Page 38 of Deserving Cora
“When I aged out of the system, I began trying to find a guy who would give me what I wanted…and that was an even bigger epic fail. Again, I’m not sure why. I guess I’m too…me. Not into using clothes and makeup to appear as something I’m not. Not willing to lie to stroke a man’s ego. Too outspoken, too brash.
“So, what do I want? A family of my own. Kids I can love, who will never go even one day without knowing that they’re the most important thing in my life. I want to have a biological kid, if possible, which is becoming more and more of a crapshoot because of my age, but I also definitely want to adopt. Maybe find an older kid who’s been returned again and again, and give him or her a forever home.”
“I’m not judging…but is there a reason you haven’t adopted already?” Pipe asked.
Cora snorted. “I’ve had a hard enough time taking care of myself. I ended up on Lara’s couch too many times to count. If I had a kid with me? That would’ve been awful. Besides…do you know how hard it is to adopt in this country?”
“No.”
Cora turned to look at Pipe to see if he was messing with her, but when she saw the expression on his face, she realized he was completely serious.
“Incredibly hard,” she answered. “Adopting an infant would be completely out of the question for me. Too expensive, and as a single woman with a low income, I wouldn’t get chosen anyway. It’s a little easier to adopt an older kid, but even still, it takes a lot of money, and I’m still on the bottom of the list of people who the state would want to give a child to.” She sighed.
A minute or two went by before Pipe spoke again. “That’s it? If money was no object, that’s what you’d pick? A family? Not a mansion, a yacht, a million dollars in the bank?”
Cora shook her head. “That stuff doesn’t last. But if I could give a child a home? Let them know every day that they’re loved, safe, and free to be who they are, no matter what? That’s what I want.”
In response, Pipe reached out and took her free hand, the one that wasn’t holding peanuts for Chuck.
Surprisingly, Cora felt fairly calm. Talking about her lack of a family, her lack ofanyonein her life other than Lara, usually depressed her. Made her sink into a pit of despair that was hard to shake. But somehow, talking with Pipe, feeling as if he was truly listening, didn’t send her spiraling downward. The Refuge truly was a magical place.
“What about you?” Cora asked after a minute of silence. “What would you want if money was no object?”
When he didn’t answer right away, Cora wondered if she’d overstepped. They weren’t really friends…were they? And maybe he wasn’t comfortable answering his own question.
Just when she thought maybe sheshouldtake him up on his offer to stay in town, he spoke.
“My dad was in the British Armed Forces. He was deployed a lot…by his own choice. My mum was loving, but she didn’t deal well with my father being gone. She kind of fell apart, actually. I learned as a young lad that if I wanted to eat while my dad was away, that I’d need to make supper myself. I did our laundry, cleaned the house, took care of the garden, even went shopping. When Dad returned, Mum went back to normal, pretending she hadn’t been leaning on her ten-year-old son to keep the household running.
“She loved me, as did my dad, but I didn’t feel as if I could have friends round to the house, because I wasn’t sure what kind of mood Mum would be in. I joined the service as soon as I could and never looked back.”
“Do you talk to your parents?” Cora asked gently.
“Of course. On holidays and their birthdays,” Pipe said.
“How’d you meet Brick and the others?” Cora asked.
“You know the guy who’s finding out information on Michaels?”
“Yeah. Tex, right?”
“Right. He connected us. I’d gotten to know him after a mission went completely sideways. He was helping a team of Navy SEALs, and he took my unit under his wing until we were able to get out of the country. We kept in touch and when I decided to get out…he introduced me to Brick. The rest is history.”
“I want to ask something, but I don’t know if I’ll offend you or not,” Cora admitted.
“You want to know why I left,” Pipe said.
Cora squeezed his hand. “Yeah, but if you don’t want to talk about it I understand.”
“It’s not something I usually share, but for some reason, I feel comfortable talking to you about it.”
Cora’s heart flipped in her chest. She wasn’t usually the kind of woman who people confided in. Maybe because she never let anyone get close, or they didn’twantto get close. But she found that she really wanted to get to know Pipe better.
“My team and I were ambushed on what should’ve been a routine intel-gathering mission. There were six of us. We were picked off one by one. When I called for backup, I was told that because of the sensitive balance of the relationship between the locals and the Armed Forces, they couldn’t intervene. I watched my team members being slaughtered in front of my eyes. My own country threw them away like trash, because of politics.”
Cora inhaled deeply and turned so she was facing Pipe. He was staring into the distance, eyes unseeing. She held his hand even tighter.
“I was shot, and I must’ve passed out. When I came to, the locals were stripping me and my teammates of all our gear. I pretended to be dead, knowing if they discovered I was still alive it wouldn’t go well for me. They took all our gear and clothes, except for our underwear, and left us in the rubble of the rundown building where we’d taken refuge.
