Forever My Soldier

by Alison Mello

  Chapter 10

  Carter

  It’s the week before Christmas, and we have a ton to do. Today Patty and I are going to one store while Derek and Bella swing by the other to pick up all the gifts. Patty’s been full of excitement since we got up this morning. She’s such a kind soul. Anything she does for a good cause makes her so happy and excited. It’s a thrill to witness. She even put out a blog post and a Facebook message to her fans letting them know that yesterday was the last day to donate gifts because we were picking them up today to get them ready in time for Christmas.

  Patty comes into the kitchen with a full smile. She grabs a cup and fills it with water before sitting down at the bowl I placed on the snack bar. “Are you excited, baby?”

  “You know I am. Don’t pick on me,” she says with a fake pout.

  “Baby, I’m not picking on you. It’s nice to see you so alive and full of energy.”

  “Are you going to sit and eat with me or continue to observe my good mood?”

  I kiss her on the temple as I take my seat. “I think I’ll eat. I’m a bit hungry from our morning activities.”

  She giggles at me. “You were quite energetic this morning.”

  “You’re my new morning workout. I’d much rather have you than go to the gym.”

  “I noticed you haven’t been going lately. Are you really okay with that?”

  I shrug. “I would like to start a better routine after the first of the year, but I don’t think my lack of going is causing any problems, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  “I always worry about you, honey. I love you. It’s my job to worry.”

  “Well, as glad as I am to have someone that cares enough to worry, you can stop. I’ve never felt better.”

  She smiles at me. “Good, I’m glad to hear that, because it’s time for us to go, so finish up.”

  I start laughing at her abrupt halt to our conversation. I take the last few bites of my soup and place my bowl in the sink, but Patty is giving me the evil eye. I bite my lip to stifle my laughter as I open the dishwasher to place the bowl on the top rack. I walk over to her and whisper, “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay, I’ll spank you later,” she says as she gets her coat and gloves.

  A short time later, we arrive at the store, and the place is packed with people who are out doing their holiday shopping. We walk straight to the tree to find there isn’t one tag left on the branches. I smile with pride at our accomplishment, but I can’t get too happy. I have to compare the gifts under the tree to my list. Someone could’ve taken a tag but never completed their purchase. The manager comes over with a cart and helps us load the gifts up. He tells me he has a few more in his office, that the tree was getting full so he moved some. He comes back with the gifts and adds them to the top of the overflowing cart.

  “Our shoppers really seemed to enjoy helping out your cause. I hope you’ll consider allowing us to work with you again next year,” the manager says to me.

  “It was great working with you. I will be in touch for sure around October to confirm that you’re still interested. There are certainly plenty of families that could use the help,” I say, shaking his hand.

  “I’m glad to have been a part of it, and I look forward to hearing from you in October. I hope you and your family have a happy and safe Christmas and New Year.”

  “Thank you. Same to you.”

  We’re about to walk out when we hear, “Wait, I have something for you.” A middle age couple comes running up to us and hands us some toys.

  “Thank you very much,” I say, shaking the man’s hand.

  “You’re welcome. I’m former Army. I have a soft spot for veterans.”

  I smile. “Hooah!”

  He smiles. “Nice. Former Army too, huh?”

  “Yup. Medically discharged after having my knee half blown off. I was one of the lucky ones. I managed to keep it.”

  “Good for you. You’re doing as much good here as you were there. Please keep it up.”

  “Will do, and thanks for your generosity.”

  “Anytime,” he says as he and his wife walk out hand in hand.

  We walk out behind them, hurrying straight for the Jeep. We need to unload these items quickly. It’s snowing, and I don’t want them getting wet. We then move onto another store in the plaza to pick up wrapping paper, tape, and some extra scissors. It will take us forever to wrap the gifts if we don’t have extra stuff on hand. We quickly look for what we need. Hoping we got enough of everything, we make our way back to the car and hurry home since Derek and Bella are going to be there any minute. We pull up to the front door to unload the car, and once Patty’s inside I scoot off to park.

  As I’m walking back, I see Derek and Bella pulling up. I walk inside and tell Patty, “They’re here, so we’ll wait for them.” I turn to Darryl. “Can we use that cart to get all these gifts upstairs?”

  “Sure can,” he says as he picks up the phone. They roll it out as Derek and Bella are walk in with their hands full of gifts. They place them on the cart, and the building worker follows us up with it. When we get upstairs, Patty turns the oven on to warm up some snacks while we unload the cart so the worker can take it back down with him.

  “Your tree is beautiful,” Bella says.

  “Thanks,” Patty says from the kitchen.

  Derek and I look around at the huge pile of gifts and take a deep breath. We have a lot of work to do.

  Patty says, “Why don’t we start by separating the gifts by who wanted what and make sure the gifts are what the tags said? Then we’ll know what’s extra. We can divide the extras up.”

  I find my list, and that’s exactly what we do. It takes us the better part of an hour to sort through everything, and as we expected, there is extra. We start matching extra gifts by age, and we take into consideration what they asked for. We were happy to see we had enough to go around. Now we need to make gift tags and start wrapping.

