Afterward, as the battalion dispersed, I took a deep breath and wandered over to where Kade was bent over, hands on his knees as he caught his breath. He glanced up at me over his shoulder.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “So. Good run?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Decent.” I cleared my throat. “Actually, I’m kind of hurting today. I guess I can’t handle traveling over the weekend, having fun and still getting up on time Monday morning.” I managed a rueful grin. “Think this is what getting old feels like?”
Kade snorted. “Dude, we’re not old. We’re just hitting our stride.” He paused. “Things change, and our priorities might not be the same now, but that doesn’t mean we forget what’s important. It was like when Emma was born, and all you guys helped me pick up the slack when she didn’t sleep at night for months. Or when Derek was hurt, and we all pitched in. Yeah, we’ve got women and families, but we’re still us.”
“I hope so.” I stared off toward the barracks. “What about us, Kade? I mean, I don’t want to get all sensitive and touchy-feely, but I feel bad about how everything’s gone down between you and me since I’ve been with Jacey.”
He huffed out a bark of laughter. “Yeah. I know.” He rubbed his forehead. “I spent the weekend with a wife who was so pissed about the way I acted Saturday that she barely spoke to me. Then my sister got home Sunday and told me that I was being an asshole. If that wasn’t bad enough, my mother called from California late last night and reamed me inside out, telling me that if I didn’t figure out my shit, I was going to drive my sister away. She told me that she hadn’t even blinked when I’d brought home a pregnant wife, so how dare I judge Jacey for falling in love with a wonderful man like Owen Hughes?”
“Ouch.” I winced. “That sucks, man. Sorry.”
“Not your fault.” Kade met my eyes. “This is on me. I know that. You didn’t do anything wrong, Owen. You’ve treated my sister like a queen. I’m the one who was a fucking jerk. I owe you and Jacey both an apology.”
I kicked at the ground. “Nah. I get it. She’s your little sister. She’s always going to be the one you protect, and no man’s ever going to be good enough for her. That’s the way it should be.”
“Maybe, but I know you, Hughes. You’ve always been a great guy. I should’ve trusted you.” He narrowed his eyes. “It’s tough. For so long, I felt like I had to be the one to take care of her. Even after I could see that you two were good together, I let that feeling get in the way of acting the right way. I promised you both I’d be all right with you seeing each other, but when it came down to it, I didn’t make good on that. I’m sorry.”
“You know what? Let’s agree that we both did what we had to do, we were both idiots, and let’s move on with life.”
“That works for me.” Kade held out his hand. “Welcome to the family, bro. The deal is that as long as you treat my sister like you have been and as long as she wants you around, you’re one of us.”
Relief washed over me. “I got that. And I appreciate it, Kade. Thanks.”
“Cool.” He expelled a long breath. “Now I gotta go home and grovel to my wife some more, so she’ll be nice to me again.”
“Good luck with that,” I called as he jogged away.
Kade paused, walking backwards. “Thanks. You know, part of me thinks, what a pain in the ass this is, and then I remember life before. And I know I’d do anything to keep things the way they are now. Leah didn’t just make my life better. She is my life. So yeah, groveling isn’t a big deal. I’d do that and more every day of my life if it kept my woman happy.”
For the first time, I knew exactly what he meant. “We’re some lucky guys.”
He grinned. “We are indeed. Catch you later.”
Epilogue
Six Months Later
Jacey
“Blow out your candle, Emma!”
My niece gazed around the table from her seat in the high chair, her eyes serious and quizzical. In front of her, a single birthday candle flickered on the small white cake. As we all watched in anticipation, Emma reached out one chubby hand to grab a fistful of icing.
“Nice move, princess.” My brother leaned over the back of the high chair and blew out the candle for her. “Look at how smart my daughter is. She goes for the good stuff.”
“She loves her sweets.” Leah bent down to kiss her daughter’s cheek. Emma clapped her hands together, sending the frosting flying and making all of us laugh.
“I can’t believe she’s a year old.” Samantha picked up a paper napkin decorated with pink flowers and wiped her cheek, where some of the icing had landed. “It doesn’t seem that long ago we were setting up your wedding, Leah.”
“I know.” My sister-in-law leaned into her husband’s side and kissed his cheek. “The happiest day of my life.”
Kade wrapped his arm around her waist. “It was the day my life began.”
“Awwww . . .” Max grinned, wagging his head. “Look at you, still all romantic and shit.”
“Language,” his wife reprimanded. “Must I remind you of last week when we were babysitting and Emma went home saying damn, damn, damn?”
Max winced. “Hey, no one can prove she picked that up from me. How do we know Kade and Leah aren’t letting her watch documentaries on beavers?”
