by C. J. Pinard
I was secretly glad Ashton Elms wasn’t here, but even then, I would have still thanked him if he’d had. But I knew he would be too cowardly to show up to something like this after he’d slept with Samantha behind my back. I laughed a little as I thought how I should be shaking his hand, thanking him for doing me a favor.
They all clapped, which embarrassed me some more as the whole bar looked over at us. “Hey, guys, I’m good.” I grumbled, trying to get them to stop. They just laughed. “My wife is making me get on Facebook so I can keep up with all of you, and my Marine Corps buddies, and you’ll be able to find me there so we can keep in touch.”
“Oh you’ll never get any work done now,” Jared said, laughing.
“So I’ve heard,” I muttered.
Coach paid the tab and we all walked out of the restaurant. None of the guys tried to shake my hand, but I got quite a few back slaps and fist bumps, and lastly, a great big manly hug by Jared.
“I’m gonna miss you,” he said sincerely, a sober glint in his green eyes.
I snorted. “No you won’t. I’m the only one you could never strike out during practice.”
“Why do you think I’m gonna miss your ass?”
I laughed. “Point taken. Maybe they’ll find a kid at the local college to replace me who can give you a run for your money.”
We had reached our cars, and Jared said, “Not gonna happen, man. You’re one-of-a-kind.”
Chapter 25
I hooked my finger into the edge of my collar and pulled it away from my throat a little. This black dress shirt was too tight, and I covertly reached up and unbuttoned the top button beneath the red tie I was wearing. I was sitting alone in a small church in Colorado, waiting for a wedding to start. I looked around and saw maybe a dozen people, and I knew none of them. Not that I’d expected to. The church was decorated nicely in the usual wedding stuff, and I saw the groom, along with one other guy, both standing at the front of the church, waiting anxiously. The minister was up there with him, dressed in a suit.
The start of wedding music got my attention. Everyone, including me, turned in our seats to Miranda and Ashlynn walking up the aisle, Ashlynn wearing some frilly dress, scooping rose petals out of her basket and tossing them onto a white aisle runner. Miranda threw me a wink when she caught my eye. She looked gorgeous in a fitted dress that wasn’t quite white, her small belly beginning to poke out, although she didn’t really look pregnant. I couldn’t help but smile at how damn lucky I was.
I was supposed to still be in Afghanistan now. I wasn’t going to get to come to this wedding. It was bittersweet being here. Miranda was so happy I could come, and I was looking forward to meeting Cara’s fiancé and getting to experience this with Miranda. But on the other side of that coin, I felt like a failure for cutting my deployment short. I felt like I was letting down the rest of my platoon and the guys back in the shop on the base, that I had “got” to come home early. Getting shot was the price I’d paid for that, but in some stupid, foolish part of my brain, I still felt like it wasn’t enough. Like I hadn’t done enough, somehow. Men had died and come home in caskets, and I was heartbroken for their families. Then I looked at my wife and stepdaughter looking beautiful on the stage of that church and realized how much they really did need and love me. My heart almost melted when Ashlynn waved at me and blew me a kiss.
She was standing next to little Aiden, looking so cute in his little tux with his auburn hair all styled up, and I smiled, hoping I’d have a son one day. My gaze drifted over to Riley, and since his eyes were locked on his bride, I took a really good look at him. His Army dress blues were perfectly pressed, and he had a few medals decorating it. Medals I’m sure he more than earned. The left side of his face and partly into his black hair on his head, along with his left hand, were scarred. I stared at those burn scars that cruelly scathed his skin and couldn’t imagine what he had gone through. Cara had told Miranda everything about what Riley had been through overseas, and one night over dinner, Miranda had told me all the details.
