Casualties of Love (20 page)

              “I don’t have a sour...” he stopped the lie when he saw the pointed expression Jessica leveled on him. He chuckled. “Ok, so not the best of moods. It’s tough when there’s nobody there to see you come home.”

              “Yeah. I get that.”

              “The call; that was Terri. She is...was Lassiter’s wife. I told you about her. She was calling to welcome me back. She told me she wanted to be there today, but she and Jacob are with her parents for the weekend. It’s good to know she was thinking about me, on a day when her husband should be coming home, too. She’s a good person, a good friend.”

              “Sounds like,” Jessica said. She accepted the drink Marcus handed her. She took a gulp and almost immediately pounded a hand to her chest as her nostrils flared. She sputtered through a cough, causing Marcus to suggest she sip instead of chug.  Jessica agreed with a silent nod and watery eyes.

“If I ask a question about them, will you answer me honestly?” she asked Marcus a few moments later.

              “Of course, Jess,” he replied aloud. In his head he said, “That depends”.

              “What’s her name?”

              “Bethany Franks. She the daughter of a retired Colonel.”

              “Are they serious?”

              “Tyson should answer that.” He refused to be the one to tell her they lived together.

              “Ok. Then, tell me how long they’ve been together,” she requested.

              “A while,” he hedged.

              “How long, Jones?” she pushed.

              “Well, we were deployed for a year, so you know there’s that time. Plus, you said
a
question, one.”

              “Marcus!”

              “Two years. They were together two year, Jessica.”

“That’s a long time, a significant time,” Jessica murmured out loud.

“Jessica, I honestly don’t know why Bethany was there today. I don’t know why she showed up. He didn’t know she was coming and he wasn’t expecting her.”

              “Yeah, well that doesn’t mean she didn’t think she had a right or a reason to show up.”

After that she let it go and they talked about other stuff. Marcus didn’t know how to convince her to talk to Tyson. He knew she felt betrayed, but he suspected she also felt she’d walk right into it. She was hurt, and Marcus knew it wasn’t what Tyson wanted. He tried a number of times to sneak away to call Tyson, but Jessica was like a dog with a bone. She told him to leave his phone whenever he made a move to leave the room, always threatening to drive off if he even thought of contacting Tyson. She was lucky he liked her so much, Marcus thought with a smile, because in her current sulking and snarky state he’d actually considered kicking her out and sending her on her way himself.

******

There was banging. Loud, annoying banging. His frickin’ door was rattling on its hinges. Marcus heard it, but truly didn’t care to answer. He didn’t want to move. Hours on planes, up all night talking...drinking. Marcus just wanted to sleep, to sleep and not move. But the banging was loud and very insistent.  Marcus shouted a course curse to his empty room and rolled out of his bed. Looking down, he made sure he was wearing bottoms. Marcus made his way to the front of his house. He deactivated the alarm and yanked the door open.

“What?” he yelled.

“Where is she?”

Tyson pushed past Marcus and into his living room. Marcus sighed and rubbed his gritty eyes. Shutting the door, Marcus turned bleary eyes on Tyson. Sometimes it didn’t pay to have a best friend. They stopped by at all times of the day with no consideration for your desperate need for sleep.

“You gotta be kidding, man. It’s got to be like six in the morning. Why are you here so early?”

“It’s just after five and I would have been here earlier had it not taken me most of the night and into the wee hours of this morning to get rid of Bethany. Where’s Jessica?”

“In the guest room,” Marcus yawned out.

Tyson went off to find Jessica, but came back with a note.

“Shit and damn! She’s gone.” He read the note out loud. “
Thanks for taking care of me last night. I’m glad you were there when I needed you.
What the hell does that mean?” he yelled at Marcus.

“Don’t you start with me,” Marcus yelled back. “First off, it’s too damn early. Secondly, you know I wouldn’t try anything with your woman!” Marcus winced at clanking in his head because of their shouting. He’d perhaps partaken of too much tequila. Maybe that was Jessica’s plan since she was nowhere to be found.

“Why did you let her leave?”

