A Soldier's Song Read online

Aria took two steps into the living room then stopped, twisted, and crossed a finger to her lips. “Shh.” She pointed.

  Eyes closed, mouth slightly open, Dex’s grandfather slept peacefully in his recliner—apparently warm and cozy, stomach full, with all of his needs met. The tranquility of the scene made Aria’s heart melt.

  “He usually naps after lunch.” Close, his body brushing her back, the heat of Dex’s whisper teased her cheek and ear.

  The pleasant sensation tingled her skin.

  Taking her arm in a soft grasp, he backtracked with her into the kitchen. “Now’s probably a good time for a walk.”

  “Yes, let’s.” She looked forward to having Dex all to herself.

  “I’ll get our coats, and we’ll leave through the back door. It’ll save Pop from the cold blast he’d get if we went out the front.”

  Quietly, Dex crossed the living room, retrieved their coats, and came back to the kitchen. They bundled up and went outside.

  “Let’s go this way.” Dex pointed the way with an open hand. “There’s a path through the woods I think you’ll like. Plus, if the wind kicks up, the trees will block some of it.”

  “Sounds good. I’ve been looking forward to this since you suggested it last night.”

  “Really?” Her admission seemed to please him. “Me too.”

  Aria traded smiles with Dex as they passed a red, gambrel-roofed barn. Walking side by side, they crossed a small clearing and entered the woods. Wide enough for a small vehicle, the trail snaked through evergreens and leafless trees, and up a gentle slope.

  “It’s beautiful here. I can see why you thought I would like it. Listen.” Lifting a hand, Aria signaled Dex to stop. She closed her eyes. “I have to try hard to hear anything other than my own breathing and the rustling of my coat and scarf when I move around.”

  “I know. I’ve always appreciated the silence of the woods.” His voice came from directly in front of her.

  She opened her eyes. Dex stood before her, his gaze steadfast on her face, his lips upturned in a tiny smile. How nicely she had fit against his strong, masculine physique when they’d danced last night. And now, with no music to make it appropriate, touching him in any way would be out of the question.

  “Are you studying me, Sergeant?” His military title rolled off her tongue without a second thought.

  “Yes, unashamedly, and I don’t mind saying that I find you fascinating.”

  “Fascinating?” Billowy breath clouds puffed and vanished with her little laugh. “How so?”

  “You’re the perfect blend of both your parents. When I look at you, I see your mother’s beautiful, feminine features—same shape face, mouth, nose, and eyes. But you’ve got your father’s Sicilian coloration—brown eyes, dark curly hair, and even his skin tone. I bet you turn golden tan with the first kiss of summer sun.”

  “You’re right. I tan very easily.” She could listen to his generous assessment all day.

  “Another thing is your musical abilities. Anyone can be born with a measure of talent. But the level you’ve achieved takes hard work and perseverance. Those are things I understand. You, maestro, are among the elite, the Special Forces of the musical world. And I can’t help but admire you for it.”

  “I don’t think anyone’s ever said anything that nice to me before. I-I don’t quite know what to say.” She dabbed the corners of her eyes before tears could fall. “Thank you.”

  Frigid air nipped her fingers. She blew into cupped hands then rubbed her palms together.

  “You look cold. Do you want to go back to the house?” Dex’s brows pinched with concern.

  “No, I’m fine except for my hands. I seem to have misplaced my gloves. Maybe I left them in my other coat. It’s okay though. I’ll just stick my hands in my pockets.”

  “I’ve got a better idea.” Dex took off his right glove. “Here, you take this one and we’ll share.”

  “Share? But—”

  “Trust me.”

  “Okay.” The glove dwarfed her hand, but its warmth instantly took the sting out of her fingers. “Wow, it’s nice and toasty in here.”

  “Good.” He swung into position beside her and slipped his bare hand around hers. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  His touch comforted and thrilled at the same time. “No, I don’t mind. After all, we held each other’s hand half of last night while we danced, didn’t we?”

