Secrets of War: A Military Romance

by RD Jordan

  In the two months she’d been back in town, she’d been busy opening her baby boutique Cuddles Couture. It was her third store, she had two others, the first was in Calabasas, California, and the other in Manhattan. She’d decided long before the move, she wasn’t going to practice medicine in Brightwood, she wanted things to be simpler here to have a slow and peaceful life until Jade went away to college.

  What she needed was to be far from her life in LA, the years of success, and triumph had been the best. But there was more lies and pain that she needed to leave behind.

  Yes, she’d returned to the past by coming here, but she’d promised herself and her family on the day they left in the moving truck, they would only move forward.

  Jamie Merrick was the past.

  * * * *

  Suzy made for a sexy music therapy teacher, Jamie could see how a solider wouldn’t mind listening to her play. She’d been about fifty pounds overweight when they’d been teenagers and not very careful about her hair or makeup, and to Jamie, she’d still been gorgeous. While she still was clueless about how to dress her body, she had grown into a sensual, graceful and curvy woman. She was a treat for the ears and the eyes. But that wasn’t why he was here, And it never would be.

  “Come on, what could be the harm in two old friends getting together to reminisce? I have something I want to ask you,” Jamie coaxed, attempting to not get angry at the way she was behaving. He didn’t want things to go south before he got to what he’d come here for.

  “There really isn’t anything to reminisce about.” She shook her head. “Besides, I really have to be at the boutique.”

  “So now that I am a peg legged psycho Marine, I’m not worth of your time?” he asked agitated. He’d been told it was one of the symptoms of his PTSD. One minute, he would be fine, the next he would be pissed off for no reason. But Jamie wasn’t the type of man to lean on diagnoses and pills. He saw the way women looked at him now that he had one leg…With either judgment or pity in their eyes. Most of the time, he didn’t care, he’d come to realize women were really only good for one or two things and one of them wasn’t loyalty. But he was having none of that, coming from Suzy.

  “I didn’t say that. Have a great evening Jamie,” she said scoffing and shaking her head. She was in no mood for the Merrick family attitude, now or ever.

  Just as she was about to go out the door, Jamie yelled, “That’s sure is what it sounded like, doc!”

  “Well, it’s good to know some things never change about the Merrick clan,” Suzanne retorted slamming the door behind her.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Arrogant, self-righteous son of a…” Suzy muttered while walking into her baby boutique. Stopping when she realized there were customers in the store. “Excuse me,” she said heading for her back office.

  Cuddle’s Couture was Suzanne’s baby. Since it was highly doubtful she would ever have a child of her own. It was a cross between a whimsical West Village shop and a cool kid’s mecca, filled with modern furniture, a funky decor like a life-sized toy train in the center of the store; with cutting-edge fashion for the littlest of people. She wanted it to be like finding a secret garden for your baby, filled with treasures so lovely, you just wouldn’t want to share. Curated with the eye of an interior designer, there was always an incredible shoe, onesie, sweater or more that any mom to be just couldn’t live without.

  She’d opened her first store in Beverly Hills catering to her extremely hard to please rich and famous patients and it had instantly been a hit. Her mother and grandmother had ran the store for her for the first two years. That was when she’d been approached by one of her patients who was a stockbroker in New York City to open a store in Manhattan. After several trips to scout for location, and to get the store up and running, she’d become a franchise store owner the week her mother passed away.

  It was a no brainer for her to open a boutique here at home when they’d decided to return. She was no longer able to practice medicine but she loved babies and everything about them.

  Before she could even get behind her desk and sit down, Isabella was hot on her heels. “What on earth is going on?” she asked. Isabella Merrick had been Suzanne’s best friend since they were ten years old.

  It was the two of them against the world when they were in school, because both had scars from their childhoods and neither were comfortable with boys. Isabella and her mother had what you would call a bittersweet relationship. Sally wanted Izzy to look and behave like an heiress and Izzy could care less about her money, and had spent most of her life about eighty pounds overweight. Needless to say, Sally had made Izzy miserable as a kid and had constantly had steam coming from her head when Izzy was a teenager, because the boys of Brightwood hadn’t been able to keep their hands off her curves.

