Enlisted

by Michelle Edwards

  Enlisted

  A New Beginning

  International Bestselling Author

  Michelle Edwards

  Acknowledgement

  As always, I want to thank the man who literally puts up with my crap. My husband, James. Thank you for dealing with me. Thank you for reliving parts of your life that I know aren’t easy for you. Thank you for being so supportive of me. I love you for eternity.

  Thank you to the amazing Crazy Ink team. Without you, I definitely wouldn’t be here.

  Thank you to person who gave me a photo to use for this cover. Meara, you are amazing.

  And last but definitely not least, thank you to the men and women who have fought or are fighting for us. Thank you to all of those who have answered all of my questions without a second thought. You all have inspired me in so many ways.

  Copyright © 2020 by Crazy Ink

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Book Layout by Crazy Ink

  Chapter One

  Elena

  “They will love you,” I said to Travis as we stood in the foyer of my parent’s house.

  He looked around, and I could tell he was feeling out of place. Hell, I felt out of place here sometimes.

  “I just don’t know about all this.”

  “My sister and brother are both coming to dinner as buffers. It will be fine. Just don’t mention politics and keep your answers short and we’ll be onto dessert in no time!” I smiled, interlinking my hand in his.

  “You must be Travis,” my mother said as she greeted us in the dining room. My father walked in right behind her.

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “It’s Mary, dear. This is Vince, my husband.”

  He nodded, “Nice to meet you sir.”

  My father nodded, shaking his hand.

  “Daddy…” I sighed.

  “What?” He shrugged, “Let’s eat. Your mother made some amazing stuffed shells.”

  We took our seats and I noticed that neither my brother nor sister were there yet.

  “Where are they?” I questioned, pointing to the two empty seats.

  “John had a band thing he was going to and who knows where Bri is. She’s probably with Tyler.”

  My shoulders sank. They stood me up.

  “So, Travis, Elena tells me you work as a mechanic?”

  Travis put down the cup he was holding.

  “Uh, yes sir. Well sort of. I recently quit my job.”

  “Why?”

  “New direction.”

  “Going back to school then?” My father questioned.

  “Dad. Stop.”

  “They are just questions darling.”

  Travis sighed and looked at me. His eyes locked with mine, and instead of seeing anger like I thought, I saw sadness. Terror.

  “No sir. I’ve, uh…” He took a deep breath. “I’ve enlisted in the Army.”

  My body froze. I felt my heart stop before it quickly started again. The Army? I asked myself.

  “Well that’s very honorable of you,” my father muttered. He was clearly biting his tongue.

  “Sweetie, you didn’t tell us that Travis was joining the Army,” my mother inquired.

  I glanced at Travis who barely looked at me.

  “I guess I just forgot to mention it.”

  And that’s how dinner went for the rest of the evening. Small talk, lies, and lots of forks hitting the plates.

  “I’m sorry, I was going to tell you,” Travis said, walking up next to me as I scrubbed the cup I was holding over the sink.

  “When? When you were already in Iraq?” I snapped.

  “Elena.” He sighed, his hand lightly touching my arm.

  I jerked away, almost dropping the glass into the sink. I set it down and turned to face him.

  “How could you keep this from me? Why would you keep this from me?” I cried.

  “Lena, I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting it to come out that way during dinner.”

  “Feels like you weren’t expecting it to come out at all.”

  “I wanted to do it in private. I had a day planned for us tomorrow.”

  I sighed, looking out the window into the dark yard.

  “When do you leave?”

  I was met with silence.

  “Travis…”

  “I report to Fort Leonard Wood in three weeks.”

  My head hung and pain shot through my chest. I wanted to scream and cry.

  “I’ll walk you out,” I muttered as I turned off the running water and headed for the back door.

  “Lena, please don’t be mad,” Travis said to me once we were outside by his truck.

  “It’s a little hard not to be mad. I just don’t understand why you didn’t say anything to me before. How are we supposed to be together?”

  “Lots of enlisted guys still have girlfriends and spouses back home. We will make it work.”

  I nodded, but I didn’t entirely believe it. I had no idea what it was like to date someone in the service, nor did I ever imagine I would find out.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow?” he questioned.

  I nodded, giving him a peck on the lips.

  I watched as his truck pulled out of the driveway. I just stood there in the dark, cool Georgia night.

  “Elena…” My mother's voice came from behind me.

  I spun around.

  “You didn’t know he was going did you?” she questioned even though I was sure she already knew the answer to that.

  I shook my head anyway and the tears poured out of my eyes.

  She embraced me tight.

  “Honey, I’m so sorry,” she whispered in my ear as she hugged me tight.

  “Come inside,” she said as she pulled back.

