Base Pharmacy

"But we have several games just in case."

She hit send again then waited.

"Sounds perfect! What evening works for you?"

It was Wednesday, so she suggested Friday around 6pm.

"Wyatt goes to bed at nine, so that should give us time to do whatever you have planned and maybe even talk a little."

Charlotte added some smiley emojis then sent it.

"Then I'll be there Friday at 1800. But where is 'there'?"

Charlotte laughed when she realized she forgot to provide her address.

"Sorry. I think I may be a little flustered! We live at..."

Dan's final text made her heart flutter when he replied, "I hope I have something to do with your 'flustration'."

She almost wrote, "You do," but decided not to say anymore for now. She set her phone down, and before she could raise her hand back up, Wyatt asked when Dan was coming over.

"Friday evening."

"Awesome!" her son said. "What are we gonna do when he comes over?"

"I don't know. He said he was a surprise or something."

"Yes!" Wyatt said before going back to the couch.

This time he sat down right beside his mom then said, "Mom? You're the coolest mom ever!"

"Ahh! Thanks, buddy! And you are the coolest son ever!"

She almost teared up when Wyatt turned and hugged her in a way he hadn't done in quite some time.

"Mom? Can we have pizza when Dan comes over?" he asked after the hug was over.

"Oh. Well, I suppose so. I'll have to ask him if that's okay and what kind he likes, but if he agrees then sure."

She got another hug before her son buried himself in The Room which she watched him play for a couple of minutes. The graphics were stunningly clear, and while she wasn't much for internet games of any kind, this one looked interesting. But as soon as Wyatt got back up and went to his chair again, she forgot all about it and went back to enjoying the very pleasant emotional high she was still on.

Charlotte waited until she got home from work on Thursday to ask Dan about pizza.

"Are you kidding? I live on pizza! Anything is okay with me except for anchovies or pineapple."

Charlotte also hated anchovies but did occasionally like Hawaiian-style pizza. Rather than mention that, she let him know that Wyatt was crazy for pepperoni while she preferred black olives and mushrooms.

"Got it!" Dan wrote back. "I'll pick up a large with have pepperoni and the other half olives and mushrooms."

Charlotte felt sick to her stomach and immediately texted back, "You'll do no such thing! We're inviting you over, so we'll get the food."

She felt better, but when Dan's reply came, she got that 'warm, fuzzy' feeling again.

"I'm not letting a beautiful woman pay for my food. So I WILL be picking up the pizza, and you and Wyatt WILL enjoy it. Got it?"

He put several wink emojis behind it, and again, Charlotte was smiling from ear to ear.

"K," was all she wrote except for, "Thank you, Dan."

She put a blushing emoji with it then sent it.

"See you tomorrow," he wrote back, and Charlotte got another hit of endorphins or whatever it was her body was making.

When she got home from work on Friday at 4:30, Charlotte turned into a whirling dervish as she vacuumed, dusted, straightened, and got Wyatt to clean his room. She had just enough time to change into something nice, but not too nice, minutes before Dan arrived.

Wyatt let his mom know his room was clean just as his mom finished getting ready.

He saw her and said, "Mom. My room is all..." then stopped and smiled.

"Mom. You look really pretty!"

"Thank you, honey!" she told him. "Now let me take a look at the disaster known as Wyatt's bedroom."

It looked fine, so Charlotte thanked him then asked if he was ready for Dan to arrive.

"Oh, yeah!" he said just as the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" he hollered as he tore out for the door which he flung open.

Dan was holding two pizza boxes and said, "Hi there, Wyatt," when the door flew open.

"Pizza!" the boy said as his mom walked up.

"Don't you mean, 'Hello, Dan. It's nice to see you'?" his mom said as she smiled at their guest.

"Sorry. Hi, Dan," Wyatt told him.

"Hey, buddy. You wanna take these?"

Wyatt reached out, and Dan warned him they were heavy.

"No problem! I'm nine!"

He nearly ran into his mom when he turned around, but once he zipped around her she asked Dan to come in.

He thanked her then said, "You looked great at the base pharmacy, but...wow!"

"Oh. Thank you. You look very nice yourself," she told him, a happy smile back on her very pretty face. "And thank you for the pizza."

"Thank you for inviting me."

"I'm glad you came," she told him in a voice she hadn't used in a very long time.

Dan assumed he was in the minority when it came to men who preferred blondes. He'd always like darker hair better, but Charlotte's light-blonde hair looked amazing on her and made her blue eyes really stand out. She parted it on the side and wore it to just below her chin with just a hint of wispy bangs that weren't really bangs, per se, but whatever they were, the look worked for her in a big way.

