “Please
try
.”

“I did try.”

“You bought her a drink,” Gretchen said indignantly. “That’s not trying. That’s…being unimaginative and lazy.”

“Yeah, well, lazy or not, she sent it back.”

“So try harder.”

“I just don’t know if I should. It sounds like she’s had enough shit to deal with. She was really upset tonight. I don’t want to make things worse.” He tapped his foot against the floor restlessly. What he’d learned hadn’t changed how he felt about her. But now concern had woven its way into the mix as well. “Are you sure she was okay when you left her?”

“I would’ve parked myself on her couch if I thought she wasn’t. See, that’s the thing with Sarah. Crap that she doesn’t deserve keeps happening to her.” Cole didn’t miss the pointed look Gretchen gave him. “And she just keeps pushing her way through it. I just want something good to happen to her for a change.”

She was still looking at him in that pointed way.

“Me?” he asked skeptically. He was supposed to be the
good
thing that happened to her?

“Of cant"+0">ourse you. Why do you think I’m here? Trust me, she has feelings for you.”

“She’s made it perfectly clear that she’s not interested.”

“Of course she’s interested.”

“She told you that? Because I find that real hard to believe.”

“Of course not,” Gretchen scoffed. “She’s not going to
admit
it. She has to have some pride after what you did.”

Cole contemplated that as he raked a hand through his hair.

“Do you still love her?” Gretchen asked.

It seemed to Cole that Gretchen had no reservations about crossing personal boundaries. At the moment, this girl seemed to want what he wanted. So he let her cross lines. If it was going to help him out in the end, he really didn’t care.

“Yeah,” he said. He looked at Gretchen and nodded. “I think I do. And I want her back.”

He was relieved when Gretchen smiled.

“Make her see that. But first, you have some crap to make up for. So do it. Make it up to her.”

“How?”

“Well,” Gretchen said.

Cole could tell by the look on her face that she was preparing to throw together some kind of scheme.

He thought better of that.

“You know what? Never mind. I don’t want Sarah to feel manipulated. I’ll do this on my own,” he decided. “It would probably be best if you stayed out of it from here on out.”

“You’re sure about that?”

He nodded, deciding right then that if he was going to win Sarah back he was going to do it because he deserved her. Not because he had played her in any way. “Yeah. I have no idea how to win her over but I do think it’s best if I do this on my own.”

She shrugged as she hoisted herself to her feet. She crossed the room so she could pat his knee. “You’re a big boy. I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

/p>

Chapter Eight

The past…

“I’m so disappointed in you,” Cole said as he leaned against her locker.

“It’s not my fault,” Sarah said. She pulled the quiz out of Cole’s hand, folded it in half and tossed it into her backpack. “That class is just so
boring
.”

He pushed a pained look onto his face. “
What
? How could you say that? History is fascinating.”

She stared at him, waiting for the moment he would shake his head and let her know he was joking. That moment didn’t come. “You like history?”

He shrugged, trying to backtrack and reign in some of his enthusiasm. “Yeah. I guess. I mean, as far as classes go. I’m in chemistry and trig right now. They’re both hard as hell. With history? All you have to do is memorize facts. It’s kind of like remembering the plot of a good book.”

She gave him her best skeptical look. “You read?”

“Well, no, not if I can help it,” he said. “But that’s not helping the point I’m trying to make.”

“What
is
your point?” she asked. b>
And why are you at my locker? Again?
she silently wondered. She wouldn’t ask him that. She wouldn’t want him to take it the wrong way. Because what if she said it and he didn’t come back? For a reason she wasn’t quite ready to admit to herself, she didn’t like that thought at all. She also didn’t like how he had a knack for finding her right before lunch, which meant right after American History. And
that
typically meant she had a paper, or a test or study guide marked up in red in her hand. Why he never bothered to find her after English, algebra or biology—where she always got straight A-s—was a fact that annoyed her.

“My
point
is that it’s not usually the facts that are interesting.” He grinned at her. “It’s the facts behind the facts.”

She shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“It’s not just the things they teach you in class. If you take them at face value, it’s usually interesting enough. But the
real
story is in the details. The little things that most teachers don’t think are worth repeating because we’re not asked about them in standardized testing. I mean, did you know that some people believe that Roosevelt knew ahead of time that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked? They think he let it happen so that America would have a reason to join the war. Ever heard of Unsinkable Sam?”

“Um, no?” she said, surprised by the gleam in his eye.

