A Soldier Finds His Way (19 page)

The tears Vanessa had been trying to hold back with blinks and sniffles made their way down her face.

“I’ll cut to the chase,” Edward said. “I got Zoe out of the car and went back for Audra.”

Vanessa wiped a tear with a knuckle. “Didn’t you get dragged under the water when you tried to get Audra out?”

“Yes.” Hank met his gaze when he turned his head. “But we have a rule, don’t we, Hank? Never leave a man behind.”

Hank nodded.

Edward shot a small smile at Audra. “In this case, a woman.”

She mirrored his smile, her eyes moist like every other female’s in the room.

“Audra didn’t look good when I brought her to the bank and put her near Zoe. I-I didn’t know if she was going to make it. Zoe was screaming, and I saw a vapor cloud by her mouth every time she breathed out. I saw my own breath. Audra’s, none. I checked her neck for a pulse but couldn’t find one. I started CPR, and didn’t stop until she came back.”

“And, you brought me back a second time in the cabin.” Audra said. “Didn’t you?”

“That’s right. From then on, you know the rest of the story.” He sat back and finished his coffee.

Audra was a little closer now. Her hip brushed against his when she adjusted herself in the seat. She crossed her legs and her dangling calf touched his leg.

Edward tried not to stare at her knees, but it was hard. Her closeness wasn’t easy to ignore.

Josie stood. “Let’s change the subject. Edward didn’t come here to be interrogated. More coffee, anyone?”

While everyone’s attention turned to Josie, Edward leaned to Audra. “Hey, I think I’m ready for you to show me around outside.”

A smile crossed Audra’s face. “Let me change out of this dress. Five minutes, okay?” She got up and left the room.

Audra returned wearing jeans and a simple pullover. She stood in the arched doorway and nodded toward the door with a coy smile.

“Hey Hank,” Edward said. “Why don’t you tell everyone about the time you made a pair of wings and tried to fly.”

Hank’s eyes darted to Audra and back to Edward. He grinned, and started to tell the tale.

Edward waited until everyone was sucked into the story then got up and joined Audra and slipped out of the house.

“That was slick,” Audra said.

“I know. I needed a diversion. Hank caught on fast.”

The warmth of the afternoon sun welcomed Audra and Edward as they stepped outside and began their walk.

“Let’s go this way.” Audra turned left in front of the house.

Edward walked beside her to the long wooden fence that separated the residence from the business property. She opened the wrought iron gate and held it while Edward stepped through.

A large, white single-story building stood a few yards from the fence.

“My parents own a wedding business. This is the reception hall with a fully equipped kitchen. On the far side of this building is the wedding chapel.” They continued onward to the chapel.

A pillared portico graced the front of the predominately white building. Large, ornately carved-wood doors hung at its entrance. On the side of the chapel, tall windows topped with stained, arched transoms lent further elegance to the structure.

Audra stood for a moment and looked around. “The groundskeepers have been getting things in shape for the busy season. We hire contractors for the outside work and for maintenance of the buildings when we need it. Mom and Dad run the reception part of the business. Kyle directs everything else.”

“So, what parts have you played in this orchestrated endeavor?”

She counted the tasks on her fingers. “I’ve cooked, cleaned, put decorations up, taken them down, set, waited and bussed hundreds of tables. I worked for my parents every summer when I was a teenager.”

Audra led the way down the gentle slope to the meandering brook. Following the water, with the sun to their backs, their shadows guided them back toward the house.

“I’m glad you came today,” Audra said. “I was afraid you wouldn’t be able, or wouldn’t want to come. After I sent the invitation, I worried that you would read it with rolling eyes, thinking me a forward, presumptuous, silly girl.” She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. “I thought maybe my letter wouldn’t mean anything to you.”

He touched her arm and stepped in front of her. “Your letter meant a lot to me.”

A cool breeze tossed her hair. Edward brushed a lock of hair from her face and smoothed it behind her ear. The back of his finger traced her jawline as he withdrew his hand.

She drew a short, sudden breath. Goosebumps pinched the skin of her neck and arms, and she pressed a hand to her chest to calm herself. She stood silent and let him probe every line, every feature of her face with his steel blue eyes.

