Patriotic Duty (10 page)

CHAPTER 13

It
was a Tuesday night and I was feeding Aiden his dinner when my phone rang.
Riley.

“Hi,” I answered.

“Hi
yourself.
You busy?”

“Mommy!
I
done!”
Aiden said, pushing the plate away from him. “Down!”
he fumbled with the little booster seat I had tied to a chair that had straps
to keep him down.

I
blushed
a little, grateful Riley couldn’t see it. “Sorry, can you hold on a sec?”

“Of
course.”

I sprung Aiden free from
his chair and quickly wiped his mouth and hands and told him to go play in his
room. He didn’t of course, he plopped himself on the couch and ordered me to
turn the TV on.

Demanding
toddler!

I turned on the
Nickelodeon channel and went back into the kitchen. “Sorry. Now what were you asking?”

He chuckled.
“If you were busy.”

“Ah, guess that answered
that. But I always have time for you,” I purred.

He laughed again. “Hey, I
know it’s a Tuesday but do you think I could come over?”

I paused. He had been over
on a weeknight before, but usually very late after Aiden was in bed. “Um, sure,
I guess. Is everything okay?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll be
there soon.”

“Wait!” I said as he
sounded like he was about to hang up. “How are you going to get here?”

“A guy in my room is going
to
Frisco,
he said he’d drop me off.”

I giggled. “Ok frisky
Frisco boy, I’ll see you in a few.”

I wouldn’t say I was
fretting over him being over, but I did worry a little bit about how he’d
interact with Aiden. They had met twice before, both times on Sunday afternoons
when my ex had to drop him off early and Riley was still here. Aiden was kind
of a shy kid, but friendly enough to anyone I liked. I also wondered what Riley
wanted and hoped he didn’t have bad news or anything. He had already been told
he had to go back to Colorado at the end of August, and here we were, starting
the second week of August so our time was short.

I cleaned the dishes and
plopped my little man in the bathtub as I brushed my teeth and checked myself
in the mirror. Silly, I thought.

I was brushing out Aiden’s
auburn hair when I heard the knock.

“Who
dat
?”
Aiden
asked,
his eyes wide.

I laughed. “It’s mommy’s
friend.”

He followed me to the
door, staying behind me, and I opened it, giving Riley a sort-of platonic hug.
He kissed my lips softly and said, “Hi.”

He was wearing his BDU
uniform, carrying his overnight bag. He looked past me and down at Aiden.
“Hi, Aiden.”

Aiden looked at me, and
then at Riley.

“Aiden, say hi to Mr.
Riley.”

“Hi.” He laughed then ran
off to his room.

Riley laughed. “He’s cute.”

I smiled. “Thanks. He’s my
life.”

He nodded. “I know.”

Riley put his bag in the
bedroom then came back out to the living room where I put a plate of cheese and
crackers and some water bottles.

“What’s up, soldier boy?” I
asked, piling a square of cheddar onto a wheat cracker and popping it into my
mouth.

He watched me for a minute
and cracked open the water bottle and took a sip.

“Nothing.
I
just wanted to see you.”

I raised my eyebrows.
“Yeah, right.
Spill it.”

He paused for a minute,
looking at me hard. Then his eyes flicked down to his lap. “No really, Cara. I
just wanted to see you. I know it’s not anything dramatic or something you
expected. Our time is getting short and I was missing you today.”

I swallowed the lump in my
throat that had nothing to do with cheese or crackers, and looked at him.
“Okay.”

“Mama, I tired.”

“Hi, Aiden,” Riley said
again.

Aiden came up and climbed
up in my lap, looking at Riley. He had his little blue thermal blanket that he
never went anywhere without and he laid his head on my chest. I gently stroked
Aiden’s hair and he began to drift off.

Riley looked at me and
smiled. “He sure loves you.”

I nodded. “Yes. He’s my
little buddy.”

Riley opened his mouth to
say something but closed it again, seemingly changing his mind. I was going to
ask him what, but decided against it.

Aiden was soon asleep on
me. “Excuse me while I put him to bed.”

When I came back out, Riley
was finishing the last of his water and was stacking cheese on a cracker.
“These are good.”

I nodded.
“Yep.
Those are my favorite kind of cracker.”

I glanced at the clock. It
was only eight-thirty. “Do you want to watch some TV?”

“Man, I wish you had a TV
in your room,” he said with a smile.

“If my laptop was bigger
we could watch on that, but that’s not quite the same, is it?”

He shook his head. “Let’s
go to bed.”

“Wait,” I said,
remembering my conversation with the inmate. “I need to ask you something.”

He looked at me, confused.
“What?”

I took a deep breath. “Do
you know of, or have you seen any of your… coworkers doing things with inmates
they shouldn’t?”

He was still seated on the
couch but had begun to unbutton his BDU shirt. He was looking down at the
buttons when he answered me. “Well, Cara, that’s kind of a loaded question. I
mean, those prisoners are pretty flirtatious when they’re working on the
grounds or cleaning our offices, but if you want me to be honest, I have not
actually
seen anything happen with one
of them and another GI. No.”

I suppressed the urge to
roll my eyes. “Wow, way to be evasive, Riley. I mean, I can read between the
lines here.”

He shook his head and
almost looked like he wanted to laugh. “What do you want me to say? You want
names and times and locations?”

