Breathless Awakening (The Breathless Series) (25 page)

“Please, let me get you something. I’m waiting for my brother to come home from his honeymoon. Five years ago, I wasn’t here when he came home from deployment, and he still hasn’t let me live down that fact. He walked off the plane with no one here waiting for him. Let me make it up to him by having a cup of coffee with you.”

“Sure, why not. I don’t have anywhere else to be.” I could hear the hopelessness in his voice. I had to try to find a way to brighten his day some.

We sat in silence for the first ten minutes or so. I didn’t want to pry into his life, what hardships he may have gone through while overseas, and I definitely didn’t want to bring up any pain by asking where his family was today. I just wanted to make sure he knew that I appreciated his sacrifices. Ember was printed on his chest, but there was no fire left in his soul.

“Thank you.”

When he spoke earlier, there was no feeling in this man’s voice. He was monotonous and seemed void of anything positive. Those two words were full of so much more. “There’s nothing to thank me for. All I did was buy a cup of coffee and sit here.”

“I’ll let you think that if you want, but it was much more than that to me. I have no one here today because my wife died in childbirth one month ago today. My mother’s dementia has become so bad that she doesn’t remember who I am, let alone that I was coming home today.

“Everyone called me a hero over there because I ran into danger to save others. In reality, I didn’t care if I died. I wanted to see my wife again so badly, but I was too much of a coward to pull the trigger myself.

“Stepping off that plane and seeing everyone else getting hugs from their loved ones. All I heard about on the plane were the newborns that the guys would finally get to be with and see for the first time. My son should have been here for me to hold. I should have been the one running down that ramp to my wife, squeezing her as tight as I could, and taking my baby boy into my arms for the first time.

“I’ll never get to hold him, teach him to walk, play catch, or watch him discover that girls don’t all have cooties. I’ll never get to hug my wife, whisper sweet nothings in her ear, or make love to her again. The fear that I would never come back was real, but we never thought I would come home with her being gone.” Multiple tears ran down his cheeks at that point. I felt them in my eyes as well, trying to blink them away, but feeling them start to run down my cheeks as well.

I walked around the table we were standing at before reaching out to pull him into a hug. We held each other for a minute before he pulled away. “You’ll never know how much you did for me today. I couldn’t put myself out of my misery, but I couldn’t ask for help either. You showed me that life may be full of suffering, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make a difference. Thank you for being the person to make that difference today.”

No words could do anything to comfort this young man. The best way to end the moments we shared was probably the same way that we had started them. Silence. The coffee shop we were at was just past the security checkpoint and on the way to the baggage claim. I looked up to see Luke and Cailyn walking towards me.

Luke had a confused look on his face, but Cailyn was beyond worried. “Zane, why are you here? Is everything okay with my parents?”

I pulled her in for a hug. “It’s good to see you too, sis. Your parents are fine, I just thought since I was still in town I would come pick you all up.”

Luke looked from me to the serviceman, then back at me. “Sparky, is that you? What the hell are you doing here with my little brother? And why the hell are you still in town bro?”

Sparky, as my brother called him, had that ember growing in his eyes. He turned to give Luke a hug, slapping each other on the back. “This is your pain in the ass brother that you wouldn’t stop comparing me to? All that time I was insulted, but I think I finally see the compliment in it.

“Congrats on the marriage. I knew you would settle down one of these days. I can’t believe you were able to find someone willing to put up with you though.”

“Very funny. Why are you still in? I thought you were going to get out after your first tour to settle down yourself.”

That fire in his eyes was extinguished as quickly as it appeared. “I went for a second tour. I wanted to help more. You know what it’s like over there, and we were starting to make a difference. I should have been here though.” He looked at me with his hand out. “Thanks for that cup of coffee and for helping to get my head on straight.”

“Ma’am, do your best to keep him out of trouble. I know it’s easier said than done though. Congratulations.”

With that, “Sparky” Ember grabbed his duffel and walked off. Hoping that he would get the help he needed, I couldn’t imagine going through half of what he had. Turning to Luke and wiping the single tear out of my eye, I hoped that he wouldn’t notice.

