Forever My Soldier (Love Conquers Life Book 3) (13 page)

We walk back to Carter’s Jeep, and once inside I let out a deep breath. “I’m exhausted. It’s been a long day.”

“It sure has. What do you say we go home and snuggle up on the couch with only the tree lit and watch a movie?”

“I think that sounds like the perfect ending to a really long day.”

Chapter 12

Patty

It’s Christmas Eve and Carter has to work part of the day, so I’m walking around the house, trying to occupy myself while I wait for him to come home. I’m glad he’s at least getting out early. I packed him a lunch so he wouldn’t have to leave the office. Carter and Derek are both planning to work through lunch so they can get out of there as soon as possible.

I’ve already wrapped his Christmas gifts and put them under the tree. I smile as I look at our beautiful tree. I’ve already turned the lights on, and the tree looks even nicer with the gifts under it.

Bored, I take out my laptop and check my email while I wait for Carter. The first thing I see in my email is a message from my editor. She’s worked on my last three books with me and we work really well together, but she has bad timing. Her message says:

Here’s the first round of edits. Hope you have a nice Christmas.

I stick my tongue out at my laptop, frustrated that due to her bad timing I'll now be working the day after Christmas. I may even decide to start it today while I wait for Carter to get home. I push it aside, not really wanting to work on it right now, and move on.

I open my Facebook page to send out a Happy Holidays’ message to my fans with the picture of Carter and I in front of our tree, but when I get to my page, I’m totally shocked. I see a bunch of messages bashing me on my wall. The name isn’t Joan’s, but there’s no way anyone else would do this. I go to work deleting them and blocking the person from my page. I smile as I notice a few of my fans have been defending me and posting replies, telling the person to go away. One fan wrote:

‘If you don’t like her work, stop reading it, but don’t bash her for it. It’s not fair and I won’t tolerate it. Either leave constructive criticism or leave her page.’

I smile as I delete the last message. I’m not going to allow Joan to ruin my Christmas, but that fan deserves a special message from me. I click on her name and leave her a private message thanking her for her kind words. I ask her for her address with the promise of sending her a signed copy of my next book.

I feel a lot better now. I get to work posting my picture with the message on my wall. This is my favorite time of the year, and I will not allow her to interfere with my life or ruin it in any way.

I frown for a minute, realizing I deleted the evidence that she’s stalking me, and then I realize it probably won’t be the last message I get from her. She’ll create another account, and I’ll hear from her again anyway. I log into my blog to do a quick post there as well.

After I’m done with my blog, which takes me all of five minutes, I stare at my computer, trying to figure out what to do next. Since I already have dinner set to go in the oven and I have absolutely nothing else to do, I open my book and look at the notes the editor left for me.

***

Carter

“Dude, you need to stop pacing your office. I swear, you have a ten thousand step count on your Fitbit from your pacing today,” Derek says, busting my balls as he leans against the door to my office.

“Whatever, man. I’m nervous. I really hope she likes what I got her for Christmas. I was hoping to surprise her with a nice dinner too, but she insisted that she cook. She says she was going to be bored waiting for me to get home and needed something to do.”

“You’ve got it bad, don’t you?” he says with a huge grin.

“She’s my life. When I first went out to the lake house, I prepared myself for this rich, snobby brat, and I was so wrong. I swore I was going to find her at that lake house looking totally out of place and miserable, but I was so wrong…” I pause, trying to figure out how to put it into words. “What I found was this beautiful woman who not only fit in the amazing fall scene that surrounded her, but she’s such a free spirit. It opened my eyes and made me realize I wanted to feel the same way. It helped inspire me to get my life together. I think that’s what messed me up so much when she left that night. I knew I couldn’t lose her.”

He chuckles. “Are you telling me you’re going soft on me?”

I burst out laughing. “No, I’m telling you that I don’t know what I’ll do if she doesn’t like my gift.”

“You’ll do the same thing I’m doing with Bella. You’ll keep trying because she’s worth it.”

“Oh, who’s going soft now?” I say.

“Okay, let’s try to get some work done,” he says, changing the subject. “Are we all set for the New Year’s Eve party?”

He’s really having a hard time dealing with Bella not committing, and now he has to worry about the stalker business too. I contemplate saying more, but I drop it and take a seat behind my desk, pulling out my binder. I open it up to show him the signed commitment letters from each of the three contractors who have offered to help with some of the homes that need repairs.

“That was an awesome idea. Next year I want to shoot for five donors and hopefully, since we’ll have more time to plan, it won’t be an issue to get them lined up.”

“Maybe next time we can even get some local bankers to donate money so we can pay for the repairs and give them a table the same way we did the contractors.”

“I think we need to make you the king of fundraisers for the state.”

I laugh. “King of fundraisers?” I give him a questioning look.

“Yeah, you’re good at it, and you’re clearly good at getting people to realize our troops need the support, so this is all yours.”

“How did we do on ticket sales?” I ask him.

He gives me a small side grin. “Thanks to Sandra’s help, we’ve sold every last ticket. I even printed an extra fifty because our max was three hundred and we had thirty in donors and our table of ten.”

“That’s awesome! That means the place will be packed. Sandra has a list of silent auction items and is making sure they each have a signup sheet. Patty was able to get a few items lined up, and Sandra has those too. A friend of hers is going to watch the table until we close down the auction at eleven.”

“Good! I don’t want anything disappearing from the room,” Derek says.

“Nah, I have two guys that will be standing at the door as well. With everything going on with the two girls, I want to make sure they’re safe, so I paid for extra security at the event.”

“Sounds like all we have left to do is to make sure everything runs smoothly.”

“Yeah, and to be honest, Sandra has kind of taken over, so I can’t see anything going wrong. She seems truly excited to be a part of this event. She’s even talked about helping again next year.”

