Daddy In Dress Blues. Cathie Linz

smiled down at her. The little girl was such a sweetie. “You certainly are.”

      “What did you do to G.I. Joe?” Curt’s voice reflected his dismay.

      “I made him pretty.” Blue held the action figure up to show off the large flowered hat she’d put on it.

      “G.I. Joe doesn’t wear flowers,” Curt stated with emphatic outrage. “All the other G.I. Joes would laugh at him. Put his helmet back on.”

      Blue looked at her father uncertainly before her big brown eyes slowly filled with tears.

      “Jeeez.” Curt exhaled as if someone had just stomped on his foot, or maybe even his heart. “No crying. Big girls don’t cry.”

      “Sure they do,” Jessica inserted. “It’s okay to feel sad, honey.” She scooped the little girl in her arms. “I think that G.I. Joe looks great in that hat.”

      Blue sniffed and hid her face in Jessica’s neck. Which allowed Jessica to give Curt a look that would have scorched steel.

      “Okay, big girls cry,” he allowed. “Sometimes. But a marine’s daughter doesn’t cry.” He reached over to awkwardly pat Blue once on the back. “You’re a marine kid now and you can…” He’d been about to say chew nails, but then he reconsidered the wisdom of that, knowing how Blue tended to take everything he said literally. “And you’re even more powerful than G.I. Joe. You’re tougher than other kids.”