  “I’ll sit at the counter and write tags if you want,” Bella offers. I hand her the list and a stack of tags and off she goes to start putting names on them.

  The oven beeps, indicating it’s preheated, so Patty quickly throws the appetizers in the oven and then comes back to help us wrap the gifts.

  “Hey, I thought we were going to have Christmas music?” Bella pouts from the snack bar.

  “Sorry. I totally forgot once we got busy separating everything. I’ll put it on now.”

  I turn on the music, and “Jingle Bells” is playing. The girls start singing along and we laugh as we do our best to wrap these gifts as neatly as we can.

  As we wrap them, Patty gives us tips on how to wrap them neatly. I’m really happy she forced me to get the good wrapping paper because it has grid lines to help not only cut the paper straight, but to measure it too. We’re only a couple of gifts in when the timer on the oven goes off, telling us our food is ready. Patty pulls it from the oven while Bella tags the gifts we’ve wrapped and stacks them neatly to the side.

  Bella and Patty are in the kitchen. They seem to be whispering about something, but I can’t make out what, so I turn to Derek. “What’s up with you two?”

  “I asked her to move in with me. She’s a little freaked out, but I think she’s going to.”

  “Why’s she freaked out?”

  “She’s afraid I’m going to hurt her and then she’ll be left with nothing. I know she loves me. Shit, I love her, but I need to know she’s in this for the long haul. I need to know that she’s as serious about making this work as I am.”

  “I hear you. What are you going to do?”

  “I told her she had the holidays to think about it, and then we’ll have to talk about it again. I don’t want to pressure her but, I’m not sure what I’ll do if she can’t make a decision or says she’s not ready.” He shrugs. “I guess I have some thinking to do too. How are things with you two?” He questions, nodding at Patty.

  “It’s great! I’m planning a v
ery special Christmas Eve for the two of us, and if all goes according to plan, I’ll have the best Christmas ever.”

  “Okay, break is over!” Patty says as the girls come walking back into the living room. “We have a lot of wrapping left to do, and I don’t want to be doing it all night.” She giggles as she winks at me. “The rest of the appetizers are on the stove top, so help yourself.” She plops down on the floor to continue wrapping.

  Suddenly, the phone rings. It’s Darryl informing me that my parents are on their way up with Troy. When I open the door, I see they’ve also brought some food. My mother has a cheese and cracker tray with pepperoni and a veggie platter with dip.

  “Hey! What a great surprise.” I smile as I hug my mom and dad. Patty jumps up to greet our parents. Troy shakes my hand and then hugs Patty. Bella gets up to help get the platters situated and says hi as well. Derek wanted to finish wrapping a gift, so he’s the last one to come over.

  Patty fills them in on our task and explains why there are different piles of gifts are located around the room. My father takes a seat with Bella to help her fill out tags while Troy and my mom sit at the coffee table to start wrapping gifts. We’re all catching up on everyday life since we haven’t seen them in a while.

  “Hey, I need to get some photos of this,” Patty says. She picks her phone to take some pictures of us doing our various jobs. As she goes to put her phone back down, it chirps.

  Hope you’re having fun doing your good deed. It’s too bad you decided against helping others that needed you too.

  “What’s wrong, baby?”

  “She’s texting me from random numbers now,” she says with frustration, handing me the phone.

  “Shit, she’s been watching you,” I say barely loud enough for anyone to hear, but her father catches it.

  “Who’s been watching her?”

  “Joan,” I say with a scowl. I’m pissed, and everyone in the room can see it. “She was fired because of some crap she pulled with Patty, and now she’s kind of lost it.” I turn to her. “I think we need to keep a closer eye on you. I don’t think you should leave the house alone.”

  “Carter, don’t start overreacting.”

  My eyes go wide as my brows shoot up. “Overreacting? She followed you the other day calling and begging you to help her. You rejected her, and now she’s stalking you. I’m not sure I’m overreacting, baby.”

  “I’m sorry, Patty, but I agree,” her father says.

  All wrapping has come to a halt. She takes as deep breath, pacing the room. “All right, maybe it’s not overreacting, but I’m tired of being a victim. First it was Ben and I had to watch my back from him, and now I’ve managed to piss off Joan. I want to live my life,” she says with her eyes closed as she tries to stay composed. I can sense she’s not really winning the battle, and I don’t want our night to be ruined.

  I take a step closer to her, slipping my hands into her hair on both sides of her face. I force her to look into my eyes. I practically whisper, “Listen, I understand, but I can’t let anything happen to you. I love you too much. It would kill me.”

  She closes her eyes and nods. “Okay, but right now I’m safe in my home surrounded by family. Can we please focus on getting these gifts wrapped? We need to deliver them in a few days, and this is supposed to be fun.”

  I smile and turn to everyone in the room. “I need to hire her. She’s taking my job.” She giggles and smacks me playfully. I turn back to her. “Yes, we can drop it for now, but this conversation isn’t over.”

  “Thank you,” she says, kissing me gently. I’m thankful I’ve managed to salvage her good mood, but I really need to figure out what to do about the Joan situation.

  “Okay, you two. Back to work,” Derek calls out from behind us. We both start laughing and continue wrapping gifts.

