A Soldier to Love

by HUNT, EA

  “Didn’t I? I’ve talked to you. Written to you. Worried about you for the last five months.”

  “You have but none of that compares to what you had with Maggie. She was the one you loved and wanted to marry. She just left what nine months ago?”

  “Eli”

  “No. You haven’t had time to heal.”

  “I have healed. I did things after she left me that I will never talk about. But you saved me. Your letters. Your kindness saved me.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Eli, she could have talked to me. Told me what was going on and we as a couple could have figured out something. But instead she chose to take my mother’s money and walk away from me.”

  “Granted she took the wrong route but maybe she kept all of this from you for the same reason I kept things from you because, I wanted you to come back alive and not have to worry about what was going on at home.”

  Eric released a breath, “maybe but you haven’t really kept things from me.” He said as he reached for her.

  Elsie stepped back, “I have kept some things from you.” She closed her eyes “that” she opened them, “that time I didn’t hear from you. The first time when I thought you were dead. I ended up in the hospital they prescribed me bed rest then but I couldn’t do it. I had so much I needed to do in order to survive. So I kept it from you because I needed you to survive.”

  “Bae,” he reached out a hand to her “I love you,” he said as he placed a hand on her cheek, “you are the only one I love. There is no one else.”

  Elsie sniffled “there is and you asked her to marry you.”

  “El”

  “Please take me back to the house.”

  Eric nodded he didn’t know what else to say or do.

  ***

  “I didn’t mean to cause any problems.”

  Janelle looked at Maggie she’d gone almost pale white when she’d been told Eric was married. She had even wanted to leave but Janelle had gotten her to stay until Eric and Elsie returned. Eric and Maggie had some things to hash out and that wouldn’t happen if the woman left again. “I’m sure you didn’t,” Janelle finally said.

  Maggie looked into her coffee she was foolish to think Eric would wait around for her. She’d basically betrayed him no matter the reason she had taken from the one person who never treated him properly. She looked at Janelle, “he seems happy.”

  “He is. Elsie and he meet through Mara’s school project. They’ve been talking for months and when he came home this last time he asked her, Elsie, to marry him.”

  “And here I am making assumptions.”

  Janelle shook her head, “you didn’t know and I didn’t tell you.”

  “You shouldn’t have had to. I should have known better. I was gone for almost a year. What made me think Eric would wait around for me? Would forgive me for what I did.”

  “I wish I could tell you something different. I wish I could make it better for you Maggie but you’re the only one who can do that.”

  Maggie nodded, “I shouldn’t have come here. I should have written Eric a letter or an e-mail asking for forgiveness and if I didn’t hear from him then I knew he hadn’t forgiven me.”

  Janelle reached out a hand and placed it over Maggie’s, “you wanted to make amends.”

  “I did and now his wife probably thinks he is still in love with me. He’s not. I saw how he looked when she walked out that door. They were of a defeated man. A man who thought he had lost everything just by one statement.”

  Janelle turned when the back door opened. She released a breath when Elsie and Eric walked through the door. She stood quickly, “oh honey, you are soaked to the bone.”

  Elsie smiled sadly she nodded to Janelle and Maggie, “I’m gonna head up and take a shower.”

  “I’ll be up-”

  “Don’t bother,” Elsie said to Eric as she walked away from him.

  Eric walked further into the kitchen he closed the door behind him.

  “I’m gonna go check on the girls,” Janelle said as she turned and headed out of the kitchen.

  Eric nodded as he walked over to the counter he picked up the dish towel there and rubbed it over his head. This was not how any of this was supposed to go. No he was supposed to come home show his family off then head to Chattanooga to start his new post and life. Instead his past was coming back to haunt him.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I believe we covered that.”

  Maggie stood she walked over to the center island, “I didn’t mean to cause any problems.”

  “Then you shouldn’t have come,” Eric said as he turned to face her, “my life was just fine with you not in it.”

  “I owed you an explanation.”

  “One that should have come soon after you left not now. Not when you’ve potentially exploded my family.”

  “I didn’t mean to Eric. I promise you I didn’t.”

  “Really because I haven’t seen nor heard from you in almost a year and now here you are telling the woman I’m married to, that I love, that you’re my fiancée.”

  “I didn’t know who she was.”

  “Because you didn’t deserve to know”

  “If I would have known then I wouldn’t have put my foot in my mouth.”

  “Really cause the fact I came in here and called her ‘honey’ should have tipped you off.”

  “‘Honey’ is a relative terms around here. It’s the south.”

  Eric shook his head, “you gave your apology now please leave.”

  “I would like to apologize to Elsie.”

  “No!” He calmed Elsie was going through enough right now she did not need Maggie’s apology, she needed his. His wife believed that on some level she wasn’t worthy of love. That she wasn’t beautiful enough or that she harbored some flaw that turned men off. And this did not help in her understanding that she was loveable. Always would be to him.

  “Eric, I have the right to tell a woman who’s married to the man I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with that I am sorry I walked into this house and hurt her.”

  “I don’t want you to speak to her. I just want you to leave.”