His whole face hinted of a smile. “I’m not ashamed to say I think of you often. You brought me back from certain death and cared for me when I was bruised and broken. These are not small things.”

Her breath caught in her throat. Did she dare hope she’d heard him correctly? “You memorized my letter?”

Edward’s smile grew. “Remember the day we played in the snow? Sometimes I close my eyes and relive it. I can almost feel the cold, fresh air fill my lungs, and hear the snow crunch beneath my feet. Our laughter echoes through my mind and makes me happy all over again.”

He inched closer. “Now listen carefully, because here comes the good part. You wrote, ‘I would like to see you, Edward.’ When I read that, I thought, yeah, I’d like to see you too.”

His admission stirred a euphoric moment of confused emotions. Why should happiness make her cry? Her fingertips worked quickly to wipe the tears from her hot cheeks. She looked up at his smiling face and smiled back at him.

Edward swung around to her side and they walked together with unhurried steps.

Audra looked over at him. “Did you have to get permission to come?”

“Yes, I had to ask Major Greco for leave.” He gave a small laugh. “He grabbed his chest as if he was having a heart attack. This was the first time I’d ever put in for personal time off.”

Her grateful heart fluttered. God had answered her prayer. Edward was walking beside her, and she wasn’t dreaming.

A path curved around the end of the dividing fence near the brook. One behind the other, they made their way around toward the house and were greeted by children’s laughter.

Kyle’s boys and Zoe played a game of dodge ball of sorts, throwing a small blue and white football at each other. From somewhere on the other side of the house, Vanessa’s voice called to them. With one last toss, the ball went over Zoe’s head and tumbled down the slope. The kids abandoned the game and ran toward the beckoning call.

The football wobbled its way toward the brook and settled a few yards from Audra and Edward. A few steps later, the ball was at Edward’s feet. He picked it up, brushed a bit of dirt from it, and tossed it up in the air a few times. “How about a game of one-on-one?”

She laughed and shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know how to play football.”

“Then I’ll teach you.” He walked back toward the fence and stopped about twenty feet from it.

She followed.

“Here’s the game. I’ll take defense, and you take offense. You get the ball first, and you have to get past me and touch the fence with it. That’s all there is to it. It’s simple.” He handed her the ball.

“Hold on. Are you going to tackle me?”

“Of course I’m not going to tackle you. Are you kidding me? I’ll block or try to take the ball from you. That’s it.” He backed away a few paces and crouched slightly. “Go ahead, hike the ball.”

Audra looked at the ball in her hand, then back at him. “Hike it?”

Edward threw his hands up and laughed. “I didn’t think it would be this hard. What’s the problem?” He raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“Isn’t hiking the ball when the guy in the middle throws the ball between his legs to the quarterback?”

He slapped his palm to his forehead and laughed some more. He motioned for the ball with up-curled fingers. “I’ll take offense and show you. We’ll go slow.”

Ball in hand, he went through the motions as he spoke. “First, I put the ball on the ground like this. After that, I hike, or snap it to myself.” He slammed the ball to his chest but didn’t move from the spot. A crooked grin, riddled with mischief, appeared on his face. “If you’ll notice,” he directed a slow look over each shoulder, “there’s no one on the field except me and you, hence, the term one-on-one. In essence, I’m the center, the quarterback, and the receiver all rolled up in one. You, on the other hand, are the defensive lineman, and the linebacker. Are you with me so far?”

Controlling her laughter wasn’t easy. Edward’s playful eyes and raised cheeks contradicted his tightly pressed lips. No doubt, he was trying not to laugh.

“Are you ready for the play?”

Audra crouched like she’d seen Edward do just minutes before.

Edward touched the ball to the ground. “Hut one, hut two, hut three.”

He snapped the ball to his chest, feinted to her right, spun around and passed easily around her left. He ran the ball, but stopped short of the fence and pivoted on his heels. He came back to Audra, shaking his head and laughing. “That was your defense? That was all you had? Come on, Audra, growl at me. Show me some intimidation. Scare me out of my boots. Give it a shot.” Head tipped to the side, he waited for her display of aggression.

