breath.
He dropped to his knees in front of me, "I shouldn’t have yelled," he brushed it off.
I scowled at him, "You're single aren't you?"
He chuckled, but it wasn't friendly, it was sort of bitter. "You're not really my type. I get the whole cougar thing is huge, but I'm not into it. I like it when I'm on top and all you forty-types always want to steer."
My hand flew at him, he caught it and gave me an outraged look, "What was that for?"
I yanked my hand from him, "I'm not a cougar! I'm not forty! I wasn’t hitting on you, you moron, I was mocking you!" I got off the bed and walked out of the room looking back at him with daggers.
"Little bastard," I muttered and stomped down the stairs.
Chapter Five - From Ma'am to Madam
Kissing my kids goodbye wasn't painful, it was too much pain to only measure with human emotions and words.
A thousand times I wanted to jump into the van in the garage.
A thousand times I wanted to hold them to me and beg the men getting into the van with them to take me too.
A thousand times a bad thought filled my mind, and all I saw were horrid images of my vulnerable babies.
Mom kissed me and shook her head, "Be strong, safe and fast." She kissed the tip of my nose. My eyes watered. It was what she always said to my dad when he left. My mom was a military wife. She knew, at any given time, my dad's work could make her life painful. She knew it, all too well. She loved it when he got too high to go on mission anymore.
I looked into the van and crossed my arms. Thankfully, my kids were confused enough that they didn’t ask too many questions. I had already explained that it was a military thing for the men to ride with them, as an honor to their fallen father. They did it for every fallen family.
I took both their hands in mine and spoke softly, “Daddy had it in his will that we were all to take a vacation, if he ever died. He didn’t want us to be sad or heartbroken. He wanted us to be happy and remember him. We are going to take that vacation, like he made in his last dying wish. Grandma is going to go ahead with you and I’m going to stay behind and deal with the rest of his stuff. I love you both.”
Mitch shook his head, “I don’t want to go.”
I gave him my look for ‘I don’t give a rat’s ass’. “Mitch, this is your father’s dying wish. We have no choice but to respect it.”
He cocked an eyebrow at me, making me snap, “Behave for Grandma or I burn the electronics.”
Mom climbed into the driver's seat of the minivan. A man got into the passenger side and laid the seat back. My kids were put in the middle seats with men on either side on the floor and two men lying in the back. How they had all made it into the house from the backyard, was disturbing. Had my neighbors really not noticed the military combing through the backyards in broad daylight?
I glanced over at Coop, ruffling the hair on Mitch's head and joking with him. I wanted to tell him to stop, but it was sweet to see Mitch laughing and trying to be a man in front of him.
I stepped away from the van and blew them kisses as the doors closed. Coop closed the last of the minivan doors and walked to me.
He wrapped himself around me, helping me inside of the house and closing the door. I pressed my face to the cold metal and cried against it. He didn’t try to comfort me, thankfully.
I dropped to my knees and sobbed, "T-t-t-they only finished their father's memorial hours ago. I've m-m-made a mistake," I wailed.
I curled up at the door, keeping my fingers on the cold metal of it.
I heard him close to me and opened one puffy eye to see him carrying things from my kitchen.
"What are you doing?" My tone was edgy.
"Get up, Evie," he answered back with a tone of his own.
I turned to tell him to kiss my old, saggy ass, but I was stopped by what I saw. I started to laugh.
"You are so twenty-years old. You can say twenty-eight, but I know," I whispered as I sat up, shaking my head and licking my
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