“That’s great. She’s a good person to have on our side,” he says, standing from the chair in front of my desk. “I’m going to eat lunch at my desk so I can wrap some things up. I want to be able to enjoy my days off.”

“I hear that.”

I take out the lunch that Patty packed for me. Derek and I both agreed to have lunch in today so we can leave as early as possible. I mean, who seriously wants to be working on Christmas Eve?

Two hours later, I walk out of work feeling confident that I got everything done that needed addressing. I inhale the clean, crisp air. It’s snowing lightly, perfect weather for Christmas Eve. I stop off at the florist on my way, hoping to pick up a bouquet of flowers for my girl. I run in and ask the woman behind the counter for a dozen red roses.

“Please tell me you’re not in trouble on Christmas Eve?” The florist says with an amused look.

“Oh no, ma’am. This is something special to bring home to my girl because I felt bad I had to work today.”

Her smile broadens. “Good. I can’t tell you how many men come running in here to get flowers because they’ve messed up one way or another.”

I chuckle as the older woman prepares my flowers for me. “I hope you don’t have to work too much longer.” I show her my full smile.

“Oh young man, this old lady will be here for all the men who come looking for last minute flowers, but don’t you worry about me. I’ll be seeing my family tomorrow.”

“Good, I’m glad to hear it.” She’s a sweet woman, probably in her late sixties. She’s beaming with pride as she puts the finishing touches on my bouquet. I can tell she really likes her job and is happy to be there.

She lays them down on the counter for me as I pull my wallet from my back pocket. I hand over my credit card to pay for my purchase. As she hands me back my card, I thank her and wish her a Merry Christmas.

I pull up to the house a short time later and practically jog inside because I truly can’t wait to see Patty. When I open the door, I find her taking dinner out of the oven. Pulling the flowers from behind my back, I smile.

“Merry Christmas, baby,” I say, so happy to be home.

She rewards me with her beautiful smile. “Merry Christmas to you too, honey.” She takes them from my hand and places them on the counter. Pulling me in, she gives me a soft, sweet kiss.

“Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. I hope you’re hungry.”

“I’m starving, and I’m sorry I’m home later than I wanted to be. I had more to wrap up than I thought.”

“It’s okay. I got an email from the editor today, so I started working on the book for her.”

“Wow, that was quick,” I say as I’m hanging my coat in the hall closet.

“I know. I thought the same thing. To be honest, if we’re going to get this book out in time for Valentine’s Day, I have a lot of work ahead of me.”

“If anyone can get it done, it’s you, baby. I have the utmost confidence in you.”

“You say that now, but when I’m working on my laptop from bed because I’m on a time crunch, you may think different.”

He laughs. “There’s only one thing you work on in bed, and it has nothing to do with a laptop,” I say, grinding my cock against her.

She giggles. “I’ll get a lot of it done this week, when you go back to work. She really didn’t leave me too many comments or changes to approve, so I’m hoping it will only take me a few days.” She puts her bouquet into a vase. “When do you want to exchange gifts?”

Suddenly, I’m really nervous. “Um, it’s up to you.”

“We have time if you want to do it now.” She looks so hopeful.

How can I say no to her. “Sure.”

We both walk into the living room, but she goes straight for the tree. She pulls out two gifts and hands them to me. I smile at her. “Hmm, what could this be?” I shake them, but I hear nothing. She giggles as I open the first one. “You got me a cookbook!” I say, totally excited.

“I did! I know you’ve been disappointed that you haven’t been making dinners for us, so I got you one that had some easy recipes that looked good for us to try.”

“Baby, that’s awesome! I can’t wait to make something for you.” I quickly open the next one, and it’s another cookbook. I smile at the baking and breakfast ideas that are in this one.

As I’m about to thank her, she hands me one last gift. “Baby, the cookbooks were plenty.”

She shakes her head. As I start to open my gift from her, I’m shocked into silence when I see a necklace lying perfectly in the box. It’s a white-gold chain with a Saint Christopher medal hanging from it. “I’m speechless.”

“Do you like it?” she asks in a panic.

“Baby, I love it.”

“I know you probably won’t have to travel too much anymore, but I still thought it was fitting with your past. I love you so much, and I want to know that you have protection at all times so we can be together for years to come.” She smiles and says, “Flip it over.”

She had it engraved.

‘I ask him to keep you safe the way you do me.

I love you, Patty’

I smile at her as I place the chain around my neck. “I’ll never take it off,” I tell her as I reach for her gift. “I have two things for you, one I hope you’ll never take off either.” I hand her the first gift, and as she opens it, I say to her, “Patty, you’ve shown me the light of day and I can’t imagine my life without you in it. When I first went to the lake house, I didn’t know what to expect, but what I found blew me away. You’re a kind soul and have a heart of gold. When we were apart for that short period of time, the light inside me was dull and I was lost. Please don’t ever let me feel that way again. Please do me the honor of being my wife.”

I see her sobbing as she nods. “Yes!” She jumps up from the couch and wraps her arms around my neck.

“Thank God,” I say as I squeeze her tight. She releases me so I can slip the ring on her finger. It’s a platinum band with a single carat round cut flawless diamond. I found it to be simple but beautiful, like she is. “I have one more gift for you.”

She wipes tears from her face as I hand her the next gift. She lights up as she gets busy opening her gift.

Her jaw drops. “Carter,” is all she says, staring at the cover.

“It’s my journal. I want you to have it so you can see all my messages to you during our time apart. Once I sobered up, I never stopped thinking about you, and I wrote to you often. There were even entries in there I don’t remember making because I was thinking about you while I was a mess.” The tear I’m fighting back betrays me as it rolls down my cheek. “I need you to know and realize how much you mean to me.”