Worth The Wait (A Military Romance Book 2) Read online

  Worth The Wait

  Phoebe Winters

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Epilogue

  Wait No More

  Note from the Publisher: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead or references to locations, persons, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters, circumstances and events are imaginative and not intended to reflect real events.

  Worth the Wait

  A Military Romance

  Copyright 2018 Phoebe Winters

  A Touch of Love Publishing

  All Rights Reserved and Proprietary.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or format, without written permission from Author. Send all requests via email [email protected].

  This book is dedicated to the men/women who serve in our military and their families. May you find peace in every aspect of your lives.

  1

  “Who is she?”

  Amy Van Winkle stared at her longtime boyfriend Luke Sutter as a heart-breaking tremor slipped throughout her.

  Luke dropped the duffle bag in his hand and it hit the floor with a heavy thud.

  “She is no one,” Luke said.

  His response made Amy uncomfortable because she knew it wasn’t the truth. Why would he lie now? What was the purpose?

  “What are you keeping from me, Luke?”

  Luke closed the minor distance between them and slipped both burly hands up the sides of Amy’s face. Her skin was smooth to the touch and her eyes shut as she inhaled his gentle brush.

  “She’s just a friend, nothing more. You, are my everything.”

  Amy stared into his crystal blue eyes trying to gauge if he were being deceptive. Her heart was still in overdrive from the fiasco at the airport.

  Amy had shown up an hour before Luke’s plane was scheduled to touch down, and upon her arrival, a few others also sat and waited. Every scenario in which their reunion could go slipped through her mind, but nothing prepared her for what actually happened. Amy stood on her toes with a smile tapered across her face and her stomach in knots. She was dressed in a light blue summer dress that hugged her midsection and flared over the curve in her hips. That was saying a lot since Amy was tomboyish by nature. Growing up, she liked to hang out with the boys more than the girls. There had been times when her best friends, Erin Sanders and Mariah James, complained about Amy’s desertion. But today, she’d put that to the side just for the sake of making an impression on her boyfriend.

  Even her hair was dressed in a bounty of curls as the golden strands wrapped around each other and bounced on her shoulders. She counted down every day, minute, and hour that she and Luke were apart. So being in this moment was the surrealist of them all. Then it happened. The passengers began to file off the plane and move to grab their luggage.

  Luke was the sixth person out. Yes, Amy counted that, too. And seeing the ripples in his shoulders and bulges in his biceps sent a flutter of butterflies storming her stomach. Luke was far removed from the thin teenage boy Amy once knew. His dirty blonde hair was cut to the shape of his head and an army fatigue jacket spanned the length of his arms. From the few feet away, Amy could tell his facial features had grown into their own, appearing sharp and defined on his handsome face.

  A smile developed on Amy’s lips and the beat of her heart became a rapid cluster of excitement. After retrieving his luggage, Luke glanced over and immediately their eyes locked. A gorgeous smile laced his lips and Amy’s feet moved in his direction. Quickly, she shuffled closer, with her heart racing and excitement building within her, but before she made it to him, someone else caught his attention. When Luke’s gaze shifted, so did Amy’s. Her feet slowed before coming to a halt, and from her current position, Amy only had a look at the back of a brunette. The shoulder-length straight strands of her hair caressed the back of the woman’s shoulders, and the halter-top dress was constricted against her body all the way down to an inch below her ass.

  She moved to stand in front of Luke, closer than Amy liked, and her upturned face hovered just under him as she leaned further to get closer. Luke’s expression didn’t show his surprise. If he was, Amy had a hard time detecting it. The woman threw her arms around his shoulders with excited glee and jumped as if she’d been waiting for him to come home.

  Amy’s heart practically stopped, and her stomach tightened as if she’d been punched in the gut. Who was this woman hugging her man as if they were the couple and not Amy and Luke?

  Luke spoke a few words to the woman and politely removed her arms from his neck, but the girl couldn’t take a hint. She folded her arms behind her and lifted on the heel of her toes to whisper something in his ear. Their conversation went back and forth in hushed tones for a full sixty seconds. Felt like an hour to Amy, but she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that whoever the woman was, she felt strong enough about Luke to know when he would be home and to greet him as if they were long lost lovers.

  Amy was so confused that she went into a trance. A second passed when she noticed Luke walking toward her and with him came a tunnel of emotions. Anger, bewilderment, happiness, it spiraled around her, but the excitement she felt was doused, and in its place, uncertainty gripped her.

  “Hey, you,” he said getting so close she could smell the aftershave from his morning trim.

  Amy opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. Instead she pushed out a breath and blinked before refocusing her thoughts.

  “Hey,” she responded. Her confusion pushed to the side for a moment and Amy remembered why they were there. “It’s so good to have you home.”

  Luke’s face brightened as he stared back into Amy’s blue eyes. “It’s good to be here, with you.”

