A Memory Between Us by Sarah Sundin Read Free Book Online

“Over on your stomach, please. Time to change your dressings.”
    Ruth’s silence during the exam intrigued Jack, but he wasn’t about to let her ignore him. Soon the scissors snipped, and she was done.
    Jack hitched himself up to sitting. “You won’t have a chance to miss me. You go to church services here, so I’ll see you on Sundays if I’m not flying.”
    “That’s true.” She stared at the clipboard, and her eyelids fluttered.
    “What do you do on Sunday afternoons?”
    Ruth’s gaze pinned him to the wall. “I do not date, Major.”
    He laughed. “Whoa. I’m not asking you out. I know better.” This woman called for an indirect, creative, strategic approach, and he’d found an accomplice in Lt. May Jensen.
    “Good,” Ruth said with a sigh. “I count on you to be more sensible than the others.”
    Not more sensible, just more subtle. “Sorry. My question came out wrong. I wanted to ask what you do for fun. You don’t date and you never talk about friends.”
    “Fun?” Ruth tilted her head and shrugged. “I read. I go for walks. I run errands in town every other Monday. I see a movie if I have money left over.”
    Yeah, he had her flustered again. “Alone,” he said.
    She set her jaw. “Yes, alone. I see no need to defend myself.”
    If he wasn’t careful, he’d crash on takeoff. He sighed, shifted his legs to the side, and motioned for her to sit down. “I don’t mean to attack you. Nothing wrong with doing things alone. Now, come on. Sit down.”
    “I have work to do.”
    Jack looked at her from under his brows. She’d finished her rounds and had time to spare. He patted the side of the bed. “Come, my child. Sit and talk to Pastor Novak.”
    A smile squirmed about her lips. “Going to counsel me?”
    Jack groaned. “If you saw my seminary grades, you wouldn’t ask.”
    She sat, but on the empty cot to his right. “So you’re an exceptional pilot but a mediocre pastor?”
    “Uh-uh.” He wagged a finger at her. “We’re talking about you.”
    “About why I’m so odd?” Her eyes sparkled. “Haven’t you figured it out? The men love me, the women hate me, and yes, I see the correlation.”
    He laughed. “Lieutenant Jensen doesn’t hate you.”
    “She’s odd herself.”
    “Sounds like a good friend for you, but you reject her.” Jack laced his fingers behind his neck and leaned back against the cold metal bed frame. “And you’re an attractive woman, but you don’t date.”
    “Never have.”
    “Never? You’ve never had a boyfriend?”
    She whisked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Well, I had boyfriends in junior high, but not—not since eighth grade.”
    Jack’s jaw dangled, but he couldn’t get himself to close it.
    Ruth sat up taller. “I’m devoted to my work and my family. Dating would interfere. Besides, if I married, I couldn’t take care of my family. So why bother dating?”
    Jack considered several answers—how falling in love enriched your life, how a caring husband would support her family, how he could show her how wonderful it was—but her question was rhetorical. There had to be more, some jerk who’d broken her heart, but until she trusted him, he had to take her story as it stood.
    “Your family’s blessed to have you. I’m sure your hard work will be rewarded someday.” Jack let his gaze linger until she looked away.
    Yes, Lt. Ruth Doherty was a challenge, but Jack loved a challenge.

7
    Sunday, July 4, 1943
    Ruth sat on her cot in dress blues for Sunday services, and her little black leather Bible fell open to the book of Ruth. Again.
    Since Major Novak suggested the book, she had read it daily. Something about the story touched her as nothing in the Bible ever had. This Ruth suffered loss, clung to family, and lived as an outsider, yet God provided Boaz to care for her, Boaz to keep the men in line.
    Major Novak kept the men in line.
    She shook the memory from her head and concentrated on verse 12 of chapter 2, where Boaz said to