  ***

  It’s taken us a few hours, but we’ve managed to get everything wrapped and tagged. Each child will get two or three gifts, and while we were wrapping the store called to tell me there were more left under the tree. I was really excited to hear that, and after some discussion with Derek we’ve decided to put those aside for next year in case we’re not as lucky as we were this year. I tell the manager that I’ll be by later this week to pick them up and we’ll store them at the office.

  We’re all sitting around the kitchen, picking at food. I notice Bella seems to be a bit distant. I’m not sure what her problem is, but I hope to God she doesn’t hurt Derek because that’ll really suck. We like having them both over, but it would get awkward to have them at the house at the same time. Derek’s keeping an eye on her while talking to my mom about the upcoming event.

  “We’re almost sold out on tickets, and I’ve got three tables of donors attending the event,” I add to their conversation.

  Patty says, “My mother has even come up with a surprise ball drop that she’s really excited about. She won’t tell us what it is because she wants to surprise us, but she says it’ll be awesome.”

  “That’s great!” Troy says. “I’m really glad to see the two of you on better terms. I really hope it stays that way.”

  “Me too, Daddy,” she says, looking up at her dad as he places an arm around her shoulder.

  “Well, it’s been fun, and I’m glad we stopped in to surprise you guys, but I think it’s time we hit the road. It’s getting cold, and it’s supposed to snow a bit tonight.”

  My father walks toward the hall closet to get their jackets.

  Derek looks at Bella. “Are you ready too, babe?”

  “Sure,” she says in a sad tone. She scoots off the chair to get her coat as well. Poor Derek looks defeated, and I feel bad for him.

  Patty follows her and I can hear her whispering something to her in the hall as I say goodbye to my parents and thank them again for coming. They certainly helped things to move along a little quicker, and it was nice to hang out with them. I hear Patty sigh as she walks away from Bella to say her goodbyes to our parents. Patty shuts and locks the door.

  “What is going on with Bella? She looked miserable all night.” I ask, concerned.

  “Derek asked her to move in with him.” She says it like there’s a problem with that, but I don’t see what it is.

  “Okay, I know that. What’s the problem? I thought she was happy with him.”

  “She is, but she’s scared, and I told her she needs to talk to him or she’s going to lose the best thing she’s ever had.”

  “What is she so afraid of?” I ask as I slip my hands up her back and pull her close to me.

  “Do you really want to talk about my best friend’s love problems? Quite honestly, I’d much rather bathe with you and then make love until we’re completely drained.”

  I lower my lips, gently pressing them to hers, and when I pull away, I whisper, “That sounds like a lot more fun.”

  I kiss her again, and this time she opens. She licks my lips, asking for entry. I deepen the kiss as I pull her even closer to my body.

  I pull away, resting my forehead atop hers. “Come on, let’s go have that bath.”

  Chapter 11

  Patty

  I’m getting ready to leave with Carter so we can distribute the gifts. Derek’s on his way over to pick up some of the gifts so he can help, and Bella is at a shoot. There are so many, it would take us forever to get them handed out. Last night Carter and I went through them all and divided them into two piles based on location. It took us a little while to figure it out, but it was worth it. Now we won’t be driving all over the place, trying to distribute them. We’ve decided that next year we’re going to set two pick-up locations and will only deliver if it is absolutely necessary.

  “Patty, are you almost ready? Derek will be here any minute, and one of the staff is on their way up with the cart!” Carter shouts from the other room.

  “Yeah, I’m ready,” I say as I’m running out into the kitchen with my empty coffee cup and the plate from my bagel. I couldn’t get my ass moving this morn
ing, so I ended up eating while I was getting ready. I hate doing that, but I had no choice because I hate being late.

  There’s a knock at the door, and when Carter opens it, he finds a young kid with the cart and Derek.

  The kid pushes the cart through the door, and they get to work putting all of the gifts on it. I can hear them talking from the kitchen. “Bella is going to meet us at the diner after the shoot. I told her I’d call her when we were almost done so we’d all get there at the same time.”

  “That’s cool. Things any better?” Carter asks.

  “I don’t know. Her mood has been better since I dropped the topic of her moving in, and I plan to leave it alone until after the holiday. We’ll see what happens. I don’t understand the big deal. She practically lives at my house anyway.”

  “Give her some time,” I say as I walk into the room with some more gifts in my hand.

  “Hey, how are you, Patty?” he says, giving me a quick hug.

  “I’m good. I mean it, though. Trust me. Give her some time. She’ll talk to you when she’s ready, and you’ll understand.” He nods as they finish loading the cart.

  Carter puts his coat on, as do I, and we leave to make our deliveries.

  Once we’ve packed the Jeep full of gifts, we plug the first address into the GPS and it sends us on our way.

  “Thanks for talking to Derek,” Carter says.

  I shrug. “It’s no big deal, but I won’t talk to him for her. She has to be the one to talk about her past and her fears. It’s not my story to tell.”

  “I get it, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to put you between him and your best friend. He’s trying to understand the problem since she’s there so much anyway.”

  “That’s why I said what I said. I wanted him to know there was more to it than her having cold feet, but I don’t want to get in the middle.”