The Empty Nesters

by Brown, Carolyn

  Luke flung open the door and opened his arms. She met his embrace and laid her head on his shoulder, their hearts seeming to beat in unison.

  “So how did your empty nesters’ meeting go?” he asked.

  “How’d you know about that?” She took a step back.

  “I find out all kinds of things just by keeping my ears open.” He kissed her on the tip of her nose. “You taste like wine and sweet cookies.”

  “You taste like beer and pretzels.” She leaned in for a long kiss. “I like it.”

  “What do y’all talk about at these meetings?” He took her by the hand and led her to the bedroom.

  “That’s classified, but I can tell you this much: I’m not going to the house in the morning until you go. They know about us, and until we leave, I’m not waiting for them to go to bed before I come out here anymore, or rushing back before they get up in the morning. And I told them that we’re sharing our own hotel room in Lawton.” She slowly unbuttoned his shirt and ran her hands over his broad chest. “Is that going to be weird for you?”

  “Oh, hell no!” He kissed the side of her neck. “We are consenting adults, and we shouldn’t have to sneak around like high school kids.”

  “At least I didn’t crawl out the window.” She undid his belt buckle.

  “If that had been necessary, I would have had a ladder ready for you to climb down into my arms.” He slipped her jacket off her shoulders.

  “And you said you weren’t romantic.” She switched off the lights and left the door wide open.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  When it came time to leave on Tuesday morning, Carmen lingered a little and was the last one in the motor home. She stopped inside the door and laid a palm on the plaque that read:

  MAY GOD GRANT YOU ALWAYS

  A SUNBEAM TO WARM YOU

  A MOONBEAM TO CHARM YOU

  A SHELTERING ANGEL SO NOTHING CAN HARM YOU

  LAUGHTER TO CHEER YOU

  FAITHFUL FRIENDS NEAR YOU

  AND WHENEVER YOU PRAY

  HEAVEN TO HEAR YOU.

  She’d had those things during the past several weeks. With her big hair and smart-ass attitude, Tootsie hid her wings and halo pretty good, but she was definitely Carmen’s sheltering angel. Diana and Joanie had always been faithful friends, and now she could add Luke.

  “Read it out loud,” Tootsie said.

  Carmen’s voice shook by the time she reached the last words. “Amen,” she said as if she’d just finished a prayer.

  Carmen wrapped Tootsie up in her arms. “I’ll always, always remember this place. It should be a rehab center for anyone who has a broken heart.”

  “Or for a heart that’s searching for someone,” Luke said as he buckled into the driver’s seat.

  “We may be sad to leave this place, but change is good for the soul, so get the engine going, Luke, and everyone wave goodbye to Scrap, Texas. We’ll be back next year if the good Lord is willing.”

  They all gathered around the back window and waved until the place was completely out of sight.

  “Next stop, Wichita Falls,” Luke called out.

  “And the day after that is Lawton, where our girls are,” Diana said.

  Joanie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “And where my husband waits for us to begin our new life.”

  “Less than two hundred miles and we’ll stop in Nocona,” Luke called out a mile or so down the road.

  “How far is Lawton from there?” Carmen picked up a book and curled up at one end of the booth.

  “Less than two hours, so no one needs to get up early,” Luke answered.

  Diana slid into the booth, opened her laptop, and started to work. “Only four days until we see our girls.”

  “Thank you so much for leaving early so I can spend a couple of days with Brett before the graduation,” Joanie said.

  “Hey, girl.” Carmen peeked over the top of her book. “We would never, ever cheat you out of that time with Brett.”

  “That’d be pretty damned selfish.” Tootsie took a bag of chips from the cabinet and headed back to her room. “See y’all at noon. I figure we should be close to Nocona about that time. The Dairy Queen there makes amazing burgers, and their nachos are fabulous, plus they’ve got lots of parking for big-ass motor homes.”

  Carmen was so lost in her own thoughts about how she would react to a cold, empty house when they got back to Sugar Run that she forgot to turn the pages of her book. But I’ll be busy helping Joanie get packed and ready to move, and then I’ll have a job, she told herself.

