A Soldier's Christmas (4 page)

A new day, and more snow. He couldn’t
remember ever seeing as much snow as he had since he’d arrived in town. It made
everywhere look so pretty, and
white
.
The whiteness would be blinding if he hadn’t brought his shades with him. But
today he was going to claim Emma Keller for himself. At least, he hoped that
was the outcome. He’d been unable to settle after he caught sight of her the
day before, and it had taken a great deal of strength to not turn around and go
back to talk to her.

He’d eventually talked himself into the
fact that he’d made the right decision in the end because he didn’t want to
approach her unaware in the middle of a store. He wanted her to be around her
own home, which is why he’d waited and bided his time. He’d eaten sandwiches
and soup for lunch and the snow had finally stopped.

The snowplow had made the road through town
passable, which was why Logan was dressed to face the outside elements. He was
armed with a map and the print out showing the area that covered the zip code
from Emma’s return address.

He had to start somewhere, and that
included getting the snow off his truck. All he could make out was a lump where
it was parked. He sighed. It would take him about an hour to get the truck
cleaned off from the snow.

He turned to head back inside and nearly
crashed into Greg.

“Saw you headed out with keys in hand so
figured you’d need help.” He smiled and held up a couple of snow shovels.

“Thank you.” Logan smiled in relief, even
though he felt that Greg was itching to get Logan’s destination out of him.

He’d like to trust Greg and ask for
directions, but Logan wasn’t sure he wouldn’t tell Adele, who he figured loved
to gossip.

“You know,” Greg started, “there is a
winter fest on at the town hall in a few days. If you’re still in town, you
should go.”

Logan laughed. “You asking me out?” He
teased.

“Fuck no!” Greg laughed. “There will be a
few single girls there is all I meant.”

Logan paused from shoveling the snow from
around the tires and admitted, “I have a girl. At least, I hope I do.”

“Hmm,” Greg mumbled. “Now that’s telling.”
He rested against the shovel in his hand. “So, if she’s not with you, then I’m
guessing you’re visiting her.”

Logan had probably said too much, but he
hadn’t named anyone. “Maybe.”

Greg laughed. “Okay, don’t tell me, at
least that way, my mother won’t be able to get it out of me.”

So Logan had been right to keep his mouth
shut. “Sorted your own girl problems out yet?” he asked Greg.

“No.” Greg frowned. “I’m convinced her
mother has something to do with her decision to dodge my every move. I sowed a
lot of oats when I was younger and I guess her mother remembers that. At least
Anna wasn’t around back then. Just wish her mother didn’t have such a fucking
good memory.”

“Prove yourself, and I’m sure you’ll get
under the mother’s skin before too long.” Logan laughed. “I’m done giving you
advice about women...I feel like a fucking girl.”

Greg laughed, and they continued to work in
silence for a while until Logan’s truck was cleared and he’d be able to get it
out to the road.

When he was finally on his way, his stomach
cramped with nerves.

“Emma, can you go into town and pick up
some groceries for me?”

Emma looked at her mom, but she wouldn’t
meet Emma’s gaze. Why? Emma’s brother, Travis, had headed into town as soon as
him and Gabe, her brother-in-law, had cleared the road. What was stopping him
from calling at the store?

“Travis is already there, just message him
the list.” Emma continued to read from her book.

She felt the silence as it settled around
the kitchen. Almost afraid to look up, Emma slowly marked her page and glanced
from her mom, who looked surprised, to Bree, who couldn’t seem to believe Emma
had spoken the way she had, before it settled on Gabe, who looked amused. He
hid it well, though.

“What’s going on?” she finally asked. “Why
would you ask me to drive all the way into town, knowing the roads are probably
bad, when Travis is already there? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Look, Emma, I was only trying to give you
something to do, maybe, take your mind off everything.” Her mom sat opposite. “I’ve
had enough of seeing you like this. Where has the fun loving girl gone? At one
time you’d be outside in the snow- sledding or building a snowman.” She paused.
“Sometimes, when you’re here, it’s as though only your body is, but your mind
is elsewhere. You know that I never agreed with you writing to that soldier, a
stranger, while you dated Seth. But you did, and this is why you’re like you
are and I want it to stop. It has to stop and you need to forget about him.”

Emma felt her anger as it slowly rolled
through her. How could her mom speak like that about a soldier,
her
soldier, the man she was sure that
she loved? “You’re out of line. He’s overseas risking his life to protect this country,
and yes, I know you didn’t agree with me writing to a stranger, but I did and
now that he’s stopped, I’m worried about him. I can’t help that I care. But you
have to stop telling me to stop thinking about him. It doesn’t work like that. I
can’t switch my feelings on and off like a faucet.” Emma came to the end of her
tirade and didn’t know what the hell to do.

She wanted to scream! One letter was all
she needed to know that he was okay, but she didn’t know how to contact him if
he wasn’t deployed. Logan had told her that he didn’t have a place he called
home. Instead when he got back from his deployments, he would always check in
to a hotel until he found another apartment to rent until it was time to ship
out. Through his words, she’d gotten the feeling that he’d grown tired of not
having anyone to care about him or anything to call his. At the end of all her
letters to him, after the first few, she’d signed them
with love
and told him to stay safe for her. She only prayed that
he had.

“Emma, you know Mom means well. She cares
about you. We all do.” Bree sat beside her husband of six years with his hand
on her swollen stomach.

Her sister had two months to go before
Emma’s niece or nephew was born. As she watched Bree and Gabe, she longed for
that. She longed for her man to be beside her while he caressed her belly that
was swollen with their child.

