It Doesn't Matter. I Love Her.

Right from the beginning we know that Cross is in love with Martha, so it must play a big role in the rest of the book.. although knowing that Cohn was a boxer really meant nothing to the novel. I'm going to go ahead and say that love is a motif for Cross's life. He loved Martha, but he also loved his men and he was at constant battle trying to prioritize. Martha definitely had it in the bag. Even after he tried to "shut down the daydreams" (page 23), he still thought about her too much. He told himself he would be a better commander, but all the while he thought about how much he hated her, but still loved her. Or what he was going to do with the lucky pebble. "He [dispensed] of love; it was not now a factor" (page 25). Before Lavender's death he was trying to love his men more than Martha, but afterwards, he tried to hate Martha, which disabled him to love his men.
At this point, I think he is just as confused as I am. Because after chapter 2, we find out that he never gets Martha. So why is she playing such a big role?