“I didn’t
let
her do a damned thing, Tyson. I thought she was still in the house.” Marcus shook his head. “She must have watched me set the alarm.” He paused and turned to his friend, thinking of the incident at the airport the day before. “What the hell happened? Why didn’t you tell her about Bethany? And what was Bethany doing waiting on you yesterday?”

“I didn’t know how to tell her. I thought it didn’t matter. I broke up with Bethany, told her she had to move out. She said she had already started, was going to be gone long before I got back. She basically said “good riddance”. Her stuff wasn’t even at the condo. I don’t know what she was thinking or
doing
.” Marcus watched as Tyson ran his hands over his head. “She said she was there to see if I’d give it one more try. Something about her father thinking I was good for her. I guess her parents may have put her up to it.”

“Well, you’re in a mess, man. Jessica’s hurt, and she’s angry,” Marcus said. He was positive he’d just informed Tyson of what was elephant-in-the-room obvious, but he said it anyway.

“I have to fix it. I can’t lose her again,” Tyson said.

“What are you going to do?” Marcus asked him.

“Go get her.”

Chapter 17

              “You here a
gain
?”

              “Yes. I figure I’ll wear you down and you’ll eventually let me in,” Tyson said. His tone suggested that he had unlimited patience for the wear-down tactic. Though, he had to admit his degree of frustration was reaching a tipping point.

              “How long do you plan to keep this up?”

              “Until it works,” Tyson said.
Or, until I have to back to work and then get time off to start it up all over again!

              “What do you want?”

              “To talk, that’s all. Just let me in. Please,” Tyson said.

              “Fine. But it won’t do you much good.”

              Tyson walked into the modestly appointed home. It was an older house, but was spacious and well kept. He’d been trying for three days to get in the door having been turned away twice the day before and completely ignored the day before that. His goal was to get Jessica to hear him out, to listen to his explanation about Bethany’s presence at the airport. He had to explain about Bethany period.

              He’d flown into Georgia after hearing from Marcus that Jessica had some time off and was spending it with her father not at her home in Texas. Wasting no time, he’d booked a flight thinking he would only be hours behind her. Turns out he wasn’t far behind, but she had promptly determined she didn’t want to talk to him. As such, she refused to acknowledge he was even at the front door of her childhood home when he’d showed up. The next day, she had successfully recruited her father to do the turning away. Turning toward the now closed door, he watched Mr. Watts walk across the room and take a seat. Looked like the man was on duty again today.

              “You can sit down,” the man said. “Tyson, right?”

              “Yes, sir.”

              “You’re the one from the military academy.”

              “Yes.”

              “A lot...happened between you and Jessica.”

              “Yes, sir. And I’m sorry about not being around.”

              “Well, wasn’t much you could do if she wouldn’t tell you. She’s tough, my Jessica. But that time was hard for her. I wasn’t a lot of help back then. Hadn’t done so well at dealing with my own losses.” Mr. Watts sighed and then continued. “So, I wasn’t much good with helping her through hers.”

“I would have come. I would have been here. I want you to know that,” Tyson said adamantly.

Tyson didn’t have a clue as to what Mr. Watts knew about him or thought of him, but he wanted Jessica’s father to know he would have been available for her when she needed him.

“I believe you. She said as much, especially in the first few months after she came home. And then when she started dodging your calls.”

“I love Jessica, Mr. Watts. I messed up, but I love her,” Tyson said. He figured he should just lay it all out from the start.

“Yeah. I imagine you do, coming all this way. She’s pretty upset, though. Jess...she doesn’t get mad all that much, but she’s right mad at you.”

              “Sir, I know she’s upset with me. I know, and I deserve it. But, would you please ask her if she’d come out to speak with me. I need to explain. To apologize to her and explain. If you could just convince her to talk to me,” Tyson pleaded.

Tyson really hoped Mr. Watts would help him out.

“I can’t do that, son.”

Tyson dropped his head.

“Sir, I gotta tell you. At this point, I’m not above begging. Is that what you want? To see me beg?”

“No, boy. I don’t care about you begging. Jessica’s not here.”