But as I looked him, I knew Riley hadn’t told her everything. Staring at those scars, I put myself in his shoes and knew there was no way I could tell the love of my life how terrified I’d been when I got shot… or him, when he got burned in that explosion. There were no words that could describe the feeling of helplessness when you thought you were gonna die. When you black out from the pain of a gunshot… from being set on fire… and wake up in a hospital, relieved you were still alive, but in so much agony, you just wanted to curl up and die. No way you wanted to relive it by telling the story again, especially to a beautiful woman whose face was crumpled with sympathy and grief, whose eyes showed love but no way could they show understanding. No, some things were better left unsaid, some details and stories better left untold to keep the sweetness and ignorance of that life away from hers. The bullet wounds, the burn scars we carry around, they show on the outside, but it’s the ones on the inside – those are the ones that hurt the most. They keep us real, they keep us sympathetic and empathetic to others, they are the keepsakes we carry with us always.
As I watched him and Cara reciting their vows and looking at each other, I knew he was a lucky bastard. A beautiful, understanding woman who loved him with all she had, and a new son to help her raise. Yep, he was lucky.
Almost as lucky as me.
Epilogue
Eight Months Later…
I had my three-month-old son, Ace, cradled in the crook of my right arm as I typed one-handed on the laptop on my dining room table. I had three more emails after this one to get out before the end of the day. It was Friday, and I knew I had a busy weekend ahead of me.
Ace had finally fallen asleep, and as I was about to get up and put him in his crib, his eyes flickered open and he gazed up at me. I marveled at the deep turquoise color of his eyes that looked so much like mine and Jory’s. At first they’d been a bright blue, but over the last month, they’d started to develop that aqua hue that was so dominant in my family. I smiled and he grinned back up at me, the tiny start of a dimple on his cheek popping out. I had no idea I could love someone so much.
I ran my hand over his bald head. “Hi, buddy.”
He smiled at me again, a big toothless grin that melted every part of me.
“They’re here!” I heard Miranda exclaim. She’d been in the kitchen, overdoing it as usual, getting food and drinks together for our visitors.
I closed the laptop and got up, turning Ace around so he was facing front, sitting on both of my arms. I looked out the kitchen window to see Riley and Cara walking up the drive, little Aiden holding his mother’s hand. Miranda ran out and threw her arms around Cara, who was walking rather slowly. I looked over to see Riley carrying two baby carriers – one in each hand.
I still couldn’t believe he’d gotten stationed back here – how lucky was he? But something told me luck didn’t have a whole lot to do with it. He was back at the base where they’d met, apparently. Miranda had told me that Cara’s parents were thrilled, as they hadn’t moved out to Colorado yet, so now they didn’t have to.
I limped out, still holding my son, grateful I didn’t need the cane anymore. The pain was still in my leg – and chest – but I’d worked tirelessly to regain strength in both areas.
Switching the baby to one arm, I held my hand out to Riley. “Need me to take one?”
He shook his head, a happy but knowing look in his dark blue eyes. “No thanks, man. I better get used to it.”
I nodded and smiled as we made our way into the house. Riley set both carriers on the living room floor and Miranda wasted no time rushing over and pushing back the little hoods that shielded the babies from the world. She used the buttons on the handles to push them both back so she could get a better look.
I also stared down at the babies, who were both asleep, and grinned. Two beautiful little girls, just a month old.
Miranda leaned down and kissed each one on the tops of their heads. Both babies
had a little bit of dark brown hair on top and they appeared to be completely identical, but I had no idea if they really were. Most babies looked alike until they got older.
“Hi, Ace,” I heard Cara say, and I looked up to see Ace’s tiny hand wrapped around her finger. He smiled at her.
“He’s so cute, and looks exactly like you!” Cara said to me.
I smiled at her as she looked at me with tired green eyes. “Thank you. How are you feeling?”
She rubbed her belly. “C-sections suck. I should probably go sit.”
I nodded and watched her sit on the sofa next to Riley and place her hand on the thigh of his jeans.
“So which one is which?” Miranda asked, still crouched by the babies and looking at them.
