The War Within

Meredith Moser served as an Army nurse in Vietnam. She went to Saigon in 1967 looking to help those in need. She didn't expect to meet the love of her life along the way. Forty-seven years later, a summer vacation with her granddaughter, Jordan Gonzalez, puts Meredith on a collision course with someone from her past and sends Jordan on a journey toward an uncertain future.

When Meredith comes face-to-face with Natalie Robinson, a woman whose heart she once broke, can a love once lost be regained? When Jordan meets Natalie's niece Tatum, wheelchair-bound as a result of injuries she suffered when her Marine unit came under fire in Afghanistan, will her anti-war beliefs prevent her from falling in love?

The War Within

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In Medias Res

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Month of Sundays

Murphy’s Law

The War Within

The War Within

© 2014 By Yolanda Wallace. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 13: 978-1-62639-117-8

This Electronic Book is published by

Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

P.O. Box 249

Valley Falls, New York 12185

First Edition: July 2014

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

Credits

Editor: Cindy Cresap

Production Design: Susan Ramundo

Cover Design By Sheri ([email protected])

Most novels begin with a germ of an idea. This one actually began with a walk on the beach.

Jekyll Island offers miles of dog-friendly beaches that my partner, Dita, and I haunt each summer because our boxer, Joey, adores the water. During one of our visits, I turned to Dita and said, “Wouldn’t it be great to set a novel here?”

I had already heard feedback from several readers who felt there was a decided lack of romance novels featuring older characters and I had heard from others who expressed a desire to see more tales of women in uniform. As the waves crashed around our feet (and paws), I began brainstorming a way to tackle both requests. Thus the idea for
The War Within
was born.

This novel might be the most challenging one I have ever written. Probably because it is my most ambitious. Four main characters, a timeline that spans more than forty-seven years, and love formed—or, in some cases, destroyed—by the crucible of war. What was I thinking? It wasn’t an easy feat to pull off, but thanks to guidance from my editor, Cindy Cresap, and encouragement from Dita, I think I managed to make the pieces fit. The result is my most personally rewarding novel to date. I hope you like it, too.

My thanks, as always, to Rad and the rest of the BSB team for taking a chance on my initial submission and pushing me to dig a little deeper each time I put pen to paper.

Thank you, also, to the readers who continue to take the journey with me, not knowing where it might lead.

And, last but not least, thank you, Dita. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I wouldn’t be here without you.

To those who served. Thank you for your sacrifice.

Meredith Moser wasn’t expecting the call. She and her granddaughter, Jordan, had spent every summer together since Jordan was four. Sixteen years of road trips, rental houses, bug bites, and sunburns. This was the year Meredith thought the streak would come to an end. This was the year Jordan would choose to spend the summer hanging out with her friends instead of being cooped up with her boring grandmother for three months. All the signs were there.

In addition to turning twenty-one, Jordan had recently finished her tumultuous junior year at Cal-Berkeley, where she seemed to be majoring in activism instead of marketing. Or were they one and the same? Either way, Jordan had chalked up so many arrests protesting one cause or another she would probably have a great deal of explaining to do the next time she sat down for a job interview. Meredith admired Jordan’s passion, even if it sometimes felt misplaced.

When the call came, Meredith was glad she had been proven wrong. This was not the year her warm relationship with Jordan began to cool. This was not the year the little girl she had watched grow up became the woman who couldn’t find room for her in her busy life. This was not the year her own life was turned upside down. Again.

“Hey, Gran,” Jordan said. “Where are we heading this year?”

Meredith smiled as she held the phone to her ear. “You tell me. You’ve always been the one in charge of selecting the location. My only job is getting us there.”

“Don’t forget footing the bill. That’s the most important part. Hold on. Let me find a map. Dad’s got one around here somewhere, but it’s so old Columbus probably drew it. Thank God for GPS, right?”

“A tool invented to give men yet another excuse not to stop and ask for directions.”

Jordan laughed uproariously the way she had even before her pigtails had given way to a purple-streaked shag. Meredith heard her rummaging through drawers. She could picture the scene. Jordan, with the phone clamped between her shoulder and cheek, a line of concentration creasing her brow as she focused on the task that had captured her attention. Her earnest expression never changed whether she was building a sand castle when she was five or marching against the war in Iraq when she was eighteen. Now that the military had pulled out of the battle-scarred country, what would become Jordan’s next
cause célèbre
? Meredith suspected she was looking for much more than a place to spend the next three months.

“Got it,” Jordan said at last. Meredith heard paper rustle as Jordan unfolded the map. “Okay, here we go.”

Each year, Jordan would spread a map of the United States, close her eyes, and point. Meredith would drive them from Wisconsin to whatever city Jordan’s finger landed on. Jordan’s selections had resulted in a lifetime of memories. Over the years, they had spent time cruising along Route 66, fishing for crawdads in Louisiana, swimming with dolphins in Hawaii, riding horses on a working ranch in Montana, and running from a hurricane bearing down on the Florida Panhandle.

“Where’s your magic finger taking us this year?”

“Jekyll Island, Georgia. Do you know where that is?”

Meredith slowly drew in air through her nose as if to relieve the discomfort of a stitch in her side, but the pain she felt emanated from the center of her chest. “Yeah, I know.”

She had resigned herself to one fate long ago. Now she had an opportunity to take a second chance on a future she had once thought impossible. With Jekyll Island as the end point for this year’s trip, the journey would be more important than the destination.

Sandwiched between ritzier destinations in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Amelia Island, Florida, Jekyll was almost an afterthought. It had been years since Meredith had been introduced to the tiny resort town on Georgia’s coast. Yet she thought about it every day. A tranquil island she had never seen and a woman she thought she would never see again.

“Jekyll Island. How long a drive is that from here?”

Jordan’s voice pulled Meredith out of the past, but only temporarily.

“About twenty hours.”

“Let me drive. I bet I can make it there in half that time.”

“I appreciate your enthusiasm, honey, but when we do arrive, I want to do it in one piece.”

Meredith stared out at the pond in the backyard of her Racine, Wisconsin, home as she tried to stop her mind from wandering to a ravaged hotel room in the swirling cauldron of war-torn Vietnam. A decision she had made in that room had shaped the rest of her life. The decision had cost her dearly yet enriched her in so many other ways. Would she soon see the effect her choice had had on the woman she had left behind?