“Look, just so you know,
the inmates are starting to snitch. They’ll be an investigation so you should
probably tell your buddies to keep it in their pants. And you might want to
pass this on, too. Most of those chicks are or were drug users and a lot of
them are former prostitutes. They may be telling you and your friends they’re in
for credit card fraud or tax evasion or identity theft, but trust
me,
they know you can’t back up their claims. The majority
of them are in for drug crimes, and they all blame their husbands or boyfriends
for their bust.”

He looked slightly mortified
as I finished my tirade, but quickly recovered. I felt my little spiel would
probably help – if he passed it on.

He distracted me once
again by shrugging off his BDU shirt and then sliding his hand up my thigh. He
leaned in close to me and whispered into my mouth, “I don’t want to talk about
inmates.
Or coworkers.
Or anything
other than you, naked, on your bed.”

I nodded silently as he
kissed me, warm and soft. I inhaled his musky scent as he grabbed my hand and
stood up. Wrapping his arms around me, he leaned down to kiss me again, picking
me up and turning me around slightly, then setting me back down. I swooned
under his kiss,
then
sighed as he led me back to my
room.

The friend who’d dropped
him off had spent the night in San Fran and had picked him up on his way back
to the base in time for PT. Riley was gone by morning before Aiden and I even
got up. I was a bit disappointed but told myself I’d better get used to it real
soon.

***

The next week sailed by
and on
Friday,
I practically flew home and peeled
myself out of my work clothes. I changed into my denim frayed short-shorts and
yellow spaghetti strap
babydoll
top and got myself a
large glass of ice water to drink while I tidied up the house. I briefly
wondered if I should offer to cook or if we were going out to dinner. I was
going to text Riley and ask, then decided against it.

That
would be way too wife-like.

Riley arrived at my house
around six p.m. with his duffel bag as usual but he had a grave look on his
face. I ushered him in with a kiss and instructed him to sit.

“What is it?” I asked,
looking at him seriously.

“I got orders today.”

I cocked my head to the
side.
“Um okay.
What does that mean?”

Riley and I had discussed
a couple of weeks ago that he was set to report back to his base in Colorado
right after Labor Day weekend, and while I knew it was coming, I tried not to
think about it, telling myself this was just a summer fling and when he was
gone, he’d be gone and it would be time to move on. So I was confused by what
he was telling me.

Riley took a deep breath.
“I’ve been given orders. I’m going to Afghanistan and I have to be back in
Colorado at the end of August to prepare for it. We leave mid-September.”

I sucked in a breath and
tried not to let him see the tears burning my eyes. Dammit, this was not
supposed to happen. I wasn’t crazy about him leaving back to Colorado, but
Afghanistan? Not only was that very far away, it was dangerous.
He could die.
Plus, the end of August
was less than two weeks away.

“I’m sorry,” was the only
lame response I could manage to eke out.

He smiled at me. “Don’t
be. It’s my job, it’s what we do. The Army owns me, I belong to them.”

His good attitude made me
feel a little better but I was still more than a little upset.

“How
long?”

“At least nine months,” he
said.

I nodded and blew out a
breath and didn’t know what to say. “Are you hungry? Let’s go to this little
Italian hole-in-the-wall restaurant I know about.”

He grinned. “Shower
first?”

“Of course, help
yourself.”

He shook his head.
“Oh no, not by myself.”

Grabbing my hand, he
pulled me towards the bathroom with me giggling and giving up no resistance
whatsoever.

***

The dreaded 30
^th
of August rolled around and I called in sick to work. After dropping Aiden off at
daycare, I went to the base and picked him up, stressed that my car was going
to be seen around the base, as the prison camp was right next door. Riley was
waiting for me out front and I drove off towards the park that was in the
center of town.

I knew that dragging out
the day would make it harder for him to leave, but I just had to do something
special for him, because that was just how I was. I had an entire picnic
basket, complete with red checked blanket, and I spread it out next to a
manmade pond that had a spitting fountain in the center of it. The weather was
warm but there was a cool breeze blowing, and as we sat and ate fried chicken
and macaroni salad, I tried to engage him in conversation, but I could tell his
mind was elsewhere.

After we’d eaten, I
grabbed his hand and stroked the back of it with my fingertips. “I’m sorry you
have to leave, but will you promise me something?”

The sea blue of his eyes
bored into my green ones and he nodded. “What’s that?”

“Will you at least email
or text me once a day to let me know you’re okay?”

He smiled with a twinkle
in his eye.
“Of course.
As long as
you send me care packages.”

I furrowed my brow. “Like
what?”

He grinned. “I’ll email
you a list.”

“Okay,” I said, kissing
his hand.

He reached up and ran his
finger along my jaw. “Let’s go back to your house. I want to spend the rest of
the day with you.”

I shivered at his words
and nodded. We packed up and drove back to my house. He had half my clothes off
before I could even get the door closed and he was kissing me like he meant it.

“I’m never going to forget
you, Cara,” he whispered in my ear as he wrenched off my bra and tossed it
aside. “Will you wait for me until I get back?”

I stiffened in surprise,
looking up at him. My lips were puffy and my cheeks red from whisker rash. “Are
you for real?”

He looked confused. “Of
course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you are going
back to Colorado and I live here.”

He waved a dismissive hand
and said, “Details. We’ll work them out when I get back. I promise.”

I shrugged and began
kissing him again, but my mind was twirling with the possibility. I then
decided to let it go and just enjoy the last day I had with him, and worry
about it for the next nine months when I was alone and had nothing else to
think about.