Chapter 19
A little over three weeks later, Tony and Staci drove Shay to the airport in Denver so he could fly back to Pennsylvania to resume his normal life there for the next few weeks.
“How did you like your stay?” Staci asked from the back seat of Tony’s truck as they drove toward Denver.
Shay turned to look at her, shook his head, and sighed.
“I know my face doesn’t display it, and sorry for my language, but holy hell, the sheer size of what Ms. Riceman has built is mind blowing.
I didn’t get over to Erin’s Way, but I did stop in at Broken Wheel for a couple of days.
I had heard about using horses for rehabilitation, but never, not in my wildest dreams think on the scale of what she is doing.
I like it, and I can’t wait to come back and start working here. ”
“Will your family be coming with you?”
“No family, where Jacobs and Ramos had a life outside of the Guard, I do not. They did their military duty one weekend a month, and one full month in the summer, unless they are called in on a special mission, while not fulfilling their military duty, they had jobs, lived their normal life. I, on the other hand, didn’t.
My entire career was serving the military.
If I wasn’t commanding the Guard unit, I dedicated my life to it.
” He shrugged then looked over at Tony with a grin. “If the Army wanted me to have a wife…”
“They would have issued us one,” Tony finished the sentence and looked in his mirror at Staci. “That’s the joke in the military.”
“They don’t want you to be married or have a family?”
“No, but they believe that if you are married and have kids, you might be distracted by them during a critical mission.”
“Ah, is that why you never married?”
Tony shrugged. “Back when I started my military career, I didn’t really think about settling down. Sure, I played the field, not a lot, I think I had three girlfriends in ten years, but it never worked out.”
“Can I ask why not?” Staci asked, trying not to let the jealousy she felt overrule her common sense.
“Actually, it was because of my military career. Like I said, I only dated three women. The first one slept with someone else when I was on my month-long assignment. This was during my second year in the Guard. When she told me she was pregnant, I was skeptical, because I was always careful.”
“You didn’t want children?”
“I do, but not forced on me. She kept saying that we could get married, she can have a baby, and stay at home, and I could work two jobs, quit the military, and take care of her like she wanted to be pampered.”
“What was she going to do at home to help you?” Staci asked with a smirk.
“Nothing. Oh, she wanted me to give her my paycheck from one of those alleged jobs I was supposed to take. This would allow her to do whatever she wanted during the day.”
“Damn, Tony, she sounded like a gold digger. How did you find out the baby wasn’t yours?”
“I overheard a conversation with her girlfriends, she had them on speakerphone. There were four different women talking. One of them asked how I took the pregnancy news, then another one talked over her and asked where she got the positive test from. It turned out that one of them were pregnant, and the girl I was dating used it to try and trap me.”
“What about the other two?” Staci asked after Shay admitted that he had helped Tony get out of that mess.
“The woman I just told you about was the first one. I was leery the next time I fell for the girl, but she made it easy for me.”
“How?”
“She knew my military obligations, and it was fine for the first two months, but because I had to miss an event, I was scheduled for my one weekend of the month, an event she never told me about, mind you, she gave me an ultimatum. She knew which weekend it was, because I had made red x’s through the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
If she bothered to look at the calendar, she would see those red marks throughout the entire calendar for the entire damn year. ” He shook his head sadly.
“Damn, let me guess, her event or your military career.”
“Correct.”
“What was the ultimatum? Other than what I just said.”
Shay started laughing from the passenger seat, and Tony turned to glare at him.
“What?” Staci asked.
“The event was the secret wedding she had planned for the two of them.” Shay couldn’t stop laughing. “She got her dates of when he was supposed to be away mixed up, and scheduled a wedding on his weekend to serve.”
“Oh my god, was she crazy?”
“This isn’t a laughing matter,” Tony said angrily, then sighed heavily.
“But by the time, or when I returned from that weekend, she had destroyed my entire apartment. I need to stress here that we did not live together, and I never gave her a key to my place. However, when I returned two weeks later.”
“Wait, why two weeks later, I thought the weekend service was three days.”
