Colton

by KB Winters

  I found it almost funny that I didn’t really care that my family wasn’t going to be there, but the fact that Becca was going to miss my wedding, had me on the verge of tears. I’d done my best to stamp down the disappointment, and put on a happy face. After all, I was happy. Incredibly happy. Marching on had been a lot easier with the whirlwind of planning that had gone on. But now that things were quieting down, it had crept up on me again.

  Colton had gone out to get lunch with Lucas and Miles, but I’d stayed back at the house to finish getting some organization done. In a few weeks’ time, Colton would leave for the deployment, and I was going to fly home and spend a week or two getting my apartment packed up and shipped down to Georgia. I needed to make room in Colton’s home for when all of my boxes arrived. I’d already given notice at Beckham’s and told my apartment manager I would be moving out at the end of the month. Everything was falling into place, at an accelerated pace, and while I knew I would see Becca again before my official move, the afternoon in the empty house reminded me of how much I was going to miss her near-daily presence in my life.

  “Hey, babe, I have something out here for you,” Colton called, his voice carrying from the living room to where I was folding laundry in the bedroom. We’d decided to take a little mini-honeymoon with the promise of a proper vacation when Colton returned from his deployment. I set down the last shirt and headed out to see what he’d brought home for me. He was always surprising me with little things; flowers, afternoon coffee from our favorite shop, or take-out for dinner.

  A smile formed on my lips as I walked out to the living room, wondering what it would be this time.

  “Karena!”

  I stopped short and sucked in the sob that instantly formed in my throat at the sight of Becca standing in the doorway. Colton was holding her hot pink suitcase and stepped inside after her. “Surprise!”

  “Oh my God!” I rushed into Becca’s arms and we squeezed each other tight, like long lost sisters.

  Which, I realized, we were.

  Tears flooded down my cheeks as I held her and we laughed at ourselves as we dissolved into a watery mess.

  “How did you—? I thought you couldn’t?” I asked, pulling away but keeping my hands on her shoulders.

  Becca looked over her shoulder at Colton. “Ask your soon-to-be.”

  I tore my gaze from my best friend to look at Colton, his image blurry in my tear filled eyes. “You did this?”

  “I wanted it to be a surprise, so I told Becca I’d fly her down here in exchange that she kept it between us.”

  I groaned. “Oh, I want to hate you for keeping it a secret! But I love you both too much!”

  Colton laughed as he took Becca’s suitcase to the spare room, leaving us alone. As soon as we separated, Becca yanked my hand up to inspect my ring. “Oh, Karena!”

  “I know.” More tears slipped down my cheeks.

  “It’s stunning. And he’s…well…wow,” she whispered, leaning in towards me with a huge grin.

  I laughed and tossed my head back. “I’m so happy you’re here, Becs!”

  “Well, I couldn’t miss this!” She smiled over at me. “So, I’ve seen the fiancé, the ring, now I need to see the dress!”

  “Naturally!” I led her to the bedroom and kicked Colton out, insisting that he not see the dress before the wedding. He kissed me on the cheek on the way out and told me he’d be at Duke’s with his buddies.

  When he was gone, I pulled the cream colored dress from the back of the closet where I’d stashed it in between two of Colton’s Army uniforms. It was a simple dress, a silky chiffon with an empire waist and two lace sleeves. Becca sucked in an audible breath before squealing. “It’s so you, Karena.”

  “I found it in this vintage shop downtown that Tina, my soon-to-be sister-in-law told me about.”

  Becca ran her fingers over the lace detailing as she sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m so happy for you.”

  “Thanks, Becs.” I laid the dress down and sat across from her. “Enough with all the girly talk. You know I can only take so much. So, talk to me, tell me how you’re doing.”

  Becca kept her eyes on the dress, drinking in the details. “Keith and I broke up.”

  “What?” I lunged for her hands. “When? How? Oh, Becs, I’m so sorry!”

  She smiled weakly up at me. “It’s all right. It was time. Probably past time.…”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “It just happened a couple of days ago. I’ve been staying with one of the girls I waitress with and figuring it all out. I didn’t want to rain on your wedding plans and make it all about me.”

  I released her hands and put my own on the sides of her face. “Becca, you know me better than that. I’m always here. Anytime. Day or night.”

  “I know,” she replied. “I just needed a minute to sit with it on my own.”

  “Okay. And now?”

