Flashes of everything came back all at once and I inhaled, looking between the kids in front of me, both of them pieces of his past.“Let’s go find out.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
LEE
Present Day
After the meetings ended on Friday afternoon, we scattered off in separate directions.A few guys rushed to catch flights home but there were still four of us who had later departures and I wasn’t leaving until tomorrow morning.We decided to go back to The Pub for a late lunch, still in our flight suits and starving because we hadn’t had anything since 9’oclock this morning.Since it was nice out, we sat outside at a patio table.We watched as locals scurried about their daily errands, going in and out of the small businesses in the town square.
Okay fate, if you were ever going to play a part in this, now is the time.I look around me and laugh at myself.I don’t know who I was kidding, there’s no such thing as fate and I’m not going to just run into my long lost love.It was a ridiculous thought.
Egin taps me on the arm when he hears my song playing over the restaurant’s outdoor speakers and Davis asks if they could turn it up.He tells the waitress that I wrote this song, and she looks over at me with wide eyes, “No Way!Are you serious?”Heat rises to my face, and I can feel my cheeks redden as I smile at her and shrug my shoulders with a nod.She turns up the volume and gives us a thumbs up as she darts away to clear an empty table.
I’m caught up in the moment, the guys are singing the song and laughing, and I start singing it along with them until somethingno, someone,caught my eye.
AND
I’M
SLAMMED
A waitress from The Pub stops a woman on the sidewalk right outside the roped off section of our patio area.I can just barely hear their conversation.I’m watching them, leaning in further and listen: the waitress tells her she wants to make an appointment to discuss a renovation on her house when she has time.The woman nods and lets her know she’ll be back in the office next week.Then she glances quickly over at our table and back to the waitress.She asks what’s the occasion; why are there military guys out here.The waitress tells her we’re a group of guys here on business in the city, that we just finished with our meetings and got together for lunch and drinks before heading to the airport.
It can’t really be her, can it?She has the same look about her as Ellie did and I could be mistaken, but I think it might actually be her!
They finish talking and my eyes follow the woman to a shop that’s next door to where we’re seated.She unlocks the door and walks in, the closed sign swaying as it clicks shut.
I stop the waitress, grabbing her wrist, and she’s startled.I let go quickly and say, “I’m sorry, but do you know the woman’s name that you were just talking to?”
The shock dissipates, and she smiles, looking back at the shop.“Yeah, everyone knows Ellie Michaels, she’s pretty big in our small town.”
I knock over my beer but pick it up before it spills.“I’m sorry, excuse me.”I jump out of my chair and Egin catches my arm.
“Dude, you okay?What has you spooked all of a sudden?”
“It’s her."I tell him and he lets go of my arm.
“Her, her?The song her?”I nod.“Well don’t just stand there, go!”
I jog over to the shop door and without hesitation, open it and walk right in.The door chimes and I hear her from the back of the shop,
“I’m sorry, we’re closed.”
I followed the direction of her voice and pushed through a warehouse door, stopping in my tracks as she turned to face me.
Like two stars in the summer night
Lost on their own, but shining bright
Together once more, in boundless flight
Our eyes locked and there was nothing else.She gasped and backed up into a table of lamps, knocking one over as it shattered on the concrete floor.I took a step toward her, and she shook her head, tears already streaming down her face.She removed the hand from her mouth and exhaled; my name was a whisper from her lips, “Lee?”
“Ellie Belly.”I smiled and she rushed into my arms, sobbing, and shaking.I held her, breathing in the scent of her – she still smelled like watermelon and summer.God, it’s her, it’s really her!
“How?Is this real?Are you real?”she pulled away from me, keeping her arms locked around my neck.My hands gripped her waist, and my legs shook, threatening to give out from the volume of blood coursing through my body as my heart pounded.
“It’s real, Ellie.God, you’re real.I’m here.I found you!”My hand brushed the hair away from her eyes and I let my thumb graze her cheek.Her hand came up and pressed over mine, against her cheek and she closed her eyes.I leaned my forehead into hers and she looked up at me.The emotions flooded and her lips met mine, soft at first then hard and messy with need.We kissed and pushed and pulled against each other as if there hadn’t just been eighteen years between this moment and the last time our lips had touched.
