Soldier's Women (3 page)

Time had passed so slowly when he had been recovering. Every day had seemed
like an eternity. And as he and Wilmont had gotten better, well enough to sit up
in their sick beds, it had been agonizing waiting for the day that they would
recover enough to make it out of there. It had felt like it would last forever.
He had felt guilty that he had resented being there so much, but he couldn’t
help wanting to get back home. It was all he had thought about, and he’d had
plenty of time for thinking while he’d lain in a bed for months on end.

Had the enemy found them, though, they would’ve killed them immediately or
died under torture in a filthy prison. Facts like those had given him a lot to
think about. He had always thought he had a charmed life, been fatalistic about
the possibility of dying in service. That wasn’t something he was alright with
anymore.

Trying to dispel the negative turn his thoughts had taken, he shifted his
focus. He had been given a second chance, and now he was going to live life to
the fullest. Taking a deep breath, he relished the sweet air, like the first
taste of freedom for a wrongly imprisoned man. It didn’t stink of gunpowder and
death. He didn’t hear men screaming in agony. He didn’t have to sleep with one
eye open. He was back, back in the United States, back in his hometown. There
was nothing he could have been more thankful for. And, with debriefing behind
him, he could now start a new life.

Stepping off of the train and onto the platform, he quickly spotted the
rental car he had reserved. After getting the keys from the rental car
attendant, he made his way to the car. Opening the driver’s side door, he tossed
his one piece of luggage into the passenger seat and got in to drive. He smiled
for the first time since leaving home so long ago.

Needless to say, when he had showed up back at Fort Braggs, his commanding
officers had been surprised to see him alive. During debriefing, they had
informed him that a funeral service had been held in his memory and for the rest
of the troop that had died that day.

Realizing that not only the military but his entire family thought he was
dead, he was wracked with guilt at what his mother must have gone through. But,
now that he was home, he would make it up to her because now that his term of
service was over, he had decided not to re-enlist. The duty he had felt that he
owed to his country was paid in full. He was going to settle down, find a woman
to love and marry, and give his mother those grandchildren she had always
wanted.

While driving downtown on his way to his mother’s house, he saw a car that
looked like his mothers parked on the side of the street. Searching the
sidewalks, he spotted his mother walking with a foxy looking younger woman. What
was his mother doing downtown? Who was that amazing woman she was with? He only
caught a glimpse of his mother’s companion, but what he saw intrigued him, long
blonde hair, long legs, and a sexy sway of hips.

He had been headed to the house to surprise his mother, but since he had
spotted her, he didn’t think he could go to her house and wait for her there. He
decided to stop and surprise her there. He was far too excited to wait. He had
to see her immediately, and, besides, if he stopped now, he would get the chance
to meet the lovely woman in her company. After all, it had been a long time
since he had seen a beautiful woman. He’d had to stare at Sgt. Wilmont’s mug for
months.

Going around the block, he parked and headed for the shop he’d seen his
mother and the woman with her enter, the one with the big mother’s day sale sign
out front.

As he entered the shop, he didn’t notice what kind of shop it was, figuring
it was just some kind of women’s clothing store.

The two women didn’t notice Nigel when he walked in. It gave him the chance
to get a better look at the woman who had accompanied his mother into the store.
He was floored. When he’d driven by in his rental, he’d only caught a glimpse.
He was immediately thankful he’d decided to stop.

His libido instantly went into hyper-drive as he took in the delicate
features of her heart shaped face. Her lips were a soft pink, her skin pale but
slightly flushed. Her hair was a golden blonde and long enough it touched her
shoulders. His breath caught in his throat when she turned more fully in his
direction, talking to his mother. Her eyes were a sea green. He imagined himself
getting lost in those depths or lost in that luscious body of hers. She wasn’t
skinny, she was curvy, her pert breasts the perfect size for his hands. He
wondered how it would feel to test the weight of them in his hands.

But then he saw his mother as she turned in his direction to inspect some
merchandise. Even from a distance he could tell that his absence had taken a
toll on her. She was thinner, and she looked tired, as if she had stayed up
nights. He shook off the feelings the woman had elicited. He had more serious
matters to attend to.

He made his way quietly through the racks, making sure to go unnoticed. He
managed to get over to the clothes rack the two women were looking at without
his mother or the woman spotting him.

As he came up behind his mother, the woman she was with looked straight at
him. He put his finger over his lips to warn her to be quiet and then grabbed
his mother and nuzzled her neck.

Irene screamed with alarm when someone grabbed her from behind and started on
her neck. She started swatting at her attacker with her hands.

“What . . . in . . . the . . . world . . . ?” she said through her
struggle.

Sera stood with her mouth agape, not sure of what to do. Just when she
thought she should help fight the man off of Irene, he spoke.

“Sweetheart! Is that any way to treat your main man?” he asked teasingly.

Irene turned in his arms and screamed.

The store clerk jumped up from her chair at the payment counter and looked in
their direction, looking as if she was ready to come running. “Is everything
okay!” she shouted.