  Diana touched her on the shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  “It’s still a little scary. Facing the house and a new job,” she admitted. “I just have to remind myself of all I have to be thankful for and not worry about tomorrow.”

  “Those are words of wisdom,” Joanie said. “But it’s a tall order.”

  “Oh, yeah, it is,” Diana agreed, and went back to putting in codes and numbers, but her mind strayed to the changes that would be made in their comfortable routine back in Sugar Run. Joanie would be gone soon, and Eli and Carmen were divorced, so now there wouldn’t be anyone on the block who put up WELCOME HOME banners for their army husbands coming back from wherever the hell they’d been sent.

  Once an army wife, always an army wife—she’d heard that for years, but it wasn’t necessarily true anymore, not even for Tootsie. Even after Diana’s divorce, she’d been happy for her two friends when they made a short-time calendar and crossed off the days to when their husbands would come home.

  Change was supposed to be good for the soul, and turmoil created patience, but sometimes accepting either wasn’t easy. The serenity prayer that Tootsie insisted they end their meetings with came to mind, and she repeated it silently twice.

  Dolly jumped up on her lap, and Diana hugged her close to her chest. “Nala is going to grow up to be a big girl like you real soon.”

  Joanie laid her book aside and reached over to pet her. “Never seen such a sweet-natured cat in my whole life. If she wasn’t a female, I’d think maybe Smokey had been reincarnated and came back to give Tootsie some company.”

  “That’s Simba’s job,” Luke called out.

  “Maybe Smokey just decided that all of us needed a little extra love.” All three kittens tried to follow their mother up on the booth seat, but no matter how high they jumped, they couldn’t make it.

  Joanie reached down and grabbed each of them by the scruff of the neck, one by one, handing off Sugar to Carmen and keeping the other two in her lap. They were content for a little while, but then they started to squirm, and she put them back on the floor. They bit each other’s ears and tails and wrestled until they were tired enough to drop right where they stood. In seconds they were nothing more than a pile of fur, all tangled up together and sleeping.

  “They remind me of us.” Joanie pointed. “We might argue and bicker, but at heart we’re as close as siblings.”

  “Is bickering kind of like biting each other’s ears?” Carmen asked with a smile.

  “Got to have a few bad times to balance out the good ones,” Luke said.

  Kind of like this adoption thing that still hangs between us, Diana thought, but she didn’t say the words.

  “Okay, I’m changing the subject before y’all get me all weepy again,” Carmen said. “How much farther is it to Wichita Falls, Luke?”

  “We’re on the outskirts of Nocona now, and I can almost smell those burgers Aunt Tootsie was talking about. After we eat, it’s about an hour’s drive to the mall. And there’s a hotel that’s accessible from the parking lot,” he said. “I checked, and there’s places to plug into electricity for a small fee, so I thought we’d just set up camp there. I’ve made a reservation to stay in the hotel. That way you ladies can have the motor home to yourselves.”

  “Thank you, Luke,” Joanie said. “We’ve only got two more nights for just us girls, and that means a lot to us.”

  “You are very welco
me,” Luke answered.

  Dolly hopped off Diana’s lap and curled up around her kittens. Luke hadn’t mentioned that he was getting a room before now. What if he asked her to join him? She made up her mind that she was staying in the motor home even if Luke did invite her to join him.

  Tootsie came out of her bedroom when Luke stopped the motor home in the Dairy Queen parking lot. “Great timing and great nap. Let’s go eat burgers and nachos so we’ll have the strength to do some serious shopping this afternoon and tomorrow.”

  “Not me,” Luke said. “I’m going to hole up in my hotel room and do some serious work.”

  “Whoa, boy!” Tootsie pointed at him. “This trip ain’t over until we park this sumbitch in my yard. Until then you’re on vacation.”

  “Okay, then I will rephrase.” Luke unbuckled his belt and got out of the seat. “I’m going to hole up in my hotel room and pick out what I need to set up shop in my new home. Can I have it all shipped to your address, Aunt Tootsie? And can I please live in the motor home until I get moved into Joanie’s house?”