  Izzy had walked up to Suzy in the hall their first day of school and said, “You seem to be the only girl here that doesn’t make me have violent thoughts. You want to be friends?” They’d both laughed and been best friends from that moment on.

  Izzy was the outspoken version of Suzy. While Izzy dated a lot, Suzy rarely dated; but they were both targets of some vicious bullying, which Jamie had quietly and efficiently nipped in the bud.

  She’d gotten married to her high school sweetheart the day after she graduated from high school and had buried him ten months later, when he’d been killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

  “You know what this is about. It’s what I was afraid of. The people of this small backwards stupid town never being able to let go of the past!” Suzy yelled.

  “Hey! I live in this backwards, uppity, hick ass town too,” Izzy said joking.

  Brightwood was definitely a city of contradictions. With a population of two-thousand and a downtown that spanned a little over a mile and a half it was definitely a small town.

  The Merrick family lived just on the outside of the city limits and calling this place their home had somehow, made the people here feel like they were the Beverly Hills of Texas.

  Everyone knew everyone else’s business and everyone was trying to get into the good graces of the ‘in crowd’ of the Merrick family. Except those who were looked down on and had been in the crosshairs of the matriarch of that family, Sally ‘Queen Bitch’ Merrick.

  “You know I’m not talking about you Izzy!” Suzy said with a slight smile.

  “I know I just like giving you a hard time. What happened?” Izzy asked sitting on the other side of her oak desk.

  “Your brother came to see me today at the hospital.”

  “WHAT? It’s about time. I’m surprised it took him this long,” Izzy replied. She, like many others in town had just been counting the days when these two would come back together.

  “He came to ask me out. It’s the first time I really have gotten to get a good look at him since I came back. He’s different, I mean he still looks the same but he’s different…his soul is sad Izzy. I can see it in his eyes.”

  “Okay, so he pissed you off because he’s sad? Or was he acting like mom again?”

  “NO! He pissed me off with his winning personality! He asked me out and I politely said no—”

  “Wait! Why did you say no?”

  “Don’t you start. It was a long time ago and we were kids, and he was the one that broke it off with me. Besides, you know why I can’t date him, or anyone.”

  “No actually, I don’t. Suzy, that doesn’t have to stop you from dating, being married and having a happy loving life. Why won’t you even try?”

  “I don’t want to talk about that again. You know why and you’re not about to change my mind, so can we please not have this discussion again?” she said irritably.

  “All right…all right. I will leave it alone for now,” Izzy said throwing her hands in the hair. “So, he asked you out and you said no and…?”

  “And he made some asshole crack about me thinking I am too good for a peg legged Marine!”

  “NO! Really?” Izzy exclaimed as
she laughed. “Did he really say peg legged?”

  “YES! Like who the hell thinks like that, and why are you laughing?” Suzy asked annoyed.

  Izzy stood up to demonstrate for her what she’d pictured in her mind. “I can just see him, hey girl, you wanna go out and ride my bull this evening?” she mimicked with a southern twang as she pulled at the belt buckle of her jeans.

  They both laughed for a moment at the insane thoughts that popped into Izzy’s head.

  “You should have said bring your ass over here and knock the dust off this pussy, boy! And left him standing there in shock, looking stupid!”

  They both erupted in laughter, Izzy had always had a way of making her see things weren’t as bad as they seemed. “I just—when he said that to me he looked and sounded so much like your mother and I just wanted to punch him in his throat,” Suzy replied as her laughter subsided.

  “Yeah, he has started to act like mom in his old age, and if he is starting to act like her. It is all bad…all around,” Izzy agreed.

  “Ugh! Okay, I have to get this off my mind. How are things in the store today?”

