Free A Ranger's Love: A Military Erotic Romance by Kristin Fletcher Page A

It’s not like that! Mike, please…” I try to keep him on the line, but he is gone. I franticly dial his number, but it rings into his voicemail. I hang up and dial it again and again. Mike is gone. What have I done?
     
    I stare at the phone, as if has betrayed me. Then, I burst into tears. I have driven off the one thing that I want most. I sob for a moment. Then, I gather myself and try the phone one more time.
     
    The phone rings and I am just about to hang up when Mike answers. “Yes?” He sounds as dejected as I feel.
     
    “Mike! Thank God!” I gasp. “I’m sorry. Mike, please don’t hang up!” I say. The words come out in a tumbling rush.
     
    “Just say what you need to say. I have to get ready.”
     
    “Mike, I’m sorry for what I said. I’ll be here for you when you get back. I promise.”
     
    “Why? I don’t need your pity, Danielle.”
     
    “It’s not pity, okay?” I nearly shout. “I love you, goddammit! I don’t want you to go!”
     
    Mike is quiet for a long time. “I have to go. I don’t have a choice. Even if I did, I want to go. I want to make a difference.”
     
    “I know, but you have already made a difference. You have made a difference with me.”
     
    Once again, Mike is quiet for a long time. “Why the sudden change of heart. Not five minutes ago you were kissing me off.”
     
    “I was…afraid.”
     
    “Afraid?”
     
    “I’m afraid you won’t come back. Afraid you will leave me alone like Mom and Dad did. I don’t think I can take that again.” I sniff again. I’m thankful that Mike can’t see my tears.
     
    “Daisy, nothing can keep me from coming back, if you’re here waiting for me. Nothing.”
     
    “I know you’ll try but…”
     
    “Nothing,” Mike repeats firmly, cutting me off.
     
    “Promise me,” I whisper.
     
    “I promise you, Daisy. I promise you that nothing can keep me from your arms,” Mike says with such conviction that I actually believe him.
     
    I blubber out a laugh. “This is one promise you had better keep.”
     
    “I will always keep my promises to you. I promise to come back and do everything I can to make you the happiest woman in the world.”
     
    “You already have,” I say wiping at my eyes.
     
    “And you have made me the happiest guy in the world.”
     
    “When you come back, where will you come back to? Bragg?”
     
    “I don’t know. Probably. That’s where we’re stationed.”
     
    “If you can, call me, I will meet you there.”
     
    “I would like that, but I doubt that will be possible. Mission security and all that jazz,” Mike says. I finally begin to relax. Mike is starting to sound like his old self again.
     
    “It’s okay. It’s not fair that you are leaving and I didn’t even get to say goodbye in person.”
     
    “I know. It is what it is.”
     
    We are silent for a time, not knowing what to say. “I have to go,” Mike say softly. “I should have told you this before now. I don’t think I knew myself until I found I out I am leaving, but I love you, Daisy.”
     
    “I love you, too. Be safe and come back to me.” I am fairly proud I managed to get that out without my voice breaking.
     
    “I will,” Mike says so softly that I almost don’t hear him. “I’m looking forward to holding you again.”
     
    “As am I, Mike.”
     
    “Goodbye, Daisy. I will call as soon as I get back. Sooner if I can.”
     
    I grit my teeth to hold back the tears. “Do. Goodbye.”
     
    When Mike is gone. I sit on the couch, stunned. Mike is right; I didn’t realize how much I wanted him until I knew he is leaving. This is my home. This is where I have lived the last ten years of my life; but, Mike has my heart is. I sit and stare at the wall, lost in thought.
     
    They say home is where the heart is and I have given mine to Mike. I look around my apartment. I realize that there is nothing holding me here. Nothing but memories. Those I can take with me.
     
    As I sit and stare into