  My father greeted us as we walked into the kitchen.

  “Travis seems like a very honorable guy,” he said, taking a mouthful of his drink.

  I wanted to yell at him, but I couldn’t find the energy. I just shook my head and walked back out the door. I stopped as I heard my mother’s voice scold my father.

  “She didn’t even know he had enlisted. And here you are praising him for it while your daughter is heartbroken!” she yelled.

  I didn’t stick around to listen to my father’s response. I walked across the driveway to the garage and climbed the stairs to the apartment I had.

  A few years ago, my parents turned the entire upstairs into three separate one-bedroom apartments. They were huge, but each of us had our own space to do whatever we wanted with. It worked out perfectly for each of us as we attended college nearby.

  I flopped down onto the couch and picked up my phone. I had a couple of texts from Micah asking me how dinner went.

  I sent him a reply and tossed the phone back onto the couch next to me. I didn’t have the desire to watch anything on tv. I just wanted to cry, to yell, but there was no one to yell at.

  The doorbell to my apartment rang, waking me from my short nap. I sighed, pulling myself up and flinging the door open.

  Micah stood in front of me. He signed I’m sorry. I nodded and broke down again. He didn’t hesitate pulling me into his body. I let him and shut the door behind him.

  “What the hell was he thinking?” he signed.

  “Who knows, but I guess he felt like he needed to do it,” I signed back. Having a best friend who was de
af taught me an entirely new language that I felt privileged to know.

  “So now what? You two just break up and he goes off to war?”

  I shrugged, “I don’t think he actually wants to break up. I think he wants to try to make it work. But how do I do that? How do I be with someone who is constantly in danger or not even here?”

  He shrugged; he was just as confused as I was.

  We talked for the next couple of hours. Micah was always there when I needed him. He was my best friend ever since he stood up for me when we were in elementary school.

  Chapter Two

  Travis

  I stared at the ceiling. My chest ached and I was angry at myself for telling Elena the way I did. I hated to do this to her, but I couldn’t ignore the pure joy my grandfather had when I told him I had enlisted. The look on his face was a moment I would carry with me for the rest of my life.

  I flopped down onto a chair in my living room.

  I had packing to do. Three weeks and I would be off to basic training to become the soldier I had always wanted to be. This time next year I could be in Iraq or fighting for my country in some other way. The thoughts terrified me.

  I stared at the blank television letting my thoughts take over. Elena, war, my family. What would my parents think, knowing that I would be going off to fight for my country?

  I reached over and pulled my laptop from the table next to me. I was determined to make this work with Elena.

  The groups online for soldiers who have girlfriends and spouses were almost too many to sort through. Each branch had their own groups, different locations. I shook my head as I sorted through a few of them, joining the ones that I think could benefit me and Elena the most. She had quickly become everything to me, and I wasn’t going to let that go.

  ***

  I hadn’t seen Elena in two days. I’ve called and sent messages, but her responses were all the same, I just need another day.

  Patience wasn’t my strong suit.

  My apartment was already beginning to look bare. I had packed up the entire living room into boxes and most of the kitchen. Everything would be placed in a storage unit until I was stationed somewhere.

  The knock on the door was loud as it echoed through the empty room. I swung the door open to find Elena standing on the other side.

  “What are you doing here?” I breathed.

  She held up a brown paper bag and walked around me into the house.

  “I thought we could have some takeout and talk.” She looked around the living room.

  “That would be great. Let’s go into the kitchen.”

  “You are really doing this aren’t you?” she questioned, following me into the kitchen.

  I stopped and turned to face her, “Of course I am.”

  “I don’t understand why,” she said as she set the bag down onto the table.

  I grabbed a couple of paper plates and napkins along with two bottles of water.

  “Because it’s what I want.” I took a seat at the table. “My grandfather was in the Army. When my father refused to join, it devastated him. I was always going to join. The when was just up in the air.”

  “So, I don’t even get an opinion on what you decide?”

  “You can have an opinion, but I’ve already made up my mind. I’m going.”

  She sighed and took a mouthful of water.

  “So how do we do this? Be together while you are thousands of miles away?”

  “Well, to start, I won’t be thousands of miles away. I head to Missouri for basic training. After that, I will be assigned to a base and go from there.”

  “And what if your base is on the other side of the country?”

  “Then we will figure it out. You have to have some kind of faith in this.”

  “It’s hard to have faith in something I know nothing about. Plus, I’ve never done this whole long-distance thing before.”

  “Well I haven’t either. Come to think of it, I haven’t really done the ‘boyfriend’ thing before you.”

  She sighed and looked down at her food.

  “Stop with the what ifs. Just go with what is,” I told her.