“So happy to see me that you’re crying now? I’m touched. Now tell me why you are still in town. Please tell me that you didn’t do anything to my place.”

“What, I can’t stick around to help my big brother out? You wouldn’t have wanted your mail piling up and telling everyone you were out of town would you? I may have moved a few things around, but I was trying to get it ready for Cailyn. And there may have been some cleaning.”

“Good try. I stopped the mail while we were gone.”

“Oh, I was wondering how you didn’t get harassed with all that junk mail I always get.”

Cailyn finally cut in. “Look, I’m happy to see you and all, but I want to see my daddy. I’ve been worried sick about him for days. Can we just get home, drop our stuff off, and then go see my parents?”

“Sure thing, sis. Let’s go get your bags.”

Waiting for the luggage was an experience. Cailyn watched Luke and I giving each other grief over anything and everything. Being an only child, she never had that connection with a sibling like Luke and me. We continued to dish it out to one another, but we smiled the whole time. This was our way of letting each other knew that we cared and missed one another.

Luke asked how I came to be having a cup of coffee with his friend Sparky in the airport. I told them the story of what had happened and Cailyn had tears welling in her eyes. She looked like she wanted to go find him and give him a hug. As I told them the story, I couldn’t help but think how difficult it would be going through all that, but having to do it while on the other side of the world. Why wouldn’t they have brought him home sooner? He should have been here for her funeral at least.

Luke and I loaded up the car, which allowed Cailyn to grab the front seat before Luke could take it. She got a dirty look from him for it, but she stuck her tongue out at him and blew a raspberry. As I drove off, I asked how the trip was. Luke gave me the short answer of, “Beautiful, fun, exotic, and I want to go back.

Cailyn saw the glare that I shot at him through the rear view mirror and laughed. She was more than happy to tell me about everything from the monkeys to the delicious food, and she couldn’t leave out the bungalow. She started telling me about the spa day, but stopped when Luke started kneeing the back of her seat. I’d have to talk to her later to see what he didn’t want me to know. I thought it was hilarious hearing about how Cailyn had Luke pampered by all of the beauties giving him a manicure and pedicure.

Cailyn looked around and noticed that we were on the opposite side of town from Luke’s apartment or her parent’s house. “Zane, maybe I should have driven. Where are you taking us?”

“Oh, sorry. I thought I knew where I was going. I have been trying to learn this city all week, but I guess I got turned around again. I’ll turn around in this neighborhood then maybe you can tell me where to go.”

I turned into their new neighborhood, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to get to the back of it without them questioning why I was driving through it. Cailyn saved the day though.

“Oh my! Luke look! This place is perfect! We are going to have to see if there are any houses for sale in this neighborhood.”

“Do you want me to drive around for a bit and see if we see anything? Maybe there will be one with an open house tomorrow or something. You wouldn’t want to miss it would you?”

“I really want to see my parents, but what’s another five minutes?” Cailyn was literally bouncing up and down in her seat as Luke leaned his head back against the door to look out the window.

I drove through the neighborhood instead of a direct route to their house knowing there were no houses for sale anywhere in the neighborhood, but I couldn’t drive straight to theirs. Cailyn was starting to lose her enthusiasm as I started to turn down their street. “Let’s check down to the end of this one and see what may be down there. I think it might be a dead end. Wouldn’t that be perfect to raise kids on? You wouldn’t have to worry about all those crazy people flying down your street.”

I started to pull into their driveway. “Well, sorry guys, doesn’t look like there is anything for sale back here. Guess we better turn around. “ Cailyn literally pouted. I pulled all the way up to the house and put the car in park. “Or we could get out and take your stuff inside.”

They both gave me a look of utter confusion that was priceless. “You said you wanted to check on your parents. I believe your mother should have breakfast just about ready.”

“Zane, bro, did you hit your head this week? I know you don’t know the area, but this isn’t her parents’ house.”

