January 2008

ISBN-10: 037365426X
ISBN-13: 978-0373654260

Excerpt:

THE VOW

CHAPTER ONE

I love you, darling
I love you too. You’re my very life.
Life began the day I met you.
Nick Marsden made a noise in his throat.
The two besotted passengers he’d dropped off in Cranbrook, BC, had sounded like a pair of lovesick teenagers.
During the flight from Mackenzie, Montana, he’d caught snatches of conversation between the bride and groom headed for the Canadian Rockies. The newly married couple might be staying at a ski lodge, but it was a no-brainer that any honeymoon suite would do.
He grinned.
Forget words. It was the physical part of lovemaking you could depend on. With two bodies coming alive to each other, there could be no mistake what you were doing and feeling.
Nick needed the tangible, like the solid cushion of air beneath the plane’s wings–a law of physics he could always count on to cradle him above the earth. Once on terra firma another equally binding law of physics took over in the bedroom: one can’t touch without being touched.
Animate objects exerting force on each other.
That’s what he craved in the form of his wife, the only woman for him. Nick had made up his mind about her the moment he’d seen her long legs in one of those tiny skirts. Between that and her driving by his house after school, not much else registered on the first day of his senior year at Clark High back in 1973.
Once the teacher had assigned him a seat behind her, he’d fixated on the glistening hair that cascaded down the middle of her back like chocolate satin. It was so alive he could almost inhale it. Then she turned around to check him out.
Compared to her expensive everything, his cheap blue shirt told its own story. So did her piercing green eyes that he assumed were judging him.
Though her hello was friendly—he’d give her that–his ever ready defense mechanism shifted into overdrive. Whatever he muttered provoked the desired response. She turned back around and ignored him from then on. That was good. Better to leave well enough alone. At seventeen he’d recognized immediately Stefanie Larkin was out of his social class.
Another smile broke out on his face. The best thing about his wife was that she never knew it.
He couldn’t believe she never gave up on him. At first it was a game he played to freeze her out. Cease and Resist. But the more he ceased to respond to her— the more he resisted even the slightest overture on her part, like the way she watched him during lunch— he ended up getting caught in his own trap. Pretty soon she was all he could think about. She’d become his obsession.
But Nick had been a surly SOB back then. Her sweetness managed to bring out the worst in him because he didn’t trust it to be real. Not at first. Odd how such a long buried memory would surface on this frigid December afternoon. The fault of the honeymooners, no doubt.
He reached for his thermos, drinking the last of the hot coffee he’d replenished in Spokane, Washington, where he’d gone through customs. It had only taken twenty minutes with no hassle.
Tonight when he took her to bed…
Anticipating the pleasure they gave each other, he glanced out the cockpit window of his four seater, anxious to get home early The trip they’d returned from day before yesterday had spoiled him.
He already had plans to take her to someplace exotic next year. His old friend Todd from their Montana Air National Guard days had been in the Maldives recently and couldn’t stop talking about them.
“You wouldn’t believe how beautiful those islands are, Nick. Some of them aren’t even listed on a map because they’re uninhabited. You and Stefanie will have the place to yourself. All you have to do is rent a boat and find yourself your own paradise. I swear I’ll never go anywhere else. At first Joanne was kind of nervous over the idea of playing Robinson Crusoe, but her tune changed when we got there.”
Todd’s excitement had infected Nick.
After trimming the plane to hold altitude, he made a few corrections here and there, then contacted his assistant Dena over the radio to tell her he’d be landing in fifteen minutes. Flying VFR meant winging back to Mackenzie without a flight plan. When visibility was good, he liked the freedom.
“Did any more bids come through today to resurface the parking area in front of the office?”
“As a matter of fact we received two. The one from Perma-Seal came in lower than all the others, but Grant says you shouldn’t go with them. Apparently they did the parking lot over at Carter’s Shopping Center and you know what happened there last winter.”
“I remember it well.” Stefanie had been driving out of the lot around eight-thirty one night when the car hit a sink hole big enough that it popped both front tires. “Tell Grant to run his opinions by Dries.” That was Nick’s nickname for Andries, the man he loved like a father. “When I get back, we’ll talk it over and make a final decision. See you soon, Dena.”
