Base Pharmacy

Dan didn't see any sadness in Wyatt's eyes, but his words really hit him hard. He hoped Wyatt had misheard his mom or misunderstood what she'd said. Regardless, it bothered him, so he put his right crutch under his left arm with its mate then pulled Wyatt in close.

"I can promise you there are a lot of men who'd love to have a son like you, buddy."

"You mean it?" Wyatt asked as he looked up at the much taller, older man.

"Heck yeah I mean it!" Dan said as he gave Wyatt a little shake.

Wyatt put his left arm around Dan's back, and maybe it was the pain medication, but he felt like he was getting a hitch in his giddy up and had to look away when he noticed Charlotte pulling up.

"Speaking of your mom..."

"Hold on! I'll get the door for you!" Wyatt said as he waited for the car to stop.

Wyatt opened the front door, but Dan said, "Don't you want to ride upfront?"

"Uh-uh. I want you to ride with my mom," the boy told him.

Before Dan could object, Wyatt said, "Here. Gimme your crutches, okay?"

When Dan got in, Charlotte was smiling. While Wyatt struggled to get the crutches inside, she quietly said, "I think someone is trying to do some matchmaking."

Dan gave her a quizzical look then said, "Really?"

"Sorry. I know it's crazy, but I also know my son. His heart's in the right place, he just has to give his brain time to catch up with reality."

Dan chuckled just as Wyatt got in.

"What's so funny?" he asked as he pulled his seatbelt around his slight frame.

"Oh, nothing, honey. We were just talking."

"Okay!" her son replied before asking Dan if he could borrow his phone again.

"Oh, right. Yeah. Here you go."

Dan turned around and handed it to Wyatt then said, "Remember what I told you."

The boy's face lit up again while his mother glanced over and asked, "Should I ask what that might be?"

Wyatt heard that, too, and before Dan could chime in said, "No. We were just talking, Mom."

She laughed at his use of her words then said, "Oh. I see," before smiling at Dan again then putting the car in drive.

"Once we get back on the main road, we'll head north for a mile or so then..."

"Dan?" Charlotte said, interrupting him.

"Yes?"

"I don't do directions."

He laughed then apologized.

"Sorry. Were I to tell my Marines, go left for 200 meters then turn right, they'd roll their eyeballs at me."

He looked over at Charlotte then said, "But you most definitely don't look like any Marine I've ever known."

She smiled then continued going straight which she correctly assumed was north until Dan told her to turn.

When they pulled into 2nd ANGLICO, Wyatt saw the logo with the huge gold jump wings and sat up straight then said, "Cool!"

When the car stopped, he excitedly asked, "Can I go in, too?"

Before his mom could say 'no', Dan looked at her and said, "It's okay with me if you don't mind."

He saw her wheels turning then said, "I won't be long, and Wyatt might keep from getting a whole lot of grief about being on crutches."

She saw the look on his handsome face and sighed.

"Okay. But stay with...can he call you Dan?"

"Of course."

"Stay with Dan!"

Wyatt hopped out, grabbed one crutch at a time, handed them to Dan, then closed both doors.

As they walked up to the front entrance, a Marine came out, saluted, and said, "Good morning, sir!" to Dan who kind of stopped and used his right arm the best he could to return it.

"Does everybody call you 'sir'?" Wyatt asked, his eyes wide with excitement.

"No. Not everybody."

Just as they walked in, a captain from the S-3 (the operations office) saw Dan on crutches and smiled.

"Morning, sir," Dan said to the senior officer.

"I heard about this, Lieutenant Knight. You sure you're in the right unit?" the captain asked with a smile as he winked at Wyatt.

Dan didn't get a chance to reply as the captain was in a hurry, but Wyatt was drinking up everything he saw and heard like a dry sponge.

When they got to the company office, the only person there was the company clerk.

"Good morning, sir," the young corporal said.

"Is the CO around?"

"He's in an AOM, sir."

An AOM was an 'all officers meeting' were Dan would be were he not a cripple.

"Can you make sure he gets this for me?" Dan asked as he held out the no-duty chit.

The corporal glanced at it then winced.

"Ouch. Sir," he said with a smile.

"Yeah, tell me about it. And I know you don't mean my broken ankle."

The corporal laughed and said he'd personally hand it to the CO when he came back.

On their way out, the ANGLICO sergeant major was walking down the hall and saw the crutches and started laughing.