“On the left is Taryn Sophia. On the right is Jadyn Abigail.”
“I love their names,” Miranda said, smiling. “Totally fits them.”
Cara nodded and pushed some short, blonde hair behind her ear. She looked at Riley. “We wanted to honor Riley’s friends who died last year in Afghanistan, but Tyrone and Jose didn’t exactly work for two girls. So we used their initials instead.”
Miranda’s eyes filled with tears and nodded. “That’s so beautiful. Do their families know?”
Riley cleared his throat and said, “Yes, we sent them birth announcements and I included my own note.”
“That’s so sweet,” Miranda said. Then she looked at me.
I watched all of this in fascination. Riley put on a sad smile, the left side of his face looking painful as he smiled, but I knew he wasn’t in any more physical pain. He looked as though everything he had been through, everything he had lost, had been given back to him. I watched him look at Cara with nothing but admiration and love, and throughout the rest of the evening, as we ate and drank and tended to our crying babies, and watched Aiden and Ashlynn playing together, I saw him sneak glances at her. She would look back and smile, and I was so happy that all the hell that all of us had gone through had ended this way.
I knew deep down in my soul that as the years stretched before us, that there would be nothing but happiness and love for all of us. However, I knew better than anyone that life wasn’t perfect, that it was full of pain and love and anguish and happiness. And as much as I wished I could keep pain and anguish away from my friends and family, I knew that it was that agony and those scars which built us up as people. It let us know that yes, life was real, but that we could overcome anything with the right people in our lives, with their love and support.
And as a husband and a father, as a businessman and an athlete, and as a United States Marine and now a wounded warrior, I realized… I appreciated… that the true and absolute story of my life was still yet unwritten. But I looked forward to seeing the pages of it scroll out before me and then trail behind me with the love of my family and friends by my side.
THE END
Make sure you read the author’s note at the beginning of the book, if you haven’t already! Thank you for reading my books, I truly hope you love every one of these characters as much as I do.
Partial proceeds of this book will go to the Wounded Warrior Project. You can donate, too, here. God bless the troops!
OTHER BOOKS BY C.J. PINARD:
Enchanted Immortals (Book #1)
Enchanted Immortals 2: The Vortex
Enchanted Immortals 3: The Vampyre
Enchanted Immortals 4: The Vixen
BSI: Bureau of Supernatural Investigation (An Enchanted Immortals Novella)
Patriotic Duty (Duty & Desire, #1)
Tour of Duty (Duty & Desire, #2)
Boots Beneath My Bed (Duty & Desire, #3)
Playing the Field (Duty & Desire, #4)
Soul Rebel (Rebel Riders Series #1)
Unscathed (A contemporary romance collaboration with Tim O’Rourke)
Blood Bites: Three Vampire Tales (short story collaboration)
Three of a Kind: Tales of Luck, Chance & Misfortune (short story collaboration)
Summer Sizzle: Stories of Love, Lust, and Passion (short story collaboration)
Tidal Wave (Tales of Deep Passion) “Oceans Apart” – short story about Riley
Coming soon:
Soul Redemption (Rebel Riders #2)
Unraveled (Book #2 with Tim O’Rourke)
Beneath Broken (contemporary romance)
The Lunar Effect (Werewolf Saga)
All books available where ebooks are sold.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
C.J. is a west coast native who has lived on both coasts and now lives near the middle, in Colorado! Coming from a family of writers and editors, she feels writing is in her blood and hopes people will lose themselves for a little while in the fantasy and fun of her stories. She also loves sweet red wine, the SF 49ers, and unlike most authors, doesn't have any cats. When she's not writing, she can be found chasing around her kids or working at her day job, which she totally feels interferes with her real life, but also gives her inspiration for her books, since reality is sometimes way more interesting than fiction.
She also loves getting notifications that people have sent her an email, added her on Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads. So stop by and say hi – don't be shy! She's not! :)
Find me: www.cjpinard.com
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