Coach Maddie and the Marine

by Edens, Blaire

  Wherever he was, he could take the time to call.

  ...

  The boys won the game on Saturday, this time by a wider margin. The boys were sorely disappointed that Coach Sterling hadn’t been there to see their win.

  Disappointed wasn’t the word for what she felt. She was afraid. And mad. And though it hurt to admit it, heartbroken.

  What if he had to go on some special assignment? What if something had happened to him? Was he okay? Would anyone get in touch with her?

  Why would they?

  Her heart began to race, the feeling all too familiar. She fought the tears welling in her eyes.

  She should’ve known better.

  After the night they spent together, he’d promised. Promised to come home to her. And now he was MIA.

  She forced herself to take several deep breaths and refocus her mind. She was assuming the worst, but maybe there was a simpler explanation.

  David didn’t strike her as a liar, but admittedly, she didn’t have a lot of dating experience. Maybe he was just avoiding her.

  On Monday, she tracked down the phone number to his office. She met with stiff resistance. She was told curtly that Lt. Sterling wasn’t in the office, but she could leave a message. As for when he might be back in the office, no one seemed to have any idea.

  She declined to leave a message since she’d already left several on his cell phone and on his home answering machine.

  Chasing him was like chasing a ghost.

  ...

  No one in the Marine Corps was listening.

  David had gone up the chain of command, one by one, until he was so frustrated he could scream.

  Apparently no one had ever refused a Bronze Star before.

  There wasn’t a procedure and when the Corps didn’t have a procedure, it was hard work convincing them they needed one.

  He didn’t deserve the award and he couldn’t face Maddie with it on his chest. Until he got out of the award, he didn’t even feel like he could talk to her, explain that even with all the time that had passed, all the thinking he’d done about the deaths of Frank and Robert, he wasn’t sure he could ever leave the guilt and pain behind.

  Maddie deserved a man who could love her totally and completely without the specter of two deaths hanging over his head. He loved her too much to let her love a half-man.

  He’d been avoiding her calls. He needed time to figure out how he was going to explain the award. How he was going to explain that even though he was madly in love with her, he couldn’t be with her.

  Maddie.

  What the hell had he been thinking?

  He should’ve never gotten involved. He should’ve never agreed to help with the team.

  He never should’ve slept with her.

  His heart squeezed. Not only would he miss Maddie, he’d miss Andrew, too. He’d thought about nothing else since he’d gotten the notification that he was receiving the award. There was no way he could be with her and forget.

  And as much as he wanted both, he had to forget.

  He had to move forward, no matter the cost.

  ...

  Maddie jumped when the phone rang. She grabbed the phone. “Hello?” Her voice cracked and she crossed the fingers on her left hand.

  “I’m so glad I caught you.”

  “Oh. Callie. Hey.”

  The connection was crackly, making Callie’s voice sound almost robotic. “Sorry I disappointed you. Geez, who did you think was calling?”

  “You didn’t disappoint me. I didn’t mean to sound that way. How are things?”

  “Same as always. Long, hot days filled with hurt, sick soldiers. But I don’t want to talk about that. I’m calling with good news. I’m coming home a little early. I’ll be heading to another base in Europe to be debriefed, and then I’ll be flying home.”

  “That’s the best news in the world. When will you be here?”

  “Two weeks. I’ll call you when I get all the details.”

  “Andrew is going to be thrilled.” Relief and joy of her own made a lump form in her throat. “I’ve got to go now, sis. But kiss my boy for me and I’ll see you both soon. I love you.”

  “I love you, too. Stay safe.”

  “I will.” Callie hung up the line.

  Andrew was ecstatic when he heard the good news.

  “In only a couple of weeks? I can’t believe it.” He jumped up and down on the kitchen floor like a human pogo stick. She hadn’t seen this kind of joy on his face since the Christmas morning when Santa left him an Xbox 360. “I have to get my scrapbook ready. It has to be finished when she gets home. Will you help me with it?”

