Loved by a Soldier: A Military Romance Collection

by Alison Mello

  “Oh no, you were quiet as a mouse. I always get up around this time whether I want to or not. It’s my inner clock I guess. Do you want some coffee?”

  “Yes, please. I thought about making some, but I didn’t want to make any noise and I didn’t feel comfortable going through your cabinets.”

  “Oh phew, come in the kitchen with me to keep me company. Howard will sleep for about another hour so we can have a little girl talk.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  The aroma of the brewing coffee fills the kitchen and they sit at the table. Mattie asks, “So you said last night that you are originally from North Carolina. What part?”

  “Asheboro.”

  “What is that near?”

  “It’s only about a thirty minute drive from Greensboro. Have you ever heard of that?”

  “Yes, I’ve heard of Greensboro, but I haven’t ever been down there. Is it nice?”

  “Well, I like it down there. It’s my home, and there are a lot of small towns around. The people are more laid back than up here. The winters aren’t usually as rough and the cost of living is cheaper. What I miss the most, though, about North Carolina is its beauty. And Asheboro is only a three hour or so drive from Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. I love that beach.”

  “Maybe you’ll get to go home soon. You never know what God has planned for you.”

  The gurgling sound of the coffeemaker interrupts them and they both make a steaming cup. They sit back down and don’t say anything else at first. Trinity wants to ask her a few things about faith and church but is nervous. Instead, she asks about the friend who might help her. “He’s a very nice young man once you get to know him. When you first meet him he may come across as quiet and reserved, but that’s only because he has to get a feel for you, so to speak. Once he decides you are okay you won’t be able to shut him up.”

  Trinity laughs and is surprised at how good it feels. “So you were able to get hold of him last night then?”

  “I’m not sure if Howard did or not, to be honest. I know he called him and left a message, but I went to bed soon after you did. I’m sure he will tell us when he gets up.”

  They continue chatting about nothing in particular, enjoying a relaxing conversation. Mattie tells her about what it’s like to be a preacher’s wife—the joys and hardships of it. They just finish their first cup of coffee when seconds later Howard walks into the kitchen. Mattie kisses him good morning, then pours him a cup as he greets them.

  “How did you sleep, Trinity? I wasn’t expecting to see you up before me.”

  “Not very well, I’m afraid. Being in a strange place and with everything I have on my plate I didn’t think I would.”

  “You can go back to bed if you want, or maybe a nap later. It’s Saturday and with all this rain there isn’t much else to do today. Of course you may want to get ready for your trip. Mentally at least. It will be a long ride for you both.”

  “Oh, so you talked to your friend then?”

  He takes a long sip of coffee, the steam from his cup fogging his glasses. Removing them, Howard nods and answers, “Yes, I did, and I took the liberty to tell him what you told us last night. Most of it, not the real personal things. That wasn’t my place. I only told him what he needed to know.”

  “And he wants to help me even though he’s never met me?”

  “He does, and he should be here around four or five. He’s actually not too far from here. He happens to be visiting someone and said he will come here to get you before he goes back to Virginia.”

  Her eyes fall to her cup and fear begins to ease back into her mind. She has mixed emotions about leaving with a man she’s never met, even if Mattie and Howard trust him.

  “I know you only met us last night, and after so much drama in your life. You have no idea what your future holds and you’ve never met Gates, but God didn’t put you into our hands for nothing. We trust Gates with our lives, if that means anything to you. You have nothing to be afraid of,” Mattie assures her.

  “I know and I will do my best. I’m sorry I’m not in the same place as you both are with God. I guess I need to be though,” Trinity replies, and hesitates. With a mixture of emotions written on her face she continues. “I want to. I want to know God, I really do. I want to get back to church, but for some reason I’m scared. I don’t know why. Maybe, when things cool down a little, I will start going again in Virginia. I hope so, at least.”

  “God is the One who will never let you down,” Howard replies with a certain touch of sensitivity and compassion in his voice. Trinity looks at him and smiles.

  “Why don’t I make some pancakes and bacon?” Mattie offers.

  Everyone agrees breakfast sounds good, and nothing more is mentioned about Trinity’s situation. Instead the talk turns to several other topics, which include thoughts of getting a dog, the weather, and more about Trinity’s childhood home. The change of conversation and breakfast help her feel better. She helps clean up then lies back down for a nap. She hopes to get at least a couple hours of sleep before Howard and Mattie’s friend arrives. She highly doubts she will be comfortable enough to sleep on the drive to Virginia.

  ***

  Trinity sleeps longer than she means to and when she wakes, she hears a new voice coming from the living room. Her heart begins to pound and her nerves betray her. She doesn’t think she slept the whole day away. Can their friend already be here? She takes a deep breath and starts to go see, but hesitates. Standing at the doorway of the spare bedroom, she fidgets and shakes her hands, trying to calm down. She doesn’t want to be a basket-case in front of them. Finally, after a few minutes of steady breathing and pacing around the room she opens the door and walks out. Mattie and Howard welcome her with smiles, and a man who she assumes is their friend, Gates, looks at her with interest. He is an attractive man. She imagined him to be bigger, tougher looking, and with some visible tattoos, but he still looks as if he can probably handle himself.