She was wearing an ivory-colored sweater and a pair of taupe-colored pants. Dan noticed the additional makeup he hadn't seen at the pharmacy, and it was just enough to add to her considerable natural beauty.

"Mom? Can we eat now?" Dan heard Wyatt call out.

Charlotte looked at Dan who smiled and said, "That's fine with me."

"Okay!" his mom told him. "Can you put out some plates for us?"

She got an enthusiastic 'okay' in return, and within a minute there were three plates on the table along with a bunch of napkins. Charlotte felt silly for asking but asked anyway.

"You don't want a knife and fork, do you?"

Dan gave her a 'are you crazy?' kind of look, and that made Charlotte laugh.

"Just checking," she told him before asking him what he'd like to drink. "I apologize but we don't have any beer."

"No problem. I'm not a big beer drinker. Water's fine."

She offered him a choice of sodas, and Dan told anything was okay. Wyatt wanted Coke, so Dan had a glass with him while Charlotte went with tap water.

"Pepperoni!" Wyatt said when his mom opened the boxes.

"There's a whole pizza just for you, big guy," Dan told him. "Just don't try and eat it all tonight, okay?"

"I won't!" Wyatt said as his mom put a big slice on his plate as she smiled at Dan.

"One or two?" she asked their guest as she opened the other box.

"I'll be polite and say one. For now."

Charlotte laughed then put two on his plate.

"Can I have two?" Wyatt asked immediately.

"Yes, but you can have them one at a time," his mother said as she put the smallest slice on her plate.

"Now can we eat?" Wyatt asked, his mouth salivating as the thought of the first bite hit him.

She looked at Dan, smiled again, then said, "Yes. Go ahead."

Wyatt took a huge first bite, and had Dan not tried to avoid laughing, Charlotte would have been embarrassed and told her son to slow down.

"He's all boy," she told Dan instead.

"That's a good thing, right?" he replied as he took a fairly large bite himself.

Charlotte looked at him in a way that said she loved hearing him say that, but because she was chewing, she didn't answer. When she finished the bite she asked a question of her own.

"So where are you from, Dan?"

"Just outside of Seattle."

"I've always wanted to go there," Charlotte told him. "Not sure if I'd like all the rain, though."

"It rains more in Atlanta, Georgia, than it does in Seattle," Dan informed her before taking another healthy bite.

"Really?"

"Yep. But it's dark and gray a lot of the time as the Cascade Mountains hang up any clouds that form. But cross the mountains and you enter a whole new world of wheat fields, sugar beets, and hops. The West in green, and the East is brown."

"I guess I should know that, but...I don't."

Dan smiled then asked her a question.

"Mind if I ask what brought you back to Jacksonville?"

"No. My father owns a trucking company, and he always hoped I'd work for him and maybe take it over one day."

She laughed then said, "I know he really wanted a boy, but as you can see..."

Dan smiled in a flirty way then said, "Oh. Trust me. I definitely see."

This time, it was obvious that he was flirting with her, and it was also obvious that Charlotte enjoyed his doing so.

"Anyway..." she began as though his comment was either unnoticed or out of line, "he asked me again a few months ago, and even offered to pay to bring us back here. Wyatt wasn't thrilled about leaving his friends, but he dearly loves my mom and dad, so...here we are."

"Can I have another piece now?" Wyatt asked, oblivious to the adult's conversation.

"Okay. Sure," his mom said. "I don't know where you put it, but go ahead."

Wyatt was built like a beanpole, but he could pack away pizza without gaining an ounce.

"If only I could eat like that," she said to Dan who was also finishing his first slice.

He looked at then smiled.

"Yeah, you look like such a blimp."

The way he looked at her after he said made her tingle all over.

"I...I feel like one lately!" she replied, partly in a defensive tone and partly in a way that said she knew she wasn't fat or anything close to it. She wasn't skinny, either, and Dan was now well aware of how nice she looked from the neck down, and it was every bit as pleasant to look at was everything from the neck up.

"So are you working for your father?" Dan asked before starting on the second slice.

"Yes. Once we got settled in and found a place of our own, I started working again."

"You have a beautiful home," Dan told her sincerely.

"Oh, thank you. That's all due to..."

She looked at her son who was pulling a long string of cheese off his pizza and still not paying any attention.

"My...husband had SGLI, of course, and, well..."