  Amy cleared her throat and her eyes scurried over to the woman who stood in the background with a smirk on her face. “Are you sure?” She couldn’t help herself. It was hard to pretend that what just happened in front of her didn’t affect her.

  “Baby.” Luke slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. “It’s not what you think.”

  “Yeah, well what do I think, Luke?”

  Amy didn’t wait for him to respond; her heart was crushed. She wiggled out of his arms then pivoted on her heels and walked away from him headed for the exit. It didn’t take much for Luke to catch up.

  “Please,” he said wrapping a lone arm around her waist and pulling her into his chest. “Let me explain.”

  Thirty minutes later they were at her condo downtown and Amy didn’t know how to feel.

  “Do you know how that sounds? We’re just friends? Since when did she become a friend?”

  “Baby, we’ve been friends since high school.”

  That made Amy’s mind run a facial recognition scan through her mind of all the girls she knew from high school. The problem was, Amy never saw the details of the woman’s face because she was so far away, so she could be anyone.

  “So, this entire time, you’ve been talking to her?”

  “It’s not what you think.”

  Amy shook her head. “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why did you need to talk to her when you have me?”

  “You weren’t always there,” he said.

  Amy’s brows stretched, and her mouth parted on a gasp. She took a step back just as Luke
pulled in and blew out a regretful breath.

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” he said reaching out to pull her back in, but Amy evaded him.

  On a twirl and without another word, Amy stepped past him and headed for the door.

  “Where are you going?”

  Amy didn’t stop her exit, and instead of responding, she grabbed her purse from the table and slammed the door on her way out.

  2

  “Shit.”

  Luke went after her, but Amy’s frustration put her into overdrive so by the time Luke made it to the hallway, Amy was already in the elevator. The doors began to close.

  “Amy!”

  She stared him off, swiping a tear that threatened to fall and letting the doors close just as he approached.

  “Damn it,” Luke said banging a fist on the elevator’s doors.

  He braced his hand on his hips and hung his head for a moment; frustration seeping from his pores. When he went off to the army, Luke’s entire world changed, and staying connected to civilian life was one of the things he wanted the most. And even though he initially had no plans to spark up a close friendship with Jessica, she’d inadvertently been available at times Amy wasn’t. That didn’t make his situation better and now Luke had to figure out how to fix things between he and Amy.

  “Shit!” he cursed again.

  She had to come back at some point, right? After all, this was her place. Luke strolled back to her apartment and went inside. First things first, he needed to get a cell phone and find out where Amy had gone.

  Amy pulled to the side of the road and reached into her glove compartment for some loose tissue.

  “Damn it, Amy, don’t you dare cry,” she scolded, trying to keep up her hard pretense. She sucked in a deep breath and dabbed the tissue at the corner of her eyes, then checked her reflection in the rearview mirror. Almond shaped eyes stared back. “You’re over exaggerating,” she said to herself.

  But she couldn’t stop the feeling of betrayal coursing through her veins. You weren’t always there. Amy shook her head. What the hell was he talking about? When was she not there? The tempo sounds of Ariana Grande sang from her cell phone, snapping Amy out of her thoughts. She stuck her hand inside her purse and fished for the smart device. But by the time she found it, it had stopped ringing. It was just as well, Amy didn’t feel like talking to anyone. She was having a hard enough time keeping up with her own thoughts. Amy didn’t bother to look at her caller ID, opting to slip the phone back inside her bag. However, no sooner then the idea crossed her, the phone rang again.

  She pushed out a breath and answered before the end of the second ring.

  “Yes,” she almost snapped.

  “Hey Amy, this is Erin, is everything okay?”

  Amy shut her eyes momentarily then reopened them. “I’m fine, what’s up?”

  “I thought you would sound more excited! I know today was the day you’ve been waiting for.” There was a smile in Erin’s voice. Amy and Erin had made plans to do a double date tonight, to welcome Luke home, and afterward Luke would belong to Amy for the next few days. But now, that plan seemed out of the question. Erin waited for her friend’s excited squeal but when it didn’t come, Erin frowned and switched the phone’s receiver from one ear to the other.

  “Amy?”

  “It’s not happening,” Amy said.

  The phone became quiet again as they both took in those words.

  “Why?”

  “Apparently, Luke has been…” her voice trailed off.

  “Has been what?” Erin’s voice was amped now and Amy knew at any second, Erin would put the pieces together.

  “He’s been talking to someone else.” Amy’s sadness turned into madness. All of the waiting and anticipating. All of her hopes, and dreams, of starting a family when Luke returned seemed all for naught. The fear Amy experienced, wondering if he would become a casualty of war, only to find out, he’d found comfort with someone else. Her head ached, and a wave of nausea hit her hard. Luke was her life. Besides, her Uncle Charley who’d raised her, and the only two people she considered real friends, Erin and Mariah, Luke was it; her heart. Quickly, Amy fumbled for the doorknob and opened it, leaning over to regurgitate her breakfast.

