Waiting for Her Soldier Read online

  Copyright © 2013 by Cassie Laurent.

  All rights reserved.

  v1.0

  Waiting for Her Soldier is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. This book or portions thereof may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any form whatsoever without direct permission from the author.

  This book is intended Only for Mature Audiences 18+. It contains mature themes, substantial sexually explicit scenes, and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers.

  UUID: 8b30acd3-ead4-41c5-9d8e-2b92eb17ffa0

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title/Copyright

  Waiting for Her Soldier

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    Chapter 8

    Chapter 9

    Chapter 10

    Chapter 11

    Chapter 12

    Chapter 13

    Chapter 14

    Chapter 15

    Chapter 16

    Chapter 17

    Chapter 18

    Chapter 19

    Chapter 20

    Chapter 21

    Chapter 22

    Chapter 23

    Chapter 24

    Chapter 25

    Chapter 26

    Chapter 27

    Chapter 28

    Chapter 29

    Chapter 30

    Chapter 31

    Chapter 32

  More from Cassie

  About the Author

  This is the story of Lauren and Darren, two former best friends who've been separated for years. Darren is a tough, muscular Sergeant in the U.S.M.C. fighting overseas in Afghanistan. Lauren is a curvy business woman, passionate and sincere in everything she does; although a bit unlucky in the dating world. When she unexpectedly receives a cryptic letter from Darren, everything changes.

  Is it possible to rekindle a fire purely through writing? Over the course of their letters, the years of silence is finally broken and a new romance is born. Lauren finds herself waiting, hoping, and praying that the man she loves will come home safely, only to be struck with bad news. Darren would be returning home earlier, but not under the best circumstances. Was he going to be ok? Would he even love her back after meeting face-to-face?

  When they were younger, Lauren and Darren were never more than friends, but now they've grown up. They're more mature and more confident, and they find a way to each other. And this time, they won't let anything or anyone keep them apart.

  CHAPTER 1

  ———

  February 27, 2013

  Hi Lauren,

  I know it’s been a long time since you’ve heard from me; I never meant for things to turn out how they did.

  I’m sorry for everything that’s happened between us, but I have to talk to you. I feel lost right now, and you’re the only one I can turn to.

  Best Regards,

  Sgt. Darren Henderson

  I stared at the letter as it sat on the kitchen counter. Then I picked it up again, holding it under the dim stove light. I read it over once more. It was so simple, yet so cryptic. I have to talk to you.

  I hadn’t seen or heard from Darren in years. Then only reason I knew he was still alive was that I occasionally ran into his younger sister when she came into the little sandwich shop I had started a few years ago. I always asked how he was doing and Angie, his sister, always said he was fine, but that he really didn’t say much to her in his letters. That was just his personality, to keep his feelings to himself. I told her to give him my best, but I wasn’t sure if she ever even bothered mentioning me after all that had happened between Darren and I so many years ago.

  You see, Darren and I stopped talking even before he shipped off for Afghanistan. We’d been best friends throughout high school, having grown up in houses right next door to each other. Maybe, in the back of our minds, we’d always nursed small crushes on each other, but our relationship was deeper than that. We’d looked out for each other, helped each other out. I helped him study for his finals and I watched him play quarterback on all those chilly Friday nights in fall. When he asked me to prom, I was shocked, but we went as friends, not lovers. We’d always done everything together, so it just seemed to make sense that we would go to the big dance together as well.

  Once we graduated, things started to change. After we’d gone off to separate colleges, we started drifting apart. When we were home that first year for Christmas break, Darren introduced me to Jessica, his new girlfriend. I don’t know what Darren was thinking, but somehow he seemed to expect that we would become best friends. I tried to be cordial, swallowing my pride and my jealousy, but Jessica made no secret that she despised me. She seemed to think that I had designs on breaking up her and Darren, but the truth was that I just missed my best friend.

  I wanted Darren to be happy, but I also missed having him in my life. I didn’t think Jessica was the right girl for him, and I told him so in a long e-mail a few weeks into the spring semester of freshman year. But I had underestimated just how paranoid and sinister Jessica was: she had been looking through his phone and his e-mail, and when she found my message she absolutely flipped and told Darren she would break up with him if she ever caught him speaking to me again.

  I didn’t hear from Darren for months. Then one day I received a call from an unlisted number. I didn’t answer and let the call go to voicemail, a decision I would later regret. It was Darren calling me from a marine base in North Carolina. He was shipping out to Afghanistan in two days. He just wanted me to know he was leaving. Then he hung up. I tried calling back, to get some sort of clarification or explanation, but when I returned the call the number wouldn’t connect.