“He was a cat.”

“Oh?”

“He was onboard three ships that were sunk. He survived all three times. That’s how he got his name. Unsinkable Sam.”

“Okay,” Sarah said with a little laugh.

“And Roald Dahl?”

“The children’s author? The one who wrote
James and the Giant Peach
?”

“Yeah. Did you know he was a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force?”

“I did
not
know that,” she said quite seriously. Cole’s enthusiasm over that historical snippet was kind of adorable.

He nodded and flashed her a wicked grin as he leaned in close. “Then you probably also don’t know that he was a spy. Rumor has it he slept with countless high society women to get his information. Not a bad job to have, huh?”

“I guess,” she muttered. Like a spilled can of crimson paint Sarah felt a blush creeping across her chest, up her neck and across her cheeks. Cole smirked and she knew he had to have noticed.

“How did you end up “ you enwith such an interest in history?” she asked, trying to distract him from her blush.

He shrugged. “I’ve always liked it. No formulas to remember, nothing to work out in your head. I can’t tell you how much I hate any kind of math. But anyhow, last year I missed a week of school. When I came back, I was really struggling. Mr. Davidson gave me a few books on conspiracy theories and strange facts in history. He told me to write a report for extra credit. It was all pretty cool.”

She frowned at him. “Why did you miss a week of school?” She didn’t remember him being gone but then again, she wouldn’t have been paying attention. Not last year, anyway.

He hesitated before saying, “I was out for medical reasons.” His tone let her know he didn’t care to elaborate. Nor did he give her time to question him. “Does Mr. Davidson still give quizzes every Thursday?”

She nodded. “Yeah, only next week, it’s a unit test,” she said glumly.

“On?” Cole prodded.

“World War II,” she said, though he had to have figured that out already after having chuckled over her embarrassing quiz.

“I could help you study,” he offered. “I kind of remember what he covered on the test last year.”

She tilted her head to the side. Surely, he couldn’t be serious. It wasn’t that she didn’t think he had the knowledge, because he clearly did. But why would he
want
to? Why would he actually be offering to spend time with her?

“Or not.” He turned to walk away but she stopped him.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I would love to study with you.”

She told her rattling heart to knock it off. It wasn’t as though he’d asked her out. Not even close.

*
*
*
*
*

“Clark Field was bombed shortly after Pearl Harbor. But no one really talks about that. It was our base in the Philippines. General MacArthur knew about the bombing at Pearl Harbor but he refused to be proactive. He sent out one B-17 on a reconnaissance mission. Our planes were grounded. When the Japanese attacked, the men were sitting ducks. So were their planes. When the Zeros came in—”

“Oh my gosh,” Sarah said as she started flipping through her notes. “I don’t remember
any
of this!”

“Right. Yeah, sorry about that,” Cole said with a shake of his head. “I got a little sidetracked. That’s not on the

She stopped to look at him, the relief evident on her face. “Then why do you know all of this?” she demanded.

He shrugged. “My grandpa was in the Army Air Corps. That’s what the Air Force used to be called, before it was its own entity. He was there. He told me a few stories when I was younger. He’s gone now but he had a lot to say. Those men, they were left to fight over there with virtually nothing. Very few, if any supplies were sent over. No one came to their rescue. The Japanese overtook the Philippines and our men had nowhere to go, virtually nothing to fight with.” He tapped her notebook. “The Bataan Death March will be on the test. That was just the
start
of the brutality the soldiers faced. Then came the prison camps and later the hell ships.”

“Hell ships?” she asked.

“Not on the test,” he confirmed.

“Did your grandpa tell you about those?” she curiously asked.

“Yeah. He’s been gone a few years but I still remember the stories. Some things are just too important to forget. You know?”

“I hope I can remember,” she muttered. “I hope I can remember all of this.”

“Am I filling your head with too much extra information?”

“No,” she said with a smile. “It’s kind of interesting.”

He grinned at her. “Yeah? And you told me history was
boring
.”

“Not when you tell it. You get all animated,” she said. “Is there anything that you don’t know?” she joked.

He knew he should’ve said,
Yeah, a whole hell of a lot
. Instead he shrugged because no one had ever looked at him the way Sarah was looking at him now. It was almost as if she was impressed. He liked the thought of that way too much.

Before the day he’d found her stranded in a ditch, he’d had only a vague idea of who Sarah was. She was a year younger and just another pretty face that blended into the crowd.