  “I’m all right, really, Karena. I think somewhere I was already preparing for it. I’m not ready to dive into anything new, but I’m adjusting, and I can see that I was never going to get what I wanted with him. I guess, in some ways, seeing you fall so head over heels made it snap into perspective. You found this amazing guy—which, for the record, I always said you would—and it gives me hope that I can find that too.”

  I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You absolutely will, Becs. Nothing but the best for you, my beautiful, beautiful friend.”

  “Well, in the meantime, I’d love to talk about girly things and maybe split a bottle of something sweet and laced with high amounts of alcohol. The spritzer I had on the plane isn’t really working for me anymore.”

  I laughed and took her to the kitchen where I had a bottle of Riesling chilled.

  * * * *

  The day of the wedding came quietly and not at all like I’d expected. As opposed to the chaotic, flurry of motion commonly amped up in romance movies, I spent the morning in reflection, marveling that in a few short hours, I would be marrying Colton Hawkins. I enjoyed a cup of coffee alone on the back porch while Becca and Colton were still sleeping and let it sink in that my new life was hours away from starting.

  The past was over and done and for the first time, I had the feeling of closing a chapter and starting a new one.

  A fresh, clean slate. A new adventure.

  When Colton woke, he popped out to say goodbye, before leaving to go meet with Lucas and Miles and get suited up. Becca did my hair and makeup, and I changed into my dress.

  I stood in front of the floor length mirror in the bedroom for a long moment, and smiled.

  It was right. It was perfect.

  * * * *

  Under the afternoon sun, I met Colton at the end of the short dock that led to a small, white gazebo on the lake. He was more handsome than I could remember and tears danced in both of our eyes as we met with sweaty hands in front of the chaplain that had agreed to marry us.

  Lucas, Miles, and Becca all looked on from the grassy knoll at the beginning of the dock, and cheered for us as we exchanged vows, rings, and the sweetest kiss that bonded us in marriage.

  I would hold onto that kiss for the rest of my life, just as tightly as I would to the man who gave it to me.

  After the short wedding ceremony, we all went out for a celebratory dinner, where we ate too much, drank too much, and laughed too loudly.

  When the night wound down, we said goodbye to our amazing friends, and Colton whisked me away to the cottage style bed and breakfast that he had rented out for the weekend. He carried me over the threshold of the historical home, and I giggled as we stumbled inside.

  “Now, Mrs. Hawkins, shall we go christen the honeymoon suite?” Colton asked, flashing his signature crooked smile at me, his eyes dark with longing.

  “I thought you’d never ask, Mr. Hawkins.”

  Colton laughed as he swept me into his arms, and began carrying me towards the grand staircase.

  Epilogue

  “You know in
biblical times, a newly married man couldn’t even be sent to war for the first year of marriage.”

  Lucas sighed. “Well, you’re a few thousand years too late for that rule to apply.”

  His clipped tone irritated me and I twisted over the back of my desk chair to glare at him. He was laying on his cot, on the opposite end of our shared CHU which was a glorified shipping container with an AC, two sleeping bunks, and a computer desk that we shared. We’d been stationed on a base inside a green zone for the past several weeks, and most of the work we’d been doing had been from behinds desks, rather than out in the thick of it. In the past, I would have been annoyed at being pulled into a deployment only to end up benched at some palace turned Army base, but considering I had a new wife waiting for me back home, my perspective had shifted, and I was grateful to be one step removed.

  The AC and indoor plumbing didn’t hurt either.

  “I’m sorry Hawk, but you’re driving me bat shit crazy,” Lucas said, catching the tail end of my harsh stare. “All you’ve talked about for the last six weeks is Karena and what y’all are gonna do when you get back home again.”

  A retort bubbled up, but I killed it before it escaped my mouth. He was right. And, as my oldest friend, he was one of the few people who could call me on my shit and not get chewed out. “Sorry, man. You’re right.”

  Lucas sighed and I heard his boots hit the ground. “We’ll be out of here soon.” He clapped a hand on my back as he exited the container house we shared.

  I slapped the laptop on the desk closed when he shut the door. The internet wasn’t working anyway. Even though we were staying at a well-established base, the tele-com wasn’t the most reliable and more often than not, we lost our connection thanks to all resources being directed elsewhere. It made sense. I wasn’t going to argue that checking my email was more important than keeping our troops safe, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating when I couldn’t get online to check in with Karena.