  I cried myself to sleep that night. I’d lost my best friend before. Now he was going to Afghanistan where I knew I might lose him for good. I read the news. Life was still harsh over there. I knew Darren was tough, one of the toughest guys I’d ever met, but this wasn’t a high school football game. This was a real war in a hostile, foreign land halfway around the world.

  I dropped the letter back down to the counter. I hadn’t expected this. I’d just come home from a long day at the shop and the last thing I was prepared for was the resurfacing of all these emotions, my hurt feelings that I’d tried to suppress for so many years. But despite everything, I knew that I had to respond. Darren and I had once been so close, and even though my heart was crushed, I knew I had the strength in me to be there when he needed me, so I picked up a pen and started writing a letter back.

  But I could only come up with two sentences.

  March 6, 2013

  Hi Darren,

  What’s wrong? What do you need to talk to me about?

  Lauren

  I dropped my letter in the mail early the next morning as I walked out the atrium of my apartment and into the cold morning air, headed to another long day working at my shop.

  CHAPTER 2

  ———

  March 14, 2013

  Lauren,

  There’s so much to say, but I don’t think I could ever express how much I’ve missed you over the years, even before I shipped off to the Middle East. I never expected things to get this hard.

  I don’
t mind the Marine life. The rations, the patrolling, the long hours and the hot Afghan sun. All that stuff is child’s play to me. What’s hard is that it seems like everyone back home has abandoned me. I don’t hear from my friends anymore; they’ve all graduated college and gotten married. They’re living their cushy civilian lives while I fight for their freedom.

  Truthfully, I wouldn’t mind so much, but everyone seems to have forgotten about me and all the other soldiers fighting overseas. As far as they’re concerned, it’s like there isn’t even a war going on. I’m risking my life every time I walk out on foot patrol. But the rest of the world could care less.

  The reason I wrote to you, however, was that the other day I received a letter from Jessica. She’s leaving me to be with another man. I don’t know who he is or anything about him. All I know is that he’s there and I’m not. Can you imagine that? I’m off fighting thousands of miles away, and she couldn’t even be bothered to wait for me.

  That’s what finally crushed me. I was fine as long as I knew I had someone waiting for me, but then one day it all crashed down on me. The woman I had committed myself to was having an affair, the woman I’d sacrificed everything for had abandoned me in my hardest hour.

  The only thing that sustained me was knowing the importance of my mission, knowing that I was fighting to protect the American way and help spread freedom to the people of Afghanistan.

  I know that after what happened between us it was a long shot as to whether you’d be able to forgive me, or if you’d even respond to my first letter. But I can’t tell you how much seeing your response affected me. I know it will take you a long time to be able to trust me again, but please try.

  I miss you.

  Sgt. Darren Henderson

  CHAPTER 3

  ———

  March 22, 2013

  Hi Darren,

  I’m sorry to hear about Jessica. Well, not really. You know how I felt about her and truth be told I think you’re better off without her. It might not seem like it right now, but eventually you’ll realize she was wrong for you. You’re tough, so just stay strong.

  I know you have a good heart Darren, and I know that it wasn’t your choice to break things off with me. I just wish I’d heard from you sooner. Do you know how much I’ve worried about you over the past few years?

  It may seem like everyone has forgotten about you and about the war you’re fighting, but it isn’t true. A few days before I received your letter, I read a story in the paper about a woman who was arrested because she refused to wear a burka. I’m glad to know that someone is out there fighting for that woman’s right to be free. You’re a good man, and I have no doubt you’ll see your way through this hard time.

  I’m going to keep writing because I want you to keep sending me letters telling me you’re ok. Please, be careful out there, Darren.

  I love you and I want you to come home safely.

  Lauren

  And honestly, I did love him. I had never stopped caring about Darren, no matter how much I had tried to hide that fact from myself. I made sure to mail my letter as I walked to my shop early the following morning.

  CHAPTER 4

  ———

  Weeks went by before I received Darren’s response. I was a bit anxious, but I kept busy at the shop. I was kicking myself; why did I tell him I loved him in my last letter? He had to understand I didn’t mean it in a sexual way, right? I mean, we had been best friends, I cared about him a lot. But had I come off as desperate?

  I tried to put my apprehensions out of my mind, and once things got busier at work I all but forgot about it. I was so distracted by all the details of running my own business that I was caught somewhat off-guard when I found Darren’s letter in my mailbox over three weeks later. Just seeing his name on the envelope excited me and I rushed into my apartment to open it.

  I turned on the lights and tossed my purse on the counter, sitting down hurriedly at the kitchen table to tear open the precious letter.

  April 13, 2013

  Lauren,

  I couldn’t have received your letter at a better time. It’s been a hard few weeks since I last spoke to you. I know in my last letter I was more focused on my feelings of abandonment: Jessica leaving me, not hearing from my closest friends, missing my life back home. As I look back on that letter, with the benefit of hindsight, I’m not sure what I was really complaining about. Things weren’t so bad then.

