Page 1 of My Forever Soldier

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ABUTTERFLY-SOFT SHIVER ran down Olivia Brown’s spine. After all this time, she was scared of seeing her husband again. Scared of being confronted with the reality of the man who’d left her, and scared of how their son would react. Had she been right not to meet him at the airport?

“Is it almost time, Mommy?”

Olivia looked over at her son. His ruffled blond locks and paint-stained fingers tugged something inside her, and the worry started to knot in her stomach again.

“Not long now, honey. He’ll be here soon.”

She moved over to sit with her son, and squeezed his hand.

“Will I like him?”

“Your dad? Of course! You’ll love him, Charlie.”

Her boy nodded and twisted his mouth into a smile. “Will he like me?”

Olivia laughed and gave him a playful punch on the arm. “Have you ever met anyone who didn’t adore you?”

Charlie jumped up then, his eyes wide. “Did you hear that?”

Olivia’s eyes fluttered shut for a heartbeat. Yes, she’d heard it, and if it wasn’t for her son she might just have fled the scene. When her eyes opened again, she was sitting at the table alone. The Welcome Home Daddy poster lay spread out in front of her, splotches of paint and glitter a blur to her eyes.

This was it.

In less than thirty seconds, if the slam of a car door was anything to go by, her husband would be stepping back into her life. Would be seeing his son for the first time in two years.

“He’s here!”

Charlie’s excited squeal pulled her out of her daydream and she squared her shoulders, determined to stay strong. There was a knock at the door. She moved out into the hallway just as Charlie lunged forward to open it.

Lieutenant Colonel Luke Brown was officially back home.

Olivia watched Charlie tugging open the door, and wiped her palms over her denim jeans. She might not be looking forward to this, but her son sure was.

Charlie was frozen as he looked at the man on the other side of the threshold. The one who’d smiled at them from the fridge these past two years. The one in the photo that Charlie kissed every night before bed. Well, the man himself was standing right on their doorstep, all tanned, toned and handsome, just like he’d always been. Only this time he was in uniform, the starched trousers and jacket hugging his frame.

There was no mistaking it was him, though. His blond hair was cropped short, skin golden as if he’d spent a week on an island. His dark brown eyes—eyes she could never forget even if she tried—staring straight back at her. He stood tall, uncomfortable almost, in his immaculate uniform.

“Daddy!”

Charlie’s delayed yet exuberant outburst broke their stare. Olivia dropped her gaze and watched as her son saw his dad for the first time. Watched as he clutched on to the crisply pressed trousers as if he’d never let go.

“Charlie?”He hated that it was a question.

Luke counted to five in his mind, trying to stop from grabbing his little boy and squeezing the lifeblood from him. He’d waited for this moment for so long, and now this child, with hair the same blond as his own, stood before him, waiting expectantly as if his father would know what to do, when the truth was he had no idea how to even greet him. But he was back now and that’s what counted.

Before he could drop his pack to the ground the tiny body hurtled forward, grabbing him tight around the legs. Luke barely had time to lock eyes with Ollie again, to see the reaction on her face, before he was thrown headfirst into fatherhood.

“I see you’re not shy, huh?” He recovered from the tackle enough to straighten, bag dropped to the ground, one hand on his son’s head. “Thought you’d be big enough for a handshake by now.”

Charlie jumped back, saluting his dad, a grin plastered on his face. Luke responded in kind, straight-faced, at his boy pretending to be a soldier.

“You’ve been taking good care of the little soldier, huh?” Luke turned his attention back to his wife.

Olivia stood in the hall, her slender body braced by the wall. His eyes flicked over her, at the long honey-brown hair falling over her shoulders, at the slim arms crossed over her chest, and the sad blue eyes staring back at him. He hated seeing her like that. Knowing he was responsible for the sadness in her gaze.

“Aagghh! The poster!” Charlie spun around and motored down the hall past his mom, disappearing from sight. Luke watched for a moment, then stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

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