Chapter 25 The Backlash
THE BACKLASH
ZEKE
Despite Marla’s insistence, I slept on the couch rather than her room. It wouldn’t feel right to take the bed of a woman kind enough to host me.
Not that I really got much sleeping done.
A current of awareness ran through me like a livewire all night knowing that Maggie, my girlfriend, slept only a room away.
While I had been horrified when Marla warned us off from any physical activity, I couldn’t stop the raging hormones that screamed at me to have Maggie do that thing with her tongue again on my cock.
Her anxiety that evening before dinner destroyed any chance I had of mentioning Spencer’s visit.
I didn’t want to burden her with something else when she opened up to me about her fears of us repeating her parents’ mistakes.
My girl didn’t need anymore on her plate.
But I desperately wanted to know why she owed Spencer money and what I needed to do to make the douchebag go away.
The last thing I wanted was for her to have a reason to keep talking to him.
As soon as my watch showed 0500 the next morning, I called it and went downstairs to start working on the bakery again. Keeping my hands busy helped distract me enough that all the swirling thoughts stopped.
Until my phone lit up with a text from General Leggett.
I KNOW YOU DIDN’T STAY IN THE BARRACKS LAST NIGHT. I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOUR INSOLENCE.
I clenched my phone so tight that I almost cracked the case. The Army had a right to tell me geographically where I had to live. Technically, as long as I wasn’t in some kind of trouble, they didn’t have the right to tell me I couldn’t sleep at my girlfriend’s house.
The swoop of joy and pride at referring to this as my “girlfriend’s house” was the only thing that made me calm enough to answer him.
I HAVEN’T DISOBEYED AN ORDER, SIR.
Leggett would make me pay for that statement in some fashion, but I hardly cared at the moment. I would tackle whatever extra duties or trainings he sent my way.
Barely ten minutes had gone by before I received another text, this time from Staff Sergeant Bridges.
WHY AM I RECEIVING AN ORDER FROM GENERAL LEGGETT FOR YOU TO PCS TO HUMPHREYS?
“Shit,” I muttered. I couldn’t stop staring at my phone, willing the words to disappear. A permanent change of station, or PCS, meant Leggett intended to send me away. In this case, I would be reassigned to Camp Humphreys…in South Korea.
“Hey! I wondered where you went!” Maggie breezed inside, her hair already curled and partially pinned up to reveal more of her face, a simple white shirt and jean shorts on. She held out a travel mug of coffee to me. “Just a dash of creamer, like you said you liked it.”
After several seconds of me not taking the mug or responding, her face fell. “What’s the matter? You look like someone just kicked a puppy right in front of you.”
It was my turn to open and close my mouth like a goldfish, like she had done in the truck yesterday. God, had it really only been one day of bliss with her?
“I have to go,” I mumbled. “I have to get to post and get something straightened out.”
Her brows furrowed in concern, but she nodded. “Okay. Just call me later? Or come back when you can?”
I hated how lost and uncertain she sounded. How everything between us was still too fresh and new for her to know I’d come back. Even if I had to fight my way through every soldier in my unit, I’d always find a way to come back to her.
Kissing her wasn’t optional, it was my life force. Despite her surprise, Maggie’s mouth instantly yielded to mine, her soft curves pressing into my chest. A chill went through me that I might not get to experience this every day.
“I’ll be back soon,” I promised. “It’s just a quick thing I’ve gotta take care of. Don’t worry.”
The drive to base wasn’t enough to calm my racing heart.
Soldiers from my unit glanced at me in alarm, having never seen me outside my uniform, as I stormed into Staff Sergeant Bridges’ office.
Though he sat there with two other non-commissioned officers from our unit, one look at my face and Bridges asked them to give us a moment.
“Please, sir, do not send me to South Korea.” Camp Humphreys was the largest military installation not on U.S.
soil. I always knew chances were high that I’d wind up stationed there at some point, but that was B.M.
—before Maggie. Now I needed to at least remain in the United States.
She would never be able to visit me overseas.
“Hayes, what do you want me to do? Refuse an order from the base general? No offense, but I don’t know you well enough to stick my neck out for you.” Bridges held up his hands in a placating gesture.
If I pushed back at Leggett myself, it would only make things worse. He could force me to stay in Korea until I fell back in line. I never stood up to him, not even as a kid.
“How soon am I to report?” I asked grimly. There was no point in fighting it. I knew when I enlisted that the Army owned me. I just never had a reason to care until now.
Bridges grimaced. “These are immediate orders. Once they’re pushed through, you have to be on a plane within twenty-four hours.”
Of course they were. Leggett meant this to be a punishment, not a warning.
How am I going to tell Maggie?
Picturing her angelic face this morning, full of hope and delight at something as simple as bringing me a cup of coffee, made my chest ache. Just last night I promised her that we would keep trying because I wasn’t going anywhere, and now I was headed to the other side of the world.
“Can…can you just buy me some time? A couple days, at least?” I asked.
The staff sergeant leaned back in his chair, considering.
I had never asked for anything and up until I went to sick call yesterday, I never missed anything.
I was the soldier everyone went to for help, to step up when everyone else stepped out.
My work ethic had saved Bridges’ ass more than once from getting chewed out from the higher ups.
“I’ll do what I can, Hayes, but you know I can’t hold onto this paperwork for long. Leggett is insisting that you leave immediately.”