  “They’ve been good, pretty steady. I think everyone is still in awe of how awesome the store is and they just want to come in and check it out. Once they’re in here…They can’t help but buy something.” She’d agreed to work in the store three days a week for Suzanne to help out until she was able to hire someone. But that had changed into her wanting to stay on and take the position herself without getting paid of course, considering who she was.

  “I still can’t get over how well the store is already doing,” Suzy said excited.

  “I don’t know why, there really isn’t anything to do here besides make babies, and gossip,” Izzy replied as she rolled her eyes with sarcasm.

  “CAN I GET SOME HELP OUT HERE?” One of her employees shouted from the front of the store.

  “Why did I spend ten-thousand dollars putting in an intercom system if people are going to insist on yelling anyway?” Suzy asked Izzy as they headed to the front of the store.

  “I know you think that intercom is classy Suzy, but in reality, it sounds like Attention, Kmart shoppers.”

  Suzy stopped and turned to look at Izzy behind her, barely holding in her laughter. “I seriously dislike you right now,” she told her laughing.

  “Yes, but you love me and that’s what matter.” Izzy shrugged walking past her. “Hell’s Bells!” she exclaimed stopping dead in her tracks, causing Suzy to almost run into her, when she saw who’d come into the store.

  “IZZY!” Suzy yelled. She was about to chastise her friend until she saw who she was looking at. “Oh, SHIT!”

  “Oh! Okay, your reaction is better!” Izzy teased.

  Sally Merrick had walked into the store and was looking around.

  Suzy knew sooner or later, she would make her way into the store to harass her and anyone else that was there, especially her daughter. Simply because she could and was bored to tears, Suzy tended to believe.

  “I’m going back to the store room to price some items that just came in. I live with her. I don’t have to talk to her in public,” Izzy stated tapping her on the shoulder and going to the back.

  “Good Afternoon Ma’am, how can we help you today?” Suzy asked coming to stand in front of her.

  Sally looked her up and down, like she was a rat that had morphed into a woman and offered her cheese. “There really isn’t anything in here that I would be willing to buy dear,” she finally spoke.

  “Yeah, that’s because your rotten womb died thirty years ago,” Izzy mumbled. Unfortunately, she was trying to hear what went on in the front of the store through the intercom, and whispering had never really been her thing.

  “Excuse me!” Sally yelled, angrily looking around for her daughter. “I knew you would have my daughter behaving like trash before you were here six months.” She adjusted her wrap on her shoulders with her nose turned up, like she hoped nothing had touched her.

  “Well, you know what they say Mrs. Merrick, birds of a feather and since you came into my store, I take that to mean you want to be in the trash heap. Perhaps you should step outside and get picked up,” Suzy told her crossing her arms over her chest. She believed whole heartedly in the customer always being right and giving nothing but exceptional service. But there would be no pleasing this hateful woman and she definitely wasn’t going to let her intimidate her, like she did when she was young.

  Sally Merrick had never liked her being Izzy’s best friend. Then when she realized that Suzy and Jamie had fallen in love, she’d almost went into nuclear melt down. Seeing she was the daughter of a disgraced Senator from Montana, who’d relocated to Texas to try and hide from the scandal. When Sally had gotten to town and found the Merrick family with one son who was quiet and shy, she’d found her way to the top of the heap.

  Sally had been willing to do whatever she needed to, in order to become Mrs. Mercer Merrick and unfortunately, for a lot of people, it worked

  Yes, Sally had power and money and she used it like a weapon to control everyone and everything. She tried for years to get Jamie to break up with Suzy. She’d even gone as far as having a family gathering and inviting the trashiest girl in town, so she could attempt to get a horny teenage Jamie in bed.

  To Suzy, Sally was a hateful bag of bile who’d intimidated a teenage girl, the entire time she’d been dating her son. Unnecessary as it turned out to be, because Jamie ended things with a framed picture and a cruel note.

  When Sassy, Suzy’s mom had announced they were all moving to California and post haste? Suzy had screamed she wasn’t going anywhere and raced in her mother’s old beat up car to the ranch…to Jamie.

