Anything For You: A Coming Home Short Story by Scott Jessica

Author:Scott, Jessica [Scott, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Tormia Creatives
Published: 2013-01-31T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

Shane ran. He didn’t care that he wasn’t cleared to run. He ran until the bones in his legs burned. He ran until his lungs screamed. He stared at the little red numbers on the treadmill that marked the distance and he ran, burning off the frustrated hurt and anger that tore at his chest.

Watching Jen walk away from him a few hours earlier had been hell. The hardest thing he’d ever done in his life.

Harder than walking into combat the first time.

He’d hurt her. He’d known it the moment he’d turned around and seen the tears filling her eyes. He could still remember the first time they’d talked about a future, a real future together.

“Jen Garrison.” She smiled up at him. “I think I can get used to the sound of that.”

He rolled until he laid between her thighs, her face cradled in his hands. “You better get used to it,” he mumbled, nibbling on her lips.

She gasped quietly when he rocked his hips into hers. There was something deeply sexy about her every reaction. It was like she was surprised by the tiniest pleasure.

“What about kids?” she asked.

He suckled on her neck. “What about them?”

“Do you have any objections to kids?”

He bit down gently on her ear. “I never really thought about it.”

But he’d thought about it since then. He’d thought about it since he started looking up whether or not she could have kids. He’d thought about it every time he rolled on a condom before he loved her. It was no sacrifice to wear a condom, but he worried every time. What if it broke? What if something went wrong?

He couldn’t face the prospect of life without her.

He’d never known true happiness before. Not like this. Not this feeling of right. Of fitting together. It wasn’t a storybook ending—those didn’t exist. But what he had with Jen was something special.

Now he’d ruined it, because he’d been a goddamned coward and hadn’t been able to talk to her before she’d drawn her own conclusions.

Fear wasn’t easy for him to admit. He wasn’t used to fear. Frustration, yes. Anger, sure.

But this? He’d rather walk unarmed into an ambush than live with that fear for the rest of his life. He needed to mitigate it, to find some way to reduce the impact of it. To reduce the likelihood that something would happen to Jen and that he would be the cause.

He swiped at the sweat running down his forehead and then pressed the incline on the treadmill. Jen would probably tear him a new one if she caught him running. He was supposed to be running gently and sparingly, not doing long distances that hurt so badly, he thought he’d die from the pain.

But he kept running. Because it was better than the pain slamming through him with every beat of his heart.

Carponti walked into the room wearing a lime green tracksuit, an assault pack slung over one shoulder.

“I have good news,” Carponti said, leaning on the treadmill next to Shane’s.

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