  “Hey Trinity, I would like you to meet my friend Gates. As it turns out he was able to get here a few hours early,” Howard tells her.

  She smiles nervously at Gates and nods. “Hi.”

  “Hey, it’s nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you, too. Forgive me if I seem a little out of it. I’m a little overwhelmed.”

  “You don’t have to explain or apologize. I understand and I’m sure Howard and Mattie told you about me.”

  “They did last night, yes. A little.”

  “Okay, good. I’m sorry to rush you but we need to go very soon. It’s a long drive and from the weather report, it’s going to be raining the majority of the way back home.”

  She’s caught off-guard by having to leave so fast, but she doesn’t have anything with her so she is ready to go.

  “Uhhh, sure, whatever you say.”

  His eyes glitter and she notices they are a bright green. Almost hypnotizing. Mattie offers to make sandwiches to take with them but Gates says a cup of coffee for them both will be fine.

  “If that’s okay with you?” he asks Trinity. “We’ll stop on the way somewhere and get a bite to eat if you get hungry.”

  “Yeah, that’s fine,” she says back, but is irritated that he isn’t a little more considerate, whether she wants a sandwich or not.

  She looks at Howard and Mattie and feels gratitude toward them. She doesn’t know what to say, but feels she should hug and thank them both. They hug her back and ask her to please keep in touch when she can.

  “I will, I promise. I should get changed before I leave so you can have these clothes back.”

  “No, don’t worry about those things. You’ll need them more than I will,” Mattie replies and kisses Trinity on her cheek. “We will be praying for you.”

  Gates takes the two cups of coffee and says it’s time to go. She hugs Mattie and Howard goodbye again and feels horrible, thinking it may be the last time she’ll ever see them. She can’t explain it, but she feels she should pray
for them as well. When she looks out of the windshield of Gates’ Jeep through the rain at them, a lump fills her throat. She tells herself she can do this. What choice does she have?

  ***

  She watches the trees as Gates drives by at seventy miles an hour; they are a blur through the passenger side window. He hasn’t said more than a few words and she has no idea what to talk about. The silence is deafening and she hopes it won’t be like this the entire way to Virginia, or it will be a very long ride. They have been on the road for at least an hour and she needs to use the bathroom, but is nervous about saying anything. She decides feeling that way is ridiculous. She takes a deep breath for courage and spurts it out.

  “Yeah, that’s no problem. I was thinking the same thing. I need to get some gas anyhow,” he replies.

  I like his voice. She goes back to staring out the window and watching the rain until they get to a gas station. She assumes he is from Connecticut from what Howard told her, but she isn’t sure. Howard mentioned Gates lives in Virginia now, so his accent is hard to place. She’ll ask soon enough when they are more comfortable with each other. She has no plans on getting too comfortable, though. The idea of even being alone with a strange man is unsettling after what she’s been through, but she doesn’t have a lot of choices at the moment. Where else can she turn?

  ***

  Gates

  Gates pumps the gas as Trinity walks into the store to use the restroom. He knows only what his friends told him about her and he is okay with that for now. He helped one other girl in the past and didn’t think it would happen again, but there she is, smack dab in the middle of his life. She is so quiet, and by the looks of her he has a feeling she will be the sensitive type. He understands she’s nervous. Probably scared from whatever she’s been through. He admits that even though she’s roughed up a little and could use a change of clothes, beneath all of that is a beautiful woman. A woman like her, in the past before his tour of duty, would have made him a very happy man, but that is something he can’t think about. He has to help her, not lust after her. He walks inside and buys them both another cup of coffee and a snack.

  “This is just to hold us over until we get closer to Virginia,” Gates says when he hands her the food and coffee.

  “That’s fine.”

  “We’ll stop to eat at a place I’ve been to on occasion.”

  “That’s fine, too.”

  When they get back on the interstate, Trinity speaks up again. “Can we listen to some music? I don’t really care what it is; just something to break up the silence.”

  Gates leans forward and presses a button to turn the radio on. “Sure, go ahead and find whatever you want. I don’t have any preferences either.”

  After dozens of miles, he notices Trinity has fallen asleep. At least it appears so. It’s for the best. He knows she will need all the rest she can get, especially once she starts working on the schedule he plans for her.

  The rain becomes even more of a downpour, forcing him to drive slower than he’d hoped. The last thing he wants is to get into an accident on the way home with Trinity in the car.

  Thankfully, there isn’t a lot of traffic right now. He focuses on the road, keeping the car between the lines, but occasionally glances at her as she sleeps. He remembers the other woman he helped a couple of years earlier, Katherine, and the mess she had been in. He shakes his head in memory. Even though he saw some horrible things while he was a Seal, he is still amazed at how cruel some men are. He remembers growing up with a single mother. She was one of the most incredible women he ever knew. As the time passes and Gates handles the car through the rain toward Virginia, he thinks about his mother and how the years without her since she passed have been hard for him.

