Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

EMERIE

Exhaustion has me yawning as I pull up next to an unknown vehicle. Last night’s shift at work combined with meeting with my instructor beforehand, has me wanting to go home and fall into bed for a good ten to twelve-hour nap. Snickering, I step onto the walkway where I hear my girl chattering away a mile a minute. Instead of going through the front door, I walk around to the back porch where Miriam, Dale, Levinia, and a man I don’t know are sitting.

“Mama!” Levinia screeches, flying down the steps toward me. “Daddy’s friend is here!”

Daddy’s friend? I wonder if she means Damien. He had told me all about the guy who helped him survive Hell Week, but I never got to meet him. I know he came home with Levi once or twice on leave, but once was for our prom, and the other time, I was working.

Aloud, I ask, “He is? Well, let Mama meet Daddy’s friend, okay?”

She wraps her arms around my legs, and I can’t resist, I pick her up and sling her onto my hip. She’s the reason I didn’t curl up and mourn myself to death when we found out Levi had died. Because of her, I ate, exercised, and kept putting one foot in front of the other. I still miss him, especially when I see an expression on her face that reminds me of him, but the gut-wrenching pain is more of an ache now. I can talk about him and share memories with more laughter than tears, so I consider that progress, especially since I want Levinia to know her father. Miriam has a gazillion videos and lets her watch them all the time.

“Hey,” I say once I’ve reached the top of the steps and move onto the porch.

Deep brown eyes gaze down at me from where he stood as I approached. Since I did see pictures of Levi and his buddies, I state, “You must be Damien. We never got to formally meet.”

He gulps then nods. “I am, and you’re Emerie.”

“Yeah. Please, sit down, you don’t have to stand on my account,” I tell him, setting Levinia down. Taking the lemonade that Miriam poured me, I tilt the glass to my lips and practically guzzle half of it down. “Gah, that hit the spot.”

“Girl, didn’t you have anything in that car of yours?” Dale asks.

“Finished it about five miles back,” I admit, grinning at him while I top off my glass. “I knew I’d have Memaw’s lemonade when I got here, right, baby girl?” I question, looking at my reason for living.

“Memaw’s lemonade is the best,” my daughter says, grinning at all of us.

“And just how many lemonades have you tried?” Damien asks.

“Just Memaw’s,” Levinia finally says after she thinks about his question.

Gah, she’s too smart for her own damn good sometimes, I forget she’s just now turning three.

“I see,” Damien muses, shooting a smile at me. “Well, I have to agree with you, and I have had my fair share of lemonade.”

“She makes good chicken too,” my baby girl retorts. “We having chicken for dinner, Memaw?”

“We are, and mashed potatoes, and fresh green beans. Plus, some of the bread you helped me knead earlier,” Miriam replies. “Let me go get that chicken frying.” I stand to go help and she says, “No, you had to work then went to do your clinical hours. You just sit and relax, we know it was busy at work last night.”

I sometimes forget that Dale is retired from the fire department. He still has a scanner and I know when I’m working, whether in the dispatch center or on the ambulance, he listens. Told me once he was keeping an eye out for his girl. “Yeah, it was definitely busier than I was expecting,” I admit. “Vinnie, can you go help Memaw by setting the table?”

“Yes, Mama.”

“How many place settings will you need to get?” I question.

She looks at all of us on the porch and I hide my smile when I see her counting us off by name using her fingers. She finally says, “Five! We need five tonight, Memaw!”

“That’s right, pumpkin. You come on now and we’ll soon get it all together,” Miriam says, opening the back door that leads into the kitchen.

I sit back patting my belly, stuffed fuller than a tick. “Dinner was delicious, Miriam,” I tell her as she approaches with an apple pie and some whipped cream. None of that ‘Cool Whip’ crap as she calls it for her family. She makes it all from scratch and I wonder how she can maintain her slim figure seeing as she cooks hearty meals.

“It was very good,” Damien admits, causing me to catch his eye.

Throughout dinner, I’ve been sneaking peeks at the tall, handsome man. I can see some scarring on his arm and from what he’s shared, he was medically discharged from the Navy about six or so months ago but has just now returned to the States. His voice is deep, deeper than Levi’s, and I feel something foreign bubbling up inside of me.

Hope.

Levi was my first everything—love, kiss, sexual partner, best friend—and I never expected to find another man that would tick off all my boxes. Yet Damien does, so the hope I’m feeling, while unexpected, is exciting, because it lets me know that I’m not dead too.

“How long are you staying in Possum Creek?” I ask, wondering if we can talk privately.

I want to explore this feeling a bit more to see if it’s gratitude that he brought Miriam and Dale things that Levi had gotten for them, or something else. Part of me is hoping it’s something else because I’d hate to think I was destined to be a spinster at the ripe old age of twenty, almost twenty-one. Because of what happened to Levi and having Levinia, sometimes I feel much older. Probably look it too since there’s not a lot of time for fun. Most of the friends I went to high school are now in college. A few have gotten married; some have moved away.

“Well, that depends,” he replies. “I uh, I have a box of things for you as well. From Levi,” he clarifies at my wide-eyed expression. Hell, I’m surprised my jaw didn’t hit the floor.

“Really? Like what?”

He shrugs. “No idea, to be honest. Whenever we got leave from the sandbox, we’d go to the nearest friendly town, and he would hunt for things he knew you or his parents would like. But I never saw them since he’d get them wrapped then put them in a box. When I got discharged, I packed everything up and decided that rather than shipping them, I’d bring them to you guys instead.”

“If you’re at loose ends, you should stick around for a while,” Dale says, giving me a sly look. I roll my eyes at him, and he chuckles while shrugging. “Sorry, girl, but you’re too young to work all the time and raise that little girl. You need some fun.”

“I have fun!” I exclaim.

“Yeah, what’s the last fun thing you did?” he asks. “Get all the mismatched socks sorted out?”

I start laughing because he’s not too far off from the truth. “Did that last week. This week’s challenge… er, fun activity, involves sorting through Levinia’s clothes to pull out everything she’s outgrown. Fun times, huh?”

Damien’s laughter joins in with Dale’s while Levinia looks at us in confusion. “Mama, I get new clothes?”

“Once I’m done, baby girl,” I reply. “Speaking of, we need to head home so you can get your bath and I can relax a little bit. Let me help Memaw with the dishes while you make sure you’ve picked up all your toys you’ve been playing with, okay?”