  “That’s true. We did.” Smiling, he shoved their joined hands into his coat pocket. “There you go. We’ll keep each other warm.” With a little tug, he started them down the path again.

  “You’ve got a kind heart, Dex. I love the way you care for your grandfather, making him meals, spending time with him, and even bringing me here so he’d have more company. That was very thoughtful of you.”

  “Pop has always been good to me. I owe him more than I could ever repay.”

  She added gratefulness to the mental list of Dex’s many attributes. “Thank you for inviting me here today.”

  “Thank you for accepting.” Dex caressed her hand inside his pocket and spread warmth to the recesses of her soul.

  Chapter 6

  Dex ambled along the path under a cloudless sky with Aria. The gushing compliments he’d paid her minutes ago had come naturally and without forethought. Words flowed from somewhere in the center of his being where pure honesty still had a stronghold. Everything he’d said was the unembellished truth and nothing like the flattery Edward had flippantly insinuated Dex doled out like candy.

  Aria exuded contentment as she walked beside him looking from one side of the scenic woods to the other. A nip in the air made her cheeks rosy and nose slightly red, but if below-freezing temperatures bothered her at all, he couldn’t tell by the way she smiled whenever their eyes met.

  She pulled her puffy blue-and-white scarf up around her earlobes. The empty fingertips of the glove he’d loaned her bent backward as she pinched and pulled the fabric. “What time is your flight tomorrow?”

  “Around four. I’ll check in online and download the boarding pass to my phone in the morning then shoot for getting to the airport at two. That’ll give me time to return the rental car and have a snack before boarding the plane.”

  “Will you be on the same flight as my father?”

  “Yeah, we had the same itinerary coming and going. He gave me a lift to the airport in Fayetteville, and he’ll give me a ride home when we get back. I offered to pick him up tomorrow, but he said your mom would take him to the airport. Said he didn’t want to leave as early as I needed to, but I think he just enjoys his traditional curbside kiss. Can’t blame him for that.”

  Aria rolled her eyes and shook her head. “That sounds like my parents all right. Always looking for an excuse for some canoodling.”

  Greco had it made—hot, devoted wife, a family that loved him, and a place to call home. A guy would have to have rocks for brains not to want that kind of life.

  “Wow, would you look at that.” Dex snugged his grip on Aria’s hand inside his coat pocket and led her a few feet into the woods. A silvery blue tint set an almost perfectly shaped evergreen apart from its neighboring trees. He circled it with Aria. “That’d make a great Christmas tree for Pop’s living room, wouldn’t you say?”

  “It’s gorgeous. What kind of tree is it?”

  “Blue spruce. He asked me to keep an eye out for one. Doesn’t look like it’ll need much trimming either.” He moved closer to it. “I’m six-one, and this is only a few inches taller. It’s the perfect size for the house. Won’t hit the ceiling even when propped in the tree stand with a star on top. I’ll come back and get it tomorrow morning.”

  “Why not today? I’d be glad to help you take it down and decorate it.” Childlike excitement beamed from Aria’s happy face.

  “Are you sure? I didn’t bring you here to put you to
work.”

  “Putting up a Christmas tree isn’t work.” A laugh bubbled out of her. “It’s pure, unadulterated fun that always makes me feel like a kid all over again. I love it.”

  Climbing over things in the cluttered attic to look for boxes of ornaments wasn’t something he was looking forward to, but if it boosted Pop’s holiday spirit, it would be worth every dust-breathing moment. Aria’s infectious enthusiasm spurred his desire to do it even more.

  “Okay, you win, but first let’s walk a little farther. Afterward, we’ll go get the four-wheeler from the barn and come back for the tree.”

  * * * *

  Aria didn’t want to think of Dex getting on a plane tomorrow, or any other day for that matter. How on earth did her mother manage to keep her sanity after saying goodbye to her dad over and over for so many years? It boggled her mind. Here, she’d only known Dex one day and already didn’t want him to go. Goodbye. What a sad, deflating word.

