Pull You Through

by Kaylee Ryan

  She answers on the first ring. “Hey.”

  My shoulders immediately relax at the sound of her voice. “Hi.”

  “Are you at the hotel?”

  “Yeah, just got in my room. How was your day?”

  “Good, we went and had dinner with Sarah. I actually just got home.”

  “You skipped classes today?”

  “Yeah, I can make it up.”

  “Thank you for the letter.”

  “I meant it. I know you’re in training and the danger’s not as imminent, but it’s still dangerous. You’re learning how to shoot guns and clear freaking minefields.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “I know, but I thought you know, reminding you that I’m here might make you be extra safe.”

  “I don’t need the reminder. You haven’t left my mind for a single second since the minute I laid eyes on you.”

  “You nervous?”

  “Not really. Boot camp gave me a pretty good idea of what’s to come. We have more free time now that we’ve made it through that initial phase. I actually meant to buy a laptop but forgot.”

  “Can you order one online and have it shipped?”

  “There’s a place on base. It’s like our own little village. I’ll get one as soon as I can and set up an e-mail and text it to you.”

  “Do you know your address yet?”

  “Not yet. I’ll find out tomorrow.”

  “Send it to me when you can.”

  We’re both quiet. I know what I want to say, but I’m not sure if I should. I don’t want to make this harder for either of us, but I really want her to know. I want her to know that when I tell her she’s all I think about, that it’s the truth. “I miss you,” I say, my words barely a whisper, not able to hold the truth back.

  “I miss you, too.”

  “I’ll call and text as much as I can. I don’t really know what ‘free time’ means, but as soon as I do, you’ll be the first to know.”

  “I’ll keep my phone on me at all times, work, school, it doesn’t matter. I’ll answer. I don’t care if it’s the middle of the night. I’ll answer.”

  “If I could, I would.”

  “I know that, Slade. You just worry about you. Stay safe, learn all the skills you need to stay safe. I’ll be here when you have time.”

  “I hate that, that you’re just waiting around for me.”

  “That’s how this works. It’s military life.”

  “Yeah, I get that, but you didn’t sign up for this. I’m struggling with pulling you into this life.”

  “You didn’t. I mean, I guess you did when you made me fall for you with your charms.” She chuckles softly, and my breath hitches at her words. “I knew who you were, what your career was, and that didn’t stop me. I support you, Slade.”

  “You’re… incredible.” She really is. She’s taking all of this in her stride, letting me stake claim on her and then leave her.

  We talk for another hour, just about everything. Dawson wants to draw me a picture and send it, and her parents reminded her to tell me I’m always welcome there, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m surrounded with support. It’s a heady feeling.

  “I better let you go. You have to be up and at it early in the morning, and you didn’t sleep last night,” she says.

  “I slept in the truck on the way here.”

  “That’s not true rest. You need to be in your best form. A good night’s sleep will do you wonders.”

  “I know you’re right.”

  “Call me in the morning?” she asks. “Just you know, I don’t know when I’ll get to talk to you again and I just… want to hear your voice.”

  “Sure, angel. I’ll call when I get up.”

  “Night, Slade.”

  “Night, Austyn.” I end the call and pull up the picture app on my phone. I scroll until I find one of us at the fair. Her blue eyes are sparkling at the camera. I don’t need the picture to see them, but it’s my fear that in five months, when I get to see her again, I might forget. Austyn Wilson is not someone I ever want to forget.

  IT’S BEEN EXACTLY ONE WEEK today since he left. We’ve managed to send a few text messages here and there, but he’s been busy settling and with training. I miss him. How is it that I was with him for not many more days than the amount he has been gone yet my heart aches for him? I fell hard and fast, something I never thought it was even possible. I was a naysayer, until Slade.

  Working on a paper for my history class, it’s almost midnight, and since I can’t sleep, I figure I might as well use my time wisely. I don’t have class until tomorrow afternoon, and I work after that. I figure I can sleep in tomorrow to make up for my late night.

