Nuclear Options

"Sure. No problem," Dalton told her as he got ready to leave, knowing he'd never cash it.

She walked him to the door and after saying 'thank you' yet again, she stopped him by calling his name as he was walking away.

"Yes?" Dalton asked after turning around.

"Oh. Never mind," she said with a smile after not speaking for a couple of seconds.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Positive," she told him. "Just...thank you. For everything."

"You bet. And I'll see you Sunday around..."

"Noon?" Rachel suggested.

"Noon it is," he told her with another smile.

When he got back to 'The Hut' his manager asked him if he'd gotten f-ing lost. Ever upbeat, Dalton only smiled and told him 'no'.

"Well, it's about g-d time you got back here! I've got orders stacked up to the f-ing roof, and I can't get anyone to get off their ass around here and deliver them!"

Dalton chuckled as he grabbed three more deliveries then headed back out, hoping to make a few bucks beyond the meager hourly rate he got paid.

By midnight, he had just over $32 in his wallet, not a bad little haul for running pizzas around town. But he still had a couple of hours of reading to do and a 9am class the following morning, even though it was a Saturday. It was the only time of the week he could take the class, and he was happy to get it, as unlike many other students, college wasn't something to be endured and drug out as long as possible on daddy's dime. For him it was a means to an end, and he was willing to work seven days a week if necessary in order to get there in the shortest possible amount of time.

Getting up, no matter the time, wasn't an issue, and after grabbing four hours of sleep, an amount he'd gotten used to during his four, 90-day deployments on nuclear submarines, he'd be fine.

After class, Dalton hit the gym on campus then spent the rest of the day studying. He got up early on Sunday and went for a long swim, ate breakfast, then got ready to head back to Rachel's place.

As he got ready to go, Dalton couldn't get the image of Rachel's beautiful face out of his mind as he got dressed. Consequently, he threw on a very nice, button-down shirt with a pair of jeans, and put a small amount of product in his still-short, thick, dark hair. He didn't really think there was any chance of striking up some kind of relationship with her, but then again, he couldn't stop thinking about how nice she'd been on top of being very...attractive.

With that in mind, he couldn't see how looking his best could a bad thing no matter what happened. What he didn't know was that Rachel was having similar thoughts as she got dressed that morning herself.

"Mommy? Are we going to church today?" Mia asked when she saw her mother come out of the bedroom wearing a dress.

"No, Mommy just wants to look nice. Is that okay?" she told her daughter who accepted the explanation at face value.

But it wasn't just the dress. Rachel had also done her hair, nails, and makeup, and was wearing a strand of pearls with the light-blue shift dress she'd put on. Like Dalton, she knew there nothing would come of their noon meeting. In fact, he was probably going to show up in coveralls or maybe jeans and a tee-shirt, check out her breaker box then leave. But still...

"I'll get it!" Mia hollered out when the doorbell rang at exactly 12 o'clock.

"Hey, I know you!" the six-year old girl said when she saw Dalton. "You're the pizza man!"

"Well, yes I am," he told her as he bent down to say hello. "And you're Mia, right?"

"How do you know my name?" she asked just as her mom walked up.

"Because I told him," her mother said as she looked at Dalton who was standing up to say hello.

"Wow!" both of them said at the same time.

"Jinx! You have to say 'jinx'!" Mia informed them.

"Jinx?" Rachel said with a smile and a little shrug as she looked at their guest before telling him, "Please come in."

"Did you just come back from church?" Dalton asked, causing Rachel to laugh politely.

When she did, Mia said, "See!"

Having no clue what was going on, all he could do was shrug. His shrug was just for a different reason.

"No. We're not big church goers. I mean, we do go occasionally, just not today."

"Well, you look very nice," Dalton told her as he tried not to stare.

"You look quite handsome yourself," Rachel told him as she led him to the living room.

"Thank you, but considering what I came here to do, I probably...'chose poorly'," Dalton said in a British accent.

It took Rachel a second but when she realized he was imitating the old knight from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, she laughed.

"I love that movie! I enjoyed all of the Indiana Jones series, but that one's my favorite."

"Get outta here! That's in my top ten all-time favorites," Dalton told her.

"I like the one with the big rock!" Mia said, wanting to get in on the conversation.