“No shit, Sherlock, I didn’t say it was her parents’ house just that her mother should have breakfast ready for you two. She knew that you had a long flight and that you would probably be starving.”

“That doesn’t answer the question of where are we though.”

“You two are horrible, must be the jet lag or something. Can we go inside and worry about all this later?” I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door to get out. I was halfway to the door before either of them were out of the car. As their doors opened, I could hear them debating with each other if I needed mental help or not. I found it funny that Cailyn was the one that was defending me, not my brother.

As I walked up to the porch, I saw Rhylie peeking out the window before she darted off into the other room to hide. Everyone had parked their cars at the country club to avoid them noticing anything. Opening the door to walk in, I heard Luke behind me, “That chair on the porch looks like mine from the apartment.” I grinned and walked right in. Cailyn tried to protest, but I ignored her completely.

When walking in to the house, all the new furniture replaced anything either of them would recognize. I looked over my shoulder to see both of them sticking their heads in the door to look, but they were hesitant to step inside the house. I shrugged my shoulders and kept on walking. “Man, something sure does smell good. Would you two just get in here? I’m hungry, and I don’t want to eat without you.”

Cailyn finally stepped inside, reaching back to hold Luke’s hand tight. I walked on ahead to the dining room around the corner and sat down with everyone else. Rhylie had her hand over her mouth trying to keep herself from laughing loud enough to give everything away. I reached over and smacked her on the thigh. Amber had been controlling her laughter until Rhylie gave me a look after smacking her.

As Cailyn reached the corner and saw Terry sitting near the head of the table, she ran for him. “Daddy, oh my God! What’s going on, where are we? How are you doing? I’m so happy to see you!”

Luke had walked up behind her. Pulling one over on my brother was never easy, but he didn’t see this one coming. I could see the gears spinning, but they weren’t coming up with anything. Terry stood up to give Cailyn a hug before shaking Luke’s hand.

“Cailyn, Luke. You both mean the world to us. Cailyn, you know we have done everything we could to provide for you in every way possible. Luke, you have stepped up and taken on a role more precious than anything in this world.” He turned to look at Aileen before taking Cailyn’s hands in his. “Your mother and I wanted to do one last thing for you, sweetie. To provide for the both of you, and to make Luke’s job a little easier, we bought this house for the two of you.”

Cailyn’s arms wrapped around Terry’s neck instantaneously. I thought I heard sobs coming from his shoulder. Luke was just shaking his head. “We can’t accept this. There’s no way we could ever repay you for this. What if we can’t afford it? I’m sorry, we just can’t.”

Aileen stepped up to Luke, reaching out to him and getting his attention. “Luke, you don’t owe us, or anyone for that matter, anything. We bought this for you. Everything has been paid for. We wanted the two of you to be able to focus on each other, make it a little easier for Cailyn to stay home if she wanted, or just let you get more established before you have children. Whatever the case is, we just wanted to help.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t…” Luke turned and walked out of the room. Cailyn’s face, still buried in Terry’s shoulder, was oblivious to everything going on.

Rhylie nudged me and motioned for me to go after Luke. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea right now. Let him cool off and process everything. I’ll check on him in a little bit. He just needs to think things through.”

Chapter Thirty‐One

Cailyn

Pulling my face out of daddy’s chest, I turned to look for Luke. “Where did Luke go?”

Rhylie was giving Zane a look like something was going on. She did not look happy, and if there is one thing I have learned over the years, it’s that you don’t want to be on that girl’s bad side. Zane sighed before getting up, grabbing a biscuit off the table, and walking out of the room. “I’ll go talk to him.”

I had no idea what had happened over the past few minutes. Shock was setting in, and I couldn’t believe that my parents would do something like this. Why would Luke leave though? Something wasn’t right. I gave Mom a hug and thanked her before heading in the direction that Zane had gone.

As I opened the front door and stepped out onto the front porch, I heard Luke with an angry tone of voice. “…shouldn’t have done that. I can’t accept it. I am supposed to be the one to provide for her now, not them. Terry’s health obviously is questionable and they may need that money for medical bills.”