  She nodded and looked at me. Her eyes locked onto mine.

  “Okay. Let’s see what happens.”

  A smile spread across my face. The last thing I wanted was to lose Elena. Now I just had to make sure we could get through whatever the Army would throw out at me.

  Chapter Three

  Elena

  Three weeks flew by faster than I wanted or could even imagine. I hated the thought of saying goodbye to Travis. Even though I wasn’t fully onboard with this whole thing, I was prepared to support him the best I could.

  When I arrived at his house, there were two other women and a little girl whom I’ve never seen before. One looked to be about my age.

  “You take care, you hear me?” one of them said as she pulled him into a tight hug.

  “Yes ma’am.” He smiled.

  He hugged the other girl before kneeling down to the little girl holding a green bear.

  “Be good okay?” he asked.

  She nodded as he pulled her into a hug.

  I took a couple of steps closer to him as he stood back up.

  “Elena…” he breathed out.

  “Hi.” I smiled.

  “Elena, this is Gina and her daughters, Cora and Aria.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I greeted them.

  “You too.” Gina smiled, pulling her daughter back toward the house to give Travis and I some privacy.

  “You okay?” he questioned putting his hands on my shoulders.

  I nodded, “I think so. Be careful.”

  “Always.”

  “Come home to me,” I choked. The tears began to fall from my eyes.

  “I will.” His lips touched mine and more tears fell between our faces.

  He stepped back, grabbed his bag and waved to us as he walked to the taxi that was waiting on the street for him.

  “He’ll be okay. He’s strong,” Gina noted.

  “I’m sure Travis didn’t tell you much about us. He has spent a lot of time at our house growing up. We are like family.”

  I nodded. “He’s mentioned you guys, but I had always thought you were his family when he talked about you.”

  Gina smiled, “If you need anything at all. Call me,” she said as she handed me a business card with her name and number on it.

  “You do hair and nails?” I questioned, reading the card.

  “Yep. Owned my own salon for the past few years. It’s downtown.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Who’s that?” Cora asked, pointing to the guy stepping out of my car and heading up the sidewalk to us.

  “This is Micah.” I signed.

  “Micah, this is Gina, Cora and Aria.” I signed to him but spoke it aloud so they could hear me.

  “Nice to meet you,” he signed.

  “Is he deaf?” Cora whispered under her breath.

  “Yep, and he can read lips.”

  Her face turned to a shade red.

  “Micah is one of my best friends. He came for support. We better go though. I have some things to get done,” I explained to them.

  “Of course. Have a good day.” Gina waved.

  ***

  “Do you think you are going to be reaching out to her?” Micah questioned as we sat in the restaurant later that afternoon.

  I shrugged.

  “She seemed nice and I think it would be good for you to get to know some of the people that he considers family. You may want to know them down the line.”

  “We’ll see. I need to see if I can even handle this whole thing first,” I sighed.

  I dropped Micah off at home and headed back to my parent’s house. My apartment felt empty for some reason. For the past three weeks, I’ve spent almost every minute I could with Travis. Now that I’m alone again I felt like something was missing.

  I shuffled around the living room to the b
arstool next to my counter. I flipped open my laptop that sat on the counter from the last time that I used it.

  Military Spouse Groups. I typed into the search bar. There had to be others just like me going through what I was going through. Sure enough, tons of groups popped up.

  I spent the next few hours creating accounts, joining each group that I felt would be helpful to me in any way. Some accepted my invite right away, while others took a bit longer. But I spent time just reading posts and conversations between other members. What they were going through. How easy or hard it was for them in their day to day life. So many others felt exactly like I did. I found a few local groups that I considered attending. If I was going to put in the effort like I told Travis I would, I was going to go all out and put in more than a hundred percent. I owed it to him and to us to do that.

  Days passed and I had spent most of my time reading through threads and posts about what others were going through.

  “Are you ever going to come out of your apartment again?” Bri questioned, walking through the door.

  “Knock much?” I sighed, standing up from the bar stool in the kitchen. I stretched my back realizing that I should have stood up a long time ago.

  “Sorry, but mom was getting worried. She said she hasn’t seen you in days. What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. I’m just taking some time to myself.”

  She laughed. “Yeah right. Seriously, what’s wrong?”

  I stood there and stared at her.

  “I’m your twin, come on, there isn’t anything you can hide from me.”

  “I’m just reading from some other women about their experiences with having their spouse enlist in the army or get deployed.”

  “But he’s not your spouse.”

  “No, he’s not, yet. But he is my boyfriend. Someone I care for deeply and someone I promised that I would put in the effort for this relationship.”

  “Then stop reading what those other women are saying.”