"Oh, right. When they're trying to get out of the cave in Raiders of the Lost Ark," Dalton said.

"She and I watch a lot of movies together, and we both love that one, too," Rachel said as Mia hopped up on the couch next to her mom.

"Wow. You're my kind of..."

Dalton wasn't sure what word to use.

"Gals?" he offered with a little wince.

"I'm a girl!" Mia told him, her hands on her hips.

Dalton saw Rachel smiling as she shrugged again.

He managed not to laugh or even smile then said, "I know. And because you look just like you mom, you're also a very pretty girl," Dalton said immediately.

"What do you say, honey?" Rachel said to her daughter after again quickly looking away from their handsome visitor, flattered by his kind words.

"Thank you!"

"You're very welcome," Dalton replied.

"I'd say 'thank you', too, but I can't imagine that really applied to me," Rachel said. Then before Dalton could tell her it did, she added, "But it was still very nice of you to say."

Not sure what else to say, Dalton suggested he go take a look at her circuit breakers again.

"Oh. Yes. Definitely," Rachel replied as they both got up.

She was enjoying his visit so much she'd already forgotten the reason he'd stopped by.

"I may need one of your flashlights again, too, because I'll have to turn the power off in the basement."

"Oh, sure. I'll go grab one. Do you need me to hold it?" she asked.

He thanked her and told her he would.

"Let me just run out and get my toolbox, okay?"

"Sure. I'll go grab a flashlight and we can head back down into the dungeon!"

Mia didn't like the basement and didn't bother asking if she could come. She thought it was scary and never went down there.

Dalton was just coming back inside when Rachel got to the door and held it open for him. He thanked her then led her downstairs this time. There was enough light from a couple of small windows to see well enough to move around, so there was no need for the flashlight just yet.

He started out by turning off the power again then removed the cover plate. Rachel shined the light while he was checking the wiring, and before he'd been looking for three seconds, he saw what was wrong. And what he saw made him cringe and scared the dickens out of him.

"Do you have any idea who did the wiring?" he asked as he continued to look at each of the breakers.

"No. We've lived her since before Mia's father..."

"Okay," Dalton said before she had to mention the worst thing she'd ever dealt with again.

"Why? Is it bad?"

Not wanting to scare her, he said, "Uh, there are a couple of things I need to take care of. Nothing too serious, though."

"Oh. Can you fix them?" he heard her ask hopefully.

"Yes. They're easy fixes. But I can't imagine any electrician doing this bad a job. I mean, this is...criminal."

"Is...is it dangerous?" Rachel asked, now very concerned.

It was definitely dangerous, but Dalton saw no need in frightening her.

Rather than scare her, he only said, "It won't take long for me to get everything wired correctly. You'll be all set here in no time."

It took less than ten minutes, but the things that had been done wrong were unforgivable. Ground wires weren't attached, other wires were loose, and in one case, there was a fire waiting to happen because someone was either incompetent or ignorant. Or maybe both.

Once the wiring was done correctly, he put the panel back on and told Rachel everything was fine. And when he hit the breakers, they all worked just as they had before. Only this time, there wouldn't be any tragedy looming from someone's shoddy electrical work.

"Once again—thank you, Dalton. From the bottom of my heart, thank you."

"My pleasure," he told her as he turned around.

As before, she'd moved up close behind him to hold the flashlight. And, just like on Friday evening, when he turned around, she was just inches from his face.

"Sorry," she said. "Let me move out of your way. Again."

"We've gotta stop meeting like this," Dalton said as he smiled at her.

Rachel's heart fluttered as she looked away and said, "Right. People might talk."

He was close enough to smell her perfume, and between the short dress, her beautiful, long dark hair, and her very pretty face, his body experienced a similar reaction.

At the top of the stairs, Dalton said told her he'd be leaving. He hadn't gone two steps, when, just like before, she called his name.

Just as he had on Friday, he turned around and said, "Yes?"

"I was wondering. Well, if...if you haven't had lunch yet, Mia and I were going to have something to eat, and if you're not too busy, would you maybe like to..."

"I'd love to," he told her before she could finish.

"Oh. Okay," Rachel said, seemingly surprised by his acceptance.

"I'll just put these tools away and be right back."

"Okay," Rachel told him with a very warm smile.