  * * * *

  “Turn here.” Dex nudged Aria onto a narrower trail that veered off to the right. “I want to show you a special place. It’s not far, and we’ll come back to the main path in a little while.”

  Happily and without complaint, Aria scrunched closer to him and away from the encroaching brush.

  The path ended after a quarter of a mile and dumped into an open field with a scattering of weeds and low-lying shrubbery. Dex guided Aria a few steps into the expanse. “Here we are.”

  “Oooh-kay.” Aria’s slow, one-eighty-degree look-around ended with a questioning look directed toward Dex. “This is a rather nondescript field. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that it’s not so much the place that’s special, but something that happened here that makes it so. Am I right?”

  “Yup, and over there is the exact spot.” The two-foot-high pile of rocks he’d stacked as a marker stood undisturbed by time with bits of wind-driven leaves and dried grass wedged in its crevices. “Funny how being here makes the memories seem so vivid. It’s as if—”

  Mingled scents passed as quickly as a flashing thought. Gun-cleaning fluid, oil, gunpowder. If he were blindfolded, he would swear they were real.

  “Dex?” Aria bumped his shoulder and looked up at him. “For a moment you looked as though you were a million miles away.”

  “More like fifteen years away. I was ten, and it was the first of several summers I spent with my grandparents. After being with them a few days, Pop saw how depressed I was and took me for a ride on the four-wheeler. See that jagged rock jutting out of the ground over there by the stand of paper birches?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s where we came in. There’s a wider path beyond the rock. Can’t see it from this angle. Pop drove into the middle of the field, stopped the engine, and popped open a box he’d strapped on the back of the four-wheeler. Inside were old plastic milk jugs, an empty bleach bottle, and a bunch of cans and boxes. Looked like he’d brought a week’s worth of garbage with us.”

  “Whatever for? Was he going to dump it out there?”

  “That’s what I thought.” The memory made him laugh. “When I asked why he’d brought the trash out here, all he said was, ‘You’ll see.’ Then he started lining up the bigger stuff a few feet apart on the ground and propping cans on a couple of nearby stumps. When the box was empty, we drove over here and—”

  “Excuse me.” Aria lifted her hand to interrupt. “Can I ask a question before you go on?”

  “Sure.”

  “You grew up in this area, didn’t you?”

  “Twenty minutes, that way”—he pointed—“and I’m sure you’re wondering why I would spend my summers here when my family lived so close.”

  “It does seem odd. If you’d lived in the city or somewhere far away, it would make more sense. Another thing is, you haven’t mentioned any brothers or sisters, so I’m wondering—”

  “If they came too? No, they stayed home with Mom and Dad. Annie’s three years older than me, and Mike is older by seven years. They were teenagers then and didn’t demand any time from my parents. All they wanted to do was hang out with friends. Me? I wanted my dad to play catch, go to my Little League games, and do guy stuff with me.”

  I’m too busy, Jason. Maybe later. His father’s standard answer, no matter the question. But later never came, and Dex’s reminders earned sharp, painful rebukes. He learned it was better not to ask.

  “My father is a high-profile lawyer, and at that time he was in the middle of a huge case. We didn’t see much of him, but when he did come home from the office, all he and my mother did was argue. I realize now that he was under a lot of stress. Defending mobsters who were guilty as sin was taking a big toll on him, but he didn’t have a choice. I know that now, but back then it just felt like my dad didn’t care about me.”

  Aria rubbed his forearm with her gloved hand, her expression consolatory. “And that’s why you were depressed?”

  “Yeah, but here’s where the story takes a turn and heads toward a happy ending. Actually changed the course of my life.”

  “Good, I love those.”

  “Pop grabbed a bolt action hunting rifle from a rack on the four-wheeler, shouldered it, and blew one of the soup cans off a stump. The report made me jump, but then adrenaline shot through my veins and I was amped to the max. He asked if I wanted to shoot. I said, ‘Heck yeah,’ then listened while he gave me a crash course on gun safety.”

  Dex pulled his hand out of his pocket and let go of Aria. “Pop showed me the proper stance for shooting, how to hold and fire the weapon, and line up the target in the scope.”