He was nearing the northern Cabinet Mountains covered in snow from past storms. Might as well enjoy the view while he continued to entertain certain intimate thoughts of his wife on their private stretch of beach. Nick had made sure his bookworm bride of thirty years hadn’t wanted to read any of the novels she’d brought along on their trip.
On the first afternoon when the sun was its hottest, she’d gotten up from the sand to go inside and take a shower. He’d waited until she’d entered the villa, then he’d joined her beneath the spray and insisted on washing her hair.
Her shocked little cry quickly turned into low moans of desire on both their parts, taking them back thirty years to the first time they’d made love. Throughout the rest of their second honeymoon they’d communicated in the most elemental of ways, experiencing the joy of being together without deadlines or interruptions.
Whoever said life began at forty was crazy. Being fifty-two was a liberating experience. At the end of the day his cute little grandson Jack still preferred his parents.
So far no prostate problems. Better yet, his very fertile wife had sailed through menopause. No more times of the month they had to worry about her being late. It was her fault for being such a desirable woman. Nick didn’t know another man who’d had to worry as much.
No more agonizing over whether Nan was staying out too late with a boyfriend doing what Nick had wanted to do to Stefanie from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her. If Nan was the next pregnant person in the family, he would be thrilled. His little girl always wanted to be a mother. Being an elementary school teacher was right up her alley.
No more worry over David’s needless fretting about going into the banking business instead of becoming a pilot like his dad for fear he’d hurt Nick’s feelings. Secretly Nick was glad. He couldn’t have handled either of his children being pilots. The worry would have killed him.
No more concern over Dries who had pulled out of his depression since his retirement. These days he was using that razor sharp brain of his to write his memoirs of life in Holland prior to World War II.
After that he would pen his piece de resistance about his experiences as a fighter pilot. Stefanie was helping him decide on the best authentic photos to include. It had become a family project.
No money worries. He’d been having to turn away business for a long time.
Nick’s only worry was that he was feeling too damn good lately.
He’d become a new man and hoped the vacation had hastened his wife’s recovery from empty nest syndrome. With their son and now their baby girl married and making homes of their own, he was rediscovering his twenties without fear of getting her pregnant again.
Spare him the agony of their first child’s stillborn birth. Her sobs coming from the delivery room while their OB stepped in the hall to talk to him would always have the power to knock his lights out.
* * *
“Stillbirths are as random as raindrops, Mr. Marsden.”
“But my wife’s perfectly healthy!”
“She is, but these tragedies can occur for no apparent reason. Rarely is a stillbirth caused by something the mother did.”
The cords stood out in Nick’s neck. “That’s not a good enough explanation. Doctor.”
“I agree. Until autopsies are routinely offered to all stillbirth families, the causes, and thus, any new risk reduction measures, will continue to elude us. I’m sorry. Your wife needs you. Go on in.”
On legs of lead, he entered the delivery room still gowned.
“Nick—“
He bent over and put his arms around her, pressing his lips against her wet face. Tears ran down his cheeks into her hair.
“Our baby died,” she wailed in anguish. “I can’t bear it.”
Nick couldn’t either. So many hopes and dreams for their little Matthew whom they’d already named for the deceased father Nick never knew.
He held her tighter, attempting to draw all her pain into himself. No words could ease her suffering or his.
Be strong for her now, Marsden. Fall apart later when you’re alone.

* * *

A quick crescendo coming behind the instrument panel brought Nick back from that hellish time with a jerk. He blinked the moisture from his eyes, alert to a clattering sound in the engine.
Within five seconds he heard a loud explosion followed by something that blew through the cowling. It created a large wound in the metal. He’d lost a piston!
Dear Lord.
For a second he couldn’t think for the shock of what had just happened. Only the sound of the wings cutting the air accompanied his thoughts.
He took a moment to contemplate the gravity of the situation, then years of emergency training kicked in. His hands eased the yoke toward his stomach, slowing the aircraft for the best glide while he watched for a decrease in air speed.
Realizing the heavily forested terrain offered few options for a smooth landing, he began searching for a suitable crash site. When he saw a patch without trees, he committed himself and lined up for a downwind.
The ground seemed to be rising faster than he cared for. Barely having time to do one other thing, he dialed in 121.5 and called in his position.
“Mayday– mayday– mayday—“

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