She'd met quite a few men since her husband left, and several of them had been very attractive. But she'd never found herself this attracted to any man until now. Because of his age, it made no sense to her, but as they say, sometimes it just 'is what it is', and she found this younger man very attractive.

As Dalton opened the trunk of his car Rachel stood on the porch watching and found herself wishing for some kind of magic potion to make herself young again. At 36 she wasn't exactly ancient, but for her to have any hope of finding love, or anything close to it with someone this young and attractive, magic seemed like the only thing that might help.

"All right," he said once he was back on her doorstep. "What's for lunch?"

"Nothing fancy. Just soup and sandwiches."

"I like both," Dalton told her as they walked back inside.

"Is grilled cheese okay?" Rachel asked, knowing that was all she had.

"That's perfect," he told her, knowing he'd eat anything she set out for him. "You don't have tomato soup by any chance, do you?"

That had been his mother's, and later on his, favorite combination which she'd made for them many times. He no longer ate grilled cheese sandwiches, unless of course, a beautiful woman was making one for him.

"I believe we do," Rachel told him before asking him about what she thought was a rather unusual choice.

As she started making lunch, Dalton explained where his love of those two things came from, and that prompted Rachel to ask where he was from.

"I grew up in New York. Not the city but in upstate New York. How about you? You don't speak with a southern accent."

Rachel laughed then explained how she grew up in sunny southern California and after marrying Mia's father, ended up in Georgia.

"I was 27, and he was...dangerous. I thought I knew what I was doing, and in spite of warnings from my closest friends and my parents, I uh, I left home with a man I barely even knew."

Mia was sitting at the table, but not really paying attention to the grownups, but even so Rachel wasn't going to badmouth him in her daughter's presence.

"Let's just say that I had to learn the hard way that he wasn't the man I thought he was."

"Fair enough, and it's none of my business anyway," Dalton told her.

Their conversation turned to the Navy as Rachel remembered him saying that he'd served, and she asked about what he did and whether or not he liked it.

"I really enjoyed it. I'd have stayed in, but I found it difficult to meet women."

Rachel looked up from her kitchen toils and smiled.

"I find that hard to believe," she told him.

"Okay. The truth is, living around a military town with a Navy base made it hard to meet women who didn't already have a strong opinion about guys in the Navy, and a lot of them were less than flattering. Is that any better?" he asked.

Rachel laughed and told him she believed him.

"Believe or not, I don't know one single person who's served in the military, so I have a lot of notions that probably aren't true. And if I ever say anything that's negative, it isn't because I don't respect the military. I just don't really know anything about it."

Dalton chuckled but not at Rachel. He just found himself enjoying her company, and he was also having no trouble looking at her as he went on to explain what he'd done for the four years he served at King's Bay.

"Wow. I'm not a very science-oriented person, so anything that has 'nuclear' attached to it sounds very impressive to me."

She smiled at him again then added, "And dangerous."

Dalton smiled back then explained how nuclear reactors differed from nuclear weapons and why they were extremely safe.

"But what about things like...Chernobyl or that city in Japan?" she asked, not to be contrary, but because she was genuinely interested.

"Oh, my. Well, for starters, Chernobyl was completely avoidable. The overall design was bad, but even so, there would have never been an accident had the people in charge of the plant not ignored safety features. They did, and human error set off a chain of events that led to disaster. Fukushima was a very different situation caused by an earthquake, and then a series of ongoing equipment failures resulted in reactor meltdowns and the release of radiation. In spite of that, not one of the 573 disaster-related deaths was the result of exposure to radiation. So, in my humble opinion, nuclear power is very safe IF every safety precaution is followed and the reactor includes all possible safety features."

Dalton wasn't political, and he wasn't making a political statement. He knew that nuclear power, just like fracking and drilling for oil, caused those who were political and opposed to those things to go at their opponents with 'anvil and tong'. He wasn't advocating for anything, he was just sharing his opinion.

He was hoping and praying Rachel wouldn't start a conversation about anything as controversial as he didn't want to get into a heavy discussion. He just wanted to get to know this beautiful, older woman who'd completely captivated his attention.

"What would you like to drink with your tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich?" she asked, much to Dalton's relief.

"Water is fine," he told her.

"I have iced tea," she offered.

"Would that be...sweet tea?" Dalton asked with a little wince.