  “I-” Maggie sighed, “I’m sorry Eric I really am I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

  “Tell me this. Why now? Why was it so important that you give your apology now? You could have said something anything before now. So tell me why it was so all important to tell me how sorry you were that you took money from my mother to walk away from me.”

  “Carlos needed me.”

  “And you thought I wouldn’t have done everything in my power to help in any and everything you would need.”

  “I don’t know. I just knew I needed to help my brother. I needed to get him the help.”

  “So you took from the one woman who could care less about me unless it is to help her or Julia get out of trouble.”

  “Eric-”

  “Please leave. You have your absolution. I forgive you,” he said before he tossed the towel into the sink and stalked from the kitchen.

  Maggie watched him go absolution was not to be hers this day.

  ***

  “Mom?” Mara called as she walked into her mother and Eric’s room. What a trip this was turning out to be. They had been happy on the way to Hanson Eric talking about his time on the farm and how Mara would love it. Then it seemed everything that could or would go wrong has.

  Elsie wiped at her tears she had cried in the shower, out of the shower and before she went in search of her daughters she’d promised herself she was going to have one last cry. She sniffled straightened her shoulders and headed out of the bathroom “yeah.”

  Mara faced her mother she gave her a sad smile, “are you ok?”

  “I’m fine. Where is your sister?”

  “Auntie Jan has her and you don’t look all right,” Mara said as she walked over to her mother.

  “Mara, I’m fine. Now it seems like this rain isn’t going to let up a
nytime soon. So how about we see about renting a movie on the laptop and sitting and watching it with Auntie Jan” Elsie said she didn’t want her daughter worrying about her. She would be fine she just needed to sit down and think because that was the last thing she had been doing in the shower. She’d only been feeling and now it was time for action. “You head down and ask Auntie about the movie and I will be down in a minute.”

  Mara nodded slowly to her mother turned and headed out of the room. She knew her mother was hurting but her mom wasn’t going to tell her because she thought Mara didn’t need to be involved in ‘grown folks’ business as she called it.

  “Are you ready to listen?”

  Elsie turned her back to Eric, “I don’t believe there is anything else to say,” she needed to find a cab to come and get her and the girls. Getting back to Georgia was going to put a dent into her saving but maybe she could go back to work early saving them from a big hole in their budget.

  “There’s a lot more I have to say.”

  Elsie closed her eyes as Eric’s breath caressed her neck she had to be strong here. She could not waver. She needed to leave here and file for an annulment.

  “Eli, please listen to me.”

  She turned her head slightly, “what would you like to say? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t know how to tell you about Maggie or the engagement.”

  “All of the above.”

  “How about you just tell me,” she rounded on him, “I told you about Mara’s father walking out on me leaving me with so much debt it took me years to climb out. I told you about meeting Rae’s father.”

  “I’m Rae’s father and Mara’s. Those men”

  “Were in my life. They were the reason I made the choices I made in life because I needed to be strong I needed to be able to stand on my own two feet. Hell on my own period. I opened my heart to you. I feel in love with you and this, this you keep from me.”

  “I promise you I did not mean to keep this from you. I had every intention on telling you.”

  “When? Huh? When your mother mentioned it? When you sister? Because you know they would since I’m not the right shade. Or maybe you intended to come clean when we went to the county fair and we ran into people who knew you and Maggie were together and engaged. Something tells me this was not a secret.”

  “It wasn’t.”

  “But it was to me. I told you everything. I walked through my life because you asked me to and this one thing you couldn’t even tell me. How unfair is that?”

  Eric sighed, “very”

  “I’m glad you realize it.” Elsie said as she stepped around him and headed out towards the room door.

  “Where does this leave us?”

  She stilled at the entrance, “I have no clue” was all she said before she walked out of the door.

  Chapter 5

  “I’m an idiot.”

  “Yeah, I would have to agree,” Jones said as he ran beside Eric along the streets of the Army Post two weeks later. “So where is Elsie now?”

  “Back in Atlanta,” Eric said as he slowed allowing his body to cool down.

  Jones did the same, “and you’re back in Post housing.”

  Eric nodded, “There was no point in going to the Post Housing Office and get on the waiting list for a house. My wife isn’t talking to me and is probably seeking and annulment.”

  Jones sigh, “Sorry man, but I have to agree with Eli on this.”

  “I thought you were my friend.”

  “I am but something like this is not a secret you keep,” He replied as he stopped running and just started walking.

  Eric followed suit, “I didn’t know how to tell her.”

  “How about opening your mouth and just saying it”

  “You sound like Eli.”

  Jones shrugged.

  “I don’t know what to do anymore Jones. I’ve sent flowers, gifts and called her but all she does is let me speak with Mara when I call or she’ll show me the baby on video chat. She won’t talk to me.”

  “Have you tried not taking ‘no’ for an answer.”

  Eric looked at him in confusion.

  “Come my boy; let me tell you how to win your wife back.”