“Normally, that was what it was,” Shay said.
“However, during the night from Saturday to Sunday, the Guard was called out to help everyone several counties over to evacuate because of a flood. It took several days for that to happen, then we helped them come back. We didn’t have to, but the streets needed to be cleared, and well, that’s some of what we do. ”
“Okay, thank you both for serving, but what did she do?”
“Destroyed my entire place. My neighbor was out of town, so they didn’t notice anything, and by the time I returned, it was a mess. I’m saying that the only clothes I had to my name were the ones I had with me on that weekend.
“How did you know it was her?”
“The neighbor had installed a Ring camera a week before. It clearly showed her picking my lock and walking in my house. By the time I was done with her in court, she was hospitalized in the local mental ward. It was only for a seventy-two-hour stay, but she had to have extensive counseling. Don’t quote me on this, but some things came out in her trial, that other people came forward to file complaints against her, and again, don’t quote me, but I believe she lost her job because she tried to pull the same stunt with her married boss.
Hell, they weren’t even dating, he was dedicated to his wife.
The crazy one wanted him, and set out to try to get him. It didn’t work.”
“Did you ever ask why she did it?”
“Which part? The part about planning our wedding without telling me? Or the part about her destroying my home? Or the part where she tried to do the same thing with her boss?”
“Both, but I’m curious as to why she planned a wedding?”
“She was desperate to get married, saying her biological clock was ticking. When I sued her, she tried to counter sue me for the money for the wedding. The judge agreed with me that because I knew nothing about it, then I wasn’t responsible for her irrational planning of the wedding.
However, she did have to pay me for the things she destroyed. ”
“Wow, and the third woman?”
Both men shook their heads and after they sighed heavily, they were quiet for several miles before Shay spoke.
“When I got the call about the accident, that involved Tony and Marcia getting hurt, I told no one outside the military who didn’t need to know.
Once Jacobs and Ramos were taken to the hospital, and I arrived to get everyone’s statements then waited for the doctors to tell me what condition they were in.
It took two days to get everything sorted out, and when I felt comfortable in my own skin about what had happened, I contacted the girl Tony was dating.
Hell, I can’t even remember her name now. ”
“Anna,” Tony said through gritted teeth.
Staci reached up and put a soothing hand on his shoulder, and nodded when he reached up and touched it with one of his. “What happened?” she whispered.
“I was in a coma, so I have no clue.”
“She showed up three days after I called her, and I told her what was up, at least what I could. She waited until she got the news about your prognosis from the doctor, then turned to me and I quote, ‘I’m not dealing with this shit, I’m out of here.
’ She turned on her heel and walked out, that was the last anyone heard from her. ”
The three occupants in the truck were silent as they completed their journey to the airport, and as Tony swung his truck over to the curb to let Shay out, the other man hopped out, helped Staci from the back, but before he let her into the front seat, he hugged her, but whispered, “Hurt him, and you’ll have me to deal with. ”
“I understand,” she whispered back as she hugged him. “But I won’t.”
“Good, and if he hurts you, contact me.”
Staci hugged him again, laughed, and climbed into the front seat. “I can’t wait until you come back and we can get to know you better. I know you know Tony, but not on a personal level.”
“I look forward to it. I’ve already talked with Erin and I should be back here in six weeks.”
Tony had hopped out and gave him a bro hug, and shook his hand.
“I’m looking forward to it.” They watched Shay grab his pack and enter the terminal, then Tony hopped behind the wheel and they made their way out of the airport.
Neither said a word until Tony pulled into a hotel parking lot, and turned to her, without shutting off the truck.
“What do you think about getting a room, since we have today and tomorrow off. Go out to a nice restaurant for dinner, then get to know each other better without anyone judging us back home.”
“One, I don’t think they would judge us.
Two, I don’t have any extra clothes with me, and three,” she paused and turned to him.
“Why do we have to go out to dinner?” She looked over her shoulder at the hotel, then back at him.
“This establishment looks like it would have room service.” She laughed as he lunged, and laughed harder when his seatbelt prevented him from reaching her.