A groan rippled through the crowd. “Seriously, Max. I think this is one of those times when you just have to admit defeat.”
Next to me, with his arm slung around my shoulder, Owen added, “Back at the academy, we’d recommend you use the phrase, No excuse, sir.”
“And on that note, who wants ice cream?” Leah lifted a scoop.
“I’ll cut the cake,” volunteered Harper. She picked up the knife, and I smiled at the sight of the diamond sparkling on her left hand. She and Jake had gotten engaged last month.
Once we’d all been served cake and ice cream, the room was quiet as we enjoyed the dessert. Emma, tired of playing with the frosting and freed from her high chair, toddled around the room, examining her birthday gifts and more importantly, the boxes they’d come in.
“Guess we all better get used to boxes.” Delia licked her fork. “We got the scheduled date for the movers today. Fort Carson, here we come.”
“I don’t want to think about it.” Tasha sighed. “I can’t believe you’re all going to be PCS’ing over the next three months. You’re my best friends. What am I going to do without you guys while I’m still stuck here?”
Next to her, Derek coughed, and I saw the unhappiness on his face. In about six weeks, he was leaving Fort Lee to attend a six-month long course in Fort Bliss, Texas before he PCS’d to another post. Tasha had to finish her residency in physical therapy here in Virginia, so the two were facing a long and potentially difficult separation. We all felt their pain. I couldn’t imagine leaving Owen now that we’d found each other. I was fortunate that the career I’d chosen in freelance photography lent itself to the frequent moves that would be part of my life as a military spouse.
“Everything’s about to change, isn’t it?” Harper glanced around, her eyes resting on each of us for a moment. “It sucks.”
“It’s life in the Army,” Tasha answered. “We make friends, we enjoy our time with them, and then we leave them. We move to a new duty station, and we make new friends.”
“But we never forget the ones we leave behind.” Delia reached over to squeeze Harper’s hand. “And our paths will cross again.”
“Maybe.” Shaw sipped his coffee. “But the likelihood that we’ll all be stationed at the same place, at the same time again is pretty slim. Some of us might retire. This is probably one of the last nights we’ll all be together.”
“Way to bring down the room, dude.” Owen rubbed my back. “I thought this was Emma’s big bash, not our hail and farewell.”
“It is.” Samantha stood up. “We’re here to celebrate, and we have a lot to be thankful for. I know we’re all moving
, and I know it’s going to be hard to leave each other, but over the last year or so, we’ve all found so much . . . joy.” She smiled, although I caught the gleam of tears in her eyes. “It doesn’t matter where we end up. We won’t lose touch.”
“This feels like the final graduation scene in Grease.” Shaw balled up his napkin and threw it at Derek. “Who’s going to volunteer to ride the bitchin’ car off into the sunset?”
Everyone laughed, and the sadness in the room seemed to ease a little. Next to me, Owen nuzzled my neck.
“Hey.” He whispered against my skin. “I saw a bottle of wine on the counter over there. Do you think anyone would notice if we stole it and snuck outside?”
I smiled, turning in his arms to look up into his face. “Hmm. I don’t know. The last time I did that, I ended up falling in love with the guy who shared my bottle with me.”
“And that dude fell pretty damn hard for you, too.” He brushed the hair out of my face. “That was my best day ever.”
“I don’t know. It seems to me that every day we’re together only gets better.” I kissed his jaw.
“I’d have to agree. I’m glad I shared my hiding space with the most beautiful girl in the world.”
“It worked out pretty well for both of us, didn’t it?” I touched my finger to his lips. “I love you, Owen.”
“It’s a good thing you do, because I don’t want to take just any chick with me to my new duty station . . . which I found out today is going to be Schofield Barracks.”
“Schofield?” Excitement filled me. “Hawaii? We’re moving to Hawaii?”
“Aloha, baby. I’m taking my California girl to the land of beaches and gnarly waves.” He framed my face with his hands. “Are you cool with that?”
I turned my lips to press a kiss into his palm. “I’d go to the end of the earth with you, Owen Hughes.” Standing on my toes, I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him tight as I murmured into his ear.
“But Hawaii will be the perfect place to begin our forever together.”
The End
Yes, this is the end of this series of the Career Soldier Books. I’m going to miss this group; for a set of characters I never planned to write, I’ve grown quite attached.
There’s a good chance that there may be more Career Soldier Books at some point, perhaps some time in 2018.
Meanwhile, I have a whole list of other contemporary romances you might enjoy! Be sure to check out my list of other works.
Coming in late June . . . FIFTY FROGS, available for preorder now!
