Reckoning by Jo Leigh

making the sandwiches, it had been his hip. When she’d taken off her pants, his hand went to the small of her back. In bed, they were thigh to thigh, and when she rolled to get her drink, he touched her shoulder.
    All that, and she didn’t think he wanted to do anything but this. Watch the tube, then go to sleep.
    Was this normal? Not the TV or the sleep part. Did all new couples touch like this? She liked it, no question about that. After such a long time alone, it felt terrific. But that didn’t mean it was healthy.
    “Nate?”
    He turned his head toward her, but kept his gaze on the TV. “Yeah?”
    “What do you miss most?”
    That got his full attention. “About what?”
    “Your life?”
    His thumb moved from the mute button to the on-off button and the room became quiet. “Most? I’m not sure.”
    “What are the contenders?”
    “My work.”
    “You really like all that stuff, huh? The guns, the danger. But then, you’ve got that in this life, too.”
    “That’s not the part I miss. It’s hard to explain if you haven’t been in the service. I liked the challenge, the fact that I wouldn’t know from day to day what we were going to face. And the camaraderie. I don’t think there’s any situation around where men depend on each other so thoroughly, and when the pressure’s off, man, the partying…”
    She grinned. “I can only imagine. My colleagues at MIT sucked at partying. They’d all have to talk shop, and after two beers, they wanted to go home.”
    “Well, when this is over, me and the boys will show you how.”
    “You’re on. But what else?”
    “I miss feeling safe.”
    “That one I completely understand.”
    “I’m lucky Christie’s here, even though I wouldn’t have wanted this for her.”
    Tam felt the twist in her gut that had become too familiar. “I miss my parents. I miss them so much.”
    “Tell me about them,” he said.
    She closed her eyes, picturing her mother as if she’d seen her yesterday. “My mother’s family is from Canada. Toronto, actually. She met my father when she was on vacation in San Francisco. He was working his way through school as a tour guide. He grew up speaking Cantonese, so it was an easy job for him.”
    “So, she was on one of his tours?”
    Tam nodded. “By mistake. Even though she didn’t understand much of what he said, she stayed for the whole ride. Afterward, my father repeated the trip in English, just for her.”
    “And your father’s a physicist, right?”
    “Yes. He teaches. Writes. And my mother teaches, too. Education was a very big hairy deal in my family.”
    “Good thing you inherited the beauty and the brains.”
    She eyed him, letting him know she wasn’t buying the corny line. “My mother warned me about guys like you.”
    “Really? What did she say?”
    Tam sighed. “Mostly she told me that men like you didn’t go out with girls like me.”
    “What did she mean?”
    “Somehow my mother, who, by the way, has honey-blond hair, evolved into the ultimate Chinese wife. Overprotective, superstitious, and completely convinced that after I graduated with honors from MIT, I should find a nice man like my father and focus all my attention on giving her grandsons.”
    “She must have really loved your going to Kosovo.”
    Tam remembered the day she’d told her family. Her father had asked her if she was determined to go. When she said yes, he’d gotten very quiet. Probably because her mother was talking enough for both of them. “I wish I’d handled it better,” she said. “I didn’t know it was going to be the last time I’d see them.”
    “It’s not,” Nate said. He caressed her cheek with his fingers. “I wish there was a way for you to see them.”
    “I know there isn’t, but I hate it.”
    “Yeah, me too.”
    “Uh, try that again? You sound awfully insincere.”
    He smiled and dropped his head. “Yeah, well, I do miss them. We just never had that great of a relationship.”
    “Christie said