"I understand," Dan said letting her know there was no need to explain any further.

"I've never cared about money, but once Jimmy...my husband...was gone, it...well, it would have been incredibly difficult without any. The only thing I've ever really wanted was a decent house, so this is my big splurge."

The truth was it was a very nice house, but it wasn't huge nor was it ostentatiously furnished. It was just a very nice home with thoughtful, tasteful decor throughout.

"It looks fantastic," Dan told her before asking if he could ask her another question.

"Of course."

"You mentioned 2012, and it's 2020. Has there, you know, has there been anyone...special...in your life?"

Dan looked at Wyatt then back at his mom before saying, "Other than this guy, of course."

She laughed then told him there had been one person.

"I met him four years after..."

Again, she didn't need to say more.

"I really liked him, and I even moved in with him."

"I sense a 'but' coming," Dan said as nicely as he could.

"Oh, definitely. He uh, he had a...a wandering eye."

"Ah. And something tells me it wasn't just his eye that wandered."

Charlotte couldn't help laughing then told Dan he was right.

"After that, I mostly kept my distance. I wasn't about to bring a bunch of men into our home after that, so I focused on raising Wyatt and just dated here and there."

"What?" Wyatt asked, hearing his name and thinking his mom was asking him a question.

"You want one more slice?" she asked as she tried not to laugh.

"Yes, please!"

"Okay, but that's it for tonight, okay?"

Wyatt agreed and then finished eating every piece of the crust from his second slice before attacking the third.

"How about you?" Charlotte asked as she took another small bite that got her to the halfway point of her first piece of pizza.

"No. I've never gotten serious with anyone. Well, there was a girl in high school I dated for a year, but when I went off to college, that ended, and there's never been anyone else."

"Did you go to school in Washington State?"

Dan thought about saying that 'Washington State' was the name of a university in Washington near the Idaho border, but he knew that everyone who wasn't from there called added 'State' to Washington.

"No. I uh, I went to the Naval Academy," he said, trying to downplay it.

"That's amazing, Dan! It's really hard to get into, right?"

Dan knew that the acceptance rate was 8.5%. That was almost twice as many as got into Harvard, but it was still a very low acceptance rate.

"I guess," he replied as though it was no big deal.

"So how come you're a Marine then?" she asked, having no idea how that worked.

"About one in four graduates are Marine option."

That, too, was a competitive process, and there were always more midshipmen applying for Marine commissions than slots available.

"I had no idea," Charlotte admitted. "My only experience with the military was with Jimmy, and we didn't talk about it all that much. Most of the time we talked about what we'd do after he got out."

"I'm really sorry," Dan told her again, knowing they'd never had the chance to find out what that might be.

"Wyatt never knew his father," Charlotte said very quietly. "He was six months old when Jimmy was sent to Afghanistan with a Marine unit."

Hoping to tactfully move away from that painful subject, Dan asked if Wyatt had always had asthma.

"No. He was just diagnosed with it about a year ago."

"Now it's my turn to be honest about not knowing much about something," Dan said with a friendly smile. "Don't some children...grow out of it?"

"Some do, yes. Wyatt's isn't severe, so there is a chance. I don't know the number or percent, but it is possible."

Wyatt was nearing the end of his third slice, and when his mom noticed she just shook her head.

"So what do you like to do, Wyatt?" Dan asked him once the boy realized he was being looked at. "Besides video games."

"Oh," he replied, his thunder having been stolen. "Um...pizza!"

"Wyatt! That's something you do, it's something you eat," his mother told him.

"He kinda...did...that pizza," Dan joked, causing Charlotte to laugh then agree.

As he shoved the last, large piece of crust in his mouth, Charlotte shook her head then told him to put his plate away then go wash up.

Wyatt said 'okay', but his mouth was so full it was inaudible, and his mom shook her head again.

"All boy, right?" Dan said with a laugh.

The beautiful, older woman sighed loudly as Wyatt grabbed his plate while still chewing, then said, "I don't know what I'd do without him."

"Speaking of doing..."

Charlotte looked right at Dan then smiled and said, "Yes?"

He waited until Wyatt headed to the bathroom before asking if it was okay to set up his Xbox.

"Oh, my goodness. Wyatt has asked me for one forever!"

"Oh. Maybe that's not such a good idea," Dan replied with a little cringe.

"No. In fact, that would be exactly what Wyatt would want to do, given a choice of...anything."

Dan chuckled then asked if she was sure.

"Yes. Absolutely."

