LEXI
July becomes August and I know without a doubt that Ty is the man for me. I finished reading the letters he wrote me over the years. Some made me laugh. Some made me cry. Some made me question how a man that bold managed to make it through everything he experienced overseas alive. But all of them made me realize just how much I love him. I thought he was nothing more than a meathead who was Semper Fi all the time, but I was wrong. Ty has depths I can’t wait to explore.
When he comes back from Afghanistan, I want to move out to Hawaii to be with him. I haven’t talked to him about it yet, so I’m trying not to make any assumptions, but I can’t imagine that he’s changed his mind. I’m going to tell him when we talk today and I haven’t been able to stop checking the time on my phone since I made the decision. I am so ready for him to call.
Gabe is set to start school in a couple weeks, but depending on what Ty and I decide, I don’t know if that means he starts here in Brookside or if I’ll move to Hawaii before Ty gets home so Gabe doesn’t have to change schools in the middle of the year. I’ve been looking at my house, at all my stuff, and mentally planning what goes and what gets sold. Oddly enough, after years of collecting my furniture and knick-knacks, not much of it matters. It isn’t the material stuff that means anything. Not really. What matters most is getting our family back together again, figuring out what that means, and finding a path forward.
Eleven a.m. rolls around and I take a seat on the couch, phone in hand because Ty’s call should come in any time now. I don’t have to wait long. After just a few minutes, my phone vibrates with an incoming call and I answer it immediately.
“Hey, good looking,” I say, even though the screen is still black and his image hasn’t shown up yet.
Ty’s response comes through but it’s so garbled I can’t make sense of it.
“I don’t know if you can see or hear me,” I say. “But I can’t see you at all. I can hear you but it’s so broken up I can’t understand what you’re saying.” I wait for a response and get nothing, not even a blip of sound to let me know he’s talking. After a few seconds of waiting, the call ends.
Damn it. This is a common enough occurrence and on the best days it’s frustrating as all hell but today? Today I have something major I want to talk about and I don’t want to do it through email. I want to see his face when I tell him I’m ready for us to move in together.
Gabe comes bounding into the room. “Is that Dad?” he asks. My heart clenches at the name. He started calling him that shortly after the Fourth and it makes me glad to know he’s accepted Ty enough to call him Dad.
I make a face. “It was, but the connection’s bad again. It looks like we might not get to chat today.”
Gabe’s face falls. “I wanted to tell him that I got to ten pull-ups.”
I start to respond, but my phone vibrates with an incoming video chat. I give Gabe a hopeful look and answer the call.
“Any better?” Ty asks, his face pixelated as all hell, but recognizable nonetheless.
“Much,” I say as Gabe leans in and waves.
“Is that the Gabe-meister? How you doin’, buddy?”
Gabe perches next to me on the couch and father and son chatter back and forth about pull-ups and football and Lego houses. Typically, I’d be happy to listen to their conversation and just be glad that Gabe has a man in his life to help him with all this stuff, but right now I’m eager for them to quiet down so I can talk to Ty about moving to Hawaii before the call drops again. I sit, growing ever more impatient, until Ty and Gabe run out of things to talk about.
“And how’s my beautiful girl?” Ty asks me.
“I’m good. So good.” I turn to Gabe. “Can you give us a minute? I need to talk to your dad about some grown up stuff.”
Gabe grumbles and then says his goodbyes before sliding off the couch and heading back into his room.
“Some grown up stuff, huh?” Ty leans forward, his face taking up most of the screen. “Is this good or bad grown up stuff?”
I take a deep breath, excitement building. This is it. This is me, taking the first big terrifying step that will lead us towards starting our new life together. “I’ve been thinking,” I say, trailing off and smiling, unable to contain my excitement any longer.
I take a breath and open my mouth to tell him I want to move in together when a loud explosion sounds somewhere off camera but close, so close. Ty’s eyes go wide and he swivels in his seat, looking at something that I can’t see. There’s a bunch of yelling and screaming and other sounds I can’t decipher.
Ty stands so abruptly, his chair falls back. “What the hell was that?” His voice is garbled, the connection disintegrating.
“Ty? What’s happening?” I stand, holding my phone close to my face.
The video lurches, pixelates, and then freezes just as Ty leans into the camera. His face is on screen, the fear in his eyes clear enough for me to see.
“Ty?”
I pace, unable to stay still, the phone quivering in my hands. Fear chokes me and my stomach drops to my feet. I stare at his face for a few seconds, tears blurring my vision.
“Ty?” I ask just as the screen goes black.