  “Amy!” Erin shouted.

  Amy swept her hair to the side and spat out the remnants left on her lips. She pulled herself back against the seat breathing erratically. “Hold on,” she said going back to the glove compartment for more tissues.

  “Where are you?”

  Amy shut the compartment and dabbed at her lips.

  “On the side of I-75,” she said.

  “I’m coming to get you.”

  “That’s not necessary, I was on my way to your house anyway.”

  Erin felt relieved to know that. Clearly there was something wrong with her friend and the sooner she found out the sooner Erin could help her friend in any way. Amy shut the door and put the phone on Bluetooth, so the call would come through her cars internal speakers.

  “Is Caleb there?” Amy asked. Caleb Malone was Erin’s fiancé. They’d gotten engaged only a few weeks after Caleb returned from Iraq. Their story was almost like a fairytale, except it didn’t start out pretty. Caleb and Erin had plans to marry after high school, but unbeknownst to Erin, Caleb made the decision to enroll in the United States Army without telling her. She’d found out the hard way, and their relationship was rocky until finally one day, Caleb walked away from Erin completely. It had been hard for Amy to watch her friend suffer such heartache, and when Caleb returned, Amy practically threatened to cut his balls off if he even thought about hurting her friend again. But gladly, Caleb admitted his mistakes and did everything he possibly could to get his girl back.

  Now here Amy was on the wrong side of love. Luke had never given Amy a reason not to trust him, until today, and that made her so sick to her stomach she almost pulled the car over again to throw up.

  “No, he’s not here,” Erin said. “How long do you think it will be before you arrive?”

  “Any minute now.”

  The two quieted down as Amy meandered through the streets of Pensacola. The brightness of the sunny day taunted her, since everything about her day felt gloomy.

  “It should be a thunderstorm in the sky right now,” Amy said.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  Amy exited the highway and passed a gas station two blocks from Amy’s house. “Do you need anything from the gas station?”

  Erin frowned. “No, and neither do you.”

  Amy arched a brow. “How do you know what I need? How does anybody?” she added.

  “Look, I don’t know what Luke’s done, but please don’t stop at that store.”

  Amy bit down on her jaw. The last time she smoked a cigarette was sophomore year. It was the popular thing to do then, and Erin begged Amy to give up the bad habit, always shouting statistics on why smoking was bad for your health. Dropping the habit wasn’t as easy as Amy made it look. For weeks she chewed bubble gum until her jaws finally tired and gave up the exercise. Still, while Luke was on active duty, there were times when his phone call didn’t come in on the day and hour they’d scheduled, and Amy threatened to light up a cigarette every time. Erin would literally have to wrestle her down and remind Amy how far she’d come.

  “Don’t make me drive to the station, because I will tackle you in front of everyone,” Erin warned.

  That threat made Amy smile before mocking Erin with a silent mimic.

  “I’m not stopping, I’m pulling into your driveway now.”

  A few seconds later, Erin’s front door opened as Amy put the car in park. Amy let out a sigh and left her vehicle for the front porch. Erin held the door open for her, but still had the phone against her ear.

  “You know you can hang up the phone now,” Amy said stepping into the house.

  Erin dropped the phone and closed the door behind Amy. “What happened,” she asked getting straight to the point.


  Amy inhaled and exhaled a deep breath then slinked down the short hallway into the living room to plop in Erin’s wingback chair.

  “I think Luke is talking to someone else.”

  Erin frowned. “You think?”

  Amy ran off the details, telling Erin what happened at the airport and the short conversation they had at her condo.

  “So, you left him at your place?”

  “Sure did. I couldn’t figure out whether to punch him in his face or hear him out.”

  Erin cleared her throat. “I’m glad you didn’t resort to violence, but I understand.”

  “Do you? Because I feel like violence may be the way to go in this instance.” Amy paused. “I mean, I don’t know what to do now. How long have I been waiting for him?”

  Erin pretended to countdown making a show of it with her fingers.

  “Exactly!” Amy said. “We didn’t even get the chance to enjoy our reunion. I don’t know if we should be.” Amy turned her head and stared out of the windowpane. “This is not supposed to be happening.”

  “Okay, calm down for just a minute,” Erin said.

  Amy turned back to her.

  “Maybe this isn’t something to be bothered about. You talked to other guys while Luke was away, right?”

  “Name one,” Amy returned.

  Erin snapped her fingers. “There’s Dex.”

  Amy scoffed. “Seriously Erin, he’s the bouncer. I can hardly avoid talking to him since I run the bar and he runs the door at your nightclub. Is that supposed to be a joke? You know what I mean when I say he’s talking to her. Yes, I’ve talked to other guys in passing conversation but just to call them up and see how they are, no, I haven’t.”

  Erin sighed heavily. “So, you don’t believe him, then?”