  I’m flipping through my history book when my phone vibrates from the nightstand where it’s charging. I lean over in a rush to get to it, and it falls off the nightstand. I try to lean over the edge of the bed to get to it and end up rolling off my bed. Finally, I reach it and swipe the screen, “Hello,” I say quickly and out of breath.

  “Austyn?” his deep, sleepy voice asks.

  “Hey.” I take a deep breath and slowly exhale, moving the phone away from my mouth, trying to calm down.

  “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

  Great. Nothing like embarrassing yourself the first time I’ve spoken to him in a week. “Yeah, I’m good, I… um, kind of… sorta fell off the bed?

  “What? Are you okay? How did that happen?” I can hear the concern in his voice.

  “Well, my phone was charging, and I tried to reach it and knocked it to the floor. When I tried to lean over and get it, I kind of fell out of bed.”

  His deep laughter comes across the line. “I would have liked to have seen that.”

  “Hey! Leave me to wallow alone in my embarrassment. Enough about that. How are you? It’s so good to hear your voice.”

  “Good, it’s been crazy. We’ve been in the classroom.” He pauses, as if gathering his thoughts. I wait him out, knowing he’ll eventually say what he has to say. “I miss you,” he murmurs. “I knew I would, you know. I just didn’t know how it would feel, to have you agree to be mine and then not be with you.”

  “Hey, you’re with me always, remember?” I throw his parting lines the day he left back at him.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I do, but this is us. This is our future. We have to stay strong. You have to stay strong. I can’t have you getting hurt.”

  “There are safety precautions all over this base, not to mention we’re just in the classroom right now. We have fields days, well, more like weeks planned, and then we have classroom time. It’s split up. This first session is four weeks. Then we have fourteen weeks of our OSUT.”

  “What’s that?”

  “One Station Unit Training. That’s where we gain our skillset for our permanent position within the Marines.”

  “Combat engineer, right?”

  “Yeah. Hey, I didn’t wake you, did I? I’m sorry it’s so late. Combs, Spiller, Jeffers, and I, we got out early today and went and bought laptops. We had to have the secure network installed by the IT guys, but I’m up and running. That’s why I called. I wanted to tell you that.”

  “That’s great. Will you have more time to check it?”

  “Hopefully. Things should start to slow down. The first week is a lot of getting back into the swing of things, testing, things like that.”

  “That’s good to hear. How’s the base?”

  “It’s good. Kind of like our own little world. We even have a hotel where family can stay when they come to visit.”

  My mind races immediately. Savvy and I need to plan a trip to North Carolina. I wonder if you have to be family, if girlfriends are allowed into that equation. Am I his girlfriend? I told him I was his. “That’s great that they offer that,” I finally say.

  “It is. Look, I know it’s late I won’t keep you, I just wanted to tell you about the computer. I’ll send you a text of my e-mail ad
dress. And selfishly, I just wanted to hear your voice. I knew if you were sleeping I’d at least get your voice mail.”

  I melt at his words. “Not sleeping. I have a late class tomorrow and then work after that, so I’m busting out this history paper and making it a late one.”

  “School going okay?”

  “Yeah, it’s school.” I laugh. “Classes are same old, you know? Kind of a means to an end to get where I want to be,” I say with a yawn.

  “I’ll let you go. Goodnight, angel.”

  “Night.”

  As soon as we end the call, my phone beeps with a text alert.

  Slade: HerKnight@directmail.com

  Did he really?

  Me: Look at you getting all creative.

  Slade: You like that?

  Me: I’m sure you’ll get shit over it.

  Slade: From who? You’re the only person I care enough to give it to.