"Lieutenant? Did you get yourself a booboo?" the 24-year veteran asked.

"Don't give me shit, sergeant major," the lieutenant replied with a laugh of his own.

"Well, the CO's in a meeting, so someone who can get away with it has to give you a ration," the older man replied with a smile.

While Dan outranked the sergeant major, it was understood that he was the one enlisted Marine in any unit who could get away with that sort of thing. But in virtually all cases, it was good natured as sergeants major understood how things worked, too, and never pressed the issue too far.

"Good point," Dan told him as the sergeant major wished him a speedy recovery.

As they got outside, Wyatt said, "Did you see all the stripes on that man's uniform?"

"I did. Pretty impressive, huh?"

"That was the coolest thing ever!" Wyatt told him as they did the crutches thing in reverse order.

Charlotte asked, "All set?" once he got in, and the only thing he was able to say before Wyatt took over the conversation was 'yes'.

For the next five minutes, Wyatt was wound up. He began by telling his mom about the 'major sergeant' they saw and kept rattling off whatever came to mind without a break.

Dan pointed left or right before a turn, but other than that, it was all Wyatt all of the time.

"I believe that made quite an impression on my son," Charlotte said once Wyatt finally wound down, and Dan wholeheartedly agreed with her.

His asthma flared up from all of the excitement, and the need for his inhaler was the reason, but he did give it a rest after taking a quit hit from it.

"Thank you for being so kind to my son," Charlotte quietly said a minute or so later once Wyatt was buried in the game again.

"No. He's awesome. I had a great time hanging out with him."

"Well, I think he's pretty wonderful, too. It's just nice to hear an objective third party tell me that," she replied with a smile.

"It's true. He's a very nice young man, and I'd be proud to hang out with him anytime."

Once again, Wyatt's selective hearing kicked in, and his head came up before he spoke.

"Mom? Could Dan come over sometime?"

"Honey, Dan is very busy, and besides..."

She was glancing at Wyatt in the mirror but looked over at Dan and saw his eyebrows raised up indicating he may not agree with her.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.

"I just dropped off a no-duty chit. That means I am most definitely not busy and won't be for..."

"So can he?" Wyatt asked again.

Charlotte asked as quietly as she could, "You wouldn't want to..."

"I'd love to," Dan replied before she could ask.

"Cool!" Wyatt said before his mom could formally agree.

"Well, I guess we could have him join us for lunch or dinner sometime."

"How about both?" Wyatt asked, causing Dan to laugh and his mom to give him the look.

"Okay. Fine. Just one," Wyatt agreed, the smile still on his face.

"Maybe your mom doesn't want to put up with the likes of me that much," Dan said to Wyatt as he smiled at his mom.

"I can think of worse things," Charlotte told him as she tried not to smile.

"Speaking of good impressions, with high praise like that, it's pretty obvious I've impressed you at least as much as I've impressed Wyatt!" Dan teased.

Charlotte's response to his kidding was twofold. On the outside she played it cool and replied with something equally witty. But for some reason, there was another response that was internal, and that response surprised her when she realized how happy she was that this handsome, younger man she'd just met was going to be spending more time with her. She told herself it was actually with Wyatt, but were she to be honest, the feeling stemmed from having another opportunity to see him again.

"I'm just up here on the left," he told her.

"Thank you for not saying 'east'," Charlotte replied with a little laugh.

"I wouldn't have said that because we'll be turning 'south'," Dan informed her with a kind of smug look on his face that was clearly not real.

"Ha! Okay. I see how this is going to be," she told him as she stuck her nose up in the same way.

"So you're saying there's going to be a...this, eh? Nice," Dan told her with a smile that made her tummy do a flip flop.

"Ha! You wish," she replied, even as the aftermath of the flip flop hit her before a second came along.

Wyatt hopped out again and did the crutches routine one more time then asked if he could go open the front door for Dan.

Charlotte bent down to see Dan's face as she looked out of the passenger window.

"Sure. That'd be great," he said before she could give her approval.

On the way in, Wyatt saw Dan's car which he'd left at home when a friend came to pick him up very early that morning which was just after midnight.

"Cool car!" Wyatt said then forgot about it when he opened the door after Dan unlocked it.

Dan let Wyatt take a quick look around, and although there wasn't much to see, the young man was checking out everything in the older man's apartment with the same level of interested he had at ANGLICO.

