Page 109 of Brighter Shades of Light

“Only beginning to? Liar.”

“You’re right.” I quietly coughed to clear the lump wedged in my throat. “I don’t like not hearing from you. Is everything okay? What happened?”

“Yeah, it’s all good,” Cody answered. The smile he wore seemed forced, as if he was doing his best to reassure me even though he was drained. “Sorry for the radio silence. Things are okay here. I can’t get into it, but there was some trouble and it’s taken care of. I miss you.”

Don’t cry in front of him.

“I miss you, too.”

“Did you put a tree up for me?” he asked.

“I did.” I didn’t tell him that it was one of the hardest things I had done since he’d been gone, though.

For the past two Christmases, he had made decorating the tree enjoyable. Without him, it did nothing but stir up the pain of him being thousands of miles away. And decorating the tree after not hearing from him in nearly a week had been emotionally crippling.

“Awesome. We have a tree here, too. Well, kinda.” Cody chuckled and scratched at his jaw. He didn’t have a beard, but there was more stubble than I was used to seeing on him. “We made a makeshift tree with some green sandbags and strung some lights on it. Not the prettiest thing in the world, but it’ll do.”

I smiled at the mental image. Cody didn’t let being in a desert region take away his Christmas spirit, and I was sure that holiday cheer spread to the other Marines stationed with him.

“You should sing some carols,” I said.

Cody grinned. “Is that an underhanded jab at me, Doctor? Youdoknow I’m kind of an amazing vocalist, right?”

“Mhm.”

His eyes narrowed, and then he started singing ‘Jingle Bells.’ I tried to keep smiling, but my eyes filled with tears, and I couldn’t stop them from falling down my cheeks.

“I’ve never known ‘Jingle Bells’ to make anyone cry before.” Cody snorted a laugh, his eyes were watery, too. Voices sounded in the background, and he looked up to speak to someone off camera. Then, he came back into view. “I have to go. If I don’t get to talk to you tomorrow, Merry Christmas, baby.”

“Merry Christmas, you devil.”

He cracked a smile. “Love you.”

I said it back to him, and long after the screen went dark, I stared at the spot where he had been. This was our relationship now: minute-long video chats and scattered conversations through instant messenger.

I just wanted him to come home.

Chapter 28

Cody

March couldn’t come soon enough. I was seven months into deployment and fucking ready to leave. But I still had shit to do and wouldn’t lose focus until it was done.

Task Force Southwest consisted of three-hundred Marines, and our mission was to work with the Afghan National Army to advise and assist the troops. There had been several rotations of Marines who had come to aid the forces in Helmand Province, and I was sure there’d be more after us, too. Our goal was to expand the security and rebuild the forces in the area around the capital city of Lashkar Gah.

Though the mission in Helmand was more administrative, that didn’t mean there wasn’t any combat.

Back in December while I had been Skyping with Sebastian, Taliban forces attempted an attack on Camp Shorabak, which was the home to the Afghan Army’s Corps. The adjoining U.S. base was separate and had its own security perimeter, so none of us had come under serious threat. The Taliban attacked with mortars, and we supported the Afghan soldiers during the attack. Fortunately, there were no casualties. Only a few had minor wounds.

Not being able to talk to Sebastian for nearly a week had caused me a lot of anxiety, mainly because I knew he was worried.

Since that incident, there had been several other mortar attacks, none of which I would tell Sebastian about. One of them had been when I was out patrolling. It had been a close call for me and the squad, but fortunately, none of us had any serious injuries.

I sat in the chow hall, killing some time before we had to set out on today’s task.

The accommodations were nicer than I originally expected. The chow hall served decent food, and we had a little coffee place that served iced drinks. It wasn’t the greatest, but it wasn’t bad at all.

“The men are ready to head out, sir,” Anthony said, after approaching me.