  You’re probably wondering at this point what I’m getting at, so I might as well just spit it out. We had a very close call yesterday while out on a very sensitive operation. We’d received some intelligence regarding an insurgent hideout a few miles from our base and over the past few days, our leaders had been developing an operation to neutralize these militants. Our lieutenants had pinpointed the exact location of the insurgent compound and painstakingly planned out the raid.

  I’ve been on several similar operations before and everything looked normal, nothing to worry about, just a typical search and destroy mission. Little did we know that the hardest part of the mission would be getting to the compound itself.

  We left under cover of darkness in a team of twelve, one of the most elite forces in my platoon. About five hundred meters away from our base we found ourselves under heavy fire; there had been a second militant hideout that we hadn’t picked up in our intelligence gathering. We called for backup and another squad came to cover us as we re-evaluated our situation.

  As we ran for cover, a Lance Corporal triggered a homemade bomb planted by the insurgents and was blown fifty feet into a ditch. At that moment, I forgot all about my own safety. I grabbed one of the others on my squad and we pulled the Lance Corporal out of the ditch, carrying him back to the base while still under heavy fire.

  We ended up taking the insurgent hideout, killing sixteen militants and recovering a number of weapons and bomb-making materials, but we’d paid a huge cost. That night I watched as an evacuation helicopter touched down at the base to pick up the soldier, a kid of only nineteen years, who had stepped on the explosives. He was in critical condition and truth be told, I don’t know if he’s going to make it. I’m still waiting to hear back from headquarters.

  If I didn’t think I was making a difference, I don’t know how long I could continue on with being a soldier. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing how important our mission is.

  But really, Lauren, I’d like to hear about what you’re up to these days. I spend so much time thinking about militants and IEDs and convoys and compounds that what I really need is a good dose of home. It’s funny, I’m fighting for a country that I love, but I’ve been over in this damn desert for so long that sometimes I forget what it’s like to be a normal American.

  Anyways, it was good to hear from you. I look forward to your next letter.

  Sgt. Darren Henderson

  CHAPTER 5

  ———

  April 23, 2013

  Darren,

  Your war stories are giving me bad dreams, so we definitely should talk about me for awhile! After college I moved back home, wanting to be close to my parents and also because I was still looking around for a job. I was applying all over the place, going out on interviews etc., but the economy is so bad I felt really down on my luck.

  One of my college friends, Chris, ended up coming to visit. He was in the area on business and needed a place to crash, so he ended up making a long weekend of it and stayed over at my parent’s house. I took him around town, showing him where we grew up; he’s from New York so he seemed pretty bored in our small town.

  Chris was hungry and asked where we could get something to eat and I told him there wasn’t really much around town, so I took him back to my parents and made lunch myself. You know I’ve always prided myself on being good in the kitchen, so I tried to make Chris something special, him being from Manhattan and all. I wanted to show him that us small town women know what we’re doing! So I made him one of my sandwich specialties, and he
was absolutely floored. I know you’re probably asking yourself why I’m writing a letter about a sandwich, but trust me, it will all make sense after a few more sentences.

  Anyway, Later that night after we’d had a few drinks, Chris started asking me what my plans were now that school was over. I told him that I wasn’t sure, that I was trying to find a job in marketing, but that I was pretty much willing to take anything at this point. He asked me if I’d ever thought about starting my own business. I laughed. What kind of business could I start? I just had a bachelor’s degree in marketing, I didn’t have any ideas or anything.

  He asked me if I’d ever thought about starting a restaurant. I don’t know, not really? I guess as a kid I sometimes played make-believe chef, but I never thought of it as a career move. But Chris was serious, he thought I should start a small deli or a sandwich shop. He told me I was making restaurant quality food and that I should take advantage of the situation. You know how there aren’t any real places in town, right? And I thought, what the hell, I’ll give it a shot.

  So Chris decided to move to our town and we opened up a shop. He covers all the accounting and legal side of the business, haggling with the bank and getting us operating permits and all the little things that go into running a place like this. I’m managing the actual shop and I also designed the menu and all the shop décor. It’s crazy how fast it all happened. It’s a lot of fun, but I find myself super busy. I have four employees right now, mostly a couple girls who go to the local high school and then another girl named Betsy who’s my age and works full-time. It’s a lot of work. Truth be told, I never knew what was involved in being someone’s boss!

  It’s been a wild ride, but so far it seems to be going well. We ended up turning a small profit in our second month! I like doing something I’m passionate about, it makes the long hours and all the little fiascos along the way seem much easier to deal with.