“Good evening, Robin. Did you have a good day today?” I bend down and give Olivia a hug and kiss.

“I did! TeTe ‘Tatie made cookies with us! Here Momma,” she says as she thrusts a small plastic bag at me. “Tees for you.” The bright smile on her face is just the thing I need to see after a long day at work.

“Thank you, baby! We can have these for dessert after dinner.” I stand to my full height and grab her hand. “Thanks again guys for taking care of her.” Katie and Emma both shake their head at me, just like they do every day.

“Shut up! She is our niece, after all,” Katie says with a wink. Every time one of them claims her as their own, I want to cry.

“I know. I know. I’m just not used to having help, let alone friends,” I say, choking back the tears I know are coming.

“Well get used to it because you aren’t getting rid of us. We are a fungus!” Emma says, and we all start to laugh. “Now, get out of here so I can go home and snuggle with my grumpy old man.”

“When do I get to meet this grumpy old man? I’m starting to believe that he doesn’t exist,” I say as I put on Livie’s coat and wait for Katie to turn off all the lights.

“Oh, Jimmy exists alright. He owns The Mission, but he doesn’t like to socialize much,” Katie says with a smile.

“Plus, he likes to sleep all day because he works all night,” Emma chimes in as we all head out the door.

“Well, maybe he can decide to grace us with his presence one of these weekends?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. “I can’t be that scary?”

“It’s not you, it’s Avery and Amber. Those two pregnant scares any man. Hell, those two not pregnant scares me,” Katie says with a wave as she heads toward her car.

“They aren’t that bad,” I say as I open the door, and Olivia climbs in.

“No, they aren’t. But to Jimmy, we all scare him, too much estrogen.” Emma laughs as she hops in her car to head home.

I can’t help but shake my head and think of all the men that wrangled these ladies’ hearts. They must be one hell of a bunch.

By the time I get home, Livie is passed out in her seat. If I let her stay asleep, she is never going to sleep through the night.

“Livie it's time to wake up,” I whisper as I gently shake her awake.

“Home Momma,” she asks as she stretches and blinks here bright blue eyes.

“Yes, we are home now. Want to help me check the mail before we head inside? I think I will make spaghetti for dinner.”

“Yea sghetti!” she cheers. I hop out of the car and quickly open the back door and unbuckle her. She practically pulls me toward our building to get to the mailbox. I put the key in our box and unlock it before reaching down to pick her up.

“Up you go, sweetie.” She reaches in and pulls all the mail out of the box, then I place both her tiny feet on the ground, and I remove the keys from the box after locking it. We continue our trek to our home.

I’ve pretty much given up hope of hearing from Lieutenant McMillion again, especially after that embarrassing letter I last wrote him. I must have sounded so pathetic. I even stopped obsessively checking my email a few days ago, just in case he decided to take me up on my offer to email instead of waiting for letters to arrive.

“Okay, baby, put the mail on the table while I get dinner ready.”

“‘kay Momma.” I watch her put the mail down before she takes off for her room.

I drop my things on the table and notice a letter with an FPO address, my heart speeds up as I reach for the letter. Small block lettering covers the envelope, the letter I’ve been looking forward to for days. I’ve been waiting for him to write me back, but in all honesty, I don’t think I wanted him to.

Once again, letting a military man into my life will bring another chance at heartbreak. However, I have no intention of falling in love with him. This all started as me trying to bring joy to someone else’s life and maybe finding a friend in the process, but slowly it’s becoming to mean so much more to me.

A smile spreads across my face. Just the thought of my simple letter making that big of a difference in this man’s life warms my heart. Placing the letter on the table, I turn to start making dinner for Olivia and me. I fight the urge to run and check my email. I have a feeling that he may have just written me an email as well.

As we sit down for dinner, I notice Livie looking at something on the table. “Whatcha got there, baby girl?”

“Momma, what dis?” I see her holding the letter from Justin in her hand.

“That’s a letter, from a man named Justin. He’s far far away, keeping us safe from bad guys.”

“Just like daddy and Ba’man?” Excitement overtaking her little body, making her wiggle in her seat. I can’t help but chuckle, this little girl loves Batman.

“Kind of. He’s in the military, like a soldier.”

“Hmm… he come to my burfday.”

“Oh, um. I don’t know about that baby. We’ll see, okay?”

“Otay, Momma.”

She dives right into dinner like nothing happened. Olivia’s resilience never ceases to amaze me, she just accepts things as the way they are. It’s her normal, so she deals with it and moves on. No tears for her, she just finds a way to deal with it and keeps a smile on her face.

After dinner, I get Livie into the bath and ready for bed. We have some snuggle time and stories before bed. This used to be my favorite part of the day, but not tonight. Tonight, all I want to do is get to my laptop, so I can check to see if I have an email from Justin. The excitement I feel is very unsettling. We have only been writing back and forth for about three months now, and I’m already becoming even more attached. I keep reminding myself of what Emma said, but to have the same amount of faith she does in someone I don’t even really know, other than from a few letters, is unsettling.

I am hardly able to concentrate on finishing Olivia’s story tonight because I am so occupied with thoughts of whether or not I have an email. Shit, I am a grown woman, not a silly teenage girl.

“One more ‘orie, Momma?” Livie looks up at me as I close the book.

“Sorry, baby girl. It’s bedtime. We have to get up early tomorrow, so you can go to school and play with your friends.” I climb out of her bed and tuck her in. As I place a kiss on her forehead, she snuggles deeper under her blankets.

“Night Momma. Night Moon. Night Daddy. Wuv you,” she whispers before turning over. I tiptoe out of the room, shutting the light off in the process.

This is our nightly routine. As soon as Livie was old enough, I started telling her about her father. She knows what a great man he was and that he died protecting our country. It’s hard for a child so young to understand the difference between heaven and hell, so my parents and I came up with the idea of telling her that he lived on the Moon. Every night we talk to Daddy, tell him about our day, and finish with a “good night” and an “I love you.”

I head straight for my room and open my laptop. Looking out the window and up at the Moon, I decide to have my own conversation with Trent. “Is this the right thing to do? I can’t help but feel the need to keep writing to this man. As if this will change everything for the better, but what happens when he gets tired of us or he comes home and goes back to his real life? What then?” I whisper into the darkness as if I will get an answer.

Taking a deep breath, I open my laptop and sign into my email. Scrolling through all the junk emails, I see nothing. I’m about to give up but decide to check the spam folder just in case. I bark out a laugh, covering my mouth to ensure to not wake up Olivia, as I notice the very creative email I received just this morning. Clicking the link, I begin to read.

By the time I reach the end of the email, I can feel my heart breaking. To know that Justin is so lonely, just as I have felt for so long is surprising. It seems that I have gotten my answer from Trent that I wasn’t expecting. Justin and I were paired up as pen pals for a reason beyond just bringing joy to someone with a letter. It seems that we both have been searching for that one person who would understand what the other has been going through.

I quickly click the reply button and begin typing an email. I pour my fears and feeling into the email. Things I haven’t told anyone, not even my parents. For the first time, I let the tears fall freely. Not hiding how much it hurts to be seen as nothing more than a single mother and a widow because for the first time I have found someone that will understand.