“What?” Tyson looked up at Jessica’s father. “Don’t tell me she left to go back to Texas.”

Instead of answering, Mr. Watts looked at Tyson like he was a little slow in the head.

“Tyson, one of the reasons I was willing to turn you away two times yesterday was because I thought you’d know where to find Jessica today.”

“What? Wait. Why would you turn me away if you were ok with me finding her?”

Tyson was well on his way to being confused.

“Because, I think you two need to talk,” Mr. Watts said slowly. “How well do you know Jessica?”

“I
used
to know her better than anybody,” Tyson said in a near mumble.

“I thought she told you everything about what happened. With the baby and all.”

“She did. I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”

“Do you know what day is it?”

“Yes, Mr. Watts,” Tyson said with an exasperated sigh.

He didn’t know why Jessica’s dad was asking him these random questions. Couldn’t the man just tell Tyson where Jessica had gone off to?

“What day is it, son?” Mr. Watt asked in tone that Tyson recognized as laced with patience. “The date, Tyson, not just the day of the week.”

“It’s April the third, sir. But, I don’t see...”

Mr. Watt’s meaning dawned on Tyson as he let the sentence dangle unfinished. No wonder the man was talking to him as if he was some sort of simpleton.  Tyson was being completely obtuse. With the nudging, he knew exactly where to find Jessica and wouldn’t have wasted time coming by the house had he been thinking. He would have staked out her location and made sure he was there when she showed up. It was a little bit stalker-ish, but he would have done it.

Mr. Watts was nodding at him with an encouraging smile, apparently recognizing and pleased that Tyson had finally gotten a clue.

“Thanks, Mr. Watts,” he said.

“Don’t thank me. I didn’t do anything. In fact, I promised to stay out of it and not tell you a thing. You got it,” Alan Watts said with a pointed look.

“Yes, sir,” Tyson said with a grin. “I got it. And, hopefully I’ll see you later. I look forward to getting to know you.”

“Same here. Good luck.”

******

Jessica heard the approaching footsteps. They were muted beneath the soft grass, but she perceived the purposeful gait. She didn’t turn. Didn’t have to in order to know who it was.

“He told you where I was?” she asked.

“Not really. Mostly he helped me realize what I should already have known,” Tyson answered to Jessica’s question.

She nodded, but didn’t look at Tyson.

“Is it ok that I’m here?” he asked her.

              After that question, she turned her head toward him. He looked as handsome as he always did. He had allowed his beard to grow in a little. It was a neatly trimmed, sexy shadow on the lower half of his face. He was wearing a lightweight, mock neck, half-zip sweater with dark wash jeans. Jessica pushed thoughts of how good he looked from her mind and answered.

              “Tyson, you have a right to be here. You can come anytime you want. He was your son, too.”

              “I know. I was more wondering if it was ok that I was here with you,
while
you are here. If you need time alone, Jess, I understand that.”

              “No. I’m fine. I’m...glad you’re here,” she admitted. Instinctively, she grabbed his hand and gave it a little squeeze. She had actually thought about this very thing on a number of occasions. Jessica had wanted to be able to share time with Tyson at their baby’s burial spot.

She watched as he took in the scenery and read the polished stone placed at the head of the burial plot.

              “He would be a big boy now,” Tyson said. “Maybe going into kindergarten, yeah?”

              “Yes,” Jessica said with a small smile.

She could almost picture it, had always in her mind played through the way the baby would have grown and developed from infant to toddler to adolescent. Even though she’d never even had a chance to really see him, she could envision his growth.

Jessica tried to retrieve her hand, but Tyson wouldn’t release it as he stood quietly. She was also silent, in her own thoughts until he spoke again.

              “I’m sorry,” he said.

              Jessica didn’t readily respond. She knew what he was apologizing for, but wasn’t sure she wanted to get into it at gravesite.

“Let me explain,” he said to her.

“Ok. But not here,” she said and they started to walk out of the gardens and into the adjacent public park. Again, she tried to take her hand back. Tyson held fast. Jessica gave him a little side-eye, but he still didn’t let her go.