Letters Home by Rebecca Brooke

just part of it. All of the soldiers did these things before leaving, it was just something I avoided at all costs.
    Since this was our last night together for at least a year, or until he was granted leave, I planned on taking advantage of the time. I just had to convince him that we should be spending the night in bed—instead of him worrying about what he might have forgotten to take care of.
    “Just tying up a few loose ends.”
    Making my way into the room, I watched as he put the remaining papers in a folder and turned to face me. Right before I sat down on his lap I noticed him tuck a few extra sheets in. I took his face between my hands. “You’ve taken care of everything. I promise I’ll be okay. I’ll miss you more than anything, but I’ll be okay.”
    “I just worry about you. This was my choice and I feel like I’m letting you down.”
    Leaning forward I tilted my head and brushed my lips across his, igniting a tingle and my need for him began to course through my body. “You’re not letting me down. This was always a possibility when you joined the Army, and I knew that when I made the decision to stay with you. Even though this will be hard on both of us, we’ll get through it.” I dropped my hands and wrapped them around his waist, pulling his shirt out of his pants. “Now, we can spend the rest of our last night together debating your decision, or we could spend it in each other’s arms.”
    He smiled, the first genuine one I’d seen in days. “Dani, I love you so much.” Moving his arms under my legs, he’d stood up with me in his arms and carried me to the bedroom, where we’d spent the night happily proving how much we really did love each other…
    “Dani?” Nate snapped his fingers in front of my face and I gave myself a mental shake.
    “Sorry, I zoned out.”
    “I could tell,” he chuckled. “What were you thinking about?”
    I sighed. “I was just remembering the first time you were deployed.”
    “Ah,” he said, reaching over to cover my hand with his. “I remember. But just remember how long that was—this time it will be a breeze in comparison, and I’ll be back before you know it.”
    “I know. It just feels different this time.” My eyes dropped to the table.
    His hand squeezed mine on the table, his fingers playing with the rings sitting at the base of my finger. “That’s cause it is. This time you don’t have school to keep you preoccupied, but just remember, at the end of this deployment I get to come home to my wife and hold her in my arms for an eternity.
    Just like that first deployment, one of us was able to bring a smile to the other’s face. The need to be reassured was overwhelming, just like it was for that night but he still managed to make me smile. “Yes, you do.”
    Leaning up and over the table I took his lips with mine. The soft texture made me want to deepen the kiss. My tongue slipped out and ran across his bottom lip and a groan escaped his throat as he gripped the back of my neck, holding me close. And as we made it to our bedroom, I vowed to myself that I would make the memories of tonight, and each night up until he left, enough that he’d spend the nights he was away remembering just how much I loved him.

    The days of spending as much time together as we could passed quickly, and the time for deployment finally arrived. We got up early so that we’d have a few hours together before he was gone. Not that I’d actually slept the night before. It was so hard lying in bed, looking at all of Nate’s stuff packed in the corner of the room like an unfriendly reminder. It sat there taunting me that tomorrow night I’d be going to bed all alone. As much as I wanted the clock to stop it seemed to speed up, every minute drawing us closer to goodbye, and before I knew it I was helping Nate load everything into the car. He held my hand the entire way there, while the back of my throat burned with my effort to hold back the tears.
    We pulled up