“Everything is fine,” Nigel told the woman. He turned back to his mother but
still spoke loud enough for the clerk to hear him, his eyes sparkling with
mischief. “I just surprised her.”

The clerk didn’t look so convinced and continued to keep an eye on them.

“Oh, sweetheart . . . ,” Irene began, her voice cracking with emotion. She
was unable to continue to speak as tears began to stream down her cheeks.

Nigel pulled her close. Laying his head on the top of her head, he stroked
her hair tenderly.

“There’s no need to cry. I’m here now.”

Sera didn’t know what in the world was going on. Irene looked like she’d seen
a ghost and then she had begun to cry uncontrollably. The two were now hugging,
and Irene pulled out of his embrace and began to kiss him all over his face. She
looked at the young man up and down, over and over, as if she couldn’t believe
her eyes.

She was surprised at how handsome the man was. He was wearing a tank top
tucked in at his narrow waist into camouflage pants that fit his well-sculpted
physique. The way he kept brushing his ear length dark hair out of his eyes made
her think that it was longer than he normally kept it. She felt warm all over
when he looked away from his mother and at her for a brief moment. His dark blue
eyes combined with a few days worth of dark stubble on his square jaw sent
delicious currents of awareness through her being. She suddenly wondered if she
looked an awful mess, which was strange since she didn’t normally care what she
looked like.

After a few moments, she realized that he must be one of Irene’s sons. As
they stood together talking, she noticed the resemblance between him and the
pictures of the young men in Irene’s living room she had studied so many times
when she had come to visit her since her pregnancy began.

Having noticed that his mother had become overwhelmed by emotion, Nigel
decided to walk her out of the store and down the sidewalk to her car. He
grabbed her arm and entwined it with his own, continuing to talk to her
soothingly as he lead her from the store.

It appeared to Sera as if Irene’s son was going to take her home. She didn’t
know what to do, but she didn’t feel comfortable about intruding, especially
when the two obviously needed some time alone.

Nigel helped his mother into the passenger seat of her car. Before he shut
the door, she stopped him.

Suddenly coming to her senses, Irene realized that as soon as she’d seen
Nigel, she’d been so overwhelmed that she had completely forgotten about
Sera.

“Sera, where’s Sera? We can’t leave Sera. We have to give her a ride back to
the house. She can’t drive.”

Nigel noticed that the woman who was with his mother, Sera, stood on the
sidewalk, looking uncomfortable with the situation. He walked around the car and
opened the back door on the driver’s side for her.

“Thank you, but I don’t know if I should. You two have some catching up to
do.” Sera said, feeling extremely reluctant to intrude in their reunion. “I can
just walk.”

Irene turned to look back at her. “Nonsense. You are not going to walk home,
you could get mugged. And it’s the middle of the day, he could get heat stroke.
And we’re already headed in that direction, you might as well come with us.
Besides, there’s a lot for all of us to discuss.”

Her last comment struck Sera as odd. She couldn’t imagine what Irene had
meant by that.

* * * *

On the drive back home, Nigel felt uncomfortable talking in front of, Sera,
the woman he still hadn’t had a chance to be formally introduced to. But his
mother obviously didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable about pumping him for
details on what had happened in front of her.

Tears still glistening in her eyes, Irene looked over at her son driving her
car. He was here! He was alive! And boy wasn’t he going to be surprised at what
all had transpired while he was MIA. But first, she wanted to know what had
happened.

Irene sniffed back tears, trying desperately to hold them at bay. She didn’t
want her son to see her upset. “What happened?”

Nigel glanced at his mother and then glanced at the rear view mirror to see
if the attractive woman who was accompanying them was paying any attention to
the conversation. For some reason, although he had never thought much about what
other people thought, revealing details about what had happened, making himself
vulnerable in front of the woman, made him decidedly uncomfortable.

Raking a hand through his dark hair, which was getting on his nerves now that
it was longer than what he was used to, he took a deep steadying breath. What
could he tell her? What wouldn’t upset her? All of it would upset her, she was
his mother. Images of fallen soldiers and the enemy hot on his tail came back
with a vengeance. He’d had many nights haunted by them. It had only been since
he’d come back to the states that his tormented nights had abated somewhat, and
then only marginally.

He decided he should give her the short version of the events, glossing over
the more gory details.

“You know we were sent in to locate a package and bring it out?”

“Yes, I recall.”

“We found the package, but the enemy had found it first. They obviously were
expecting soldiers to come looking for it. They set up around it. When we
arrived to carry it out, we were ambushed. We lit out of there without the
payday, since we couldn’t extract it, and rushed back to our rendezvous point. I
fell behind the rest of the troop because,” he paused for a moment, remembering
how he had been shot, but he didn’t want his mother to hear that, not now. “I
found Sgt. Wilmont slumped against a tree on my way to the extraction point.
He’d been shot. I couldn’t leave him behind, so I picked him up and dragged him
out of there. ”

“He’s that good friend of yours you mentioned before in your letters?” Irene
asked.