  ***

  This was not what you wore to a high school ROTC Drill meet. Elsie turned in the dress Synette had convinced her to try on. Her friend has come to her and told her she was spending too much time in the house moping about Eric. And if she wanted her husband back she needed to come to terms with what was going on and forgive him. She, Elise, had come to that conclusion about a week ago. Ok so he lied. But she was the one he married. She was the one he’d come after. He had wanted her, Elsie, not Maggie.

  “Let me see.”

  “Syn this is not something you wear to a drill meet,” Elsie said as she walked out of the dressing room.

  “Well damn who knew,” Synette said her friend was standing before her in an A-line cotton halter topped sundress which came to the floor. She smiled the dress hugged Elsie in all the right places showing off her friend’s coke bottle figure. Usually Elsie wore oversized clothes which hinted at her curves but didn’t show them.

  “I still think I should not be wearing this,” Elsie replied her daughter’s Drill Team had made it to the State Finals and Eric was going to be there. Because of this factor Syn thought it would be a good idea to show the man what he was missing. Like he didn’t already know. She was one being the fool.

  “And why not?” Synette questioned her friend had an amazing body and the baby just added to it.

  Elsie looked at her friend, “I’m someone’s mother. I should be dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. Ok shorts because its summer not in a halter top.”

  Synette walked the small distance over to her friend. She placed her hands on Elsie’s shoulders and turned her towards the mirror outside the dressing rooms, “you are married to a hot Army Ranger who wants to be with his wife. I’ve seen the flowers, cards and heard his voice when he talks about you,” she had been at the house the other day when Eric had called she had not heard a man want a woman so much a day in her life. Eric sounded wounded and lost without the woman standing before her.

  Elsie sighed her house looked like a flower shop. The man sent every type of rose he could find and when those didn’t get a reaction out of her he started on the Stargazer lilies. Each bouquets card stated ‘I love you’, ‘I miss you’, ‘Please come home’, ‘There is no one in the world I love more than you and our girls’, ‘You are the air I breath’, ‘The reason I live’…… she had cried at almost every card. Cried and called herself a fool for walking away instead of fighting for what she had with Eric. “I still”

  “It’s not. Now come on we have shoes to buy to go along with this dress.”

  ***

  He was late. Damn it. He didn’t want to be late but he’d gotten caught in traffic behind a three car pileup and now he was walking into the Cobb County Civic Center just as Mara and her squad were walking onto the floor. Eric quickly found a seat he’d wanted to be early so he could tell his girl good luck and he was proud of her but that wasn’t to be the case. He watched as his daughter stood strong and proud. Following the steps she had practiced and leading a few. He smiled she was a natural. When the team was finished he stood whistling and cheering for his daughter and her team.

  “Whoo Hoo Mara”

  Eric turned his head he sucked in a breath his wife was standing up in a form hugging dress with their daughter on her shoulder and her hair in braids cascading down her back. She was a vision and she would be his tonight. He moved from his seat and headed in her direction. Mara’s squad had been the last of the event. They were now awaiting the judges scores which meant he and his wife could talk. He swallowed as he watched her bounce the baby in her arms Raelyn had turned three weeks yesterday and he had sent his wife another bouquet of flowers commemorating the event. She had sent him a text thanking him with a picture of Rae beside the flowers. That picture was
his phone’s screensaver.

  “Where is Eric?”

  He stopped his progress he was really not in the mood to deal with his mother in law.

  “I told you mom, he’s in Clarksville waiting on his new orders.” Elsie told her mother. This had been the story she rehearsed when she had gotten a back to Georgia she was not going to tell her mother the truth.

  “Humph. I don’t believe you. I told you marrying that boy would bring you nothing but heartache.”

  “Momma this is not the time or the place,” Elsie said as she smiled at a few other parents.

  “When would be the time or the place? You don’t come to the house. You don’t come to family gatherings. You do nothing but sit in that house and take care of that baby. A baby who needs a father. I told you when Mara was a baby that you should have given her to family so she wouldn’t have grown up without a father and end up on a stripper pole. You should have done the same thing with that one” Madge said as she pointed to Raelyn.

  Elsie braced a hand on her daughter’s back she leaned closer to her mother, “I am only going to say this once. I’ve done a wonderful job without Mara’s father. He walked away never to see his child again. He wants nothing to do with Mara and that is his choice not mine.”

  “And this one. He the same way because it seems like no man wants the children you have. Maybe you’re the reason your children have no fathers and you have no husband.”

  “I-”

  “Eli”

  Elsie straightened, she faced Eric.

  He walked over to her he could see the tears brimming. Madge’s statements were uncalled for. He slipped and arm around her waist and brought her to his chest she smelled so good and felt so good in his arms. He kissed her temple before she laid her head on his shoulder. She did not deserve what her mother was saying to her. Elsie was a wonderful woman who loved with her whole heart and the fact two losers couldn’t see that was not Elsie’s fault. “Ms. Madge, how are you?”

  Madge huffed, “would be better if you took care of my daughter and didn’t leave her.”

  Eric smiled, “I take very good care of you daughter ma’am. She wants for nothing and she is always in my thoughts.”