Love's Destiny (Love Trilogy #2) (25 page)
Read Love's Destiny (Love Trilogy #2) Online
Authors: Tracey Smith
“Destiny” I whispered, secretly hoping that she’d drifted off to sleep and wouldn’t hear me.
Mike and Katherine had taken Chance to a movie after dinner leaving us alone in the house. We had been laying on the couch talking but our conversation had slowly faded into comfortable silence as we watched the fire crackling in the fireplace and just held each other. I wasn’t sure if she was still awake.
“Hmmm?” she replied sleepily turning her face up to look at me.
I looked down into her eyes reflecting the flames, and bent down to kiss her softly wanting this moment to last forever. Wishing it didn’t have to end.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
“What is it?” she asked more alert now. She sensed the hesitation in my voice saw it in my face. She turned to face me. “What’s wrong Tyler?”
“I’m being deployed.” I let the statement hang in the air watching the emotions play across her face. Shock, confusion, denial, fear.
“When?” she whispered as the tears filled her eyes.
“Next week, after Christmas, when I go back.”
She shook her head as she sat up, the tears silently streaking down her cheeks now. I let her pull away from me to sit up on the couch. I sat next to her watching her face, waiting for her reaction.
“So soon?” She whispered her voice quivering.
I nodded.
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know yet. I’ll get my assignment when I get back.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.” I answered honestly.
She swallowed hard as she took a shaky breath and then nodded as if finally accepting what I was saying. She stared into the fire for a few minutes as the tears continued to silently fall. I gave her time to think. I kept my distance as I waited and watched.
“Will we be able to talk?” she asked hopefully looking at me again. The hope in her eyes made it a little easier to breathe.
“We can write. I don’t know if I will be able to get to a phone often.” I let that sink in for a moment. “Will you write me Destiny?”
“Of course!” she exclaimed. “I’ll write you every day!” she promised and my heart started to beat again. I took both her hands in mine and looked into her eyes.
“Will you wait for me Destiny?” I had to ask, I had to know.
“Forever” she promised without hesitation. Then I pulled her into my arms and kissed her as the tears I hadn’t realized I’d been holding back slipped free.
We spent our last week together wrapped in each other’s arms. We held hands as we walked through the Christmas tree farm on Christmas Eve, and snuggled together Christmas morning as we opened gifts with the family. It felt as natural as breathing to be with Destiny like this and I was relieved that there was no awkwardness with her family. They accepted us as if it had always been this way, as if they knew it was meant to be. I knew. She was my heart, she was my Destiny.
The week ended too quickly. Before I knew it our time was up.
“I’ll miss you.” She whispered against my lips as we kissed yet again.
“I’m leaving my heart with you.” I replied pulling her even closer.
“Come back for it.” I could hear the tears in her voice.
“I’ll write as soon as I get wherever I’m going.” I promised.
“I’ll write as soon as I get on the plane.” She laughed. I laughed with her wiping away the stray tear that had escaped.
“I don’t know how long it will take to get your letters or for you to get mine, but know that I’m thinking of you every day.”
“Know that I’m waiting for you. 2 months, 2 years, it doesn’t matter. Know that when you come home, I’ll be here waiting for you.”
“I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too”
anuary 1st
Dear Tyler,
I’m sitting on the plane waiting for take-off knowing that you are still back in the terminal and wishing I could spend just a few more minutes with you. There are so many things I wish I had said, like how much I love you. I do. I love you with all of my heart. You said you gave me your heart, well you have mine too. It’s yours, forever. I don’t know how I’m going to focus on anything when I get back to school. All I will think of is you! I miss you already. I’ve always missed you. I realize that now. Realize how much I need you, how much I love you. Come home to me soon.
With all my heart,
Destiny
Dear Destiny,
I have missed you every minute since I watched you walk onto that plane. As soon as I got back to base they gave me my orders and shipped me off to Japan. It’s strange being here, so far away from home, from you. I miss you more than I ever knew possible. Our time together was so perfect, everything I’d ever hoped for. Those memories are the only thing getting me through this. Every night I close my eyes and see your face. I fall asleep listening to the iPod you gave me for Christmas several years ago. It makes me feel like you’re close to me. I can’t wait to hold you in my arms again. Until then I will hold you in my heart.
Love
Tyler
Dear Tyler,
It feels so strange to be back in New York, it doesn’t feel like home to me anymore. But I guess nowhere will really feel like home until you are there with me. I miss you so much sometimes my heart aches. I’m trying to just focus on school, there is so much to get done in these last few months.
Carrie’s loft is so crowded. There are so many people coming and going all the time I’m not even sure who actually lives here. But beggars can’t be choosers, I guess, and she does have a comfortable couch.
I miss you more every day. When I play I close my eyes and think of you. You were the first person I ever shared my music with, and my biggest supporter in the first orchestra I ever played in. I wish you could be here now to cheer me on from the front row. You always were my good luck charm.
With all my heart,
Destiny
Dear Destiny
It was so good to get your letters! To see your handwriting, to know that you touched the paper I am holding now. Over the years we’ve spent time apart, but it’s never been this hard. I feel like when I finally got you, really got you, I had to let you go. It’s killing me.
