by A. E. Wasp
Table of Contents
Title Page
INCOMING
INCOMING
INCOMING: A VETERANS AFFAIRS NOVEL
DEDICATION
chapter one
chapter two
chapter three
chapter four
chapter five
chapter six
chapter seven
chapter eight
chapter nine
chapter ten
chapter eleven
chapter twelve
chapter thirteen
chapter fourteen
chapter fifteen
chapter sixteen
chapter seventeen
chapter eighteen
chapter nineteen
chapter twenty
chapter twenty-one
chapter twenty-two
chapter twenty-three
chapter twenty-four
chapter twenty-five
Chapter twenty-six
chapter twenty-seven
chapter twenty-nine
chapter thirty-one
chapter thirty-two
chapter thirty-three
chapter thirty-four
chapter thirty-five
chapter thirty-seven
chapter thirty-eight
epilogue
CHRISTMAS OUTING
chapter one - it’s beginning to look a lot like christmas
chapter two - please come home for christmas
chapter three - i’ll be home for christmas
chapter four - baby, it’s cold outside
chapter five - blue christmas
chapter six - haul out the holly
chapter seven - in the bleak midwinter
chapter eight - merry christmas (here’s to many more.)
PAPER HEARTS
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
chapter one
chapter two
chapter three
chapter four
chapter five
chapter six
chapter seven
chapter eight
chapter nine
chapter ten
chapter eleven
chapter twelve
chapter thirteen
chapter fourteen
chapter fifteen
chapter sixteen
chapter seventeen
chapter eighteen
chapter nineteen
chapter twenty
chapter twenty-one
chapter twenty-two
chapter twenty-three
PAPER ROSES
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
chapter one - short notice
chapter two - home chaotic home
chapter three - dirty pool
chapter four - it’s not me, it’s you
chapter five - family matters
chapter six - talk it out
chapter seven - oh, no, they didn’t
chapter eight - closure
chapter nine - it’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding
chapter ten - picture perfect
chapter eleven - leaving on a jet plane
chapter twelve - oh, mexico
chapter thirteen - a present from the sea gods
chapter fourteen - jacket and tie required
chapter fifteen - on the edge of glory
chapter sixteen - someplace more private
chapter seventeen - a little pervy, a little sweet
BRONZE STAR
BRONZE STAR: A VETERANS AFFAIRS NOVEL
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
AUTHOR’S NOTE
“What does that mean – ‘tame’?” the little prince asked.
1 – Don’t know if I need you
2 – Give me an hour to kiss you
3 – I wanna do bad things with you
4 – I’d do such things to ease your pain
5 – Can I clear my conscience if I’m different from the rest
6 – My dirty little secret
7 – Acting like a mover shaker dancing to Madonna
8 – I like the way you look, I know you like me
9 – Strange what desire will make foolish people do
10 – A need I can’t explain
11 – Sunday morning coming down
12 – I’m as dead as you
13 – Your little secret
14 – A conversation I just can’t have tonight
15 – If I told you what I was, would you turn your back on me?
16 – If I’m alone in this, I don’t think I can face it
17 – There’ll never be a better chance to change your mind
18 – If I seemed dangerous, would you be scared?
19 – But with the beast inside there’s nowhere we can hide
20 – What a wicked thing to do
21 – I don’t think I can face the consequences
22 – A cold and broken hallelujah
23 – I like to keep some things to myself
24 – Here to relive your darkest moments
25 – Tonight I’m gonna bury that horse in the ground
26 – What would you give for your kid fears?
27 – You can’t keep the sky from falling anyway
28 – All our sins come back to haunt us
29 – There’s no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin
30 – Just give me a reason, just a little bit’s enough
31 – Maybe it’s time to go home
32 – Close your eyes and you’ll see gold in your pain
33 – We bottled & shelved all our regrets
34 – We’re just two lost souls
35 – Like a slow song starting to accelerate
36 – Staring down a brilliant dream
37 – Dirty talk and daddy issues
38 – And we talked and talked about our parents
39 – Settle down inside my love
PREVIEW OF CITY BOY: HOT OFF THE ICE #1
Chapter Two
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO BY A.E. WASP
THE COMPLETE VETERANS AFFAIRS ROMANCES
INCOMING
CHRISTMAS OUTING
PAPER HEARTS
PAPER ROSES
BRONZE STAR
INCOMING
A Veterans Affairs Novel
Red Deer, Colorado is a fictional town. Any resemblance to existing college towns in Northern Colorado are purely the result of the author’s love for the area. Many of the surrounding attractions are exactly as described.
The U.S. Military has a long history in Colorado and Colorado’s Universities serve thousands of student veterans every semester.