“Yes. You might remember he saved my life on the first mission we ever had
together, so, like I said, I couldn’t leave him behind. Not after he had put his
life in jeopardy for me when we hardly even knew each other. And I would never
have been able to forgive myself if I didn’t do something for him when I knew he
had two little girls at home waiting for his safe return.

Well, because I wasn’t moving as fast as the rest of the troop and the enemy
was closing in, the chopper left before I managed to get us to it. I guess they
figured they had everyone that had made it. I had taken Sgt. Wilmont to a small
hiding place to take cover, so the men on the chopper wouldn’t have seen us if
they’d been looking down to search for more soldiers as they took off. The cover
that I had taken Wilmont and myself to was a small depression in the ground
beside an outcropping of rock. Later, a farmer found us and took us back to his
home and nursed us back to health.”

Feeling like he’d told her all of the important details, he looked over at
his mother to gauge her reaction. He could see the tears she was struggling with
brimming beneath her lashes. He reached over and grabbed her now shaky hands and
squeezed them reassuringly.

“I’m home now,” he said with a quiet confidence.

He wanted to reassure her that she would never have to worry about him being
injured or killed in the line of duty again. He’d had enough of the military.
But, he would wait until later, until they were alone. There was so much to tell
her, so much that he wanted to do.

Irene smiled at him. “Yes, son, you’re home now.” She could hardly believe it
herself. She’d never thought she’d utter those words. But, somehow, someone had
looked out for her son. She wanted to meet the man that had saved his life, to
thank him from the bottom of her heart for saving her son. She would never be
able to thank him enough. She’d have to get details about the man later. For
now, she had another dilemma. How was she going to tell Nigel about Sera?

A few minutes later, before Irene could figure out a solution to her problem,
Nigel drove up to her home and parked in her one car garage.

He stepped out and opened the back door for Sera, who had been seated behind
him and who he’d noticed in the rearview mirror had been looking a little green,
before walking around the car and opening the door for his mother. He took her
hand and entwined her arm with his, escorting her through the garage and into
the house.

Sera made her way to the opening of the garage, thinking that now would be a
good time to go home.

Just as Irene and her son were entering her house, though, Irene noticed Sera
wasn’t with them. She turned to find her leaving.

“Sera, honey, don’t leave.”

Still feeling uncomfortable about the situation, Sera was reluctant to stay.
She’d never met any of Irene’s sons. She knew they were all in the military,
which must have created an intense amount of stress for their mother. It was
obvious she had been worried about him and that they needed time to talk. She
didn’t know why Irene wanted her to stay. Yes, they were technically becoming a
family, but it had been so long since she had had a family, a close relationship
like that, she just didn’t feel right staying. It was like she was intruding,
like she was that extra wheel getting in the way. She felt like she was almost
snooping on their personal lives. She suddenly felt odd and out of place, even
though Irene had always made her feel warm and welcome. It just didn’t feel
right staying when they had to catch up. It was like she was pushing her way
into their personal affairs and it didn’t sit right with her. But when she
looked at the way Irene was pleading her with her eyes, she decided she should
stay. For some odd reason, Irene wanted her there. They had become close since
she’d become pregnant. Maybe she wanted her to feel like a part of her family.
It was just so tough, since she’d tried so hard not to become that close to
anyone in so long. But it was why she’d decided to become pregnant in the first
place. Yes, she had friends, but they couldn’t fill that void in her life. The
only thing that could was a family.

Sera grudgingly followed Irene and her son inside as they walked to the
living room.

Irene settled down on her couch and patted the seat next to her, smiling up
at Nigel.

Now that she was in the comfort of her own home, having heard the conditions
of Nigel’s disappearance, she realized she was in a mess.

Sera sat down in a wing back chair next to the sofa, only a foot away from
the Irene and her son. She was distracted from her discomfort about the
situation by how hot he was. He was so intense with his darkly handsome good
looks, his rugged manliness just oozing sexuality. He was a force to be reckoned
with. She had a feeling he probably saw plenty of action that wasn’t the
dangerous kind in the military. There were most likely flocks of female soldiers
pining for him. And he probably left a broken heart in every port. He looked
like that type. He was just too handsome to be the kind of guy to want to stick
with one woman. All of the intensely good looking ones were that way, why have
one cookie when I can have a new cookie every night? And he was that handsome.

Nigel looked at Sera and then at his mother, waiting for an introduction to
the woman she’d insisted on bringing home.

Irene saw Nigel looking at her. Obviously he was curious about Sera. She
couldn’t think of what to say. For a moment, she looked at one then the other.
She began to worry her bottom lip with her teeth, wondering how to broach the
situation. She couldn’t be more thrilled that her son was alive. She had thought
that his baby would be the only thing she had to remember him by. It was such a
relief that he was home. But now, what would she say to him? What could she
possibly say to Sera who’d been so happy with their situation?