Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 22647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
James had helped set up the room with us, and played his role well, but I didn’t blame him for wanting to get home now.
The others were staying with me, though. We’d head out after we got something to eat and start the long drive from New Mexico to Oklahoma, where I’d finally get to see my girl after nine long months.
“We should go to McDonalds. Do you know how much I just want a shitty hamburger?” Jack asked from his position on the bed.
Jack was another member of our unit. He was the stoic one.
The one we knew had something traumatizing happen to him.
Not that we’d force him to talk about it. If he wanted to get that off his chest, we’d always be there to listen. However, we all had our fair share of tragedies. We were a bunch of broken people, but we were still standing.
I looked over at him and smiled.
A hamburger sounded fucking amazing. “Let’s do it.”
“I’d rather Taco Bell,” a voice from my opposite side said.
I turned to find Dougie laying down on the bed next to me, still dressed fully in his dusty BDUs and sweatshirt.
He was waiting for his turn in line for the shower, and it showed.
But, like the rest of us, we were so happy to be back on American soil that it wasn’t necessary to wipe the dust of the Iraq desert off just yet. As long as the ground we were standing on was ours, and not a foreign country’s, the rest didn’t matter.
James came out of the bathroom wearing jeans, and bringing the steam of an extremely hot shower with him.
“Hey, asshole. You better have left some hot water, or I’ll kick your fuckin’ ass,” Max growled from the corner of the room where he was standing up from the chair he’d been occupying.
James shrugged. “Oops,” he grinned unrepentantly.
Max cursed and launched himself at James who braced himself for the impact. They hit and then went down.
Dougie sat up, stripped off his shirt and boots, and walked calmly into the bathroom and shut the door.
Sam and Jack laughed, while I could only shake my head.
Amateurs.
Two hours later, we were all packed into a Chevrolet Suburban that we’d rented and headed east. The time and miles couldn’t go by any slower.
Chapter 4
If I’m still able to walk to the kitchen after sex…you don’t deserve a sandwich.
-E-card
Blaine
“Mom, someone’s at the door, but I have cheese ball all over my hands!” I yelled.
“Got it honey,” my mom replied excitedly.
I looked at the entrance to the hallway that led to the front door with amusement.
My mother was such a nut.
A few days ago, when I’d told her that Elliott’s parents didn’t have anywhere to go this morning, she’d immediately invited them over for our annual Christmas brunch.
They’d accepted happily, which I’d known they would.
They were alone and missing Elliott just like I was; it just seemed right to commiserate together.
Clark and Lois were two peas in a pod.
I’d thought that no one could match my parents’ love for each other, but when I’d met Clark and Lois, they showed me how wrong I was.
“How ya doin’ pip?” Clark asked as he made his way into the kitchen.
He made my heart clench as I saw him.
He looked so much like Elliott that it hurt.
Around six foot, muscled, but not too much so. Lean hips, blonde hair, baby blue eyes, and a killer grin.
The only difference between the two of them was the sign of age on Clark’s face.
Laugh lines around his mouth; slight crow’s feet around his eyes.
That was it. The only differences.
“Hey, Superman. How ya’ doing this morning?” I asked.
I’d been calling Clark Superman since the moment I’d met him.
With him and Lois’ name being the same as Superman and his woman, it only seemed fitting.
He grinned Elliott’s grin at me and wrapped me in a tight side hug while he looked at the mess I had in front of me. “What’s that?”
“A cheese ball,” I said.
“Looks like puke rolled up into a ball,” he observed.
I giggled.
Clark owned his own concrete company. He had a crew full of men, and they didn’t have filters on their mouths, which sometimes spilled over into their daily lives.
“There’s coffee in the pot if you want some,” I informed him as I finished shaping my ball of puke...I mean cheese…and washed my hands.
He gladly accepted my offer, “Thanks.”
We wound up in the living room a little over an hour later as we watched the Christmas parade on TV.
“Do y’all want to open presents?” My mother asked.
My father shook his head. “No.”
My father was a Scrooge. He hated Christmas. Mostly it was because my mother went above and beyond for Christmas, and my father was required to put every single piece of ‘Christmas Shit,’ as he liked to call it, out.
“Oh!” Lois cried. “I left ours in the car, let me go get them.”
“No,” I stood. “I’ll go get them. Where are they?”
She was holding my mom’s gift to me in her lap as she inspected each tiny panel of cloth.
My mom had made me a memory quilt of old clothing of mine and Elliott’s. She’d spend nearly a year picking out colors, and stealing our clothes, to make the perfect blanket.
I absolutely loved it.
I’d use it every night until Elliott got home.
“They’re in the back seat. It’s unlocked,” she said absently.
I stood and made my way to the door, shivering slightly as I opened it, and slipped outside without my coat or shoes.
The cold seeped into my bare feet as soon as I stepped out, and I trembled slightly.
I rolled my eyes when I saw that Clark had bought a new truck.
The man got a new one every year around Christmas, according to Elliott.
I walked down my parents’ driveway, turned to the street, and then froze when I saw what was standing there.
He’d been hidden by the large bush at the end of the driveway, and I hadn’t seen him until my feet hit the asphalt of the road.