  “Of course you can, but I figured you’d be spending most of your nights at Diana’s house.” Tootsie opened the door and hit the button so the steps would lower.

  “Not if Rebecca is home for a few days or weeks before her schooling begins,” Luke said. “She’ll need time with her mama.”

  Diana would always remember that moment because it was the very second that she fell hopelessly in love with Luke Colbert.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  They’d shopped. They’d talked until after midnight, drunk far too much wine, and slept in that morning. Had Joanie been home in Sugar Run the two days before Brett arrived, she’d have been baking his favorite pie, cleaning the house, and making a WELCOME HOME sign for the front yard. Now it was twenty miles to Lawton, according to the last sign she’d seen, and she felt more like a new bride than a wife of twenty years.

  “First time for everything.” Diana slid into the booth beside her.

  “What?” Joanie kept her eyes on the countryside whipping by at seventy miles an hour.

  “I can almost read your mind, even though I’ve never been in your shoes. Always before when he came home, you and Zoe would meet him at the door, right?”

  Joanie turned to smile at Diana. “You have, too, been in my shoes.”

  Carmen sat down on the other side of the booth. “Nope, she hasn’t, and neither have I.”

  “You’ve both experienced the antsy feeling when the team came home from a mission or a deployment,” Joanie argued.

  “Not like this,” Diana said. “Tell me if I’m right. When Brett came home, you had a few hours of family time before you had private moments all to yourself with him. Now things have changed. This is more like a honeymoon, even though the two of you’ve been married for more than two decades.”

  “It’s scary,” Joanie answered. “What if we find that civilian life doesn’t work for us? We’ve been military so long that it’s who we are.”

  Diana slung an arm around her shoulders. “You love him. He loves you. That’s what will make it work.”

  “We’ve all got adjustments to make,” Carmen said. “But for the next couple of days, it’s okay not to even think of those things.”

  Joanie sucked in a long breath and let it out slowly. “Thank you both.”

  “I agree with them,” Luke said from the driver’s seat.

  “So do I,” Tootsie said from the passenger seat. “When you walk into that hotel room, all your fears will be gone. And, honey, I’m speaking from experience.”

  “You’ve all been a help. You want to come in and see Brett before you go on to the campground?” Joanie asked.

  “Nope.” Diana shook her head. “We wouldn’t interfere in that moment for all the dirt in this great state of Texas.”

  Joanie looked up in time to see a road sign saying that Lawton was only two miles away. I don’t ever have to cry myself to sleep at night or worry about a couple of soldiers in full dress uniform ringing my doorbell and telling me that he’s been killed in action. I get to spend the rest of my life with a husband and not just the memory of a hero.

  “Lawton city limits,” Luke called out in a light tone. “Next stop is Joanie’s hotel. Please exit through the front doors, and watch your step.”

  Carmen slid out of the booth so Joanie could get out. “We’ll see you at the graduation.”

  The hotel was at the very next exit, according to the highway billboard. Luke slowed the motor home and made the turn to the right, and she could see the hotel sign.

  “And I promise I won’t let them get into your Christmas bags.” Tootsie unfastened her seat belt and turned around in the seat. “When you’re ready for them, they’ll be right here in the motor home in my closet.”

  Joanie stood and rolled her suitcase up to the kitchen area. She could hear her heart beat in her ears, and her hands were shaking. Brett had called that morning to tell her that he’d done all the paperwork and was waiting for her at the hotel.

  Luke slowed down, made the turn into the truck parking lot, and got out of his seat. “Let me get the door for you.” He pushed the button to bring out the steps and then carried the suitcase out for her.

  “It’s going to be strange without you right across the hall from me and Carmen,” Diana said.

  “Don’t make me cry. I feel like this is the end of an era already.” Joanie hugged every one of them.

  “Oh, stop it. We’ve still got a few weeks in Sugar Run. Get on out of here and have a good time with your husband.” Tootsie gave her a little shove toward the door.