  I pushed away from the desk and went to my own bunk. I fished out the stack of letters from Karena, and started to re-read them for the hundredth time, while munching on one of the boxes of cookies she’d sent in the last care package. She’d been sending boxes every few days, so that I never had to wait long to hear from her, regardless of the shitty internet connection. It was the first time I’d been deployed and had anyone other than random strangers sending things to me. My mother was the head of a group of women who boxed up care packages by the hundreds and sent them to the troops, rotating through each squad to make it fair. Those boxes were always a welcome gift, especially on the tours I’d been stuck overseas during the holidays. Hygiene products, snacks, cards, small games, coffees, and chocolates.

  But Karena had them all beat, by a mile.

  She sent cards, pictures, and long, handwritten letters in each box, and made sure I also had a stash of jerky, cookies, and other small gifts. The best part was that each box smelled like her perfume and when I opened the box, the first whiff was enough to bring tears to my eyes. I hadn’t realized how much I’d miss her. How much capacity I had to miss someone.

  After reading her letters again, I wrote one back, and packaged it carefully in an envelope. I smiled at the sealed and addressed letter in my hands, remembering back to how we’d started our relationship. Granted, email and texts were much faster, but in a lot of ways, the way we were beginning our marriage, was the same as we’d begun our brief dating relationship.

  I pocketed the envelope in my ACU’s and headed out to get dinner and see what I could find out. After a quick dinner, I went to a room that had been converted to an unofficial break room. Each tour that went through added to it, leaving behind books, games, magazines. There was a flat screen TV on one wall, usually tuned into CNN or some other news channel, but occasionally someone got sick of it and changed to a TV movie or sitcom loop.

  Lucas was sitting at one of the tables, apparently in the middle of a poker game with a few other soldiers. He looked up as I neared. “Decided to be social, huh, Hawk?”

  A couple other guys looked up and acknowledged my arrival with friendly greetings.

  “He has to put in his time before they send his ass back stateside,” one of the soldiers, a man I didn’t recognize by face or the name patch attached to his chest.

  “Stateside?” Lucas repeated, cocking a brow at his companion over the top of his hand of cards.

  I lowered into the vacant seat beside Lucas and stared at the man, waiting for an explanation.

  He nodded and lowered his own hand to the table. “You’re Colton Hawkins, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “My Captain told me they’re sending some guys back, the attachment isn’t needed, so they’re going back in a couple weeks.”

  My heart slammed into my chest. Home. I was going home.

  Lucas flicked a glance at me. “You heard anything about that?”

  I shook my head. “Not yet, but you can bet your sweet ass I’m gonna,” I said, pushing up from the table.

  Lucas grinned after me. “You think my ass is sweet? Aww, Hawk baby, that’s the nicest thing you’ve—”

  “Shut it, Sprigg!” I hollered, rounding the corner out of the rec room.

  If there was even a kernel of truth to the rumor, I was going to find out about it, now.

  * * * *

  Three weeks later, my boots hit US soil, and after a quick meeting with Colonel Reeves, I was on my way across town to see Karena. When I pulled into the driveway, she was waiting on the front porch, with a smile that lit up my insides.

  “Just couldn’t stay away, huh?” Karena teased, her honey voice carrying across the yard as I hopped out of my truck.

  I grinned as she started towards me. “Not for one more day.”

  Karena ran the last few yards and flew into my arms. I held her tight and choked back a ball of emotion. Even though I only ended up being gone two months, it seemed like it had been forever.

  “So, what should I call you?” Karena asked, pulling away so she could look up into my eyes.

  “I got it, baby!” I twisted so she could see the Captain’s patch on my sleeve.

  “Captain Hawkins,” she purred.

  “Damn, if I wasn’t rock hard already…that woulda done it,” I growled into her ear, breathing in the sweet smell of her perfume. The scent that had accompanied all the gifts and letters she’d sent.

  Karena laughed and pulled away again. She paused, looking up at me, her eyes wide and sparkling. “That’s not the only promotion you’re getting…” She reached around and fished something out of the back pocket of her denim shorts.

  I looked down at the plastic stick in her hands and my heart stopped. All thoughts of being a newly pinned Captain melted to the background. “Is that…?”

  “You’re gonna be a daddy!” She nodded, happy tears slipping down her cheeks. Her hands dropped to smooth the billowing fabric of her tank top flat across her stomach. “We have ourselves a little honeymoon baby brewing in here.”

  In that moment, staring down at the slight swell of her stomach, I realized in that moment…I had everything I’d ever need.

  THE END

  * * * *

  I hoped you loved Colton as much as I enjoyed writing it! Lucas is NEXT or. . .

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