His girls couldn't afford to lose another parent.
"Roger, Travis. I'm gonna need a phone patch to Charleston AFB Command Post." He recited his home phone number to the Charleston controller and waited for the connection to complete. A sampling of his chaotic home life would be broadcast over the airwaves for anyone from the Pacific across the whole United States on the same frequency to hear.
Charleston Command Post responded, "Reach one-two-two, party's on the line. Initiate phone patch."
Zach depressed the button. "Break. Break. Colonel Dawson here."
"Hello, Colonel," his daughters' sitter, Mrs. Middleton, answered. "The girls are fine.
Ivy's already planned a special meal for you. We're cooking some of the rigatoni that came in yesterday's mail."
Rigatoni. Italy. Pam. Great.
"There's a problem with weather, and I won't make it in tonight after all."
"Oh, Colonel, I'm sorry, but that just won't work. My daughter-in-law's being induced in the morning. I'm catching the red-eye flight out tonight. You'll have to find other arrangements."
Frustration kicked into overdrive. The finality of her tone left him with no doubts. She would pull out of that driveway even if it meant leaving his children alone.
"I'll come up with something, Mrs. Middleton. Just don't leave until I call you back." He switched buttons. "Command Post, Reach one-two-two terminating phone patch."
Bronco drummed his fingers on the control panel. "Kathleen's TDY to Shaw AFB and won't be driving home from Sumter until tomorrow afternoon or she'd help."
"I know." Zach clicked through his dwindling options, not a lengthy task. He shied away from asking other members of his squadron or their wives as it could sound too much like an order. A coercion of sorts. And he didn't want his daughters facing a stranger at the door.
Without question, the best answer for his kids would be to call Julia.
Except what about Julia's wishes for distance? Didn't she have an overloaded plate of her own?
She would be the first to say his children's safety took priority. He would have to ask her.
Even thinking of hearing her voice jolted through him with too much excitement. An excitement he couldn't afford.
He stunk at long-term relationships. Julia wasn't the fling sort. Even if he could somehow convince himself to try something more substantial, a doubtful prospect, they weren't suited. Her free-spirited personality would wither under his more somber outlook.
Together, they would be an emotional crash in the making.
Besides, he couldn't risk subjecting his kids to more turmoil.
"Command Post, initiate a second phone patch. This one to Julia Sinclair." Again, he recited the number from memory, eliciting a pair of raised eyebrows from Bronco.
"Yes, sir," Charleston Command Post answered. Crackle. Crackle. "Party's on the line.
Initiate phone patch."
He pressed the button and spoke to Julia with the whole world listening in. "Break.
Break. Colonel Dawson here."
"Zach, is something wrong?'
Zach. His name echoed over the headset with a husky sensuality that could stir a man into a damned lethal case of get-home-itis.
And apparently he wasn't the only one who noticed.
All background chitchat on the headset ceased. Bronco sat up straighter, even went so far as to press his ear piece to secure the seal. Bronco, the one dubbed King Cupid at last year's Valentine's Ball because of his infamous matchmaking. Between him and the other listening ears, gossip would saturate the base by sunrise.
Zach reminded himself his daughters needed Julia. And for the moment, so did he. "Julia, I need your help."