  Holding my phone to my chest, I grin like a fool. That’s when the idea hits me. I have an e-mail address, but I’m going to make a new one. Just for him. This way, I’ll be sure to never miss a message lost in the madness that is my inbox. Pulling up Direct Mail, I type in the address that I want and cross my fingers that it’s available. When the screen prompts me for a password, I squeal, and then realize what time it is. I listen to make sure I didn’t wake anyone up before finishing my account. Once I’m in, I hit Compose Message and fire off an e-mail.

  To: HerKnight@directmail.com

  From: HisAngel@directmail.com

  Time: 01:15

  Subject: New E-mail

  I thought I’d send you a quick message giving you my new e-mail address. I can’t let you be the one having all the fun. It was so good to hear your voice earlier. I miss you. Have a good day tomorrow. I hope we get to talk again soon.

  Yours,

  Austyn

  After hitting Send, I close down my laptop. No way can I concentrate on my history paper after my call with Slade. Instead, I pull up his picture on my phone. One of the many we took, or I took without him realizing it during our time together. This one is my favorite. He’s sitting on the back porch at Brandon’s and looking out across the yard. A small smile tips his lips. I like to think that I had something to do with that. He’s responsible for mine, even when he’s not here. I grin, because I know that he’s thinking of me like I am him. There’s not a doubt in my mind. Reaching over, I plug my phone back in and turn off the lamp on my nightstand. I drift off to sleep with thoughts of our time together.

  My plans for sleeping in fly out the window when my cell rings at eight. Reaching over, I grab it and look at the screen. Any other time I would turn the ringer off and keep sleeping, but that was before Slade, before there was a chance it could be him calling. It’s not him, not that I really expected it to be at this time. It’s Savannah. “Why are you up?” I greet her.

  “I have the morning shift.”

  “I thought you were off today?”

  “I was, but Kara asked me to switch with her.”

  “Oh, so why are you calling me at the ass crack of dawn?”

  “Because I have an idea I want to run by you. It was either call at one o’clock this morning when it hit me or call now.”

  “I was up then.”

  “Why?”

  “Working on a paper and then Slade called.”

  “I was up, too, talking to Brandon.”

  “How is he?”

  “Good. They’re in training. I guess it’s long days, but they have more free time than boot camp, so that’s something.”

  “That’s what Slade said, too,” I say with a yawn.

  “Anyway, after I hung up with Brandon last night, an idea hit me. I think we should take a road trip.”

  “Okay,” I say cautiously. You never know what you’re getting into with Savannah. “Where are we going?”

  “North Carolina.” She gives her words time to sink in. When I don’t reply, she forges ahead. “To see the guys.”

  My heart leaps in my chest. This is exactly what I thought last night. “Can we do that?”

  “We can. They get weekends off, and there’s a hotel on base.”

  “Don’t you have to be family or something? To be able to stay there?”

  “We are family,” she counters.

  “Legally, not just in heart.”

  “Easy, we call the guys, have them meet us off base. They take us to get a visitor’s pass, and voila.”

  “Do they know about this grand plan?”

  “Nope.”

  “So what if we get there and they can’t have visitors or have training or something?”

  “Damn, I didn’t think about that.”

  “Yeah, so maybe we can surprise them with the trip before we get there? Maybe see if we can get them together and call them or do a video chat or something?”

  “I like where you’re going with this. Does that mean that you’ll go with me?”

  “Yeah, it sounds fun. When are you thinking?

  “Thanksgiving. It’s about five weeks away and even though they have a long weekend, they have to stay on base.”

  “Your parents cool with that?” I ask her.

  “Don’t know, don’t care. I don’t know if his parents are planning on going down or not.”

  “You thinking we could ride with them if they are?”

  “No, I thought we could use a girls’ trip. I feel like we’ve both been playing catch up with school and work since the guys have been gone. I don’t know where your head is at with Slade, nor what’s it is that’s going on with the two of you. Plus, I miss you. Not to mention I didn’t get to tell you that Brandon is talking about getting engaged. I don’t know if it’s for my benefit because he knows I miss him, as reassurance, but he should know me by now that I don’t need reassurance. I just need him to come home safe.”