  Regrettably, for her, no one had been home. No one except Sally, who’d told her in no uncertain terms would she ever allow her son to be married to a girl like her. Her words were so harsh and so cruel, it sent a young Suzy running out into the night, in tears.

  When she’d arrived home, her mother told her Jamie had come by to deliver a gift for her. That was when she’d found out the man she thought loved her, thought the same way his mother did. That she wasn’t worthy to be with him. That was also the night she’d decided she was going to accept her admittance into Harvard and become the best doctor she could be.

  At the time, Sally seemed like the big bad wolf to Suzy. She’d thought there was nothing Sally couldn’t do with all her money and power. Only it wasn’t Sally who’d broken her heart.

  It all happened seventeen years ago and she wasn’t scared of Sally anymore.

  “Excuse me!” Sally asked clutching her proverbial pearls.

  “Listen Sally—” Suzy started.

  “Mrs. Merrick!” Sally cut her off.

  “Look…LADY! If you would like to buy something, then by all means do that. But if you have come here to be hateful under the assumption you are intimidating, I suggest you get out of my store and stay out,” Suzy told her as calmly as she could.

  “Don’t you talk to me like that, you piece of trash! I can buy and sell ten of you,” Sally retorted angrily.

  “Then take your ass to market and get to shopping! But PLEASE just get the hell out of my store!” Suzy yelled, finally losing her cool.

  Sally’s face turned five different shades of red as she turned and headed to the door. “You will regret this, little girl.”

  “Get out!”

  As soon as Sally had gotten into the back of her chauffer driven car and started down the street, Izzy jumped up and down hooting and hollering as she clapped her hands. “I love it, I love it, I love it! God, I am so glad you’re back. You read that old bag like the bible!”

  Suzy had a feeling today was just the start of her struggles with Sally Merrick and her son.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  There would be no getting out of it. Suzy would have to go to the Merrick barbeque. She’d gone through her entire repertoire of excuses, including she interaction she’d had with Sally at her store th
e week before and Izzy wasn’t having any of it.

  “Come on. You know you’ll hate yourself if you miss this party. We’re having house full of people, mother won’t even notice you. Besides, Lou will be there,” Izzy told her sweetly.

  Lou Cunningham was Jamie and Izzy’s second cousin. The sweetest man Suzy had ever known and he always managed to get her into some type of trouble when they were together. Izzy thought Lou liked her but was afraid of Jamie. Suzy knew it was just him being kind.

  “That isn’t convincing Izzy, the last time we hung out with Lou, we ended up running from the sheriff for streaking.”

  “God, that was fun!” Izzy laughed. “Well, he is a lot tamer than he used to be, but he still thinks the sun rises and sets on you. Besides, you haven’t seen him in years.”

  She would love to see Lou and a few other people from town she hadn’t had a chance to see yet. “All right, I’ll go. But if I end up decking your brother, you can’t say you weren’t forewarned.”

  “I won’t say a word.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you Friday.”

  “Don’t sound like that Suze! We are going to have a ball.”

  “Yeah, sure we are.” When she hung up the phone, she was calling herself all kinds of names for being such a weakling. She’d told herself she would just lay low and stay out of the Brightwood social scene.

  The thing was she had a hard time saying no to her longtime friend. She couldn’t think of a time when she needed Izzy and she wasn’t there. Besides, she knew if it wasn’t this party, it would be others. Despite Izzy’s assurances, she knew she was in for the fight of her life once she set foot on the Merrick Ranch.

  It was two hours later and Suzy was just rushing out of her front door. She loved her little Rand Victorian home, just the simple elegance of a Victorian home.

  Izzy had called and told her the old Stewardson house was on the market about five minutes after the realtor had put out the for sale sign. She knew Suzy had always loved that house as a kid. She’d cleaned for the two doctors who had owned it at the time. One had been a Pediatrician, and one had been an Anesthesiologist. She supposed this was where she’d first gotten her love of medicine.