Return of a Soldier (Soldier Series Romance Novellas) (5 page)

FOUR MONTHS LATER

That summer found Hannah and me
spending long days outside, relaxing at the town pool with friends during the day and riding bicycles and chasing fireflies each night.  The endless days were slipping away as we neared the end of August, and I knew the fall would bring a new beginning for both of us.  Hannah would be starting first grade, and with her in school all day long, I’d be returning to work full-time.  I hadn’t worked a full-time schedule since Hannah was born, and I was both excited and nervous to be in that place again.  I was ready for a change, and the start of the school year seemed the perfect time for a change in
both
Hannah’s and my lives.

I hadn’t heard from Trent since our ill-fated trip to the cabin last spring.
  I knew much of it was my fault, for closing him out, but at the time it had seemed like the right thing for both of us.  By the time we’d returned home a couple of days later, we were barely speaking to one another.  Trent had left before his leave was over to stay with some old friends but had told me to contact him when I was ready for an actual conversation.  Our last words to one another had not been kind, and I’d felt a heaviness in my heart every day since he’d left.  I was surprised at how much it had hurt, since I was sure I’d been saving myself from even more pain in the future if we continued in a relationship where we each wanted different things.  It turned out that I had already fallen for him though—hard.  Telling myself that I wasn’t in love with him didn’t mean that it was actually true.

“Mommy, are you ready?” Hannah asked.

She was standing by a pile of bags in the foyer, digging through her own little backpack to make sure she had all of her toys.  We took a trip up to the lake every summer with my sister and her family, and this year was no exception.  It was slightly bittersweet for me since the last time Hannah and I had been there was with Trent, but I certainly didn’t want Hannah to miss out on a fun week with her cousins just because of my heartache.  I felt like I should have known better than to let Trent so far into our lives that there was no forgetting him or our time together.  I seemed to always end up in relationships that ended badly, but I never in a million years would have seen it coming with this one.  Our trip together had blindsided me, and I often wondered if he felt even half of the regret that I did on how badly things ended between us.

“Yes, sweetie, almost
,” I said, walking over to help her zip up her overflowing backpack.  “Aunt Marissa and Uncle Mike will be picking us up soon.”  I glanced around, making sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything.  I liked to joke with Marissa that my sanity was still missing, but that seemed to have disappeared along with Trent.  Maybe someday I’d feel like I had my life together again, but at the moment all I could do was take things one day at a time.

“Is Mr. Trent coming?”
  Hannah looked up at me with her childlike innocence, and I felt another pang of guilt—this time because I knew she’d never get to see him again either.

“No, not this time.”

“I miss him,” Hannah said, pouting a little.

“I miss him, too,” I muttered, knowing it didn’t matter if anyone
actually heard me.  It didn’t matter what I said, because I knew he wasn’t coming back.

***

“Here you go, Meghan,” my brother-in-law said, passing over a grilled hotdog.

“Thanks Mike.”  I took it from him and absentmindedly bit into it, watching the kids playing together in the grass.  They’d already eaten, and now the three
of us grown-ups were finally sitting down to eat.  My sister passed over the potato chips, and I carelessly poured some of them onto my plate, barely noticing as a couple ended up on the ground.  The two of them exchanged a glance that I chose to ignore.

“Feeding the ants?” Marissa asked.

“What?”

“There’s going to be ants
swarming all over here with all those chips you dropped.”

“Well
, maybe they’re hungry,” I said sarcastically.  I was used to spending vacations with my sister and her family, but for some reason this summer I couldn’t help but feel like the odd man out.  Meeting Trent had made me realize that Hannah and I didn’t have to be alone forever.  We’d had our own little makeshift family vacation earlier this year, and although things didn’t work out between Trent and me, it did make me realize how different my life could be.  I could potentially meet someone else eventually, fall in love, and have a father-figure for Hannah.  I’d never even considered it before, but a new world of possibilities had been opened to me at seeing Trent’s acceptance of Hannah and likewise, her acceptance of him.

“Cheer up, Meghan,” Marissa teased, tossing a marshmallow at me.

“Easy now,” Mike joked.  “I don’t want to break up any sisterly fights.  The kids are bad enough.”

“Ha ha,” I muttered.
  “I don’t need cheering up.  No one is happy all the time.”

“Oh, we are,” Marissa said, grinning at Mike.

“Sure you are,” I said with a wink.  “I’m going to grab another drink.  Do you guys want anything?”

“Nah, we’re good.”

I took my empty plate and walked back into the cabin.  There was a pile of dishes in the kitchen sink that needed to be washed, so I quickly washed and dried them, putting them back into the cabinets.  I caught a glimpse of Marissa and Mike out the window, looking relaxed and happy.  The kids were tossing a ball around, and despite my misgivings at being a third wheel to them, I was happy that Hannah had her cousins to play with.  I poured myself a glass of lemonade and was just taking a sip of the sweet drink when I heard my cell phone ringing.  Surprised, I went into the room that Hannah and I were sharing and pulled my phone from my purse.  A local number that I didn’t recognize showed on the display, and assuming it was a wrong number, I reluctantly answered.

“Meghan.”  Trent’s voice was dee
p at the other end of the line, and my heart skipped a beat.  I sank onto the edge of my bed, suddenly unable to stand as my mind raced in a million directions at once.  Trent was
here
.  Here in
my
town.  He wasn’t in Afghanistan, on the other side of the world.  He was calling, which meant he wanted to talk.  He was calling from a local number, which meant he came here to see me.  My heart pounded in my chest, so loudly that I was almost certain he could hear it, too.  I could barely contain the nervous adrenaline that coursed through my veins as I tried to respond.

