Tag: armed forces

Want to know what’s going on? Visit this page.

This an ongoing story that I’m posting over the next several hours. Though I have an idea what I want to write, it’s not written – so this story will be rough, really rough, but I thrive on this impromptu stuff so … there you go. 🙂 Thanks for reading!

___________________________

“Hello?” Her voice trembled and her hand shook so much she missed the first few syllables of her husband’s words, her eyes remained fixed on Margie.

“Heya Lece.” Carter’s voice was deep and sexy – a part of her, deep in her belly, quivered at the sound.

“Hey yourself.” She swallowed. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the air right about now?”

“Yeah well, ‘supposed to’ are the key words here.”

“What happened?”

“We’re stuck in D.C. We’ve had some pretty severe t-storms rip through here in the last few hours so my flight has been delayed.”

“Delayed?” She repeated, for her mother-in-law’s sake.

Margie raised a hand in disgust and shook her head. She leaned down to mumble something in Lisa’s ear causing the baby to squeal in delight.

“Yeah, but we’re taking off … oh wait, they just called our flight. We should be in the air in the next thirty minutes. That means …” she heard the rustle of clothing as he checked his watch, “I should be landing in Nashville at 1600 hours.”

“Okay,” Alecia said, her heart sinking with disappointment. She did a mental calculation, that would be 4:00, another two hours of waiting. “We’ll be here waiting for you.”

Carter cleared his throat. His voice dropped another octave and his words came out a husky whisper. “How’s our baby girl?”

Alecia’s eyes slid to their daughter. Margie had grabbed a rattle from the diaper bag and given it to Lisa, the baby girl was happily waving it around. She laughed when she bopped Margie in the face. “She’s beating your mom up with a rattle,” she said with a laugh.

“Ah, that’s my girl! Three months old and already fighting.” He laughed.

The sound sent a shiver up Alecia’s spine. “Do you want to talk to your mom?” She could hear the sound of a zipper and then more rustling before Carter answered.

“No time. I need to jet out of here or they’ll leave me behind.”

“They better not!” Alecia said, perhaps a bit more sharply than she intended.

“No chance, Lece.” She heard him walking and his voice dropped into whisper mode again. “I can’t wait to see you.”

Alecia swallowed the lump in her throat and tightly closed her eyes. She conjured Carter up in her mind, his tall, lean body, his muscular arms, his sexy smile … “Hurry up and get here, Carter.”

He laughed. “Yes Ma’am!” he barked good naturedly and signed off.

She flipped her phone closed and stuck it back into her pocket. “They were delayed, but they were boarding as he hung up.” She suddenly felt selfish for hogging him all to herself. “I’m sorry, Margie. He wanted to talk to you but they were boarding …”

She shrugged and smiled. “As long as they’re on their way, that’s all that matters. We’ll catch up when he gets here.”

Alecia noticed that her mother-in-law was looking a bit tired. She stepped in close and put her hands out to Lisa. The baby cackled and made a grab for her. “Here, let me take her for a bit. She should be getting sleepy pretty soon. Her nap time is usually about this time …”

“Oh, thanks,” Margie gladly released her hold. “She’s heavier than she looks!”

“She’s a porker all right,” she said with a grin. She began swinging the baby from side-to-side when she abruptly stopped to stare at the blonde woman walking towards them.

Margie noted the change in her expression and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Jessie’s here.”
_____________________

It’s time for a chance to win this book!

Chicken Soup for the Military Wife’s Soul: Stories to Touch the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit by Jack Canfield

If you would like to win this book, just leave a comment on any of the posts between NOW and 6:00 p.m. U.S. central time! A winner will be announced in the 6:30 p.m. U.S. central time entry!

Want to know what’s going on? Visit this page.

This an ongoing story that I’m posting over the next several hours. Though I have an idea what I want to write, it’s not written – so this story will be rough, really rough, but I thrive on this impromptu stuff so … there you go. 🙂 Thanks for reading!

___________________________

Lisa’s burp broke the awkward silence. Alecia giggled self-consciously. “I’m sorry.”

Again, Margie waved her concern aside. “She’s a baby, what do you expect? Wouldn’t it be great if we could all burp like that and not worry about what people thought?”

Alecia sputtered an unintelligible response between chuckles.

“May I?” Margie asked while holding her hands out to indicate she would like to hold Lisa.

“Oh, of course.” Alecia gently handed her daughter over to her mother-in-law. “She’s been in an exceptionally good mood today. I think she knows her daddy is coming home.”

Margie rubbed her nose against Lisa’s and laughed. “I’m sure you’re right. This little girl is as sharp as a tack.”

Alecia nodded her agreement and unconsciously rubbed her arms – they felt so empty without her baby.

The women sat in companionable silence for long moments. An occasional announcement would sound over the intercom, and other than the normal airport activities, their corner was quiet. Alecia sighed. She wasn’t sure her mother-in-law wanted to talk about it, but figuring if she were in her shoes, she would want someone to spill her guts to, she spoke up.

“I … I thought Vince was in remission?”

Margie turned Lisa around so that she sat on her lap and kept her occupied by wiggling her fingers so the baby could try and catch them. “He was. But he started getting worse … so I took him …” she hiccupped, tossed her head and continued on in a stronger voice, “so I took him back to his doctor and … well …” It wasn’t necessary to finish, Alecia understood.