"Is any other kind allowed south of the Mason-Dixon line?" she asked with a laugh.

Sugar was something else Dalton avoided, but just like the white bread Rachel used for the sandwiches, he'd drink the sugary tea without complaint.

"Mia, honey. You ready for lunch?" her mother asked.

"Yes. I'm starving!" her daughter replied.

"She eats like a bird," Rachel said quietly to Dalton, but Mia still heard.

"I'm not a bird!" she insisted.

When Rachel laughed, Dalton did too, but he stifled it as quickly as he could.

"The only exception is pizza," Rachel said as she set plates down on the table.

"I LOVE pizza!" Mia announced.

"Other than that, getting this child to eat is a battle royal."

Rachel set a small bowl of chicken noodle soup down in front of her daughter then placed bowls of tomato soup in front of Dalton and where she would be sitting.

"I've never tried your combo, so I'm going to be brave and give it a go," she told her guest.

"If you don't care for it, you can blame me," Dalton said with a smile.

"I won't blame you. You've been much too nice for me to do that," she told him in a way that said something more than the words meant.

The way she said it as well as the way she looked at him made Dalton wonder if there might just be a chance that his gorgeous, older, single mom would go out with him on an actual date. For now he was content to have a meal with her and see how things went.

"Okay. Dig in!" Rachel said as she sat down.

She didn't take a bite until after watching how Dalton attacked his own combination meal.

"Oh, so dipping the sandwich in the soup is the way we do this, huh?" she said with a smile after watching him do just that.

He was chewing the gooey cheese sandwich, and once he had most of it off to one side, said, "It's the only way. Anything else is just...wrong."

"Like eating pizza with a fork?" Rachel teased.

"Oh. Don't get me started on that!" Dalton replied. "Pizza is finger food. And so are chicken wings."

"I like the drumsticks!" Mia said out of nowhere.

"Oh, right. I forgot about drumsticks. That's one other thing I can get her to eat," her mom replied.

She looked at Dalton then said, "Another is peanut butter and crackers. Plain, white, saltine crackers."

Rachel made a 'yuck' face, but Mia said, "Yum! I love peanut butter and crackers!"

"You'll probably think this is...blasphemy, but I really, really don't like peanut butter. Even the smell of it just...gags me!"

Dalton let go of his sandwich and let it drop to the plate as he opened his eyes wide in mock horror.

"No! You did not just say that!" he replied as seriously as he could.

"My mom HATES peanut butter!" Mia told him.

Dalton leaned toward Mia but kept looking at her mom when he said, "Isn't that against the law?"

"I don't know. I'm six years old!" she replied, causing her mother to laugh.

Still looking at her mom, Dalton said to Mia, "It's a good thing she's so pretty or they might have to come and take her away."

Rachel stopped laughing and looked down at her food after the compliment, but she looked back up and said, "Thank you. I think."

For the next half hour or so they talked about the places where they grew up, Dalton's parents and younger brother, as well as Rachel's family that still lived in Orange, California.

"Orange County?" Dalton asked.

"Yes. But there's also a city called Orange in Orange County, and that's where I grew up," Rachel explained.

"I've never been to the west coast," Dalton admitted. "In fact, I've been to New York, Georgia, and the states in between driving home and that's it."

"You haven't been down to Florida?" Rachel asked.

"Not yet. It's on list, though," Dalton said before adding, "but not my...bucket list."

Rachel laughed politely and told him he was much too young for such things.

"That goes for you, too, you know," Dalton told her before taking a last bite of grilled cheese sandwich he used to sop up any remaining tomato soup in his bowl.

"Sometimes it doesn't feel that way," she replied with a sigh before quickly saying 'sorry'. "I don't like to complain, and that was too close for comfort."

"I don't see you as a complainer," Dalton offered as he swallowed the last bite.

"It doesn't do any good, and it only brings you down, so why bother, right?" Rachel said.

Dalton was taking a sip of iced tea when she told him, "I can tell you're upbeat."

He started to reply when she smiled and said, "I like that."

He set the glass down, a glass that was nearly empty, then, while looking at it, said, "I'm definitely a glass half-full kind of guy.

Rachel laughed then surprised him again when she said, "That's pretty obvious, and I always look for that quality in any man I..."