  “We’ll work on it all weekend. After your game, that is.” Truth be told, she wanted to join him in jumping up and down. She needed a distraction to keep her from obsessing about David, and focusing on the happiness of Callie coming home soon would help.

  She hoped.

  The game on Saturday morning was another easy win for the boys. Maddie was beginning to get into the rhythm of coaching. And also starting to understand the subtle nuances of the game that only time and experience can teach. Best of all, the boys were responding to her.

  When they realized she was serious about cutting their playing time if they broke the rules, they’d all become perfect little gentlemen. They were beginning to trust her football instincts on what plays to run and when to call time-outs.

  She liked coaching so much that she’d already signed up for next season.

  After a pizza lunch, she and Andrew sat down in the middle of the living room floor with the scrapbook supplies.

  Andrew flipped to the page that celebrated his touchdown in the first game and her heart clenched. She’d been foolish to think things were going to be like that forever.

  But she refused to be sad. It had been a wonderful day and Callie was coming home in only fourteen days. Then her sister would be safe in her little house right down the street and her family would finally be whole again.

  Andrew cut and pasted all afternoon. He crafted pages on school, football, and the fun things they had done together while Callie was away. He also made pages on his friends and the neighborhood.

  “Your mom’s going to love this, kiddo.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  She nodded. “I know so. It’s such a great way to tell her about all the things that happened over the last year, and she can keep it forever. It will make her feel like she didn’t miss too much.”

  “Thanks, Aunt Maddie.”

  “Let’s clean this mess up and then we’ll watch a movie. How would you like to stay up as late as you want?”

  “Can I?”

  “Only this one time, and only because we’re celebrating. Is that a deal?”

  “Deal,” he answered eagerly.

  They swept up the slivers of paper and vacuumed up the glitter. Then they curled up on the couch to watch the latest Pixar DVD release.

  Andrew was asleep before the movie reached the halfway point.

  ...

  Eight games. She’d made it through the entire season.

  As soon as the final buzzer rang, signaling the end of the championship game, the boys erupted into a cheer. Maddie looked at the scoreboard, a flimsy cardboard sign being held up by a volunteer parent, and broke into a cheer herself. The boys gathered around her and began chanting, “Coach Maddie, Coach Maddie.”

  She’d done it. She had tackled something she knew nothing about and made it a success. She didn’t try to hide the smile of pride on her face.

  Chapter Twelve

  Tears burned in Maddie’s eyes when the plane carrying Callie touched down on the tarmac. The wait for her to exit the plane was nearly unbearable. It seemed longer than her whole deployment.

  The weather was cool and clear. With Halloween just around the corner, the heat of summer was a distant memory.

  She tried to rest her hands on Andrew’s shoulders, but he jumped up and down, furiously waving the small A
merican flag she’d purchased for him on the way to the airfield. His face was flushed from the excitement. He wore his favorite long-sleeved T-shirt, a bright red one with a huge flag in the center. Callie had bought it from the Base Exchange for him a few days before she left. It had hung on him then, but fit him better now. He would’ve worn it every day if Maddie hadn’t insisted on washing it. His newly finished scrapbook was nestled in a padded box, covered with construction paper cutouts, on the ground by his feet.

  A brass band played marching tunes like “Stars and Stripes Forever” and she found herself tapping her feet in time to the music.

  The first few soldiers disembarked. She stood on her tiptoes and searched the line for a glimpse of Callie. Finally, an eternity and a half later, midway in the line of soldiers moving down the steps from the plane, she saw her. A wave of relief, so strong it threatened to make her faint, washed over her like a flood. Even though she’d talked to Callie a couple of days ago and she’d reassured Maddie that she was safe and sound, on a secure American base in Germany, and on her way home, her heart had still been clouded with paralyzing fear for her sister.

  But now, just seconds from hugging her sister, she let go of all the worry she’d held on to for the last fifteen months.

