“Yet marriage isn’t in the plans?” Margaret pushed.
“Not yet.” Daniel shook his head. “Emily doesn’t know if she can stand me yet and you’re making plans for our future. She hasn’t learned any of my dirty secrets yet.”
“Like you snore? Or maybe that you would put a dish in the sink instead of in the dishwasher which is right next to the sink?” Emily glanced back at him.
“He leaves his towel on the bathroom sink, instead of hanging it up to dry.” Margaret added.
“Not anymore. Now I toss them in the trash.” He watched as his grandmother’s eyes widened with shock. “See an old dog can learn new tricks.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I’m joking Grandma.” Daniel shook his head and looked back at Emily. “I don’t always put the dishes in the sink. I just didn’t know you had a dishwasher.”
“They’re hard to miss, aren’t they?” Margaret teased.
“Actually, mine is.” Emily offered in his defense. “It’s built with a custom front to match the panel cabinet doors. If you don’t know it’s there it looks like another cabinet.”
“As for snoring, I can’t help that and it’s not every night.”
She looked down at the iced tea still in her hands and nodded. “Not every night.”
“Daniel, the chicken is almost done, and I forgot the salad dressing is in the fridge in the basement. There wasn’t enough room up here once I bottled it. Can you go get it?”
He knew there was salad dressing in the fridge, he saw the bottle when he poured the iced tea. His grandmother was trying to get Emily alone. It was bound to happen before lunch was over. It was best to get it over now instead of letting it draw out. He only hoped Emily would understand.
Before listening to his grandma, he glanced down at Emily, with a brief nod from her, he rose from the sofa. “You better behave. No more lies about my stubborn attitude and no embarrassing stories.”
“I’ll save those for another day when I have my photo album out.” Margaret shook her head. “Now shoo.”
Leaving Emily with his grandmother was harder than leaving her this morning when she headed to Hazel’s condo to exact their revenge. Except for the endless embarrassing stories, she had up her sleeve, his grandmother was harmless, still he felt as though he left Emily in a war zone unprotected. It went against every fiber of his being.
Leaving the door open behind him, he stepped into the stairwell to the basement, but paused at the top of the steps. He only had a few moments before he’d have to return with the bottle, but with one in the fridge upstairs he could grab it, saving him a trip downstairs all together. Eavesdropping might be against everything he was taught as a boy, but his protective instincts were high when it came to Emily. She had already been pushed into this relationship with him because of Hazel. He didn’t need his grandmother influencing her further.
If we’re going to build a future together it needs to be because we want one. Not because everyone around us wants it for us. Otherwise it will never work.
“I’ve known you since you came to Blessing a couple years ago. You and Hazel have become so close. That relationship has brought you out of your shell and it’s nice to see you happy. You have such a big heart and are so active in the community, especially with other veterans.”
“I don’t understand where this is going.” Emily’s voice was low, as if she was nervous.
“I can tell you care a lot about Daniel, just as he cares for you. I want to make sure you’ve considered everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad my grandson found a woman like you. He needs a strong woman in his life. He appears tough on the outside, but he’s got a big heart. Just like you. I said before that I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time. That’s true. When he looks at you I can see the love he has for you. There’s a smile on his face that hasn’t been there for too long. Yet…”
“What?” Emily pushed when Margaret’s words drifted off.
Daniel was torn between wanting to make his presence known and wanting to find out where this conversation was going. Before he could make up his mind she spoke.
“He’s hurting. Whatever happened has sliced through the easygoing boy I watched grow up. He’s changed, there’s a darker edge to his personality. At times I swear I look at him but he’s not here. Physically he is but mentally he’s somewhere else. There’s anger in his eyes that chills my soul. Honestly, it terrifies me. He won’t talk to me about what happened, but I know something did. It wasn’t this last deployment, but the one before that. I tried to help but he blocked me out.”
“There’s a lot that happens we have to deal with on our own. Some of us might share it with another veteran, someone who’s been where we are, but most won’t talk to family about it. It was our job to protect our family, to protect everyone back home, and it’s something we can’t stop even once we’re no longer active duty.” The pain in Emily’s voice had him moving back up the stairs.
“Help him. You might be the only one who can, the only one he’ll let in. Don’t give up on him.” His grandmother begged.
“I found it.” He called grabbing the bottle from the fridge in the kitchen.
“I won’t give up. I love him.” Emily’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“Welcome to the family.” Margaret wrapped her arms around Emily as Daniel stepped into the room.
“What’s going on in here? I leave for two minutes and you’re hugging.”
His grandmother pulled back and the two women shared a glance before she rose and headed toward the kitchen. “I’ve got to pull the chicken out. Lunch will be served in a few minutes. I hope you’re both hungry.”
With Grandma in the kitchen he took Emily’s hand bringing her too her feet. “You okay?”