“I’m so, so, sorry, Margie.”

“Yes well …” again, she trailed off.

A few more moments passed, the sound of Lisa’s happy cooing, sounding somehow wrong given their conversation.

“Do … Carter and Pierce know what’s going on?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

Margie sighed and began to bounce Lisa on her knee when the baby start fidgeting. “They, uh, don’t know about any of this.”

Alecia turned to look at her in surprise. “What?”

Margie kissed her granddaughter’s head before turning pleading eyes to her. “Please Alecia, don’t say anything to Carter. I … I’ll tell them when the time is right. I just didn’t want to burden them while they were over there. I was afraid …” she swallowed again before continuing, “I was afraid if they knew what was going on with their father they would be reckless, make a mistake ….”

Alecia blinked back tears and nodded. Though she thought Carter had every right to know about his father’s declining health, she certainly appreciated Margie’s reasoning.

Lisa pulled one of her grandmother’s fingers into her mouth and began knowing enthusiastically. Margie laughed.

“I think she’s getting a tooth.”

Alecia nodded and aimed a sad smile at her daughter. “Yes. I think I felt a bump on her upper gums the other day.”

Margie ran her finger under the baby’s upper lip and nodded. “I think you’re right.”

Alecia bent over to rummage through the diaper bag once again. She was searching for Lisa’s teething ring when her mother-in-law asked, “Have you heard from Jessie?”

Jessie. Alecia’s sister-in-law and married to Carter’s brother, Pierce. She had tried to like the girl, but she was wild, loud and spontaneous, everything Alecia wasn’t. “Actually …” she began when her cell phone rang.

“Who could be calling me right now?” Alecia muttered as she looked at her cell phone display. Her face lost several shades of color as she shot a glance at Margie. “It’s Carter!”

______________________________

I’m on Twitter if you’re interested!

Want to know what’s going on? Visit this page.

This an ongoing story that I’m posting over the next several hours. Though I have an idea what I want to write, it’s not written – so this story will be rough, really rough, but I thrive on this impromptu stuff so … there you go. 🙂 Thanks for reading!

___________________________

“So there you are,” an attractive woman, her light brown hair perfectly lacquered in place, her dusty pink lipstick professionally applied, her light denim jacket and khaki slacks wrinkle-free, sat down beside her.

Alecia suddenly felt grubby and rumpled. She’d had a chance to take a rare shower and comb her hair, she hadn’t had time to actually fix it, so her long black hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Though her clothes were clean, they looked like she had left them in the dryer too long and then just grabbed them in a hurry to dress.

Which is exactly what happened, actually.

“Hello Margie,” Alecia said with a warm smile and leaned in close so the woman could give her a soft kiss on the cheek. “Have a seat. I think we still have a while to wait until Carter’s plane gets here.”

Alecia’s mother-in-law sat down beside her and wiggled her fingers at the baby. “Hello sugar pie.” Lisa kicked so hard at the sight of her grandma that the bottle slipped from her mouth. A small amount of milk worked it’s way out from between her lips and dribbled down her chin.

“Oopsie,” Alecia said and leaned to rip a cloth out of the side of the diaper bag. She swiftly cleaned off the baby’s chin before offering the bottle to Lisa once more.

“You’re getting quite good at juggling several things at once,” Margie said with a smile.

“No thanks to you.”

Margie waved her words aside and settled back into her seat. She took a moment to look out across the crowded room before saying, “There are a lot of people here, today.”

“That’s what I thought, too. I’m guessing there are a lot of military personnel coming home today.”

Margie continued to look straight ahead, but Alecia knew she was being watched, nonetheless. “So, are you nervous?”

She knew what she was talking about. Not so much the fact that she hadn’t seen her husband in ten months, she was more excited than nervous about seeing him, but she was nervous about presenting him with his daughter for the first time. How would Lisa react? Would she shy away from him because he was a stranger? Even though that was a real possibility, Alecia’s heart twisted at the thought that that might hurt her husband’s feelings.

Picturing that scene in her mind, she didn’t trust herself to speak without releasing a sob, so she simply nodded in response.

Margie patted her on the knee. “He is going to be so excited to see you two, Alecia.”

Alecia smiled and took the now empty bottle from Lisa’s mouth. She wiped her daughter’s face clean before tossing the cloth over her shoulder and lifting Lisa for a burp. “Where’s Vince?”

Margie’s smile faded and she reached out a hand to stroke her granddaughter’s fist.
“This is … not a good day for him.”

“I’m so sorry,” Alecia said while continuing to lightly pat Lisa’s back. “What have the doctors said?”

“It’s,” Margie paused, visibly swallowed and regained control of her emotions before continuing, “It’s just a matter of time.”

**************************************

So, the winner of this book?

A Year of Absence: Six women’s stories of courage, hope and love by Jessica Redmond

Carolyn!!! Congratulations!!

Two people left comments for this book:

Carolyn and Alessandra. Thank you ladies!!

I know this is moving fast – sorry about that!! But that’s how a blog-a-thon works. I hope you can keep up with me! I’m having a BLAST trying to keep my head above water and I’m writing this story as I go along, so WHEW! It’s been quite a challenge! And just think, I have another 18 hours to go!!

Stay with me … you’ll have a chance to win another book shortly!