  Callie stepped from the bottom step onto the tarmac. As soon as she walked across the painted red line that kept the families a safe distance from the planes, she and Andrew rushed toward her. Callie dropped her rucksack and bent to take Andrew into the circle of her arms.

  No Hallmark commercial ever filmed could capture the emotion.

  After several minutes, Callie stood, running her fingers through Andrews’s hair. He held on to her leg and leaned against her like a much younger child.

  “Maddie,” Callie said, tears choking her voice. “My little sister.”

  Maddie embraced her and held her as tightly as she could. After several minutes of shoulder-racking sobs, the sisters pulled away from each other. She stepped back and took in every inch of Callie, cataloging her from head to toe. She searched for changes in her sister—any injuries she hadn’t told her about, worry lines on her face. Callie looked great. She was a little thinner than when she’d left, her desert fatigues fit her loosely now, and she had a deep bronze tan, but her broad smile and sparkling blue eyes told her that she was the same old Callie.

  “Let’s go get a milkshake, kiddo, and start catching up,” Callie said.

  “Mom, we won the football league championship. We didn’t lose a single game. Aunt Maddie was the best coach we’ve ever had,” Andrew said as they headed toward the parking lot. “And guess what? I made you something. Look.” He handed her the box holding the scrapbook.

  They loaded Callie’s bag into the trunk of the car and headed toward the drugstore to order the biggest milkshake on the menu.

  “This scrapbook is so thoughtful. Now I can see everything that happened while I was gone.”

  Maddie was glad Andrew was in the backseat and couldn’t see the regret that washed over Callie’s face as she flipped through more than a year of her son’s life that she’d missed and could never get back.

  Andrew was asleep by eight. He’d talked continuously all afternoon—trying to catch Callie up on every detail of the last year. Callie tucked him in while Maddie made a huge pitcher of margaritas. She placed the pitcher on a tray with two glasses and a dish of salt. She carried it out to the back porch and poured the two glasses full to the brim.

  Callie closed the back door quietly behind her. “Wow. Does he always talk that much?”She laughed.

  “No. It’s just the excitement. He’ll be back to his normal self in a couple of days.”

  Callie eased down into the chair beside her. “It is so good to be home. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you two.”

  “Oh, yes I do. We’ve missed you so much, Callie. There just aren’t the words to tell you how much.” She felt tears welling up in her eyes again.

  “Okay—no more of this sappy stuff. Andrew caught me up on his life, albeit in hyperspeed. Now it’s your turn.”

  “There’s nothing much to tell and besides, I want to hear about you first.”

  “That’s not what Andrew says. I want to talk about happy things, simple things. I’ve seen enough war and wounded men to last me ten lifetimes. It’s the last thing I want to talk about, or even think about for that matter.”

  “I’m so sorry you had to see all that terrible stuff.”

  “It’s over now. Thank God. Tell me about the guy first, and football second,” Callie said, eating some salt off the rim of her glass.

  “There was a guy. Lieutenant David Sterling, Frank’s CO. He was with Frank when he died.”

  “That’s heavy,” Callie said.

  “He taught me about football and even signed on to be my assistant coach. Things got a little heavy for a while and then he left. End of story.”

  “Whoa, slow down and start from the beginning. And don’t leave out any of the juicy parts. I hate it when you try to do that. What are sisters for if not to dish all the details?”

  “Well, I met him the night Andrew decided to recruit his own football coach…” she began.

  Callie listened intently to every detail of the short-lived romance. She sat quietly, encouraging her sister with a hand on her arm.

  Two pitchers of margaritas later, eyes streaked with tears, she finished the story.

  “Maybe he’s not as bad as you think. It’s possible that something really did come up unexpectedly. Sometimes those things happen in the military.”

  “I appreciate your trying to spare my feelings, but I was just a way to get past his guilt and regret, nothing more. I should have known when a guy like him had never been married that there was something terribly wrong with him. Oh, Callie, what on earth was I thinking?”