I wish I could be there with you in New York. I wish I could make it better for you. I wish you didn’t have to stay at Carrie’s place. I wish I could listen to you practice and cheer you on from the front row. I’ve always loved your music. I’ve always loved you!
I’ve applied for a position as an MP. I’ve already taken the test and passed. The next opening is mine. Hopefully it will come soon. Hopefully it won’t be much longer before I can see you again, hold you again. Until then I’ll keep wishing, until my wishes come true.
Love
Tyler
Dear Tyler
You didn’t let me go! I’m yours, no matter how far apart, no matter how long. I am and will always be yours. You have my heart. You always have, you always will.
Please don’t worry about me. It’s not so bad at Carrie’s, except that you’re not there. One of the girls in her dance troupe broke her ankle and went back home to Connecticut to recover, so I’ve been upgraded from the couch to a real bed, which is nice.
I spend all my time on campus practicing anyway. I’m working night and day on my solo for the graduation ceremony. I’m so nervous about performing a piece that I’ve composed! The song I’m going to play I wrote for you and I wish you could be here to hear it. I need you in the front row! I miss you! I LOVE YOU!
With all my heart,
Destiny
Dear Destiny
I just found out an MP position may be coming open at Camp Pendleton, which means I might be coming home to San Diego soon! Either way I’ve put in a request for leave in May so that I can come to New York for your graduation.
It’s a long shot, but I will have been here 5 months by then, so they may let me come home, especially if I get the MP position because I would be shipping back anyway. I want to be there more than I can say. I want to be there for you.
I can’t wait to see you again, to hold you again, kiss you again. I miss your smile, your laughter, your warmth. I miss everything about you. Every night I close my eyes and imagine you are right there in the room with me. But it’s not the same, not even close. I miss you so much! If we can survive this, we can survive anything! I love you!
Love
Tyler
Dear Tyler
I am trying so hard not to get my hopes up, I know it’s a long shot but I want you here so badly. I need you here. It’s your song, our song. You have to be here to hear me play it for the first time. I almost wish I had picked a different piece for the ceremony because this one is so personal, but it’s too late now. I can’t change it. I have to play it, and I want to play it for you.
My finals are coming up and I have one last big show this month with the Juilliard String Quartet, but after that I’ll be able to devote all my free time to rehearsing for the graduation ceremony. I have to bury myself in my music to survive the loneliness without you. I miss you. I LOVE YOU!
With all my heart,
Destiny
Dear Destiny
Happy Birthday! I know it will be passed by the time you get this, but I want you to know I was thinking of you and hoping that you took a break from rehearsals to celebrate. I wish I could be there to celebrate with you. I promise once I’m home again I’ll never miss another birthday!
I saw this CD at a little used shop I found and it reminded me of the summer you spent with us in LA when we were teenagers. You had asked me if any of the rock music I listened to had violins in it. Well here is Metallica’s S&M album: Symphony and Metallica—proof that our worlds can blend. I hope you will listen to it and think of me.
I think of you every night and dream of holding you in my arms again! Until that day comes I will continue to dream.
Love
Tyler
Dear Tyler
Thank you so much for the CD! I love it I listen to it every night as I fall asleep! But I don’t need anything to remind me of you, you are always in my thoughts, always in my dreams.
Carrie is performing just off Broadway now, and the other night at one of her shows I met the conductor for the San Diego Symphony Orchestra! It was so exciting, I told him that I was planning on moving back home after graduation and he gave me his number and told me I should audition! Can you believe that? Wouldn’t that be amazing if I could find a seat on a symphony in San Diego and you could get stationed at the base there? It’s like all the pieces are coming together. It’s all going to work out, I know it is! It has to! Until then we will both continue to wish, and dream. Until all our dreams come true.
With all my heart,
Destiny
Dear Destiny
I’m coming home! I just found out today. They granted my leave. I fly out in 5 days. I’ll be in New York for your graduation. I can’t wait to see you again! To hold you again! It’s finally going to happen. It doesn’t even feel real. It won’t be real until I see you with my own eyes and feel you in my arms. These will be the longest 5 days I’ve spent in the last 5 months! I’m coming home!
Love
Tyler
Graduation was tomorrow. I had done all I could do to prepare. This was going to be one of the biggest nights of my life. My first public performance of a piece I’d written myself, a solo performance in Carnegie Hall during the graduation ceremony. I had never been so nervous. To make matters worse Tyler still hadn’t arrived.
His flight should have come in yesterday, but a late spring snow storm had hit Chicago and he’d been stranded. My parents had flown through Dallas and had arrived this morning.
“I can’t do this without him.” I cried.
“He’ll make it Destiny.” Mom assured me
“I hope you’re right. He has to. I need him.”
“I know.” Mom soothed “But staying up all night worrying won’t help.”
“How could I possibly sleep?” I wailed. “We haven’t heard from Tyler since this morning. The news is saying that all flights from Chicago are still grounded. What’s he doing? Why hasn’t he called?”
