Excerpt from I’ll be Seeing You Through Time
She was crying now. They both were.
He pushed her back against the wall of the building and kissed her hard. She struggled; she didn’t want this. “No.” She shoved him back and wiped a hand over her mouth. “You’re trying to say goodbye,” she wept. “Dammit, don’t go off and die and leave me alone. I won’t let you.”
“You have to let me go.” He grasped her so tight that his fingernails dug through the material and into the flesh of her arms. “Promise.”
“I can’t. I gave you my heart and you can’t ask me to give it away to someone else. This is not your decision, it’s mine. My heart is mine to give away and I’ve given it to you.”
The look in his eyes broke her heart. His mouth was set in a straight line when he spoke. “Will you come to the dock tomorrow and say goodbye?”
“I’ll come, but I won’t say goodbye.”
“That makes two of us. I can’t say goodbye either. Don’t come. Maybe it might be easier that way.” He dropped his gaze and stepped back.
She nodded, but she knew she’d be at the ship at eight a.m. She would have to see him one last time. Jewel turned and ran up the front steps and didn’t look back. She couldn’t.
I’ll Be Seeing You
Through Time
Jennifer Conner
Contents
Chapter One 1
Chapter Two 5
Chapter Three 8
Chapter Four 12
Chapter Five 17
Chapter Six 20
Chapter Seven 25
Chapter Eight 27
Chapter Nine 30
Chapter Ten 36
Chapter Eleven 42
I’ll be Seeing You Through Time
Book 2 in The Dimension Keepers Series
A Books to Go Now Publication
Copyright © Jennifer Conner 2013
Books to Go Now
For information on the cover illustration and design, contact [email protected]
First eBook Edition –May 2013
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.
If you are interested in purchasing more works of this nature, please stop by
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Look for Jennifer Conner’s novel
Shot in the Dark
Book 1:The Duke and the Lost Night Book 2:The Reluctant Heir Book 3 The Wounded Nobleman
Book 4: Redemption for a Rogue
Please look for Jennifer’s other short stories
Walk with me Through Time
Brewing up Some Love
Valentine Surprise
Cupcakes and Cupids
Do You Hear What I Hear?
New Year Resolution
Christmas with Carol
Auld Lang Sigh
Rush of Love
Fields of Gold
Christmas Chaos
The Christmas Horse
The Music of Christmas
All I Want for Christmas is You
Weddings First Chance
and novel Kilt by Love
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
For my mother Jewel Rose
Everything I like about myself I learned from you
And Glen Miller
Thank you for bringing brief happiness to her life. It would have been a great life.
Maybe this story will give you that where ever you are
There is a mysterious cycle in human events.
To some generations much is given.
Of other generations much is expected.
This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
Chapter One
San Francisco- 1942
Jewel Rose straightened the long, black seam of her stocking and took a drink of her cola through the straw. The horns from the big band section played on the stage and cigarette smoke hung heavy in the air. Tonight, the servicemen’s club was filled shoulder to shoulder with young men in uniform and women trying to have a little fun for the evening.
“Hey, doll, how about a dance and then a kiss?”
Jewel swiveled on the bar stool, but her heart dropped to see the man addressing her wasn’t Glenn.
“No, thanks. I’m waiting for someone.”
“Ain’t everyone.” The strong smell of liquor was on the man’s breath, as he wavered, unsteady on his feet. He reached for her arm. “Come on, honey. I’m being shipped off in a few days and yours may be the last sweetness I get.”
At the same moment she tried to free her arm, a deep voice said, “I think the lady said that she is waiting for someone, and that someone is me. Thanks so much for watching after her until I got here. A lady can never have too many friends.”
The drunken soldier shrugged and wandered off to try his pick-up line on a woman farther down the bar.
Glenn grabbed Jewel’s hand and swept her off the stool and out onto the dance floor. He encircled her waist with his strong hands and yanked her close. They swayed to the music.
“There’s a lot to do before we sail tomorrow, but everyone got a few hour’s leave. Sorry I’m late. I couldn’t get away. I’m half an hour late from the time I said I’d meet you and you’re ready to leave with some other guy?”
“Well, what did you expect? This place has four men to every woman.” She ran her hands up the back of his Navy blue wool uniform and tangled them into his thick, sandy brown hair. “A girl like me can’t wait forever.”
He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles. Jewel’s heart pounded at the feel of his warm breath against her cool skin. His gaze moved over her face in a thorough sweep as if he was memorizing her features. On the dance floor, Glenn edged her closer. “Would you? Would you wait forever for me?”