  “Falling in love can happen to anyone. You had no idea it would end like this. I’m so sorry he broke your heart. But I’m not willing to count this guy out just yet.”

  “He screwed me over. Plain and simple,” she said. “One minute he was telling me he was in love with me and wanted to talk about marriage, and the next moment he’s not answering his phone or responding to texts.”

  “Just give him a little more time to come back and explain things to you. I don’t want you to pass up the one man who can make you totally happy over a silly misunderstanding.”

  “You think it’s just a silly misunderstanding? We flirted, we went on a date, he seduced me, made me all sorts of promises about forever, and then he disappeared. What’s to misunderstand, Callie?”

  “You left out the part about helping you with the team, hanging out with Andrew, ordering special wine for your dinner date. Those aren’t things a man does if sex is all he’s interested in getting. Those are sweet and romantic things that a decent man would do because he really likes you. Why can’t you just keep an open mind at least for a few more days?”

  “It’s been weeks. He’s history.” She crossed her legs and looked off into the distance.

  Callie took her sister’s wrist in her fingers. “Why don’t you let me ask around the base? Maybe someone knows something they might tell another soldier that they wouldn’t tell a civilian.”

  Maddie wasn’t convinced. “He’s history,” she repeated. “Soon to be ancient.”

  The girls decided that it wouldn’t be in their best interest to mix another pitcher of drinks. She already felt woozy and the planked floor spun a bit when she rose from her chair.

  “Let’s call it a night,” she said. “It’s been a really emotional day. Let’s get some rest and we’ll do something fun tomorrow, just the three of us.”

  Callie became serious. “I can never thank you enough for all you did while I was gone. You’re the best sister I could ever ask for, and more. I love you so much.”

  She hugged Callie. “No. You’re the best sister in the world. Not me. I love you, too.”

  “And tomorrow, you have to tell me about the
football.”

  “That’s a deal.”

  She lay awake on her bed, watching the ceiling fan, trying to stop thinking about David. As usual, she was unsuccessful.

  How could he have faked his feelings like that? Why did he have to make all those promises to her?

  Their times together—at Paolo’s, on the sofa talking football, the dinner at Merrimon’s—played like a continuous movie loop over and over again in her head. It was impossible to think of anything but him.

  Sorry bastard.

  ...

  After weeks of trying to refuse the medal, David had gotten nowhere.

  No one in the chain of command wanted to hear about his survivor guilt, his opinion that he was a failure, not a hero. The Corps was sticking to their story and his commanding officer, General Rodgers, had ordered him to be at the award ceremony.

  He still had a choice: accept the award or face court martial.

  A court martial didn’t sound like the way he wanted to end his military career.

  He checked the alignment of his medals in the mirror. Everything was squared away. If a person didn’t look too closely, he looked like the poster child for the Corps. But his eyes told a different story. Even he could see the sadness in them.

  Against his will, he’d be accepting the Bronze Star today, but he’d managed to do one thing right. He’d insisted that Frank Westerfield be awarded one too. While it would be several months before all the paperwork made its way through the Corps, Maddie would be able to accept it on his behalf.

  He’d insisted on a half-right.

  Not that it felt right.

  The ceremony was held on the drill field. A handful of marines standing at attention waiting on General Rodgers to pin a medal on their chest.

  He stood stock still, barely met the general’s eye when he pinned the ribbon on his uniform and offered congratulations.

  He was having trouble keeping his emotions in check and the Marine Corps didn’t take kindly to waterworks.

  ...

  Maddie spent the next two weeks helping Callie and Andrew get reinstalled in their own house. Even though base housing would have made more economic sense for Callie, she loved having a place of her own where she could hang pictures and get away from all the rigidity of the military. The house was only a few short blocks from Maddie’s place. Andrew would be able to ride his bike back and forth.