“Perfect.” She gave him a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“I love you, Emily Sharp, but you’re a terrible liar.” He pulled her against his chest. “I’ll fight for you too. Today, tomorrow, always.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Holiday Preparations
With the last box of Christmas decorations in hand Emily stepped into the living room. The space was full of boxes, half put together decorations, and more strings of lights than she knew what she was going to do with. To say she was a little overwhelmed would be an understatement. Christmas was her favorite time of year and she normally had her cabin decorated for the festivities the day after Thanksgiving. This year was different, this year she hadn’t made the time to get things done.
“This is all your fault, you know that, right?” She sat the box on the sofa and eyed Daniel who crouched down next to the electrical outlet beside the tree testing each strand of lights to ensure they worked before they placed them on the tree.
“My fault? How’s that? I wasn’t even here.”
“Never mind.” She grabbed the lid from the top of the box, opening it to see what she had stored in this box. “Where’s the Christmas angel?”
Digging through the box she hadn’t noticed he moved until he slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her back against him. “I found her.”
“What? Where?” She leaned back into his embrace and scanned the room for the tree topper.
“You’re my Christmas angel.” He nuzzled his head against the curve of her neck, planting soft kisses along her neck. “Why don’t you tell me why it’s my fault you’re not decorated for the holidays yet? It couldn’t have been the trip because you said it yourself, you’re normally decorated after Thanksgiving.”
“I…” She turned in his embrace so she was looking at him. “It’s not important.”
“It is to me. Tell me sweetheart.”
“Umm…damn you, Daniel.” She pressed her hand against his chest, giving him a slight push. “You arrived Stateside and we were video calling each other and texting. Things like decorating seemed unimportant when you filled my every thought. We thought y
ou’d make it back to Blessing for Christmas but with the military you couldn’t be certain. The discharge paperwork is a pain and with the holidays everything runs slower. I couldn’t get into the season until I knew if you’d be here to share them with us or not.”
“I’d have been here, even if it meant I had to report back to my unit after my leave. I wasn’t going to miss this.” His hand slid down her back. “Our first Christmas is one of those things that should be spent together.”
“Well, if we don’t finish decorating it’s going to be just another day. Your grandmother and Hazel are going to come to Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow night without a single decoration up. We’ve got to finish it tonight because tomorrow is going to be too crazy, with dinner and then the Christmas party.”
“Don’t worry, we’ve got this and tomorrow I’ll be here to do whatever you need me to do. I’m not as handy in the kitchen as I am with decorations, but we’ll handle it.” He shot her a quick smirk. “When this is all over I promise a Christmas you’ll remember for the rest of your life.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” She pulled back a little in his embrace. “Come on, we’ve got to get the tree decorated.”
“One thing first…” He stepped back and took her hands into his. “I’ve been trying to find a way to tell you this, but it never seemed like the right time. When we had lunch at Grandma’s and she sent me downstairs”
“You overheard our conversation.”
He nodded.
“I figured. You said I was a terrible liar, so I knew you at least heard the tail end of the exchange.”
“I never went downstairs. I knew there was a bottle of the salad dressing in the fridge. It was Grandma’s way of getting a minute alone with you. It felt wrong to deceive you but the longer it took her to get you alone the more overbearing she would have become. I figured it was best to get it out of the way quickly.” Rubbing his thumb over her knuckles he met her gaze. “I don’t want what she said to come between us.”
“You mean that she’s glad you found a woman like me?” She tried to keep a straight face as she said it, but it was like her lips had a mind of their own. “Margaret thinks I’m pretty amazing now.”
“No, the other thing.”
In a blink of an eye the grin dropped away and the air seemed to become thick around them. Margaret’s words ran through her thoughts at an alarming pace. “He’s hurting. Whatever happened has sliced through the easygoing boy I watched grow up. He’s changed, there’s a darker edge to his personality. At times I swear I look at him but he’s not here. Physically he is but mentally he’s somewhere else. There’s anger in his eyes that chills my soul. Honestly, it terrifies me. He won’t talk to me about what happened, but I know something did. It wasn’t this last deployment, but the one before that. I tried to help but he blocked me out.”
She didn’t know him before, but she could see what his grandmother meant. There were moments when she could tell his thoughts were somewhere else. Though wasn’t it the same for her and every other veteran? It was hard to forget what they saw on a deployment. For her the things she witnessed would be with her for the rest of her life. Those events changed her. No doubt if she had family they’d say the same thing about her.
“Em…” His voice drew her back into the moment. “I laid in bed thinking about this last night and I couldn’t get it out of my thoughts. She said the anger she sees in me chills her to the soul. Maybe more than anything else that concerns me. It sounds like my own grandmother is scared of me. She never voiced that concern before and it’s stuck with me since we left her house. I can’t think of a single moment where I could have frightened her.”
“Daniel”
“Wait. I need to ask before you say anything.” Shifting his weight from one foot to another, he kept his gaze on her face, as if watching her closely for a reaction. “Are you scared of me? Have I done anything to frighten you?”