INCOMING: A VETERANS AFFAIRS NOVEL
Copyright © 2016 by A. E. Wasp
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First Edition: Dec 2016
DEDICATION
With every book I write, the list grows.
To the Ds for their constant support and editing.
To my girlies, Ananda, Zoe, and Maya.
and to all the writers on Facebook
who support and cheer each other on.
chapter one
Heat beat down against the roof of Troy Johnson’s truck. He’d scored the shaded spot in Vincent’s employee parking, but that didn’t mean much when the temperature hovered around ninety-five.
He checked his watch. Fifteen more minutes before he could go into work and not look like he had no life.
He flicked through his phone half-heartedly. He could read, he had some ebooks on the phone, but nothing interested him. He hung his arm out the window and drummed his fingers against the metal door. He wasn’t bored; God knows he was no stranger to boredom. Army grunts raised figuring out ways to beat the boredom to an art form. He could amuse himself for a day with shoelaces and some rocks.
This was a different feeling, instead of having nothing to do; he had almost too many choices. For the first time in a long time, he had no externally imposed routine or schedule. School didn’t start for another six weeks. He could go to work or not, if he didn’t care about being fired. It had only been a couple of weeks. He could drive up into the mountains and camp, or get dressed up, drive to Denver and hit the bars. No one would know, either way. And, he feared, no one would care. A box of maps sat on the passenger’s side of the bench seat, taunting him with miles of dirt roads stretching across the top of the Rockies.
None of it sounded appealing. He kept waiting for something to feel important, for something to come along and make him want to get out of bed in the morning. He liked his job, but it wasn’t anything important. Maybe when school started, he’d feel more satisfied.
He sometimes wished someone would just tell him what to do. He remembered feeling like this his senior year in High School. Graduation had loomed on the horizon. Everyone around seemed so excited about finishing school and finally getting started on their real lives. All he could think was, oh God, what do I do now? When the Army recruiter came in to talk, he offered a path, a purpose, and an identity.
Now here he was, pathless again. He couldn’t go back; he was done with the military, but he couldn’t find a way forward either.
He sighed, resting his head back against the seat, and turned up the radio. Two more songs and he’d go inside.
He couldn’t wait for school to start.
Vincent’s sat on the very edge of the hipster part of the small downtown right before it turned into fields and barns. Not officially a gay bar, it’d become the unofficial hangout of the gay community in Red Deer. Gay women outnumbered the men two to one in this town, and the bar had more pool tables than disco lights. It also had a full-service restaurant. Parents brought their kids in for brunch and lunch on the weekends, sipping daytime-appropriate cocktails and local microbrews while watching their kids run around the backyard patio full of climbable rocks and a rickety tree house that had given more than one parent a small heart attack as it creaked and swayed.
There was free music in the town square later that night. Vincent’s front patio faced that direction, so he expected business to pick up. The heat from the day lingered, and children splashed in the town fountain while their dogs panted in the shade on the flagstones.
Troy stepped through the back door of the bar and waited for his eyes to adjust. At four o’clock on a Friday afternoon, only a few regulars hung out at the bar.
Angel leaned against a shelf in the back room, flipping through the receipts from earlier in the day. Her hair was a swirl of red, white, and blue streaks, the undercut on one side dark black. She had a skull stud piercing in her nose and Colorado flag gauges in her ears.
“Hey, Troy,” she said. “How’s it going?”
“Love the hair.”
“Thanks.”
“How’s business today?” He hung his jacket on the hook, swung a black Vincent’s apron over his head.
Angel shrugged. “Slow. It always dips a bit when the college kids go home. Considering that most of them can’t even drink legally, I’m not really sure how that works. But it does. Got a nice new load of tourists, today. I think they’re just hanging out here, getting ready go further into the mountains tomorrow.”
“That’s what I would do.” He tied off his apron with a decisive bow.
By about 7 o’clock the outdoor patio was full. The free music in the square started around 7:30 and people liked to come early and get a good seat.
Angel sidled up next to the bar. “Troy. Hey, Troy. That guy is back.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Troy said. “What guy?”
Angel rolled her eyes. “Don’t give me ‘what guy.’ You know what guy. You’re perfect for each other,” she muttered under her breath.
Yeah, he knew what guy. Curly blond hair, deep blue eyes framed with surprisingly dark lashes. Taller than Troy, but more slender. And, most relevant to Troy’s interests, the guy always ate alone. “Oh, that guy.”
He could feel Angel’s gaze on him, but he ignored her in favor of wiping at a particularly cloudy spot on the bar that really needed some attention.
“Uh huh.” Angel leaned over the bar. “I could introduce you. Didn’t you say something about being a vet once? Well, he’s a vet, too.”
Troy’s head came up. “Yeah?” Down at the end of the bar, two frat guys in baseball caps tried to get his attention. He wondered where they came from; if they had any idea they were in the closest thing Red Deer had to a gay bar.
