AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Open it and see,” he told me.
I smiled at him, trying to not let the hurt I felt at him missing my birthday to show, but I knew I was failing when his lips tipped down, and that familiar tick started in his jaw.
Taking the box from him, I lifted the lid and at what I saw, I gasped.
Then and only then, I didn’t try to fight the tears that have been threatening to pour out of my eyes since I saw his truck and what he had on.
“This is my promise to you. I’ll always make it back to the one thing I call home.” He told me, and no, I didn’t miss the number of emotions that were laced with every word he spoke.
I stared at the black iridescent ring and couldn’t help but feel as though my heart melted.
He took the ring out of the box, then tagged my right hand, and started to slide it on my ring finger, “I want you to wear it on this finger. So, when I come back, we need to have a long talk. And if that talk goes the way I fucking hope it does, I’ll move it to the other finger. But please, wait for me to come home. Please.”
As he said that, I saw my dad’s bike pulling up, then parking, and I held in a scream when I still heard the bike running.
Tank looked over his shoulder at my dad, and then back at me, and his shoulders dropped, “I want you to ride with me to the airstrip. Your dad’s going to give you a ride back. You okay with that.”
No. I freaking wasn’t okay with that. I wasn’t okay with anything that was happening right now.
But that didn’t matter.
What mattered was finding the men on that team and bringing them home. Because I was only one person. They were many with families.
Looking up into his eyes, I fought the tears that were still running rampant down my cheeks.
He leaned down, while his thumbs came up and wiped them from my cheeks, “Breath for me, baby. Breath.”
Doing what he said, I tried to get a handle on my emotions.
After a few minutes, he smiled, then leaned down, and pressed a kiss on my forehead.
His lips lingered there.
For a one, two, three beat, then he pulled away, checked his watch, cursed, and then said, “Time to go, baby.”
After I was in his truck, he closed the door then said something to my dad, and once they finished talking, he rounded the hood and got in.
With my hand wrapped tightly in his, lying atop his center console, he drove us to the airstrip.
Once he parked his truck in his spot, he looked out the front windshield, cursed, then climbed out of the truck, rounded the hood, and helped me out.
Helping him with his things, I carried his rucksack with my dad trailing behind us.
Being there to support me when I needed him.
Dropping his things to the ground, I followed suit, and then I was up, and, in his arms, his face buried in my neck, inhaling deeply. Then ever so softly, he whispered, “Please wait for me, Gray. Wait for us to have that talk.”
I didn’t get to respond to him. Someone was calling his name, saying it was time to go.
I didn’t want to let him go. I never wanted to let him go ever again. But somehow, I found the courage to do just that.
And when he got to the door of the plane, he turned around and made that freaking heart shape with his hands.
Returning the gesture, I smiled and then nodded to his question I hadn’t answered, and seeing the smile on his face, he knew what I was agreeing to.
Then the moment I could no longer see him, I shed even more tears.
With my dad’s arm wrapped tightly around my shoulders, holding me up, I didn’t move from my spot until I could no longer see the C-130 in the air.
