SHELTER

Chapter 9

"Let's see, I'm terrible with time. It would be a little over four years now because it was right before Warren got out of the service. He came home for the funeral then had to go back for a while before he was done."

"What about his father?"

"His daddy died when Warren was eleven. He worked for the city and a drunk driver hit him while he was doing some road maintenance. It tore them both up for a long time."

Jolie sat in silence while she processed the load of information she'd just learned. She wasn't the only person in this world who knew dark tragedy or who walked the roads alone. Her heart ached for him. She knew the pain and wouldn't have wished it on anyone.

She looked at the small woman hovering above the stove and smiled. Warren had had family to help him through it; of that she had no doubt.

"My husband served with Warren." She blurted the words into the air. "He and Luke were in the same regiment. Luke re-upped before we met. We were going to wait to get married until he got out but he when he came home the last time he said he felt like he didn't want to waste a single minute more so off we went to the justice of the peace."

The other woman kept stirring and busying herself with small kitchen tasks as Jolie unburdened herself.

"We only had a few months to go. We were Skyping every few days and making plans for the house and our future....." She could feel it building in her chest. The anxiety and the pressure that always threatened to choke her when she thought about Luke's death. She focused on taking several slow even breaths around the soft ball lodged in her throat. Tears pricked the back of her eyes but she refused to cry in this warm cozy kitchen on this pleasant holiday.

"And then they drove over a roadside bomb." She ended abruptly and picked up the class of cider draining it in one long pull. If Barb had approached her, if she had tried to hug her Jolie was sure she would have crumbled but the other woman must have known that.

"Honey I'm going to start putting this food on the table. Could you go tell the heathens to come feed their faces?"

Jolie took a deep cleansing breath and blinked a few times to clear herself of the emotions and thoughts she'd been submerged in.

"Oh, yeah. I can do that."

"Thanks honey." Barb patted her shoulder as she brushed by with a large green striped bowl in her arms.

Jolie poured a little more cider in her glass before exiting out into the living room full of people to make her announcement. She saw Warren hanging back as the others filed into the dining room. He was wearing a dark gray henley that was almost tight on his well formed body and dark jeans. He approached and shook a glass at her but she declined his offer; she already felt a little tipsy.

Jolie studied his face in the light of all she knew about him now and found him even more handsome than before. Her face reddened and she stared at her feet when he paid her a compliment in calling her beautiful. Before she could do something embarrassing they turned and moved toward the dining room.

Her face flamed again and she caught her breath when he placed his hand in the center of her back to guide her. Note to self: no more booze cuz I'm a tipsy floozy.

She took her chair between Warren and Caleb's date Renee who turned out to be a nutrition specialist at the new health food mart that had recently opened. She tried to juggle multiple conversations in between bites of delicious food.

"This is really wonderful Barb." She directed toward her slight hostess. Barb acknowledged with a smile and a wave from down the table.

She and Renee were the unknown elements so they got asked the most questions. She didn't mind. She told them tales of the things she'd seen on the back of her bike in the last year and funny anecdotes from her days as a dispatcher. She was rewarded with embarrassing accounts of Warren and the boy's childhood.