“Of course I’d wait for you,” she whispered against his mouth as it dropped closer to hers. He kept a scant inch between them, making her wait in anticipation.
Jewel let out a soft sigh as his lips brushed hers. This kiss wasn’t like the others she’d experienced in the past weeks. She’d traveled home to Kansas with Glenn on his last furlough, to meet his parents. Those kisses were quick and safe. This kiss was filled with hot lust, wanting more. She tingled from head to toe. No man had ever made her feel like this, and she knew no other man ever would.
The kiss went on for what seemed like hours. Every night at the club, there were no shortage of young men and women showing their outward affection for each other. Someone called out toward them, “Get a room.” Jewel knew she needed to break the kiss. This was 1942, and one needed boundaries when it came to these private things.
He swung her around in a circle. When she came back int
o his arms, he said, “That kiss and your beautiful green eyes are what I’ll remember when I’m lying on my bunk out at sea.”
Sadness swamped her. “I’m not going to say don’t go.”
“Then don’t.” He closed his eyes and tipped his forehead against hers. “Let’s just stay in this moment and enjoy the few hours we have left.”
“Okay… that sounds like a good plan.” Tears threatened to choke her voice. “Why don’t you order drinks?”
Glenn grasped her hand. He waved the bartender over and ordered himself a beer and for her a Sloe Gin Fizz. While he waited for service, she found a booth. She slid across the smooth wood to the far side and waited for him to join her. He wove an arm over her shoulder and pulled her close. They listened to the band begin their version of Moonlight Serenade.
“I love this song,” she said and cuddled close.
“I know, and I love you.” Glen fingered the small gold band on her left finger. “I wish I could afford to buy you a diamond.”
“None of that means anything. You know I don’t care about that.”
“Last week, my mom said I should have waited.”
Jewel gave her strawberry blonde curls a shake. “No, we shouldn’t wait for anything.”
“No, not for the wedding. We’ll do that as soon as I’m back. Mom likes you tons, but said that you deserved a better engagement ring. She thinks I should have saved up to get at least a little diamond. This ring’s kind of puny.”
Jewel held up her hand and tipped it from side to side. “It’s the most beautiful ring in the world.”
Glenn lifted her glass and sniffed it. “Have you had too much to drink?”
“Nope. Just happy.” Jewel bumped a hip against his. “Get out of the booth for a minute. I need my bag from the coat check.”
She retrieved her belongings and then joined him again at the booth. Jewel slid a brown heavy paper folder out. “The darkroom delivered the photos to the studio right before I left to come here. Your mom wanted copies for all of your relatives, and there are a lot of them. I didn’t know there were that many people lived in Kansas. I’ll get these mailed out to her tomorrow.”
Glenn slid out the large stack of photos of him in his Navy dress blues. A faint smell of sulphur clung to the sepia tone images. “She’ll have to order a whole new set of the wedding photos.”
“I talked to Gowen, and he said if I promised to work more hours at the studio he’d take the train and photograph our wedding.”
“All you do is work. He’s going to add more hours on to the extra ones you already put in? I’m not sure if that’s worth it for a few photos.”
“It’s worth it to work there, or I would never have met you.” She ran her hand over the photos. “Remember the day that you came into the studio for this photo?”
“How could I ever forget? I met the prettiest redhead I’d ever seen working the counter. So much has happened in these two months.”
The bartender sidled up to their table and took a pad of paper out of his pocket. “Hey, I forgot to ask a name for your tab.” He looked at Jewel’s coat on the table and asked, “Are you ready to close out, or are you going to have another drink?”
“I think we’ll close out, but if you need the name, it’s Glenn Miller.”
The bartender grinned. “Sure buddy. I’ll take that cash now; no tabs for ‘celebrities.’”-
“That’s his real name. My last name’s Miller and so is his. When we’re married, I won’t have to change anything!” Jewel exclaimed and tugged on Glenn’s sleeve. “Show him your ID. Prove that you’re not pulling his leg.”
“He believes me.” Glenn’s hazel eyes twinkled in the overhead bar club’s lights. “Here you go.” He pulled out a few bills and laid them on the bartender’s tray. He tipped his glass and downed the remaining contents. “Let’s get out of here.”
He helped her on with her camel color wool coat as she slid it over her black chiffon dress. When they moved out onto the street, it seemed quiet after being in the noisy club.
A taxi pulled over. “You two lovebirds need a ride.”
“No thanks, I think we’ll walk,” Glenn said and waved him on.
It was only a few blocks. She wished it was longer. Overhead she heard seagulls cry as they walked side by side, mainly in silence. When they got to the apartment’s stoop, she turned to face him.
