Home > A Thousand Letters(9)

A Thousand Letters(9)
Author: Staci Hart

"Everything go okay?" she asked, not looking up from the screen.

"Just fine. They're all off to dreamland."

She sighed. "Good. I hope they don't come out a thousand times."

I tried to smile, but I found it hard to pretend. "Well, I'm heading downstairs for the night."

Mary looked up to meet my eyes. "Oh, I didn't even ask you how Rick is."

This was her way of asking. "He's …" I swallowed. "He's okay. I read to him while Sophie and W-wade had a meeting with the social worker." His name hitched in my throat, catching, snagged by my heart.

"Wade's here?" she asked, one dark brow climbing.

I nodded. "He flew in from Germany tonight."

"Huh. Great place to be stationed. Have you even seen him since he left?"

"No," I answered quietly.

Compassion passed across her face and was gone. "I'm sorry. Was it hard?"

I took a breath. "It was."

"Is he just as handsome as he was?"

"More. He's … he's a man now. I barely recognized him."

She shook her head. "Well, he's really done well for himself in the military. I hate that he's back under such awful circumstances. Poor Rick. Those poor girls."

I found it so strange that she approved now when seven years ago she was so quick to judge, so quick to steer me away from him. Another attempt at a smile had me wanting to leave. "Okay, well … if that's all, I'd really like to lie down."

"Of course," she said with a wave of her hand.

I started to walk away but stopped, turning back to her when I remembered something. "Oh, I'm sorry, one more thing."

She was already back on her phone. "Mmhmm?"

I clasped my hands behind my back, pulse speeding up at the prospect of her saying no. "The next few weeks are going to be … well, they're going to be a lot for the Winters family. Sophie's asked me to help out, and I'd like to do what I can. Do you … do you think it would be possible to put the kids in full-time school for a while?"

Mary looked up at me, frowning. "That will cost a fortune, Elliot. I don't even know if the school has space."

My cheeks flushed. "I know, I just thought—"

"I mean, I can ask them, if you want to pay for it with your money. And if they have room, I guess that would be fine. But I still need you to pick them up every day."

I blinked, simultaneously surprised at her solution and not surprised at all. "O-of course," I said, not thinking twice about doing it. I only had a few weeks left with Rick, and I wanted to be there as much as I could, whatever the cost, regardless of the slight.

She looked back at her screen, thumb scrolling. "Unless Charlie will help out, but I doubt it. You know how busy he is."

I pursed my lips and nodded. "All right."

"'Night, Elliot. Get some rest."

"'Night," I echoed and descended the stairs to the bottom floor, then into my room where I closed the door behind me with a snick.

I loved the room, loved the creaky floorboards and the dark wood wainscot, loved the old brick fireplace and elaborate mantle. The house had been built in 1910 and remodeled, but they'd left so many of the original fixtures that it still held the charm it had always had.

Mary's words and the stress of the day didn't ebb as I made my way through my room putting my things away, changing into more comfortable clothes, finding myself on my bed, notebook in my lap, pencil flying as I poured my heart onto the page, thinking of everything and nothing, possessed by my emotions.

My family and my responsibilities at home, my sister … today I felt stifled and trapped, but it was less about them, I knew.

It was Rick lying in a hospital bed. It was Sophie crying in my arms. It was Wade standing before me, a man I didn't recognize, though I knew him all the same.

Wade.

He was home, appearing at the edge of my universe after what felt like a thousand years without him. Changed was the word that circled my thoughts. Hardened, colder. The boy I knew was gone.

No, not gone — he was there, somewhere. But I couldn't see him; I could only see what he'd become. I wondered how much of what he was now was due to me.

I set my pen down in the crease of my notebook and leaned back, my eyes on the fireplace as I thought back to the night he asked me to marry him, the last time I was truly happy, even though it was only for a moment.

It had been summertime, just after his graduation, a bittersweet affair. It was a celebration of all he'd accomplished and a moment that marked the beginning of the end. Because once he had graduated, he'd enlisted in the Army.

The lights were off that night so long ago, and I lay in bed, waiting for him with the moonlight bathing my room, casting long shadows in the corners as I listened for him.

In two days, he would be leaving for boot camp, and we'd made a pact, a vow to stay together until I finished high school. Then I'd graduate, and he'd come back from his first deployment, and we'd marry. It was going to be the longest year of our lives and then … well, after that I didn't really know what would happen. I could get an online degree, find a place for myself wherever we were. Maybe I could go to a local college, transfer when we were re-stationed. Make it work. And for Wade, I'd make it work.

That didn't mean I wasn't scared. Because anything could happen in that year. He could meet someone else. He could change his mind. Or the unthinkable could happen: he might not make it home from the war.

   
Most Popular
» Nothing But Trouble (Malibu University #1)
» Kill Switch (Devil's Night #3)
» Hold Me Today (Put A Ring On It #1)
» Spinning Silver
» Birthday Girl
» A Nordic King (Royal Romance #3)
» The Wild Heir (Royal Romance #2)
» The Swedish Prince (Royal Romance #1)
» Nothing Personal (Karina Halle)
» My Life in Shambles
» The Warrior Queen (The Hundredth Queen #4)
» The Rogue Queen (The Hundredth Queen #3)
romance.readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024