  He mimed a rifle to his shoulder. “A Clorox bottle sat dead center in my crosshairs. I sensed my grandfather leaning close. He whispered, ‘exhaaale,’ then, ‘squeeeze.’ I fired. Crack! Recoil rammed the butt into my shoulder. The bleach bottle jumped and fell on its side.” Dex lowered his imaginary weapon. “At that moment I was hooked on shooting.”

  “And look how far you’ve come since then.” The look on Aria’s face could only be described as pride.

  “We shot the rifle plus a shotgun he’d brought until we ran out of ammo. After we cleaned up the trash, bullet and shell casings, and it was time to leave, I told Pop I wanted to walk home instead of riding in the four-wheeler. When he was out of sight, I piled up those rocks so I’d never forget the spot.”

  Aria squatted and picked up a baseball-size rock off the top of the pile. She held it for a few reflective moments, rubbed her thumb across it then put it back. “No wonder this place means so much to you.”

  Dex pulled Aria to her feet and shoved their hands into his pocket again. Judging by her coy, upturned lips, she didn’t mind. Bringing Aria to his personal field of dreams made it all the more special.

  * * * *

  “It’s a little crooked, don’t you think?” Aria took another step back from the Christmas tree she and Dex had set up and decorated in the corner of the living room. “It’s leaning just a tad to the—”

  Dex came up behind her, grabbed and tipped her head to the right. “There, is that better?”

  His silliness made her laugh. “So you’re saying the tree is fine, but my head is put on crooked?”

  “Could be.” Dex brushed past her, looked back, and winked. “I’ll fix it. You just stand there and tell me when it’s straight.” With one foot on the tree stand, Dex jarred the tree upright with a shove.

  “Perfect. Let’s see what it looks like all lit up.”

  “Okay, here goes.” Dex turned on the power strip where everything was plugged in.

  Twinkly lights cast a colorful display on the tree’s silver-blue needles. Glass bulbs reflected the rainbow array. The shining star topping the highest bough almost made Aria burst out in song. “It’s beautiful! Come stand over here where you can see it better.”

  Stepping over empty ornament boxes, Dex sidled up
next to her. “You’re right, it’s a work of art. I think you and I make a great team.” He offered a gimme-five hand, and Aria gave it a slap.

  Pop carried an empty cardboard box and started collecting the smaller ones that had held the decorations. “Maybe we can get Aria to play some Christmas music while you and I clean up. What do you think, Jase?” He seemed to aim his question at Aria more than Dex.

  “I’d be glad to.” Aria didn’t need a second invitation. She pulled out the piano bench, sat, and played “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” the first song that popped into her mind.

  Dex paused from his task of plucking stray tinsel from the carpet and locked gazes with her for a few memorable seconds. She hoped his barely there smile meant he would do his best to be home for Christmas—for real—and not only in her dreams.

  * * * *

  Wood crackled in the fireplace and lights from the Christmas tree flashed random colors on the nearby walls and carpet—a perfect setting for sitting with a pretty girl and enjoying her company. “Are you ready to play your song for me?”

  Aria sat with shoes kicked off and legs coiled on the couch facing him. “I wouldn’t want to disturb your grandfather.” Her gaze turned upward as if she could see Pop upstairs where he’d retreated to watch TV after a simple dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.

  “It won’t disturb him. He likes to watch TV wearing stereo headsets. Says it makes him feel like he’s in the movies.” He rose and offered a hand.

  “All right.” Aria let him pull her up. “You’re sure it won’t bother Pop?”

  “Positive.” Dex brought her to the piano and sat next to her on the bench. “I’m not crowding you, am I?”

  “No, not at all.”

  “Play it straight through, if you would, so I can take it all in. I haven’t heard it from beginning to end yet.”

  “Sure, I can do that.”

  Aria played with as much passion as she had in the chapel. Minutes later, the music came to a soft and soothing end. She lifted her fingers with grace and lowered her hands to her lap as if she’d just given a stage performance.