The Valentine's Arrangement (15 page)

“Ronnie—” he tried again, but his words were cut short.

“Be safe,” she whispered, and then the line went dead.

*****

Ronnie was still in the parking lot sitting in Jordan’s car when Kale had called. She watched him as he rushed to his truck and got inside. She watched as his face fell when she told him that she was fine, and she watched as his body sagged against the back of his seat when she hung up. It was all too fucking much. She didn’t want this drama and she didn’t want this feeling. The feeling that she was betrayed yet again; but she wasn’t, Kale didn’t do anything wrong. She made the mistake of letting go, of letting last night become something it wasn’t. No, Kale wasn’t the one in the wrong, she was. He was leaving the day after tomorrow and she would become a girl he slept with on Valentine’s Day. Now she hated that fucking holiday even more. She didn’t think that was even possible, but boy was she wrong.

Jordan turned in her seat to face Ronnie. “You okay?” Her voice was careful and Ronnie hated it.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be okay?”

“Well, hum, let’s see. Maybe because you just saw the guy you were sleeping with on a date with another woman, and maybe because yet another man has screwed you over.”

“Point out the fucking obvious why don’t you?” Ronnie pulled a deep breath of freezing cold air into her lungs and folded her arms across her chest.

“I’m fine. Did it suck seeing him on a date with that blonde? Yeah, I would have to be dead inside to say that it didn’t piss me off. But he can date, fuck, whatever, with whomever he wants. He’s not mine, and he was never going to be.”

“But did you want him to be?”

Ronnie laughed. “No. He was sexy and entertaining, but he was a pain in my ass and a preppy boy soldier. Not my type. It was just sex.”

Jordan looked at her unconvinced but she knew better than to push the issue. “Alright, well, where to now?”

Ronnie looked back over to where Kale had parked his truck. It was gone. She opened the door and stepped out of Jordan’s car. “I’m going home. I will talk to you tomorrow.” She shut the door and headed to her car. She was even more exhausted now, and with her appetite suddenly gone, all she wanted to do was to curl up in bed and go to sleep.

Chapter 11

Kale woke up the next morning feeling as tired as he had when he went to bed. He didn’t sleep worth a shit and he knew it had something to do with a certain snarky woman’s body, or lack thereof, lying next to him. Today was his last day in the States until June. Tomorrow he was heading to Syracuse to hop on a plane back to Iraq and he had a couple things he needed to do before he headed back, and talking to Ronnie was his top priority. He would run his errands and then swing by the tattoo shop. If he got everything he needed done before hand then that would leave him more time for her, providing she would give it to him.

“Martin,” Kale said as he walked into Bravo Company headquarters. Martin was assigned rear detachment, taking care of the company’s families, facilities, and equipment while the company was deployed.

“Sergeant Emerson, how are you doing, Sir?”

“I’m good Martin. I came to see how things are going here. All the families being taken care of?”

“Yes, Sir. I just spoke with the FRG leader this morning to confirm that everything is well.”

“What about Fishers’ wife? She had her baby the other day. I went to see her in the hospital yesterday and she said she has no family nearby to help her. Make sure that she is set up to have meals brought to her for the next few weeks and child care for her twin boys a few days a week so she can get some rest.”

SPC Fishers is one of Kale’s young soldiers with a young wife and two-year-old twin boys. The guy got his wife pregnant a few weeks before they deployed and she just had her baby girl a few days ago. Kale promised Fishers that he would personally make sure she was taken care of and that his baby girl was doing well. It was one of the things that were so hard about deployments. His soldier missed the birth of his baby girl, he won’t even meet her for four more months, and there was nothing Kale could do about it except for take pictures and make sure his wife had the help she needed.

“She was released today and a couple of the FRG members are going to stay with her a few days until she is recovered from her cesarean. I will make sure meals are set up as well.”

“Good,” Kale said, and he was happy to hear that Martin was already on top of it.

One errand down, one to go.