  A single mother raising only him, she rarely mentioned dating or doing anything frivolous. She worked hard trying to make ends meet and have the very best life for the both of them. Then right after he graduated high school, she went to her doctor for her normal checkup. He recalls her telling him the doctor wanted to run some blood tests; those results led her to have a mammogram. The results brought the worst news possible and even though she fought it like a champ, the cancer took her from him quicker than expected. She was and always would be the best person he ever had in his life.

  Before his emotions can get the best of him he shakes his head, wipes his eyes, and focuses harder on the road. Trinity begins snoring beside him and he grins. A day will come that he will use that against her—in fun, of course. He knows she has been through hard times, but hopefully they will get along fine. If things go well enough they will connect and be friends like he is with Katherine.

  Chapter 4

  Trinity

  Trinity sits on the back deck and stares out at the sparkling lake, watching the early morning sun spread its warm light on the calm water. She’s thankful it finally stopped raining. She is sick of hearing it and seeing it. It’s early and she enjoys the silence. Gates is inside doing whatever it is he usually does in the mornings. He seems to be consumed by something. They saw each other in passing as they both got their coffee, still not at ease with regular conversation. When she walked into the kitchen earlier she almost bumped into him as he was walking out. Again, a few minutes later it seemed she was getting in his way. To avoid him she stepped outside with her cup. She has a lot of questions, but doesn’t know how to begin. She’s sure he’s curious about her as well.

  Over the rim of her cup she watches a squirrel run across the grass, another one right behind it. Her heart feels good seeing them play and chase one another. She watches them zig zag around then up one of the trees until she loses sight of them. Her eyes dart around the yard in search of any other small creatures. She has always been a country girl at heart, and being among nature calms her soul. She can’t help but to feel more at peace, and smiles. Leaving her hometown when she was a child is one thing she wishes she never had to do, but she didn’t have a say in it. If it had been up to her she would have grown up in the country.

  She had a good life in Boulder growing up, but it still wasn’t as grand as being among the nature of Virginia or the Carolinas. So many things happened, mostly good, and she was excited about her blossoming career until her life in Connecticut with Derrick changed. At the time, she believed things were right for her, and they probably would have been if it hadn’t been for him. Then again, she knows the same thing could have happened in North Carolina. Sometimes she feels like some of it was her fault. Just like the old saying goes, hindsight is twenty/twenty.

  In the small town of Moneta, she thinks maybe, just maybe, things are beginning to look up. She has to try and have faith and see what happens. She has to learn to live in the moment, and do what is necessary to make her life better. It’s still too early to tell what might happen, and thinking about the possibilities makes her heart hammer against her chest.

  A slight breeze caresses her skin and she can smell the fragrance of honeysuckles. God knows she missed being surrounded by nature. She thinks about last night when she and Gates arrived at his cabin. It was late and they were both tired so neither stayed up to talk. Gates showed her around and said they would talk in the morning. Surprisingly, she slept better than the night before, probably because she was so tired from the ride. Even though he showed her the cabin last night, it is big so she wants to walk around later to get a better feel for the place where she will be living for…who knows how long.

  “Good morning.”

  Caught off guard, Trinity almost drops her cup and spills some of her coffee in her lap. She turns and sees Gates standing in the doorway behind the screen door. “Good morning,” she replies, trying not to sound flustered.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. How did you sleep?”

  “It’s okay, I was lost in my thoughts. Better than I did the night before, thank you. Did you sleep well?”

  He smiles in reply. “Not too shabby, thank you.”

  He doesn’t say anything else as
he looks out over the still damp grass. She tries to think of something to ask him as she watches him take in the view, and wonders what’s going through his mind. In front of her, right now, he is a mystery to her, as she is to him.

  “So, have you been living in this cabin for a long time? It’s beautiful here.”

  Gates sits in the chair next to her and answers. “I’ve owned this place for a few years. I love it here. I have found some serenity since I’ve been here. Having the privilege of waking up every morning to that view in front of us helps me a lot. Seeing squirrels and sometimes watching deer walk around makes me feel more grounded. I don’t plan on leaving this place for a very long time.”

  She quietly nods and fully understands what he means by being grounded with nature. There’s a sort of connection if one allows it to be. Breathing in the fresh air and the fragrance of nature is already helping her.

  Holding her cup with both hands, she looks at him with a ton of curiosity. She wants to know who this man truly is, what makes him tick, but she feels it’ll take some time to get that out of him. He doesn’t seem like the kind of man to just throw it all out on the table at once.

  “I know what you mean about the connection part, and I can see how it can bring peace to your life, that’s for sure,” she replies. “I think if I could live somewhere like this all the time I wouldn’t have as much stress. At least I would hope not.”

  He looks at her and says, “I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” then pauses. “I know you probably have a million things going through your mind and you want to know about me and what will happen from here on out. I know I would if I were in your shoes. Today, we will rest and you can walk around to get a good idea and feel for the place. You will be here for a while unless you choose to leave. You are not being held here against your will. In about an hour I’ll fix some breakfast then we’ll sit and have a long talk. I have to run to the store first, but I’m as curious about you as you are about me.”