  “He loves you.” He does. They’re as thick as thieves, and I’m not at all surprised that Brandon’s talking about getting engaged. Once they’re married, she can live on base with him. And as far as I know, that’s always been the plan.

  “I know, but it’s all so real, you know? We would sit and talk about what our life would be like once we graduated and he enlisted. It’s surreal that it’s all playing out so far just as we’d planned. Well, aside from my bestie falling for one of his marine brothers. I could not have planned that better if I tried.”

  “Who says I’m falling?” I counter. We both know damn good and well that I am. I fell fast and hard. We both did.

  “Keep telling yourself that, my friend. Anyway, I’m at work. What time do you work tonight?”

  “I’m there from five to close.”

  “Call me when you get off and we’ll brainstorm. In the meantime, I’ll call his mom and see what their plans are. I don’t want to take away from anything they might have planned.”

  “Sounds good.” I end the call and decide that I might as well get out of bed and get moving. Maybe I can finish my paper before I have to leave for class. I need to stay on top of things and not let them slip just in case he gets a leave, or we plan another spontaneous trip. I don’t know how this marine life works, how often he gets leave, or if they’re even allowed visitors like Savvy seems to think they are. It’s a lot to learn. I have a feeling I’m going to be spending a lot of time on Google in the coming weeks. Maybe I should ask Brandon or Slade if there’s some type of manual for families. On second thought, Brandon is the safer bet. I’ll have Savannah ask him. I don’t want Slade to think I’m a stage five clinger.

  CLASS TODAY WAS BRUTAL, AND then we ran five miles. I’m dead on my feet. We all are. It took more effort than any of us wanted to put forward to grab something to eat.

  “My toes hurt,” Spiller says from his spot on his bed.

  “My everything hurts,” Jeffers pipes in.

  “Toughen up,” I say, even though I want to whine just like they are.

  Before Combs can chime in, his phone’s ringing. He answers
immediately, and from the way his voice gets soft, I know it’s Savannah. Jeffers and Spiller razz on him, making kissing noises and asking if she has any hot friends. That’s when I perk up and take notice. Savannah does have a hot friend, gorgeous in fact and she’s mine. I’m just ready to make that known when Combs does it for me.

  “She does, but this guy,” he points to me, “has already called dibs. Now leave me the fuck alone so I can talk to my girl,” he says with mock rage, all the while wearing a smile on his face.

  “So what’s up with you and the friend?” Spiller asks.

  “We hung out most of the time we were on leave. We’re seeing where things go.”

  “She know that?” Jeffers asks, wagging his eyebrows.

  “Yeah, she knows. I made sure we were on the same page before I left.”

  “What’s her name?” Spiller asks.

  “Austyn.” I can’t hold back my smile even if I wanted to.

  “You got a picture?” Jeffers chimes in.

  “Yeah.” I dig my phone out of my pocket and pass it over to him.

  “Not bad, Reeves,” he says, passing the phone to Spiller.

  “Fuck, man, she’s a looker,” he says, handing me back my phone.

  I take a quick glance, making sure I haven’t missed any messages, and slide it back in my pocket. “She’s gorgeous. That picture doesn’t do her justice.”

  “Not you too.” Spiller sighs. “We already hear it from this guy about missing his girl. We were supposed to be the three Amigos, showing him what he was missing by being tied down.”

  “Maybe you two are the ones who don’t know what you’re missing,” I counter.

  “You’ve known this girl, what, a month at best? You really already that lost for her?”

  It’s taking little effort for my mind to pay the highlight reel of my time with her. “Yep,” I say, not giving a shit how it makes me look.

  “Damn, must be some good—” Spiller starts, but I stop him.

  “Don’t fucking finish that sentence.” I glare at him, my fists balled at my sides.

  He holds up his hands in surrender. “Didn’t mean any disrespect. It’s just odd that you’re so into her in such a short amount of time.”