Free Here And Now (American Valor 2) by Cheryl Etchison

pretty big hurry to move in.”
    As if on cue, Rachel returned, and as they both turned to watch her come up the drive, he patted Lucky’s shoulder. “Not to worry. I’ll keep an eye out for her.”
    She hopped out of her truck, pizza in one hand, six-pack in the other, and a huge smile on her face. “Hello, Mr. Culpepper. Would you care to join us?”
    “No, but thank you. Just wanted to stop by, see if you were all settled.”
    “Almost there,” she answered with a big smile on her face. “I just have a few things I need to buy.”
    Hearing Lucky chuckle at the understatement, she cut her eyes at him, before turning back to Culpepper.
    “Sounds good.” The old man gave a short wave and ambled off down the lane back to his place.
    Lucky grabbed the last two boxes from the truck and followed her inside. Foregoing bar stools for fresh air, they headed out to the large back deck, where they sat on the steps facing the open fields, the pizza and beer between them.
    She tore a paper towel from the roll and handed him one. “Who needs plates or furniture when you have a view like this?”
    He couldn’t help but to smile back at her. She didn’t have anything to sleep on, anything to sit on, and most of her possessions were crammed into garbage bags, but she was happy and relaxed. At least for the moment.
    And she wasn’t wrong about the view. Low rolling pastures dotted with the occasional elm or maple tree, cattle grazing in the distance, and about a hundred yards off the deck a good-size pond.
    “Did your landlord say whether or not that thing is stocked?”
    “The pond?” she asked around a bite of pizza. “You wouldn’t really eat something out of there, would you?”
    “Depends on what’s in there.”
    She wrinkled her nose and did a full body shiver, mumbling something under her breath along the lines of how gross fish were.
    “I think you should get a dog.” He pulled a second slice of pepperoni from the box. “A really big one. Maybe even two dogs.”
    “I’ve thought about it. But I’d hate they’d be locked up for so long on the weekends.”
    “Are you sure you don’t want to stay a few more nights at my place? At least until you have a bed?”
    “I’ll be fine. I’ll make a run to Walmart and grab one of those big air mattresses and a few pillows. That will work until I can buy something else.” She studied him while taking a drink of her beer and he knew those little wheels in her head were turning. “Where’s the worst place you ever slept?”
    “That’s easy. New Orleans.”
    “That’s your worst?”
    “Were you expecting me to say Iraq or Afghanistan?”
    She shrugged one shoulder. “I sure wouldn’t have guessed New Orleans. Was it for work or for fun?”
    “Oh, definitely fun. I’d turned twenty-one a few months before and a bunch of us decided to spend part of our block leave there. The problem was there weren’t many rooms available and the rooms we could find were expensive. We wanted to spend most of our money on booze, not a place to sleep. So we got one double room and crammed nine guys into it. Guys slept on the floor, in the chairs. One slept in the bathtub. We drew straws for the beds.”
    “Where did you end up?”
    “I got a bed.”
    “How is that your worst if you got a bed?”
    “Nine guys who’d been drinking heavily and eating nothing but Cajun sausage and fried food all day sharing a confined space with no air circulation? Yeah, it was pretty awful. Give me the desert any day.”
    Their shared laughter gave way to the peace and quiet of the country. Once again, they sat in comfortable silence, drinking their beer as the sun sunk below the horizon, setting the clouds afire against the dark blue sky.
    “Do you miss the army?”
    “Way more than I thought I would.” He finished the remainder of his beer and tossed it in the empty pizza box. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though. It was my life for twelve years.”
    “What do you miss