Kale went to the commissary and loaded his cart full of brownies and ding dongs and pretty much every hostess box of treats that he could find, picked up a couple new released movies—he was sick to death of watching piss poor hadji copies that he bought off the Iraqis.

After paying for everything and dropping another hundred and fifty bucks on cigarettes and chew for some of his guys, he headed to the post office to ship the stuff to his company, then he was going to go to No Regrets to see Ronnie. Hopefully she would want to see him.*****

“What’s with you today?” Mic asked Ronnie as he sat down on the leather couch in the design room.

Ronnie was sitting at the large table sketching in her pad. “Nothing is with me? Why the hell are you riding my ass so much lately? Do I usually look like a ray of fucking sunshine? No.”

Yes, Ronnie was in a particularly sour mood today, but she was entitled one. There was a fresh blanket of snow three inches deep on the ground when she woke up this morning, she was out of coffee, the line at Starbucks was fucking ridiculous, and her first appointment of the day was a no show. She was having a shitty day to say the least and she wasn’t going to pretend like she wasn’t.

Mic popped a donut into his mouth. It was already 1:00 in the afternoon but in Mic time, it was morning. “Alright, I was just checking. I would like to keep my head please, no need to bite it off.”

Ronnie kept her eyes focused on her sketch. “Shut up and eat your donuts and let me work in peace.”

Mic stretched his arms out and then stood up from the couch. “Alright Angel,” he said, and then he left the room leaving Ronnie to herself.

Ronnie had a slow day today. Of course, she would only have two scheduled appointments—although now she was down to one—on the one day she would like to bury herself in hours upon hours of work. Even tattooing hearts and lockets and love on sappy young newlywed Army wives would be better than sitting on her ass thinking about…no, she wasn’t going to fucking think about it.

“Hey,” Harold said, popping his head into the design room. “Your security system company is on the phone. Someone broke into your house.”

“What?” Ronnie jumped out of her seat and ran out of the room. She picked the phone up off the reception desk. “This is Ronnie Clark.”

“Mrs. Clark, this is Andrea Thompson at First Choice Security—”

“Yes, I know. What’s going on?” Ronnie interrupted. She didn’t care who she was, she just wanted to know what the hell happened.

“Yes well, we reported a break in at your home address through a window on the north side of your house. The police have been notified and they are currently in route to investigate. It is suggested that you wait for the police to contact you.”

“Thanks.” She slammed down the phone onto the receiver. Like hell she was going to wait for the police to contact her.

Ronnie rushed back to the design room and grabbed her purse. “Mic, cancel my appointment today, tell them I will call to reschedule.”

“What happened?” he hollered from his room.

“I will let you know when I find out.”

She walked out of the door tramping through the damn snow to her car. This is the last fucking thing she needed right now. She could give a shit if whoever broke into her house cleaned out Brandon’s stuff, hell they would be doing her a favor, but if they touched her things she was going to lose it.

Ronnie was surprised to see the cops pulling out of her neighborhood as she was turning in. Why wouldn’t they have waited for her, or at least contacted her?

She pulled her car into the driveway. Weirdly enough, considering there was an alleged break in, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She opened up the garage door to pull her car in and her heart instantly wedged its way into her throat. Sitting on the ground next to the door that led into the house was an all too familiar pair of combat boots. Fucking fantastic.

Ronnie shut the engine off and sat in her car. Maybe she should just leave, pretend like she never came home. She wasn’t prepared for this and being blindsided was not how she wanted to handle the situation when the situation finally came. However, it didn’t look like she had much of a choice because at that very moment, the door opened and Brandon walked into view.

Her heart slipped from its lodged position in her throat to the pit of her stomach when his eyes met hers through the windshield and he offered her that sweet, slight smile of his that she always loved.

Reluctantly, she opened the car door and stepped out. She just stood there next to her car, staring at the man she thought she would spend the rest of her life with; the man who took her heart and put it through the snow blower, scattering the tiny pieces in every which direction, making it impossible to find them all. It was him. He was standing there in his tan t-shirt and ACU pants looking as good as she remembered. The tattoo on his bicep she gave him a few years ago was peeking out from the sleeve of his shirt. She could see his defined chest through the cotton fabric, his dog tags hanging low on his neck between the muscles. His hair looked freshly buzzed leaving his dark brown hair tight to his scalp. He looked like her Brandon, only he wasn’t her Brandon—not anymore.