"Okay, but on one condition," Dan said.

"Oh?" she replied with another amazing smile.

"You have to play, too. I only have two controllers, but we all have to play."

"I know I'll get killed by both of you, but I'll be happy to play," she told him with slightly less enthusiasm.

"Great. Let me go get the equipment, and I'll be right back."

By the time Dan came in with everything they'd need, Wyatt was back and waiting. When he saw the Xbox, he nearly flipped out, and within seconds was reaching for his inhaler.

"You wanna help me set it up?" Dan asked, as though that might not be the case.

Wyatt 'got it' as soon as Dan explained where something went.

"This is for video, huh?" the boy asked as he connected a wire.

"It is. And this is..."

"That's the power cord. And the controllers go..."

"He's a natural," Dan said to Charlotte who was watching them interact and enjoying every moment of it.

"He's very bright," she told him. "Math is his favorite subject."

"Mine, too," Dan said with a smile. "I majored in engineering, but I love math."

"Oh, my. I guess that leaves me the big, dumb dummy here, huh?" she mostly teased.

She was standing near Dan who looked at her then quietly said, "You are neither big nor dumb. In fact, you're just about..."

He smiled then said, "Perfect."

Charlotte felt an even stronger tingle as she smiled back then sweetly said, "Thank you."

"Mom! Did you see this game?" Wyatt asked after connecting the last wife and picking up his favorite game.

It was called Star Wars Battlefront, and when Dan saw it he said, "Oh, boy. I didn't mean to bring that one."

Wyatt was obviously disappointed, but as long as he got to play, he wasn't overly concerned.

"I brought a Hasbro game pack. Your mom mentioned board games, and I thought maybe we could play them only on Xbox."

"That sounds like fun!" Charlotte said as Wyatt asked 'what kind of games'.

But within a minute of starting the first one, he was so deeply engrossed in it that he forgot all about the Star Wars game he wanted to play. It had Monopoly, Boggle, Trivial Pursuit, and several other games.

They played each of them for a few minutes apiece before settling on Risk, a strategy game Dan had loved as a kid and that Wyatt was loving. Charlotte had played everything else, and once they began playing Risk, she suggested the 'men' go at toe to toe.

"Okay, but how about you sit in between us?" Dan said in a way and with the kind of smile that brought more than a tingle.

"I suppose I could do that," she replied, a kind of look of her own in her pretty blue eyes.

"Come on, Mom! Sit down with us!" Wyatt said without looking away from the TV screen.

"Yeah, Mom," Dan said, as he patted the seat next to him after moving the wires out of her way.

It was 8 o'clock, and the next hour flew by. Charlotte hated given her son a 15-minute warning, but until she told him it was time to get ready for bed, he never complained. Even then, he only said, "Ah, do I have to?"

"Sorry, buddy. It's 9 o'clock, and we've playing since just before seven."

"Okay," Wyatt told her as he set the controller down.

"You're really good," Dan told the 9-year old.

"Yeah, but you were beating me."

"True, but I've been playing Risk since I was your age."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. It was a board version, but yes, I've been playing a long time."

"Go brush your teeth then come tell Dan goodnight, okay?" his mom said.

"Okay! I'll be back!" Wyatt said, trying to sound like 'Ahnold' in Terminator.

"And I'll be Beethoven!" Dan replied, causing Wyatt to stop, give him a funny look, then shrug his shoulders before looking to his mom for help.

Charlotte was laughing and unaware that she was staring at the very handsome younger man still sitting next to her on the couch, so Wyatt said, "Whatever!" then turned to leave.

"You're so good with him," Charlotte told Dan as her son walked away.

"I had a blast tonight. This was really fun," Dan said as he kind of turned her way.

"Yes. This was...very nice," Charlotte agreed, suddenly aware that their shoulders were touching.

She looked down at them then said, "Sorry. I'll slide over."

Dan gently put his hand on her arm then said, "You don't have to."

Just the touch of his hand felt like electricity. Charlotte felt paralyzed and unable to move now even if she wanted to, and her body was telling her she didn't want to. But her brain wasn't quite as convinced and tried to convince her to move away.

"Oh," she replied, not sure what to do.

Dan had felt her twitch, but had no idea what was going on in her mind, and assumed that perhaps she wanted some space.

"If you want to," he added.

"I...I think I'm okay," she replied, barely above a whisper just as Wyatt came back.

"That was fast," his mom said. "Did you brush?"

"Uh-huh. I promise!" her son replied.