“I don’t want you to go, at least anywhere near active battle,” she said and put a hand on his chest to grab the rough wool. She buried her head against his chest. “Transfer.”
“We’ve gone over this. It’s a war. I can’t transfer. I wouldn’t get it anyway. I don’t have a choice.”
“Everyone has a choice.”
“No. Not this time.”
She looked up at the first story window. “Come up to my room and stay for a while.”
“I can’t.”
She stepped close and whispered, “Stay with me until you have to go. We’re engaged, it will be fine.” It was embarrassing to ask for the things she so desperately wanted.
“Mrs. Brandstone would have a heart attack. No men are allowed in the boarding house after nine. She’d kick me out and then she’d kick you out.”
“I don’t care. You’re shipping out tomorrow. I want to… I need to be with you tonight as… husband and wife.”
“I can’t,” he repeated.
“Can’t or won’t. I thought you loved me, but you won’t come to my bed?” She pulled away and moved quickly out into the small garden between the two apartment buildings. Glenn followed her, and grabbed her hand to stop her.
“Hold on. You’ve got this all wrong. You need to know, I…” he stopped and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he cupped her face is in hands. “How can you even ask that? If it was my choice I would make love to you all night. I want you so much it hurts and to spend every day with you from now until I die. But at this moment, it’s not my choice. I’ve heard this happen too many times, they spend one last night together, she gets pregnant and he goes off to war and gets killed. She gets to raise the child by herself.”
Jewel quickly shook her head. “Don’t say that.”
“I have to, it’s the truth. I love you too much to do that to you. You deserve a full life. The war front where we’re heading is extremely dangerous and if I told you anything else, it would be a lie. We’ve already lost a lot of men and I might be the next on the list.” He grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a shake. “Promise me, if something happens to me, you’ll find someone else and be happy. I didn’t mean what I said earlier. Don’t wait for me.”
“Tonight, there are other things we could… do.”
“When I have you, it will be all of you, and I won’t be satisfied with a few hours. It’s better like this.”
She was crying now. They both were.
He pushed her back against the wall of the building and kissed her hard. She struggled; she didn’t want this. “No.” She shoved him back and wiped a hand over her mouth. “You’re trying to say goodbye,” she wept. “Dammit, don’t go off and die and leave me alone. I won’t let you.”
“You have to let me go.” He grasped her so tight that his fingernails dug through the material and into the flesh of her arms. “Promise.”
“I can’t. I gave you my heart and you can’t ask me to give it away to someone else. This is not your decision, it’s mine. My heart is mine to give away and I’ve given it to you.”
The look in his eyes broke her heart. His mouth was set in a straight line when he spoke. “Will you come to the dock tomorrow and say goodbye?”
“I’ll come, but I won’t say goodbye.”
“That makes two of us. I can’t say goodbye either. Don’t come. Maybe it might be easier that way.” He dropped his gaze and step
ped back.
She nodded, but she knew she’d be at the ship at eight a.m. She would have to see him one last time. Jewel turned and ran up the front steps and didn’t look back. She couldn’t.
Chapter Two
Glenn took a shortcut back to the barracks. The thick San Francisco fog dropped in to blanket the city and hung in visible droplets in the night air. He couldn’t seem to clear his head of thoughts of Jewel. Maybe he didn’t want to. He’d waited his whole life to find someone like her. Why did it have to be now? It was like a punishment, not a gift.
He knew the stats of Navy seamen in his position for South Pacific sea battles. He doubted he’d be going home to Kansas or coming back to Jewel. He’d done the right thing, telling her no tonight. It wouldn’t be fair to do any more. But God how he’d wanted to feel her in his arms and kiss every inch of that soft, pale skin. Make her his. To leave in the morning with the smell of her perfume clinging to his clothes and the feel of her lips on his body. Glenn would give anything for that, but couldn’t sacrifice her future for his desires.
He was still deep in thought and didn’t realize that he’d come to a stop in front of an old bookstore. Reading was something he’d always loved. At least that was one thing the war couldn’t take that away. He looked up at the sign. Second Chance Books. Glenn knew he’d never been there before, but it seemed familiar.
He’d never even been on this street, so why did it feel as though he’d been in the store a hundred times?
Glenn wiped off a section of the window with the side of his sleeve and bent down to look at one of the titles in the window. Call of the Wild, by Jack London. He’d loved that book as a boy. So much adventure and excitement. He looked at his watch. Too bad it was so late, or he’d buy a copy to take on board.
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