Maid to Order (19 page)

Epilogue

Taking his coffee mug to the dining room table, he sat down, placing the notepad and pen he held on the surface. It was hard to believe that one year ago today was the first time he’d sat in this same seat and debated on not answering his cell phone… and ending it all instead. How things could change in just one year. Rusty smiled to himself.

It was the first bit of peace and quiet he’d had in days. Between watching Ian’s twin girls, Jessica and Julia, while Courtney and Ian were in Columbus and trying to organize and schedule a new batch of recruits for Man Maid, life was chaotic… and awesome.

Glancing over at Sergeant Buck, who laid on the floor between Grudge and Rusty’s chair, the dog looked to be enjoying the solitude that the girls’ nap provided too.

Ian was sitting for some state board exam for his nursing program today and Courtney had gone along for moral support. It was hard to say no to babysitting duty when the two little blonde haired beauties would break into fits of giggles and squealing at the mere sight of him. Those smiles and the way they clapped their hands at him.

That much cuteness in one baby was a bit much, times it by two and it was like they were heartbreakers in training. Thankfully Ian was big enough, scary enough and a right good shot with a riffle to head off the young boys who would be pawing around them in about fifteen years… maybe less.

Sergeant Buck got saddled helping Rusty with the twins since Ronnie and Kayla had left last week to get Addie situated in her dorm room at a college out of state. It was hard to believe the girl was a grown up now... at least by legal terms. To Rusty, she was still the freckle faced little cheerleader who’d roped Ronnie into a new career and played match maker between him and her mother.

Pulling the notepad over closer, he looked at the names of the six men he and Seth would be training for blue collar service jobs and the remaining twenty five more that made up the wait list and sighed. He needed to hire help… find others who could teach men like Danny Carlton skills they could use in their quest for independence. If Seth wasn’t helping in this venture already Rusty would be in a world of hurt.

They’d already managed to get one young man a job stocking shelves at a local grocery store… and another one was working for Seth doing job site cleanup. Even with Caleb keeping the books for the business and Tori helping find employment opportunities for them when she wasn’t working, it made for a long day.

Yet, Rusty felt it in his soul… this was what Man Maid was still in business for… to give everyone a chance… a purpose. However, with only two Army veterans doing all the training, Man Maid could only take on so many at one time.

Jess Reynolds’s genius idea of hiring other veterans to train the men was a perfect solution. Rusty was working on that concept but in the meantime
it was just him and Seth. And with his fast approaching wedding, he needed to balance his work life with his home life. With Danny and Amy both working at AmyCakes today… he should be working on his home life … not his work life.

He’d managed to get the twins to both fall asleep at the same time and had thought to finally start writing his wedding vows. Finding the right words to pledge himself to a sexy little siren of a woman who wore icing and cupcake batter like it was the latest fashion had so far eluded him.

He loved her with everything in him but somehow simply saying “I love you” wasn’t enough. He showed her every chance he got, because if he didn’t, she would remind him in ways that made it hard to focus on anything else for days afterwards.

Attending therapy for several months and taking an anti-depressant had eased his daily struggles significantly. On those few
off days
he did have, one of his makeshift military family members would inevitably show up and rope him into some shit he didn’t want to do and before he knew it… it was a new day. It was a constant battle but well worth the fight.

During therapy, Courtney had pointed out his ability to express his feelings in writing really well and he hoped to do that now. Instead, all he could think of was the original note he’d written a whole year ago and how that letter might sound now if he were to re-write it. Pulling a clean sheet of paper from the notepad he put his pen to paper.

Friends and Family,

This letter finds me living a life I never would have expected a year ago. A life filled with lots of laughter and just a few tears, loads of fun and a mere handful of monotony, an existence that I look forward to everyday now. Much like the roller coaster that the military was… I’m finding that life is much the same. No two days are alike, so if I find I’m not suited for one, I simply await the next. I’ve found my purpose in life as well and it is to live and love… specifically to live and love with one woman by my side, Amy Carlton.

She mixes my life in meaning and joy unlike anything I’ve ever known. Then she spreads on cheer so thick that there is barely room for grey areas. To tell her that I love her is not truly telling her what she means to me. Yes, I do love her but I also appreciate her, I honor her, I cherish her and I live because of her. She is the other half of my soul and the one thing I cannot do without. So it is with those thoughts and emotions in my heart that I make her my wife today and for always.

Oddly enough I’ve found the one mission in my life that will never be completed… that will never truly end… the one thing that the effort it takes to achieve is more pleasurable than anything else in my life … making Amy happy. For that opportunity I will gladly report for duty for the rest of my life.

Rusty

ISBN: 978-1511703628

MAID TO ORDER

Copyright © 2014 by Rebecca M Avery

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

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