“Trent,” I stammered, hoping he wouldn’t hear the
tremble in my voice.  “Where are you?”

A pause that seemed to last forever followed. 
“At your house,” he finally admitted, sounding somewhat sheepish.  A breath I didn’t even realize I was holding seeped out of me, and I tried to concentrate on what he was saying.  “Your neighbor told me you were gone for the week.  I don’t know why I assumed you’d be home….”  His voice trailed off, and I puzzled over the situation, trying to sort everything out in my mind.  What was he doing here?  He’d just visited us on his two weeks of leave several months ago, so he couldn’t possibly have time off again.  It’s not like he could just fly home for the weekend from where he was stationed.  Had something happened?  Was he hurt?  Or could he somehow be here to stay?  That didn’t seem possible, but a dozen different scenarios were suddenly running through my mind.

“Meghan?”

“I’m here.  Just surprised.”

“I was hoping we could talk,” he said softly.

My heart skipped a beat, hoping against hope that somehow he was here to work things out between us.  What else was there to talk about face-to-face?  If he just wanted to talk, to clear the air or shoot the breeze, he could have called me from anywhere.  He could have sent me an email—not shown up on my doorstep.

“I’m at the cabin
,” I choked out.  “My sister and brother-in-law drove us up here, so I don’t have a car.  We’re staying all week.”

“Can I come see you?”

“What?  I mean yes, of course.”

“I’ll be there in an hour.”

“Okay.  See you then,” I said quietly.

“See you soon.  Meghan….” He trailed off again.

“We’ll talk when you get here.”

“Okay. 
Bye.”

“Bye.”

I put down my phone, my heart hammering in my chest.  Suddenly Trent’s impending arrival in one hour seemed like both a lifetime away and, at the same time, all too soon for us to be face-to-face after what happened.  One thing was for certain—either this really was the end for us or else the beginning of something I barely dared to hope for.

Two hours later Trent still hadn’t show
n, and I was kicking myself for getting my hopes up. 
He’d changed his mind.  That had to be it,
the little voice inside of me said over and over again. He’d spoken to me, decided it wasn’t worth it after all, and
changed his mind.
  I checked my cell phone for the tenth time and didn’t see any messages or missed calls.  There’s no way I was calling him, not after he’d blown me off.  It should have taken only an hour to drive up here, and if something had held him up, he would’ve just called.  Or texted.  Or
something. 
He’d called me earlier, so I knew the reception was good.

I heard the squeal of laughter from inside the cabin and wondered if I should go in and help Marissa get the kids to bed.  Normally Hannah wouldn’t let anyone but
me tuck her in, but she was so excited when I told her she was having a sleepover in her cousins’ room (so that Trent and I could have some privacy—not that it mattered now), she agreed to let Aunt Marissa get them all ready.  I noticed a flicker of lightning off in the distance and the darkness of impending storm clouds rolling in.  Now I really wouldn’t get to see Trent—on the off-chance that he
was
still coming, the storm would likely make the mountain roads impassable.

The last rays of the sun were disappearing, and I could feel the cool breeze picking up from the storm coming our way. 
The branches rustled on the trees, and I could just feel the electricity in the air.  I sank down onto the porch swing, suddenly feeling even sadder and lonelier than I had at dinner.  I’d packed one lone sundress for our vacation, which I’d changed into, and now I felt silly for fixing myself up for Trent.  He hadn’t evened bothered to cancel.

“Meghan?” Marissa called out
the front door.

“Over here
!”

She poked her head around the corner and gave me a sympathetic smile.  “Mike and I are going to bed—those kids wore us out today.”

“Yeah, I’m coming to bed soon, too.”

“I’m sure he’s still coming.  Something probably just held him up.”

“I’ll find out soon enough.”

“Meghan, he wouldn’t have shown up on your doorstep if he didn’t care.”

“Maybe you’re right; I don’t know.”

“He’ll be here,” she said confidently.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight
,” she said quietly, going back inside the cabin.

A loud crack of thunder caused me to jump, and I hoped the storm wouldn’t wake Hannah.  The rain immediately followed, pouring down
loudly over the trees in the forest and dripping off the roof of the cabin onto the edge of the porch.  I was just about to go inside when the lights of a car pierced the darkening night.  It rolled to a stop next to Mike and Marissa’s car, and my heart began thundering in my chest again as I realized it was Trent stepping out of the vehicle.  He ran through the rain and stepped onto the porch, wiping the wet droplets off his face with tanned, muscular hands.

“Trent?” I asked, suddenly feeling dazed as I stood up from the porch swing.

“I got a flat and damaged the wheel of the Jeep.  They couldn’t fix it tonight, so I ended up borrowing the car of the guy who owned the shop—I guess he felt sorry for me.”  Trent was wearing his uniform, now wet from running through the storm, and I wondered if he’d come straight to my house—and then straight to the cabin—after a long flight.  He was freshly-shaven though, his dark brown hair cropped short and neat, and his deep brown eyes blazed as they looked at me.

Trent didn’t move from the edge of the porch but instead looked at me like I was something he’d dreamt up.  “I don’t understand why you’re here,” I said.  “Not here, at the cabin,” I hurriedly continued, “but here in town at all.”

“I came back for you, Meghan,” he said, his voice sexy and low as he took a step closer.  “I’ve been miserable without you.  I don’t care if we never have a baby together, if it’s always just you, me, and Hannah, but please give me another chance.”

My eyes filled with tears.  “But I don’t understand how you were able to come back—I thought you used
up your leave already.”

“I didn’t
re-up my tour.  I’m back stateside now.”

“You’re back?” I asked, shocked.  “But why didn’t you tell me?”