Chapter Thirty-One
brENT
The jet engines roared. Brent paced back and forth, watching for the bus that would bring any last-minute guests out to the flight line.
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, picked up his cap, and tugged at the top of his hair.
The morning sky was gray and dreary. The heavy clouds overhead felt like a thick, somber blanket, weighing him down in a holding pattern of uncertainty.
He longed to see a break in the clouds, just a sliver of sunlight peeking in. A glimmer of hope.
“Hey, man, are you waiting for someone?”
A thick southern accent interrupted his thoughts. Brent turned around to find another airman in a tan-colored flight suit identical to his. It was the uniform they’d be wearing for their desert deployment. He didn’t recognize the guy.
Brent gave him a wry smile. “Yeah, but I don’t think she’s coming.”
The airman gave him a nod of understanding. “I’m Will. I’m new to the squadron, and it looks like we’ll be crewmates and roommates on this deployment.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Brent.” He shook Will’s hand, then turned back around for another look out to the flight line.
“So who are you waiting for?”
Brent sighed. “I guess it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t look like she’s coming.”
Will folded his arms across his chest and turned his gaze in the same direction. He bowed his head. “I’m sorry, dude. I know goodbyes can be rough. I just kissed my wife and daughters goodbye for a year. I can’t believe it—my youngest is a baby. She’ll be a toddler when I return.”
Brent turned back to Will with a simple nod, a small gesture of solidarity. “I know this life can be hard on relationships.”
Will raised his chin to the sky. Then he turned to Brent and gave him a compassionate slap on the back of his shoulder. “It’ll all work out—if it’s meant to. I’ll see you on board.” He walked off toward the plane, leaving Brent alone with his thoughts.
He supposed Will was right. It was fate that would determine whether things worked out between him and Clara.
There wasn’t anything he could do about it himself, whether he liked it or not.
Brent could make checklists and plans until he was blue in the face, but at the end of the day, there were forces bigger than him that needed to work in their favor.
From the way things looked, they wouldn’t be working out at all.
She really hadn’t come. Brent supposed he shouldn’t have been too surprised.
He knew she had been freaked out by his bombshell news last night.
He knew she had been uncomfortable with the whole idea of a long-distance relationship.
Still, he sincerely believed they could have made it work.
He only wished she had thought so too. He shook his head in resignation.
Brent shuffled to the C-17 and loaded the last of his deployment gear onto the aircraft.
He turned around to take one more look for any late arrivals.
It was finally time to accept that Clara wasn’t coming.
He knew the separations of military life weren’t for everyone.
Brent stared off into the distance at nothing in particular, then gave a half-hearted shrug.
She just wasn’t willing to go through this.
Unfortunately for him, it was outside of his control.