"Oh. Where's my phone, buddy?" Dan asked just before the nickel tour ended.

"Um...in the car! Hold on!" he said before tearing out the front door and running to the car.

By the time he got back with the phone, Wyatt needed another hit from his inhaler.

"Feel better?" Dan asked once Wyatt took a long, slow breath.

"I'm okay," Wyatt assured him, a smile back on his face.

"Can I get a high five?" Dan asked.

They smacked hands then Dan said, "Oh. I forgot to ask your mom. Do you know her phone number?"

Wyatt rattled it off so fast Dan had to have him repeat it. But once it was entered he thanked his new friend who told him he was welcome.

"I'll see you soon, okay, Wyatt?" Dan told him.

"See you soon, Dan!" Wyatt replied before going back outside.

Dan quickly tapped out a text to the new number and hit 'send'. He watched from the front window as Charlotte picked up her phone, and when she covered her mouth and hid the smile that appeared, something 'down south' stirred.

She looked at him through the front door, smiled, then texted him back.

"I enjoyed meeting you, too, Dan. I'll text you when we get home to see what day works for both of us, okay?"

He flashed her a 'thumbs up' then waved as she backed out. Charlotte didn't wave, but Wyatt did all the way until he could no longer see the young Marine.

Alone with nothing but time on his hands, Dan looked around then just smiled.

"Not a bad trade. A broken ankle for a date with a beautiful woman," he said to himself with a laugh before going to the bedroom to change out of his uniform.

For Charlotte, she didn't have time to think about what had just happened. Wyatt was on a new kick, and this time it was Dan Knight. For the entire ride home he was an animated as she'd ever seen. Everything was 'Dan this' or 'Dan that' or 'Dan said'.

It was certainly understandable. Wyatt was new to the area, didn't have a father at home, and hadn't made any friends at school yet. So when a friendly, older male showed him some kindness, it was natural that he would glom onto the man. Charlotte said, "Yeah" or "Uh-huh" a dozen times on the way home and didn't have to say anything about how she felt where Dan Knight was concerned. That was actually a good thing, because at that moment in time she had no real idea how she actually felt let alone what it might be.

But once Wyatt's enthusiasm reduced itself to a dull roar, she couldn't help but think about what had happened at the base pharmacy. The simple version was she'd been helped by someone who then coincidentally sat next to her and let her son play a video game on his phone.

And yet it wasn't quite that simple. This person had made a huge impression on her son, and she'd basically promised to have him over, and once she began thinking about that, she wondered how she'd let it get to that point.

It wasn't that she'd done anything wrong. She wasn't married or engaged, or even seeing anyone for that matter. And she'd only agreed to see him socially and with Wyatt, so it wasn't like she was cheating or being unfaithful to anyone or even agreed to a date of some kind. Then again, he was very good looking, and there was a part of her that enjoyed being made to feel like she was still attractive and desirable, even at 39.

So what was it that was bothering her so much? The only thing she could think of was the most obvious issue, and that would be Dan's age. While she still didn't understand military ranks, she was pretty sure that lieutenants were at the bottom of the ladder, and that meant they were also young. Then again, that was obvious just by looking at him. But looking at him had made her...tingle. So perhaps that was the real issue.

Playing devil's advocate with herself, she asked herself a question that made her very uncomfortable.

"Is it possible you don't just think he's good looking but that you're attracted to him?"

Charlotte understood that she could find a man attractive without actually being attracted to them. But in Dan's case she was being forced to confront the very real possibility that she was indeed attracted to him. Then again, how could she be if he wasn't even 30 years old? In fact, it was very likely he wasn't even 25, although she couldn't be sure. He had a very heavy, dark beard that, in spite of being very closely shaved, made him look older.

As if that wasn't enough to think about, she now had to figure out what to do when she invited him to come over. Dinner was the obvious choice, but wasn't this mostly for Wyatt? If so, perhaps playing some kind of game would make more sense. She'd inherited several board games from her grandmother, and all of them were in very good condition.

Among them were Scrabble, Monopoly, and Sorry, and maybe this would be a good time to introduce her son to old-school games and get him away from the phone for an hour or two one evening.

Charlotte laughed when she realized she hadn't played one herself in at least 25 years, and that made her wonder if Dan ever had. She sighed so loudly that it caught Wyatt's attention who asked her if she was okay.