Boy meets girl. It’s the way romances usually begin . . . and while we all love a happy ending, it’s the #MeetCute that wins our hearts.
How did you two meet?
The #MeetCute Books each have a unique answer to that query. Some might make you swoon, others might make you giggle . . . and some may make you blush.
Twelve authors. Twelve stand-alone contemporary romance novels. Twelve stories that will make your heart beat a little faster.
Because it’s all about the #MeetCute.
* * *
Vivian is sick of dating. Sick of the way guys treat her, sick of living and crying by when and if they call . . . she’s just done.
When her aunt reminds her that a girl has to kiss a lot of frogs before she finds her prince—Aunt Gail says that number is fifty—Vivian decides she’s taking control of her dating life: she’s going to go on a series of first dates only, and each one must end in a kiss. She begins chronicling each date—the good, the bad and the downright unbelievable—with a plan to turn the stories into an in-depth magazine series about the realities of dating in the twenty-first century.
Everything’s going along according to plan until Vivian hits a bump in her road with Frog Number Five, who doesn’t seem to understand his role in this deal. And despite Vivian’s determination to make it all the way to the big five-oh, when fate keeps throwing this same man across her path, she begins to wonder if maybe it’s time to ditch the plan . . . and kiss just one more frog.
Other Books
Career Soldier
Maximum Force
Temporary Duty
Hitting the Silk
Damage Assessement
Scheme of Manuever
The King Series
Fearless
Breathless
Restless
Endless
The King Series Boxset
The Seredipity Series
Undeniable
Stardust on the Sea
Unquenchable
Recipe for Death Series
Death Fricassee
Unforgettable
Death A La Mode
Death Over Easy
Age of Aquarius
Moonlight on the Meadow
The Fox’s Wager
Crystal Cove Books
The Posse
The Plan
The Path
The One Trilogy
The Last One
The First One
The Only One
The One Trilogy Box Set
The Always Love Series
Always For You
Underneath My Christmas Tree
Always My Own
My One and Always
Always Our Love
The Perfect Dish Series
Best Served Cold
Just Desserts
I Choose You
Keeping Score
When We Were Us
Hanging By A Moment
Days of You and Me
Acknowledgements
In January of this year, my family had an unexpected upheaval when my husband, who is an Anglican priest, was let go from the church where he served because of budgetary concerns. Suddenly, my income had to support us, and although I have a backlist of over fifty books, I needed to up my game.
I turned to my author friends for advice, and one of them, Kristi Rose, suggested that I consider writing a quick-release series of trope romance novellas for release in Kindle Unlimited. Although I’d never written military romance before, it felt like a good fit: I’m an Army brat who married into the Army, the daughter of a USMA grad (class of 1965) who fell in love with and married another USMA grad (class of 1987).
Still, I didn’t expect to enjoy these books as much as I have. I thought I’d toss together the stories and that would be it. But of course, I ended up falling in love with each of these soldiers and their spunky women as I wrote their romances.
The decision to publish these books impulsively didn’t just affect me and my schedule. It also meant that the wonderful Meg Murrey had to create some sexy soldier-chest covers. (And she did an amazing job!) It meant that Stacey Blake of Champagne Formats had to fit the books into her formatting schedule. And it meant my Temptresses had a ton more reading to do.
Thank you to everyone who lent a hand. Special kudos to my Temptresses who jumped in to beta read, including Kara Schilling, Yvonne Farmer, Christy Durbin, Krissy Smith, Carla Edmonson, Dawn Line, Sue Ann Brooks, Gretchen Flick and Niki Mattes. BIG hugs, ladies—I adore you!
If you’ve only discovered my books via KU, I invite you to try out some of my other books. Sign up for my newsletter here, and you’ll have the opportunity to read four of my first in series books absolutely free! If you’re already a subscriber, or if you’d rather see what I have to offer, check out my Amazon page for all of my current titles.
As always, I have to thank my family for their patience while I wrote this series, and a very special thanks to all of our servicemen and servicewomen and their families. Your sacrifice does not go unnoticed.
about the author
Photo by Heather Batchelder
Tawdra Kandle writes romance, in just about all its forms. She loves unlikely pairings, strong women, sexy guys, hot love scenes and just enough conflict to make it interesting. Her books run from YA paranormal romance through NA paranormal and contemporary romance to adult contemporary and paramystery romance. She lives
in central Florida with a husband, kids, sweet pup and too many cats. And yeah, she rocks purple hair.
Follow Tawdra on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and sign up for her newsletter so you never miss a trick.
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Scheme of Maneuver: A Career Soldier Military Romance Page 9
