Dear Soldier Boy (20 page)

Matthew turned to face her. She was bundled in a light blue jacket, but
she still looked cold. Her nose and eyes were red, but tears were the most
likely reason for the red eyes.
His chest ached at the thought of making
her cry.

“You’re here,” he murmured, barely
believing it.

“Yes,” she sniffed. “Because, apparently,
I am a masochist. You shaved. You look...you look handsome.”

Matthew shook his head. “Are you sure
your vision wasn’t impaired in Afghanistan?”

“Don’t. Don’t be funny. I can’t take
funny and handsome.” Her lips trembled.

Matthew took off his scarf and wrapped it
around her neck. He reached for the buttons of his jacket. “Here, take my coat.”
He carefully balanced as he wedged his crutches under his arm so he could
maneuver enough to take off his jacket. Thank god he didn’t fall, because his
ego did not need that blow.

“No, I don’t need it. I’m fine. Thank
you.”

“That would be more convincing if you
weren’t shivering.” He draped his coat over her shoulders and took the opportunity
to brush the back of his hand over her face. “Thank you for coming, Vivian. I
know I said I wouldn't contact you again if you didn’t come, but it was a
blatant lie. This stupid soldier has your number, and he is going to keep using
it.”

“Matthew. I—”

“I haven’t spoken to anyone in three months,
so I have a lot to say. Let me get it all out, and then you can tell me whatever
you need to say.”

Vivian bit her lip and nodded. “Okay.”

“You may have noticed, we're not at the
Lincoln Memorial. Remember, we had plans of meeting there. We were going to run
the Mall, and then I was going to kiss you in front of there. Remember that?
That was a great plan. I loved that plan. It kept me going. But it didn’t
happen. Things changed. I changed, we changed.

“Matthew—”

He held up his hand. “No, please, let me
finish. I have a lot to say.”

She nodded again.

“I didn’t want to meet there because
that was a fantasy. I need real. I can’t run. I can’t take you to the top of a
mountain. Not yet. But I will. I will work my ass off to do all of those
things. I will do physical therapy sixteen hours a day. I will take you running.”

Vivian shook her head. “I think I’m good on running for a while. I did it to stop worrying about you. Matthew, I tried to run through my memories of you. I tried to forget about you. But it didn’t even
work.”

Matthew smiled. “Woman, we are running.
We are taking Duke to the Doggy 5K, or whatever it is called. We will run. We
will climb.”

“Will we kiss?” Vivian asked with a
timid smile. “Because that was the only thing on the list I really wanted to do
anyway. The rest of it was you. My contributions were reading romance novels and
having sex. Lots of sex. Sorry, I’m just putting that out there so you know that
the whole being sporty thing is not a deal breaker for me.”

Matthew laughed. “It is always about sex
with you, woman.”

Vivian’s face paled. She glanced down at his crotch. “Oh, no…I’m
sorry. I didn’t mean. Oh, God…foot in mouth.”

Matthew laughed again. He had forgotten
the sound of it. “I lost my leg, not my penis.”

Color rose in her cheeks. “I know. I
mean…if it doesn’t work…um…well that is…that is…um…it…”

Perversely, Matthew was enjoying watching
her dig herself a hole. She was adorable, the way her eyes widened and her
cheeks went the darkest shade of pink. Everyone should look that good with
their foot in their mouth. “Woman, my
penis works fine.”

“Oh, thank God!” She grabbed her chest in
relief. “Oh, that sounds awful. I’m sorry. It’s just, I really have been looking
forward to sex. With you, obviously, in case you were wondering. Sex with you.”

“If you say sex again, I will have proof
of how well my penis works.”

Vivian’s eyes widened further still.

“Oh, that reminds me. I have something
for you. A few somethings. Here.” Matthew reached into his bag. “I have taken
the liberty of going through the Kama Sutra and marking all the suitable
positions. The ones with green tags are the ones we're good to do right now.
And by that, I mean I will be doing them
to you tonight, and all day tomorrow, and most of the next day. Number ninety-six might
actually facilitate recovery. Yellow are ones that I can’t manage at the moment,
but give me six weeks, tops, and we can add them to the repertoire.”

Vivian smiled as she thumbed from the
pages. “What about this one. It has a red tag.”

“Oh, The Bridge? Yeah, no, not going to
happen. That is on the no fly list, but to be fair, I couldn’t have managed that
with two legs. My back does not bend that direction.”

Vivian smiled and then handed the book
back. “I’ll bend for the both of us. You should see me do the Firefly.” Her eyes sparkled and then left his face. “Matthew, you have no idea how
much I want to be with you. To know that you are real and what we had was real. But, I’m broken inside. You hurt me. I can’t trust myself. My prideful self told me to stay home today, not to come, that I was being foolish and making a big mistake. That I was setting myself up to fall hard again, and then what? I just got over you. No, that’s a lie; I just got to
the point where I am strong enough to fool everyone around me that I’m fine.
You crushed me, Matthew. You have no idea how scared I was when I didn’t hear
from you, and then when I found out you were okay but did want me, I was
destroyed. I can’t do that again.”
Matthew pulled Vivian tight against his
chest. “I’m so sorry. I am an idiot. And I’m a coward. I was scared. I was so
scared that you wouldn’t want me, so it was easier just to push you away. I took
the coward’s way out. I’m so sorry. But if you forgive me, I will spend every
day of my life making it up to you.”