“Hi Ron,” he said, her name rolling out of his mouth like it had every day since the day she met him. It sounded the same, it sounded like it did when she was his, when he hadn’t fucked up and betrayed her—but it wasn’t the same now.

“What are you doing here, Brandon?”

“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you to tell you I was coming home on leave but you were dodging my calls.”

“You think? I didn’t want to talk to you. I don’t have anything to say.”

“I think we have a lot to say. We have a lot we need to talk about.”

Ronnie walked toward the door, ice spiting from her cold stare as she shoved Brandon out of her way so she could go inside.

He followed her into the house.

“You’re the person who broke into the house?”

“My key didn’t work,” he said behind her as she walked into the kitchen.

“No shit, I changed the locks.”

“When did you get a security system?”

“The week you left for Afghanistan. It was either a security system or a dog, and we both know I’m not an animal person.”

“I’m sorry Ron.” His words were soft but she could hear him clearly—he was right behind her. He placed his hand on the small of her back and she spun around so quickly she was surprised she didn’t decapitate his limb.

“You’re sorry? Well it’s too fucking late for that.”

“Why? Why does it have to be too late? I still love you.”

“Don’t you dare tell me you love me, Brandon. If you did you wouldn’t have cheated on me. You don’t get to come home and pull this shit.” She yanked off her boots and stormed to her bedroom hoping to get away from him but she should have known better. She could hear his heavy footsteps following her until they stopped just inside her bedroom door. She didn’t need to turn around to know he was leaning his tall, lean, perfectly sculpted body against the door. She didn’t need to turn around to know he was watching her carefully like he always did when she was upset.

“Don’t do this Ron. I love you, you know I do.”

That was the final blow. She wasn’t going to be made out to be the bad guy for ending things. This was all on him.

“Tell me why.”

“Ronnie…” His voice was quiet and he at least had the decency to look regretful. He took another step into the room and Ronnie held her hands out in front of her stopping him.

“Just tell me why.”

He lowered his head but kept his eyes on her. “I don’t have a reason why. It just happened.”

Ronnie shook her head and sighed. She wanted the truth. She needed the fucking truth. “I deserve more than that.”

“Look, I made a mistake. I had just gotten off a mission. We were in a black out so all the phones and servers were down. I was missing you like crazy and I was pissed off that I couldn’t talk to you.”

Ronnie’s eyes filled up with unshed tears making it hard for her to focus. If she blinked, they would spill over and she was determined not to let him see her cry. Ronnie never cried.

His grey eyes traveled over her face, hoping for something that she couldn’t give him. “It just happened.”

Ronnie chest heaved as she took in a deep breath, her back shaking as she held in the sob that was trying to break through. She walked to her dresser and pulled out a sweatshirt. Before she even realized what she was doing, she peeled off her shirt, standing in her bra. She had been with him so long that her mind and her body were still comfortable with him, even if her heart wasn’t. She paused as she felt the heat of Brandon’s stare. She glanced back at him and he was looking at her with desire in his eyes, a look that he no longer was entitled to. She pulled the sweatshirt on over her head and stepped into her furry slipper boots. She marched towards him, not giving him the satisfaction of a look as she walked past him and into the living room.

He was like a lost little puppy dog following her from room to room and she just wanted him to leave.

Brandon stepped in front of her as she sat down on the couch. “Ronnie, will you fucking talk to me please?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Anything. Just tell me what is going on inside your head. Please.” He sat down next to her on the couch, a little closer than she would have liked but still far enough away that they couldn’t reach each other.

She saw him, the Brandon she has always known and loved. She saw the guy from the wrong side of the tracks, the bad boy with a big heart and big dreams. He was the guy who saved her from her empty life, the guy who took nothing and made something. He was her Brandon.