  “Thanks for everything, Luke,” she said as she left the motor home.

  He gave her a quick hug. “Thank you for selling your house to me. Now go see your husband—he must be every bit as nervous as you are.”

  “I hope not. Two of us this antsy wouldn’t be good.” She smiled up at him and then popped the handle of the suitcase up so she could roll it across the pavement. Luke went back inside, and she heard the engine start up again. When the motor home started to move, she turned and waved until it had made the turn back out onto the street.

  As she approached the front doors, they opened automatically, and she headed straight for the elevator to take her to the second floor. She’d taken only a couple of steps when a movement to her right caught her eye, and she glanced that way. Brett stood there in civilian clothes with a big smile on his face. She let go of the suitcase and ran across the room. He wrapped his big, strong arms around her and hugged her for a full minute before he tipped up her chin and kissed her.

  “Welcome to the rest of our lives,” he said when the kiss ended.

  She pushed away from him far enough so that she could look him up and down several times. “I think this life is going to suit us just fine.”

  “Yes, it is, so let’s go get it started.” He took her hand in his and grabbed the handle of the suitcase.

  The elevator doors opened the instant he pushed the button. Once inside, he took her in his arms again and strung kisses from her neck to her eyelids. She pressed her whole body against his and wished that neither of them was wearing clothes. Finally, his lips settled on her mouth, and the kisses didn’t stop until the doors opened again. He got a grip on the suitcase handle again and led her to the room.

  When the door opened, she gasped, “Oh. My!”

  A bouquet of red roses sat arranged on the coffee table beside a matching ice bucket made of the same sparking crystal as the flower vase. From the sweat on the outside, she could tell that a bottle of champagne had already chilled.

  She bent to smell the roses. “Brett, you shouldn’t have.”

  “Yes, darlin’, I should have,” he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. “We’ve got a lot to celebrate.”

  “Yes, we do.” All the anxiety fled. Brett was home for good, and she had him all to herself for two whole days.

  The sun was shining brightly whe
n Luke maneuvered the motor home into the RV park slot they’d reserved. Carmen noticed that dark clouds were rolling in from the southwest. She hoped that didn’t mean storms or, even worse, snow or rain on the girls’ graduation exercises.

  Luke got everything hooked up and then got his and Diana’s suitcases from off one of the bunk beds. “We’ll see y’all at the graduation.”

  “How are we getting there?” Carmen asked.

  “Uber,” Tootsie told her. “The same way these two are going to the hotel across town, right?”

  “You got it.” Luke grinned. “If you need anything, just call me. Our car is already here.”

  “I might need to talk at midnight,” Carmen teased.

  “Taxis run twenty-four, seven.” Diana gave her a brief hug and whispered, “I’m just about as nervous as Joanie.”

  “You’ll be fine,” Carmen said, hoping she was right. With bright sunshine on one side of them and black clouds on the other, she hoped that it wasn’t an omen that Diana would have a dark moment while she was at the hotel with Luke. Their relationship was fragile right now.

  When they were gone, Tootsie looked around the motor home and sighed. “It’s kind of like an empty nest right now, isn’t it?”

  “That’s one way of looking at it, but a brighter one is that we’ve got Dolly, three kittens, and each other,” Carmen answered. “I noticed that this park has a lovely little pond. Let’s put on our jackets and take a walk around it before those clouds bring down either rain or snow on us.”

  Tootsie headed toward her room. “Just let me get my coat. And, honey, those are storm clouds. Snow clouds look altogether different. Besides, it’s forty degrees out there.”

  Carmen changed into a sweatshirt and her new coat and the scarf and gloves she’d picked up at the mall the day before. At first she felt guilty about spending the money, but she had a job when she got home. That meant she didn’t have to squeeze her pennies until Lincoln squealed. She smiled at the memory of hearing Smokey say that so often.

  She’d just sat down to wait on Tootsie when her phone rang. Expecting it to be Diana, she answered it without even looking at the caller ID. “Hello, are you in the hotel?”