“Matthew—”

“No, I’m not done. Let me finish before
you say anything. I have another gift for you.” He reached into the bag and
produced a flat box with red metallic paper. “Open it.”

“I didn’t get you anything.”

“You came. You gave me everything I
want.”

Vivian tore into the paper. She didn’t
carefully take off the tape and pull back the layers like he would; she just
ripped. Good, one of them needed to just dive into life. That would be her job.

She looked up when she reached the
polished mahogany box. “It is a chess set. But it’s missing a piece.” Matthew
reached into his pocket and took out the white queen. “I will always protect
the queen, for the rest of my life, if you let me. Do you know what I’m saying, Vivian?”

Tears welled in her eyes. She opened her
mouth to speak but nothing came out.

Matthew reached into his pocket again.
“I’m saying that I love you, and I will always love you. For as long as you let
me, I will love you and take care of you. I was weak before, after the attack.
Sometimes, I will be. Those are the times you will need to be strong for both of
us. But I’m strong now. With you, Vivian, I am strong. Will you do me the honor
of marrying me? I would get down on one knee, but I would need help up, and I
don’t think you’re strong enough to lift
me, so that would be a mess. A real mood killer, I'd say. And we'll have
to tell Patton and Dunwoody that dad made an ass of himself and ruined the
proposal.”

“Stop talking.” Vivian launched herself at him. Luckily, his crutches had anchored him in the snow, or
they would have both gone flying. Matthew bent down and kissed her. He wrapped
his arms around her, and kissed her until they were both breathless and there
was no doubt that his manhood was very much fully functional.

Vivian pulled back and laughed as she
wiped away a fresh torrent of tears. “If you hurt me again, Matthew, I swear I
will—”

“Don’t say cut off my other leg. My
brother has already threatened me with that if I screw things up with you.”

Vivian laughed. “Speaking of…it’s okay Duke, you can come.”

A large German shepherd dog came rushing to where they stood. Matthew took in the dog. He knew the dog would be big, but that was an understatement.

“Duke, we finally meet.” Matthew reached down and patted the dog on the head, offering his hand. Duke licked it, almost as a sign of acceptance.

“I knew he would love you.” Vivian’s face lit up and the gold flecks in her eyes sparkled.

“What’s not to love?” Matthew laughed.

“Exactly.” Their lips met again.

“I think your brother and I will get along really well. I haven’t even met
him, but I love him.”

“He is pretty fond of you too. Do you
want to meet him?”

Vivian nodded vigorously. “Of course. He's my family now. I want to meet him, and Steven, and Delette. We should go—”

Matthew interrupted her with a high
pitched whistle. Moments later, his brother and Steven rounded the corner,
pushing the baby in a red stroller.

“Your brother is here? Wow! There is
confident, and then there is arrogant, Soldier Boy.” She smiled. “What if I had
said no?”

“I would have reminded you how good my
head is going to look between your thighs, and you would have capitulated. That
was my strategy in operation “Marry Vivian”. I was going to use your horniness
against you.”

“Fair enough. I was going to use
Nutella. Maybe spread it all over me and only let you lick it off if you
promised never to let me go again.”

“Never. I’m never letting you go. And, yes
to the Nutella all over your body. Add that to the green tag list.”

Matthew tore his gaze away from Vivian
long enough to look up at Luke and his family.

“Hey.”

Luke reached his hand to shake Vivian’s. Steven gave him a swat with the back of his hand. “This is Matthew’s
bride. Honestly Luke, she'll be your sister-in-law. Hug the woman.” Before Luke
could listen to his husband, Steven wrapped his arms around Vivian and
enveloped her in a full embrace. “Welcome to the family.”

“Thank you.”

Luke awkwardly embraced Vivian and smiled.
“A woman who plays chess and puts up with my brother is one I am happy to
welcome to the family. Does the ring fit?”

Vivian looked down at her hand. “He
didn’t actually give it to me. I just grabbed him and kissed him”

“Honestly, Matt.” Steve sighed. “Put the
ring on her finger already. Lock this one in, bud.”

Matthew opened the ring box.

“No wait!” Steven said. “Wait, let me
get out my phone to take a picture. This needs to be commemorated.” He patted his
pockets. “Babe, where did I put my phone?”

Luke shook his head and pulled out his
phone. “I’ll take the picture.”

“Last chance to change your mind,”
Matthew said.

“No, chance.”

“Good, because I was lying. I won’t let
you change your mind.” He slipped the diamond and ruby ring onto her
finger. “It’s too big. Grandma Kay was more of a zaftig woman. Here. I'll get
it sized.”

Vivian pulled her hand back. “You will
do nothing of the sort. You gave it to me, its mine. This is a binding
contract, Soldier Boy.”

“She’s right. I’m a lawyer. I know these
things,” Steven added.

Vivian looked into the stroller. “This
aunty needs to hold her niece. May I?”

Luke nodded. “Of course.”

“Oh, hello, my beautiful girl. Aren’t you
precious? I could just take you home.”

Matthew kissed the top of Vivian’s head.
His heart was too full; it almost hurt. He might not deserve any of this, but
nothing would stop him from enjoying it. He loved her. And she loved him, a
stupid, wounded soldier.