The Men In Uniform Collection. Barbara McMahon

pulled herself back up. ‘Not for another ten years you’re not. Until then, the only orders you’ll be taking are from me, young man.’

      ‘Nuh-uh!’ Those small grey eyes burned with defiance.

      Romy had a sudden memory of challenging the Colonel, her pint-size body stiff, arguing about things she couldn’t possibly have understood. Her lips thinned. ‘What has gotten into you, Leighton Carvell? You never speak this rudely to anyone!’

      His eyes watered dangerously behind his glasses and his little round face boiled red with rage and then paled just as dramatically. He blinked back the tears. ‘Why doesn’t Clint come around any more?’

      That took her by surprise. She stared at him, her anger dissolving instantly. ‘It’s only been three days, L. He’s probably…busy.’

      ‘He was supposed to take me on a bushwalk. He promised. Now he won’t come because of you.’

      Oh, God, she’d let Clint get too close…Stupid, stupid! ‘Who says he won’t?’

      Leighton’s baleful stare grew cautious. ‘You went on a date and now he won’t come.’

      It sounded so ludicrous Romy wanted to laugh. But it was embarrassingly close to the truth. ‘No. We did not go on a date. We went to a work thing together. And I don’t know why he hasn’t been around since then. It’s a coincidence.’

      Great, now you’re lying to your own son.

      Then again, it took two to tango—the wide, circling part of tango in their case. She knew why she was keeping her distance. How could she be with him and not have her heart very obviously on her sleeve? But if Clint had wanted to see her…he was right next door.

      She sighed. ‘I’ll see if I can get in touch, ask him about the walk. Maybe he’s planning it already?’

      A battle twisted Leighton’s face. He wanted to be ecstatic, but he also tried to be cool about it, and he was still so mad. The result was a pinched half-grimace that helped Romy remember exactly how it felt to be a young child growing up conflicted. Confused. Disappointed.

      She’d never wanted him to feel that. She knelt in front of him and held her arms out. ‘Okay, L?’

      He didn’t rush into them, but he didn’t walk off either. He let himself lean forwards as her arms closed around him and then he rested his cheek on her shoulder and mumbled something that might have been ‘Thanks, Mum.’

      ‘Grab your school bag. I’ll drop you down to the bus.’ She patted his bottom and gave him a gentle push in the direction of the stairs. He needed space and some friends around him right now, much more than he needed his trembling wreck of a mother. He’d have a heap of confusing emotions to work through.

      And so did she.

      Part of her wanted to slap Clint for talking about the military in front of Leighton. The very last thing in this world she wanted was for her precious angel to start getting interested in the same kind of lifestyle that had made her life a living hell. Another part of her knew her son was his own person, not hers to dictate to. Hadn’t that been what she fought against her whole, short childhood? He wouldn’t be the first boy to develop a fixation for toy guns and soldiers.

      She frowned, realising that he had demonstrated this interest before. Back in third grade, when he’d asked about joining the junior orienteering team, she’d persuaded him to join the astronomy club instead. Simply because orienteering involved mapping and compass work and treks through the bush.

      Like an army cadet programme.

      She snatched her keys off the bench and limped through the screen door on her nearly healed ankle just as Leighton came bounding down the stairs. She glanced at his now-rosy cheeks and chewed her lip. How long had she been unconsciously guiding him away from any interest remotely like military activity? He’d done it, subjugated his preference for hers and joined astronomy. Because she wanted him to. What kind of a mother did that make her?

      The Colonel’s daughter?

      Romy kept her arm high, waving Leighton off, until the bus trundled right off into the distance. She’d make it up to him tonight, try and put their relationship back together as it used to be. She’d promised him a mother-son movie night with special treats and a kid’s action-adventure flick. He loved those.

      She frowned again.

      He loved those. Lord, how many clues was she missing?

      She ducked her head and walked the hundred metres from the bus stop to WildSprings’s admin centre, to her broom closet of an office. She had some invoices to sign off and a vehicle registration to run past her police contact at Central.

      She finished detailing the vehicle type and plate number and addressed the email. Then she turned her attention, reluctantly, to a pile of invoices sitting in her in-tray from Friday. Testament to how distracted she’d been that day about her big night out with Clint.

      Not with Clint…Even now her subconscious was pulling them together. After everything that had happened at the fundraiser and everything they’d said in the car afterwards. She had never shared the details of Leighton’s conception with anyone. Including her father. That was a private shame just for her. Even at seventeen she’d been responsible enough to accept her actions and live with them. Lying in the bed she’d made—literally. It was blind luck she’d ended up with a child and not something more life threatening for her poor judgement.

      It had taken the Colonel several months to catch on to her pregnancy. She’d hidden the early symptoms well during her final weeks of school and, having been lean all her life, she hadn’t shown until her fourth month. But once he’d realised…

      But his anger then hadn’t been a patch on his rage when her military hospital robe had exposed her tattoo. Her obscenity. He seemed more appalled by that than by the life growing inside her. In the end, it was the cost—and not the certain pain—which made the Colonel back down from the threat of having it burned right off her skin.

      Dr Pax won no favours from her father after he admired the quality of the tattoo artwork but he won a shy smile from a tear-streaked Romy. And she’d trusted him enough to return privately for the essential prenatal care she otherwise wouldn’t have sought out. She’d really liked Dr Pax.

      Romy’s head snapped up.

      She’d really liked Dr Pax. He was kind and gentle but disciplined, too. And he was a military doctor. Which meant he’d been through the system. Yet come out the other side a decent human being. Someone she’d genuinely respected. Someone who’s authority she had no difficulty accepting. The breath puffed out of her and Romy sat back in her chair and stared at the roof, poleaxed.

      Dr Pax…Clint. That made two-thirds of the military men she’d ever met compassionate, kind and gentle. Men she didn’t have trouble liking. A clear majority.

       Her father was the exception, not the rule!

      She thought back to the way Clint had shielded her body with his in the doorway, how he’d fussed around her injured ankle, how he’d kissed away her tears in his tree house. Yes, he was capable of great passion, too—she remembered the angry blaze of his eyes all too clearly—but essentially his military side and his human side existed in reasonable harmony. Despite the great trials he’d been through.

      And look how he was with Leighton. Firm, but fair. Patient. Gentle.

      He may well kill for those he loved, but he was at least capable of deeper emotion. For the first time, she wondered if perhaps her father would have been a difficult man to love even without his military background.

      ‘Looking for breaches of security in the ceiling panels, Romy?’

      Her body stiffened with sudden tension. It was too soon. She pushed herself to her feet. ‘Clint…’

      ‘How are you?’ His words weren’t