The problem was, she couldn’t stop laughing. Composing herself for a moment, she leaned toward him, bared her teeth and attempted to put on a mean face. “Grrr!” It was no use. It simply provoked more laughter.

“Never mind. That was dripping with femininity.” He grinned and assumed his offensive position, ball on the ground. “This time, don’t let me get by. Defend.”

Audra planted her feet on the spongy ground, still damp from winter’s thaw. Each step made a faint squishing sound, and inside her sneakers, her socks acted as a wick, drawing the intruding water to her toes. Eye to eye, crouching no more than a foot from his face, she stared.

“Ready?” he asked.

She gave a nod.

“Hut one.” His voice packed fierce resolve.

She smiled as coyly as she could.

“Hut two.”

Did he notice the smile? She leaned in, turned her head to the side a tad, blinked in slow motion, and bit her lower lip.

“Huu—”

Her peripheral vision caught the momentary loosening of his grip on the ball. Taking advantage of his distraction, she charged him, leading with a shoulder, taking him by surprise.

Off balance, he fell backwards to the ground.

Audra thudded on top of him.

For a moment, sidesplitting laughter overtook them.

She pushed herself up and leaned into his face, growling through clenched teeth before rolling off him.

Audra lay beside Edward and backhanded him in the gut. “How’d all that femininity feel when it hit you, oh manly man?” She got up and snatched the ball from his hand as he lay on his back. Waving the ball overhead, she did a brief victory dance and strutted toward the fence like a model on a catwalk.

A strong hand clasped her ankle with a viselike grip.

She gasped, stretched forward and tried to touch the ball to the fence. Instead, she fell, face down, short of the goal.

Edward let go of her leg and scooted to a kneeling position beside her, his face serious. “Are you okay? I wasn’t trying to make you fall. I was only trying to stop you.”

She sat up and laughed. “I’m okay. I’m not that fragile.”

Edward ran a finger across her cheek as if scooping whipped cream off a pie. He held it out for her to see. “Your face is muddy.” A big smile stretched across his face.

“It is?” She rubbed a hand across her cheek, lurched forward, and wiped mud across his cheek. “So is yours!”

Edward sprang to his feet and gave her a hand up. “Come on, cheater. Let’s get something to drink. I have grit in my teeth.”

“Why am I a cheater?”

“You were offside, I never snapped the ball. Plus, you used your feminine wiles to throw me off.”

* * * *

Edward walked beside Audra to toward the house. Every time he looked at her, she smiled. How cute she looked with her face streaked with mud and her clothes brown-splotched. She didn’t seem to care, which made her all the more attractive.

Hank stepped outside just as they reached the porch. He sized Audra up then said to Edward. “She’s a whole lot tougher than she looks, isn’t she?”

“You saw?”

“From the kitchen window. A few of us watched. Very entertaining.”

Audra sat on a porch step and removed her dirty shoes and socks.

The bags Edward had put on the hood of Hank’s Jeep were gone.

Hank answered before he could ask. “I moved them upstairs to our room.”

“Our room?”

Hank chuckled. “She had everything planned. You and I are gonna share a guest bedroom. We’ve even got our own in-room bathroom. She says there’s a trundle bed in there. I’m not sure what that is, but I guess we’re going to find out. Come on. Take off your muddy boots and follow me.”

Boots in hand, Edward fell into step behind Hank with Audra close behind.

Upstairs, Hank went into the second bedroom on the right. Edward hesitated in the doorway and turned toward Audra. “Are you sure about this? Your parents know we’re staying?”

Josie’s voice preceded her up the stairs. “Yes, Edward, we want you to stay.” As she stepped onto the landing, she looked at Audra and Edward’s filthy clothes and laughed. “It looks like you two had fun.”

“Yes, ma’am. Your daughter plays a little dirty, as you can plainly see.”

Josie looked at Audra. “Nice tackle.” She held up a hand for a high five.

Audra slapped the offered hand and proceeded into the next room, laughing as she went.

Josie went on and turned left at the end of the hall.

Edward stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. He took off his dirty clothes and stuffed them into a plastic bag he’d stored in his backpack.

Hank thumbed through a magazine on the desk and looked over the top of it as Edward slipped his T-shirt over his head. “Why’d you wear your fatigues today instead of civvies?”