“No. Never.” She pulled her hands from his and closed the distance between them. Looping her arms around his neck she pressed her body against his. “There’s never been a single moment when I was fearful of you. In some ways I can see what she means but I think she’s misinterpreting it. The stuff we witness overseas sticks with us. It’s not something most civilians understand. You can’t come back from a deployment and just delete the memories from your tour. It doesn’t work like that. It becomes part of you. The people you’ve met along the way, both the good and the bad ones, they stay with you.”
“How do I make her understand that?” He shook his head and glanced passed her toward the Christmas tree. “She’s afraid of me. I mean, she offered to let me stay at the house but the way she wouldn’t look at me makes me believe she didn’t want me there. Maybe I’m overreacting, yet I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“I wish I could answer that, but I don’t know. Margaret is willful. I think only time will show her that you might have changed in some ways but you’re still the same boy you were before you joined the Marines. Different doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Give it time, I know she’ll come around.”
“You make it sound like it’s simple.” He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her to his body.
“Maybe not simple but I have faith it will work out. Margaret has a hard time understanding life outside of this town. Even spending the winters in Florida doesn’t open her eyes to what the rest of the world is like. She spends her time in a community full of seniors, a number of them from this very town. I can’t say I’m surprised she’s worried about you. I think even if you hadn’t spent twenty years in the Marines she’d be worried about you. She’d have thought you changed for other reasons. The world outside of here tainted her son.” She watched Daniel for a moment, taking in the way his forehead creased with thought. He wasn’t buying her explanation, making her dig deeper. “Did you know when I first came to town she voiced concerns about having me as a teacher?”
“What? Why?”
“I didn’t fit with the mold of what she thought a teacher should be. A young innocent woman who loves children and had a pure past. That’s her idea of a perfect elementary teacher. According to her, male teachers shouldn’t be allowed to teach unless it’s at the high schools, or at the very least middle school. Children need a soft motherly figure in elementary school and to her I most certainly wasn’t that. My military career—which in her mind is man’s work—soiled me. Allowing me to teach the young children would taint them.” She let out a light chuckle. “She showed up at school the first week I was there and made a huge fuss. She wanted me fired. Thankfully Mr. Kline disagreed. There were some in the community who questioned my ability as a teacher, but by the end of the first semester I had everyone convinced I was good at my job. Thanks to Hazel I was even able to win Margaret over.”
“Even after the shit she put you though you went to lunch at the house and honestly I’d have never suspected there was any animosity between you two.” Daniel eyes widened as he watched her. “I’m sorry for her behavior.”
“Don’t apologize for her. She’s her own person and you’re not responsible for her actions.” She rose up and pressed her lips to his. “Mrs. Fitch and I might have had a rocky start, but we’ve overcome that. We get along pretty well now. She doesn’t like to think about my military history and I try not to bring it up. Okay maybe I only do it when she starts to drive me batty. Even if we were still on the outs, I wouldn’t want it to come between us. I love you, Daniel.”
“I have a great idea.” He stepped back forcing her arms to drop from around his neck and pulled her toward the sofa. Sinking down onto the plush cushions he pulled her into his lap. “You mentioned a strong veteran community here.”
“Sure, you’ll meet some of them at the town’s Christmas party tomorrow night.”
“She wants to have a party to welcome me back to town. Well, why don’t we throw one. You can invite the veterans in the community. It will give me a chance to get to know them. It might be a
little short notice to do it for New Year’s Eve, but we could do it after the holidays.” He ran his hand down her thigh as he waited for her reaction. “I’ll convince her to stay in town longer or come back for the party. It will give her a chance to see that veterans are normal people. We’re not a class of our own. Maybe she’ll stop worrying about me and her prejudice won’t hurt someone else like it almost hurt you.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “I think we can make it work. Mr. Kline might even allow us to use the gym at the school. That’s where the Christmas party is being held. I can talk to him about it. He’s actually a veteran himself so I think he’ll go for the idea.”
“Great.” Daniel nodded. “With that settled I guess we should finish decorating.”
“I’ve got a better idea. Let’s go make some Christmas memories in the bedroom.” She popped off his lap and held out her hand to him. “I want you naked.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Christmas Eve Gift
Curled up on the sofa, Emily sat there as the minutes ticked toward dawn, Christmas Eve morning. They managed to get the house decorated and besides cooking, everything was ready for dinner with Mrs. Fitch and Hazel. This would be their first Christmas together, one she suspected would be the first of many. Yet it might be the hardest one. Mrs. Fitch’s concern for Daniel was weighing on him. Time was the only thing she suspected would help ease his grandmother’s worries but it didn’t give him the quick fix he was hoping for.
Emotions overwhelmed her as she sat there watching the Christmas tree lights twinkle. This wasn’t the first year she thought about the Gavin family, however it was the first year since Gunnery Sergeant Gavin’s death that it nearly gutted her. Seeing Daniel home with his family made her think of how the holidays used to be for Mrs. Gavin and her children. It was a different world then, one filled with happy memories, and a father that was still alive. She could only hope that Mrs. Gavin and her children had made peace with what happened, and they were moving on with their lives.
Touch of Home (Blessing Montana Book 2) Page 14