"Oh, sure. I'm fine, honey. I was just thinking. That's all."

Satisfied, Wyatt said, "Okay," and went back to his phone.

"Mom? he asked a few minutes later. "Can I download the Room?"

"The what?" she asked.

"The game Dan has on his phone. Well, he has the Room 3, but I want to start with the first one."

"Oh. Um...I guess."

"It costs $4.95," her son informed her.

Wyatt rarely asked for things, and five bucks wasn't going to break her, so she agreed.

"Can you bring me my wallet in my purse?"

Wyatt hopped up and grabbed it, and once he was at the screen to buy the game, his mom entered her credit card number.

He not only thanked her, he gave her a very nice hug then said, "Now I can be just like Dan!"

Charlotte sighed again, but this time, Wyatt was too involved with the new game downloading on his phone to notice. She finally laughed then asked herself what she was going to do and when.

But after racking her brain for hours, she still had no idea what to do, so around 7pm that evening, she texted Dan.

"Sorry to bother you. I've been sitting here trying to think of something we can all do together, and I'm drawing a blank. I feel bad for being so...uncreative? The best I've come up with is playing an old-school board game, but I don't want you to be, um, bored. I'm not a bad cook, but just eating dinner seems rather...blah. Any ideas?"

Dan was dozing off due to the Percocet he was taking, but he heard his phone 'ding' and grabbed it. When he saw who was texting him he was suddenly wide awake.

"Hi, Charlotte. You're not bothering me at all. In fact, I've been thinking about you all day."

He almost took out the second sentence, but in spite of the foggy-brained feeling, he wanted her to know that he liked her. He had no idea whether the feelings were mutual, but she was the first woman to really catch his attention since he'd been on active duty. He couldn't explain why, but her being older and having a son Wyatt's age didn't bother him at all. In fact, the appeal of a ready-made family seemed almost perfect to him even though he'd never even consider marriage or even getting serious.

"I enjoy board games, and some of my fondest memories are playing Parcheesi with my mom and grandmother. But I have another idea I'm 100% sure Wyatt will love, and I'm hoping you will, too. If not, I'm up for a round of Battleship or whatever you've got at the house."

He thought for a few seconds then finished with, "I really did enjoy meeting you both today, and thank you again for chauffeuring me around. I almost drove myself this morning, but as it turns out, I'm very glad I didn't. So just let me know when and I'll be there. Oh, maybe let me know where you live, too. I'd hate to have to run around and knock on hundreds of doors trying to find you."

Charlotte was unaware she was smiling or that her heart was beating faster when she read Dan's text, but both were true. She thought he might possibly be flirting with her earlier, but after being away from him for several hours, she decided he was just being nice. But here he was making her feel like he really was flirting, and the truth was she was enjoying the feeling.

"I enjoyed meeting you, too, Dan. And thank you for helping me with the card reader. I'm not completely technically illiterate, but that did kind of beat me up."

Wyatt looked over at his mom just as she was replying and saw the big smile on her face.

"Why are you smiling, Mom?" he asked as he got up and walked over to her.

When she pulled the phone away so he couldn't see it, he knew something was going on.

"Are you texting Dan?" he asked as he reached for the phone.

"Hey! Keep your mitts off!" his mom said as she put the phone between her back and the back of the sofa.

"I wanna see!" Wyatt said. "Is he coming over?"

"Yes. He's coming over. But no, you may not see!" she told her son.

"Tonight? Is he coming over tonight?"

"No. Not tonight. We're trying to decide that, but some boy is making it hard for his mother to do that."

"Sorry," Wyatt told her, a little grin on his face.

"Go back to your game, and I'll let you know what we decide, okay?"

"Okay, Mom!" he said as he kind of hopped and skipped back to his chair.

Charlotte retrieved the phone, and to her horror realized she'd sent the text without finishing it. She saw little bubbles telling her Dan was replying, and even though it was no big deal, she felt a little foolish.

She quickly tapped out what happened and hit 'send' before receiving his reply. When his came, what he wrote made her feel warm and fuzzy all over. The feeling started between her legs and spread out from there, and the fact that it was happening at all surprised in the most pleasant kind of way.

"Then I'm glad the card reader gave you trouble, too. Had it not, I might not have found a way to talk to you, and that would have been downright awful."

She smiled again as she told him she agreed then let him know she'd trust him as far as whatever he had planned.