“Any time you can give me will help, man. Thank you,” I said and offered my hand for him to shake.
Bridges leveled me with a firm look. “Whatever your issue is, you better go take care of it now, Hayes. The orders are coming, one way or another.”
I nodded in confirmation before sweeping out the door.
Even in the short time I’d spent there, River’s Run brought me more good memories than any other place I’d been.
I wasn’t ready to leave. Marla was counting on my help to get the bakery up and running.
The food at The Comfy Cushion really did taste best, and since I knew how important Celeste was to Maggie, I wanted to get to know her better, too.
River’s Run gave me a chance at belonging and I didn’t want to give that up.
I found Marla and Harry in the bakery when I pulled in. Neither one of them questioned what had to be a pained look on my face, but I noted how Marla’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. She told me to go up to the apartment to find Maggie.
Maggie stood at the kitchen table, a mannequin head on a stand in front of her and her laptop open to an instructional video. She had some sort of hair tool in her hand as she tried to replicate the hairstyle on the video to the mannequin. All of it was forgotten when she spotted me.
“Zeke, you’re home!” she squealed. Dropping the hair tool with a clunk, Maggie rounded the table and launched herself into my arms. I laughed as I scooped her up so that her tiny legs could wrap around my waist.
God, the way my heart wanted to burst at hearing my girl call this home…
“Listen, we need to talk. It’s really important,” I told her.
She peeled away from me, concern marring her face, and sat down on the couch, tugging on my hand so that I sat down next to her.
“Okay, you’re scaring me, Zeke. What is it?”
“I received orders to PCS,” I said.
She interrupted before I could continue. “I don’t speak Army-ese. What does that mean?”
I rolled my eyes, but grinned at her. “Some Army girlfriend you are, not even knowing the acronyms. A PCS is a ‘permanent change of station’ in the military. It basically means I have to move.”
Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. “Okay,” Maggie said slowly. “Is it far?”
A lump formed in my throat. “Yeah. It’s about as far away as I could go. They’re sending me to South Korea.”
“Oh my god!” Maggie sat up straighter. “You won’t even be in this country! How is that possible?!”
“The Army still has bases all over the world. I have to go wherever they send me.”
“So there’s nothing you can do?” she cried. “You don’t get a say?”
I shook my head.
“How come I don’t get a say? I’m a tax payer, right? Why can’t I say you get to stay here?” Maggie sounded frantic. Even filled with tears, her hazel eyes were so beautiful, darting around and yet seeing nothing as she scrambled for a solution.
Her logic made me chuckle. As much as I hated to leave her, I was glad to know the news shattered her world just as much as mine. “Nobody has any say in it, unfortunately. The Army can do whatever they want to me.”
“Then I’ll come with you,” she said resolutely. “I have no idea how I’ll make that happen, but goddamn it, Zeke, I don’t want this to be over already! We only just started dating! It isn’t fair!”
“Maggie, you can’t come with me. You wouldn’t have anywhere to live.” I hated to refuse her, especially when her determination for us to continue dating sounded like music to my ears. Maggie truly was invested in us. Whatever happened with Spencer really didn’t mean anything to her.
“I’d just live with you, dummy!” She rolled her eyes as if it were obvious.
I snorted. “You can’t live in the barracks with me. Not unless we were married, and even then they would make us stay in some kind of house or apartment set up.”
Maggie’s eyes widened as she stood up. “That’s the answer, Zeke. Let’s do it. Let’s get married.”
“Married?” I repeated like an idiotic parrot. I couldn’t tell if my heart stopped out of alarm, anxiety, or bliss. That animalistic beast inside roared at the idea of making Maggie my wife, having that permanent bond and claim over her.
But I also didn’t want Maggie and I to be another Army statistic.
It was as common as grass for a young, foolish couple to dive headfirst into marriage when one of them was in the Army.
Usually it came before or after a deployment when the soldier grappled the possibility of death or the relief of living.
If I married Maggie, I wanted it to be after years of getting to know her, and I wanted to do it the right way.
“Yes! Let’s get married! Today! Right now!” She bounced on the balls of her feet as if she were thrilled at the prospect.
I stood up to grab both her hands, squeezing them just enough to wake her up from whatever delusion she was having. “Maggie, you are talking about marrying me and moving to the other side of the world. That’s not a decision you make on the fly.”
“Then how else are we gonna see each other, Zeke?” Maggie challenged me.
“You said yourself that you threw up yesterday because you didn’t know when you’d get to see me again.
How are you gonna go to Korea not knowing?
” One of her carefully sculpted eyebrows rose in defiance, and she crossed her arms over her chest as if daring me to contradict her.
But I couldn’t shake the vision of seeing Maggie walk down the aisle towards me in a white ballgown, something shiny with sparkles like the first time I saw her. That was how this was supposed to happen, a good five or six years from now.
“If you marry me, Maggie Eaton, I’m never divorcing you. We do this, and we do it for life. Is that a gamble you really wanna take on the spur of the moment because I’m leaving?”
I thought for sure I stumped her. The way her eyes rounded and she took a half step back, I could sense the defeat in the air.
Then Maggie shocked me as she steeled herself, clenching her hands into fists at her side, and nodded firmly. She threw my own words right back at me. “Count me in.”