Rodrigo strolled into the room and curled himself up at their feet, apparently just as expectant for her answer as Holden himself.
“We…be together. I guess.” She shrugged and allowed a piece of hair to fall over her face as she tilted her chin to look up into his eyes.
“We be together.” He nodded. “I like the sound of that.”
“Me, too.” She considered it for a moment, then ran her fingers through his hair. “I guess that makes you my boyfriend.”
“I guess it does.” He grinned. “But you know what I think?”
“What’s that?”
“My girlfriend needs some actual food in her house. Come on. Put some clothes on. I’m taking you shopping.”
…
The whole way to the store, Holden didn’t know what to do with himself. Whether it was because he simply couldn’t understand how—in the space of a single trip—everything he’d wanted had come true, or because he still hadn’t brought himself to check his phone, he didn’t know.
His heart was racing just as quickly as his mind, going beat for beat with the questions whirring through his head. Should he extend his trip? Should he move here? Should he get food for himself to keep in her house? Was that too fast?
He chanced a glance at Avery, but she was only staring out the window, smiling to herself, clearly lost in a world of her own.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Huh?” She shook her hair back and faced him, looking just as serene and beautiful as she always did.
“What’s going on in your head?”
“Oh…nothing.” She bit her bottom lip. “I’m just glad. You know, to have you here.”
“Yeah, me, too.” With another jolt of terror, he thought of the cell phone lying in wait in his back pocket. In addition to his voicemails and texts, he hadn’t checked his emails. The odds that his superiors had gotten back to him were good, and if he did…
Well, giving up on another tour wasn’t part of the ten-year plan. He’d told Avery that before, though it was in a different context. And now that she knew his contract was up?
He pulled the smartphone from his pocket and flicked his thumb over the screen.
“What’s the matter? Another message from your mother? She needs you to run to her hotel room?” Avery raised her eyebrows.
He shook his head. “Probably, but I’m not looking at that. I want to spend my day with you.”
“Really? Because far be it for me to upset your mother.” Avery rolled her eyes. “Any more than I already do.”
“You know I don’t care about that.” He pulled up in front of the run-down-looking grocery store and popped the car into park. “I should probably call Tom, though. He’s called about a dozen times.”
Avery shrugged. “If you want to. I’ll head in and get started. I’ve got to get some food for Rodrigo, anyway.”
“And some vegetables. And fruit,” he reminded her.
“Yeah, yeah.” She stalked off toward the entrance of the store, and he glanced down at the phone screen again. Another slew of missed calls waited for him, and a little red dot in the corner of his mailbox let him know that he’d missed a few messages there, too.
“Probably junk mail,” he mumbled, though he knew better than to believe that. He opened the window and flicked his thumb over the messages until he found the one he knew would be there waiting.
The message line was simple, not even a response to the message he’d already sent. It simply read “Deployment Instructions.”
Gritting his teeth, he opened the message and scanned the words. They wanted him to go on another tour. They were going to pay him more—substantially more—to go. He’d get a promotion. And if he didn’t go? Then odds were that he’d never go again.
His life as a soldier would be over. For good.
Breathing a low sigh through his nose, he thumbed into his contacts. He already knew what Avery and his parents would say. His brothers and Marine buddies would be no use, either. Which only left one person.