“Look, I know you all mean well,” she
admitted, “but I need to get through this on my own. None of you understand the
relationship I had with him, it was special. More special than anything I’ve
had with anyone else, and it’s going to take me time, especially because there
was no goodbye…no explanation. You all just need to be patient with me.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell
them that she planned on moving out in the New Year. She’d move out tomorrow if
she didn’t think that she’d make this whole thing with her family worse.

Of course, her family would worry about
her, but why couldn’t they just give her space, and talk about something else
instead of her all the time? The answer to that was because she had stopped
listening to what they had to say.

“This is all my fault,” her mom whispered.
“I should have been honest from the start.”

She frowned. “What? I don’t understand what
you’re saying.”

“I...I stopped…”

Bang.
Bang.

Who would call to the house with how bad
the weather had been?

Bang.
Bang.

“I’ll get it.” Emma jumped up, anything to
break the tension in the kitchen.

With a heavy heart, she headed toward the
front door and could make out someone, a man, bundled up, through the glass of
the door. He stomped his feet on the mat, either to get the snow off or to keep
warm.

Hurriedly, she pulled the door open.

“Can I help you?” Emma asked, and looked up
into the most mesmerizing pair of blue eyes that she’d ever seen.

Her heart stopped as she quickly glanced
over him, but her eyes wanted to look at his face, and those eyes. There was a
spark of some indefinable emotion in his unwavering gaze...that looked so
familiar…

It
couldn’t be
.

As realization slowly started to sink in,
Emma’s hand slipped from the door and went limp beside her. Her heart picked up
a frantic beat in her chest as tears gathered on her lashes.

He
really stood before her.

“
Emma?
”
Logan whispered, and took a step closer.

“Is it really you?” She reached up, and caressed
one side of his face. She watched as his eyes closed on a sigh, and he leaned
into her.

And that’s when the tears started to fall
from her eyes. There was no control over them as they fell down her face. Logan
hesitated then reached out and pulled her into his arms. Emma had no trouble
embracing him as she wrapped her arms around his neck. His arms held her
tightly against him while she cried into his neck.

He
was alive.

“You stopped writing,” she whispered. “I
thought something bad had happened to you.”

Logan didn’t answer, but kept his face
buried in her neck, like she did with him. His scent was delicious, and
probably lingered from his shower. She kissed his neck and felt his reaction when
he shuddered against her, and held her closer.

Emma was afraid to let go of him in case he
disappeared, but gradually the cold had started to seep through her clothes.

She should invite him inside. Where had her
manners gone?

Not wanting to break their embrace, Emma stepped
back slightly and kept her hands on his arms. When she met his gaze, his eyes were
damp. “Come inside.” She stepped backward and Logan followed her through the
door, closing it behind him with his foot.

With a watery smile, she stepped around him
and reached up to remove his hat; her fingers ran over his short, dark hair and
she didn’t want to stop touching him. Her hands slid down to his chest and she unfastened
his jacket—helping him remove it along with his gloves. Once she’d placed
them on the stand by the door, she turned and found him directly behind her.

His hands cupped her face, his thumbs
caressed along her cheekbones. “My Emma.”

Her tears started again at his words, and
the obvious emotion behind them.

“Don’t cry.” He wrapped his arms around her,
and pulled her back into his embrace. Her arms slipped around his waist, and
she clung to him.

She wanted someone to pinch her so she knew
that it wasn’t a dream and that he was really in her home. Her face tilted up
to his and she stared at his generous mouth, wondering what it would feel like
to really kiss him. The shadow of his beard gave him a hard edge, but the
emotion in his eyes filled her heart with hope, and love.

He brushed the hair from her face with his
fingertips, and asked, “What did you mean, I stopped writing? You stopped
writing to me six months ago, but I never stopped.”

Emma blinked a few times and tried to
comprehend what he said. “How’s that possible? I wrote and mailed so many
letters to you these past months, and I’ve never received anything from you.”
She frowned.

“Emma?”

Emma glanced to the side, and for the first
time, noticed her mom and sister watching from the doorway to the kitchen. Her
mom stepped toward them when Emma met her gaze.

The introductions had to happen, even
though her first thought was to grab Logan’s hand and take him to her bedroom.
She just wanted to talk to him, and keep him to herself a little bit longer.
She’d been without him for months, so she had the right to be selfish, and have
all his attention on her.

Emma cleared her throat, and with great
reluctance, stepped out of Logan’s arms. He obviously felt the same way as she
did because he took her hand and intertwined their fingers
together—needing the connection between them.

She inhaled and smiled at her family. “This
is Logan,
my
soldier.” Emma frowned
when her mom and Bree glanced at each other. “Um, Logan, this is my mom, Martha,
and my sister, Bree. Hovering in the background is Bree’s husband, Gabe.”

The introductions made, Emma pointedly
glared at her mom for not making Logan feel welcomed. The last thing she wanted
was for him to leave, although she had a feeling if he did that, he’d be asking
her to leave with him.

Her head was filled with so many questions,
but at the front of all the others was just one, if they both wrote to each other
these past months, then what had happened to both their letters? Why didn’t
either of them receive anything? That didn’t add up.

“Logan, I’m sorry. Where are my manners?
Please come through to the kitchen and have some coffee and cake.” Her mom finally
said, although she seemed reluctant. She motioned for them to follow her into
the kitchen.

Emma winced and glanced at Logan who had a
polite smile on his handsome face while he faced her family. But when she met
his gaze and smiled, his face lit with pure joy.

“No, I’m the one who should be apologizing.
I should have called or something first.” He squeezed her hand and let Emma lead
him through into the kitchen.