Then again, maybe they were gay. He couldn’t always tell. He passed for straight all the time. Heck, he hadn’t known for sure that he was gay until Afghanistan.
He muttered something noncommittal at Angel and moved down to the customers. He took their orders, got them their drinks, and made small talk, his mind on the blond guy the whole time.
Troy hadn’t dated anyone since moving to Colorado. He was here to earn his degree while staying as far from his West Virginia hometown as possible. He’d stopped by there after his discharge, of course, but left as soon as human decency would allow. He didn’t want to talk about war, about the friends he had lost or the things he had done. And he certainly didn’t want to have the whole coming out scene. That could wait until some vague time in the unforeseeable future. Like maybe never.
Maybe he’d give it a shot, let Angel introduce him. What did he have to lose? If he was planning to stay in Red Deer for at least the next four years, he needed to start making some friends. And if the guy was a vet, they’d have something to talk about. Troy wondered where he’d served. He seemed kind of skinny. Maybe he was Air Force.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Angel out on the patio talking to the guy. They seemed pretty friendly, laughing, and smiling at each other.
“So how about you let me hook you up with the new guy?” Angel asked Dmitri.
“What new guy?” Dmitri asked, not making eye contact.
“The guy you’ve been eye-fucking for the last two weeks. The luscious hunk with the tattoos and an ass that won’t quit. The guy staring at you right now. That guy.”
They both turned and looked in the window, catching Troy’s eye. Startled, Troy turned back to the bar.
“Oh, my God. He’s adorable,” Angel said as Troy turned away from the window. “I think he was blushing. If he were a chick, I would totally hit that.”
“Yeah, because you’re known for your discernment.”
Angel hit him. “Are you calling me a tramp?”
Dmitri shrugged, his eyes wide. “I’m not not calling you a tramp.”
A woman at a nearby table snorted a half-laugh as if she was way too familiar with Angel’s dating habits, and Angel narrowed her eyes at Dmitri.
“Hmm,” Dmitri said innocently over the lip of his coffee cup. “What’s the special tonight?”
“Cream of get a clue soup.”
“Funny. You should be a comedian.”
“Fine. You’re on your own.”
“Oh Angel-cakes, don’t be like that. You know I’m just jealous.”
Angel sniffed. “Damn right you are, you monk
.” She settled on hip on the side of Dmitri’s chair and put an arm around his shoulder.
“Look, Troy’s new. He doesn’t know anybody in town, and it would be good for him to hang out with some other people, make a friend. Just take him out for some coffee. It doesn’t have to be anything big; I’m not asking you to have sex with the guy.”
Privately, Dmitri thought that having sex with the guy sounded just fine.
“You could just talk to him, you know,” Angel said. “Besides, I think he said he is a vet. Or was a vet. Or something.”
“If he’s a vet, why is he working as a bartender?”
“Gee, I don’t know. Sounds like the kind of thing you could find out by having a conversation with someone.”
“Why bother?” Dmitri slumped back further into his metal chair. “You and I both know I suck at relationships. If we talk, and he somehow manages not to hate me right away, then what? We go on a date, two dates. Third date sex...” Dmitri’s stomach lurched pleasantly at that thought. He imagined running his hand through the silky brown hair, gazing into those hazel eyes and running his tongue along the sleeve of tattoos lovingly caressing each curve of bicep and triceps. That scruff of beard would feel great against the inside of his thighs.
“Third date sex, then what?” Angel tucked her tray under her arm and watched him with an amused smile.
“Hm?”
“You went away there for a bit, Dimka. Whatcha thinking about?”
“Don’t you have a job to do?”
“Don’t try to distract me with work. Better men than you have tried. So, you were telling me about what horrors would follow actually speaking to Troy.”
“I’m never going to talk to him, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, that’s right. Because if you talk to him, you’ll go on a date, and then have sex, and then?”
“Then I shut him out emotionally one too many times, he gets clingy; I pull back more. We fight and break up, then he never wants to see me again, and I have to find another place to eat and have nothing pretty to look at anymore.”
“Oh, well, when you put it that way, it makes perfect sense. Idiot.” She smacked him on the head with a menu. Luckily, Vincent didn’t believe in offering everything plus the kitchen sink. His menu was burgers, steaks, and nachos, with the occasional salad in grudging acknowledgment of the many vegetarians in town.
“Whatever. I know myself.” He pulled the menu from her hand and made a show of looking at it. He really wished sometimes that he didn’t know himself as well as he did. Or that Angel didn’t know him as well as she did. But being best friends for twenty years gave her a lot of insight into what made him tick. “I’ll take a gin and tonic and some nachos.” He didn’t look at her, but he could feel her disapproval beating against the top of his head.
