A Soldier's Christmas: I'll Be Home for Christmas / Presents Under the Tree / If Only in My Dreams

“Not quite as small as a Chihuahua.”

“No, I suppose not. But they’re just as cute.”

He continued to consider it, seeming genuinely surprised.

“What, you assumed I’d be diagnosing parakeets losing their feathers and neutering strays for the rest of my life?”

“You can do anything you set your mind to, El,” he said, his tone serious—and complimentary. “I’m not at all surprised you wanted to go out and make a difference somewhere.”

“Thank you. I guess I was just trying to say, I really do understand where you’re coming from.”

“I guess you do. What about now?”

“I work for a small-animal hospital in the city. No elephants, but one of my clients has a pretty feisty ferret.”

“Are there any other kinds of ferrets?”

“Good point.”

They’d fallen into an easy conversation, and she remembered that it had always been easy to talk to Rafe. They’d spent hours talking about a lot of nothing in the old days, and she’d never been bored. He was one of those people who listened and never judged or needled. Rafe was easy to be around...a strange quality for a soldier, she imagined.

She had a million more questions she wanted to ask, mainly about what his personal life had been like for the past three years, but the storm suddenly decided to pick up some steam. The snow that had been falling in thick, lazy plops, returned to its stinging pellets, and the windshield wipers struggled to clear it. Within mere minutes, the road became a slushy, icy mess. Rafe required his full concentration to keep them on the highway and they both fell silent.

There were a few dicey moments when the car tried to fishtail around one poorly marked curve. But he kept things under control.

“There should be a few hotels at the next exit,” she finally said, hoping they’d come far enough that there would be something available. “Maybe we should try again?”

“Good idea.”

They got off at the next exit. They’d already moved well past the Poconos, but judging by the billboards for rooms with heart-shaped beds and champagne-glass hot tubs, this place was competing for the honeymoon crowd, too. She lifted a brow as they passed some signs advertising places with names as dubious as The Little Love Nest.

They struck out at the first two chain places they tried. Then, at the third establishment, a no-name, local motel, they found someone else who spied Rafe’s fatigues—and his fatigue—and wanted to do something to help out a G.I. trying to get home for Christmas.

“You say you’re going to try to make it all the way t’Chicago tomorrow?”

“That’s right,” Rafe replied. “We’re trying our best to get home to our families for Christmas.”

“How long’s it been, young man?”

“I haven’t seen my folks for Christmas in three years.”

The elderly man frowned and shook his head. “Holidays...they was always the worst. I don’t usually do this—rentin’ out our best room without reservations—but I can see when a man’s been about wrung out. I suspect you need a good night’s sleep more than I need that vacant room.”

“Really?” Rafe asked, sounding hopeful for the first time in hours.

“Really. I don’t think anybody’s out there gettin’ married tonight who might want our honeymoon suite.”

Ellie’s eyes rounded. Honeymoon suite? She intentionally turned away, not wanting Rafe to see her reaction.

“I want you to get a decent night’s rest before you go back out into that storm.”

Rafe nodded slowly, eyeing the gray-haired, grizzled man. “So, Vietnam?”

“Korea,” the stranger replied. He walked out from behind the counter, and it was then she noticed his limp. “Left my right leg in the Chosin Reservoir, but got outta there alive.”

She fell silent, sensing an immediate bond of brotherhood arise between the two men. Both of them had been forged in battle, understood things about humanity that she and most civilians never would. The men obviously recognized in each other a kindred spirit.

“Thank you for your service, sir,” Rafe said, his tone utterly respectful.

“And thank you for yours, son.”

The men shook hands, connected in a way that few people ever would be with a stranger. Then the man handed Rafe a room key. “You folks have a good night, you hear?”

Ellie smiled at him and waited until they were back outside, battling the wind to get to the car, before she said, “Only one room, huh?”

She heard the nervousness in her own voice and hated herself for it. She sounded like some kind of hysterical virgin, as if Rafe couldn’t be trusted with her virtue for one snowed-in night. Which was pretty ridiculous, considering she’d spent the past several hours thinking about how desperately she wanted to seduce him. Just sitting beside him in the dark, inhaling his scent, all warm and masculine, made her want to bury her face in his throat and kiss her way down his neck.

Perhaps it was anticipation making her nervous. Because, oh, she did not want to do this wrong. People only had so many opportunities to right the mistakes of the past. If she and Rafe screwed this up again, they might never have another chance.

Of course, she wasn’t sure if he even wanted to try. All her thoughts and car fantasies were well and good, but if he wasn’t interested, she was going to be one disappointed, frustrated woman tonight.

“I’m sorry about that,” he said as he yanked open her door and helped her get into the car. He went around to his own side and got in, the clunky, old-fashioned room key dangling from his fingers. “I didn’t think to ask if you wanted to keep driving to try to find a place with two available rooms.”

“No, I don’t,” she said with a shudder.

“If it’s too uncomfortable for you, I’ll sleep on the floor. Wouldn’t be the worst place I’ve slept, and I’m so tired, I won’t even notice.”

“Let’s check out the room before we decide,” she said.

She didn’t add that the bed would have to be lumpy and disgusting for her to kick him out of it...and that, if it were, she’d go with him and sleep on the floor. It was a little too risky still to make it obvious she was thinking of seducing him tonight.

“I’m not sure about this place,” he said, eyeing the broken floodlight on the roof and the dilapidated sign.

The tired, roadside motel wasn’t going to win any diamonds from AAA, but it was the best they could hope for under the circumstances. The smart people had gotten off the road a few hours ago, when things started to get really bad. It certainly wasn’t Rafe’s fault that there was no room at the inn.

She chuckled.

“Something funny?”

“Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve, so it’s somehow appropriate that we’ve found no room at any of the inns...Joseph.”

He caught her reference. “I hope the honeymoon suite isn’t in the stable.”

“Me, too.”

“Just don’t go giving birth tonight, Mary.”

The teasing note in his voice died even as the sentence left his lips. He cast a quick, curious glance down her body, as if checking to see if it had ever thickened with pregnancy. It amazed her that they’d spent so many hours together in a small car, yet she’d managed to avoid revealing much of anything about the life she’d lived during the past few years.