Lesson That Taught Love Read online

  Lesson That Taught Love

  G.L. Tomas

  Contents

  Lesson That Taught Love

  Copyright Page

  Also From G.L. Tomas

  More From G.L. Tomas

  Coming Soon from G.L. Tomas

  Trigger Warning:

  Dedication

  To Eric and Gerardvianne

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Coming Soon from G.L. Tomas

  Lesson That Taught Love

  by

  G.L. Tomas

  Copyright © 2017 by GL Tomas

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  Rebellious Valkyrie Press, 2017

  Ebook ISBN 978-1-943773-18-3

  Paperback ISBN 10: 1-943773-39-4

  Paperback ISBN 13: 978-1-943773-39-8

  Cover Stock Photo Provided by: Mosaic Stock

  http://www.mosaicstockphotos.com/

  Cover Design by: Najla Qamber Designs:

  http://www.najlaqamberdesigns.com/

  Ebook Formatting by Vellum

  Paperback Formatting by: Champagne Formats

  http://www.champagneformats.com/

  Summary:

  Who could’ve thought love could tell you things?

  Following in his father’s footsteps, it’s been ages since Kit “Lucky” Parrish left his small town of Wheelwright, Kentucky to serve his country.

  Nine years of triumph haven’t come without life-altering tours of loss, as Kit returns a different man. Determined to adjust to civilian life while coming to terms with past demons won’t be easy, but when he becomes captivated with an old classmate, his motivation changes for the better.

  If only the beautiful and intelligent Rebecca “Beck” Dobson, a girl he’d never known, wasn’t plagued with her own grief and untold secrets.

  Is love enough to heal them from their pain-stricken pasts?

  This novel is a standalone story with a HEA and no cheating. It is approximately 86,000 words.

  To discover current and future publications by Rebellious Valkyrie Press, check out our official website!

  Also From G.L. Tomas

  More From G.L. Tomas

  Coming Soon from G.L. Tomas

  Trigger Warning:

  Lesson That Taught Love features two main characters struggling with their own experiences of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. While not explicit, we don’t want to trigger a reader’s experience or put them in harm’s way. The Hero is an Army veteran, and the heroine is a survivor of sexual assault, both of which they’re working through and attempting to overcome.

  Thank you for reading.

  To Eric and Gerardvianne

  You two make us believe in true love again.

  Chapter 1

  Kit

  I shouldn’t have been this nervous.

  There’d been the world I lived I lived for the past eight years. Dark, dangerous and often downright scary. But behind that door was the world that I came from and right now, there wasn’t anything I found more terrifying.

  Would she be happy to see me?

  My decision to leave all those years ago left my mama and me on some less than suitable speaking terms. My reason made her downright furious. Like my father before me, and his father before him, I’d joined the army, and with my mother’s pessimism, she feared it’d drive her and me apart. Like it did with her and my father. But I was my own man. I did just about everything a boy could do to worry her enough to put her in an early grave. The army? Well, that had just about done it for her. I knew she missed me, though. When she got through with being stubborn about it, she said so in her letters; in emails when I was able to check them.

  Now that I stood outside the front door, the only place I ever called home, the muscles of my forearm hardened beneath my sleeve. It turns out; I was more anxious than I initially thought.

  I must’ve stood there a good fifteen minutes before I had the courage to knock. The hand knit fiber of my beret caught between my fingers, as the vibrations of something scraping on the floor met with steps on the other end. The lock switched over, and in the seconds it took for the door to fully open, I fought back a smile at the sight of her.

  She’d been the strongest woman I knew, my mama. Just about the prettiest, too. She possessed the same dark hair and blue eyes that reminiscent of a girl in a fairy tale. She worked inside most of her life, so I used to joke about how she had that porcelain skin that made her a real live Snow White. Unfortunately, I’d inherited that same pale skin, which made smoldering hot climates and sweltering sun rays away from home no friend of mine.

  If it meant anything, she was still the prettiest girl I knew, but on the count of me being away so long, I hadn’t realized how bad her health had gotten. She’d been diagnosed with MS when I was seventeen, but she was younger in those days. Sixteen years younger. Now that we stood face to face, she looked a decade or more older than her ripe age of fifty-five, hunched over and unable to walk without the help of forearm crutches.

  For a moment, I’d forgotten that from the second I stepped foot on this porch that I’d been holding my breath. As I took a sigh of relief, only then did I realize my pounding heart was seconds from bursting out of my body.

  “Mama?” the words left my mouth in a whisper as I lowered my cap to my chest, unsure of what to say or even how to act. At first, she just stood there, quiet and still like a painting frozen in time; but the moment I saw the tears running down her face one thing was certain. It had been long. Too long.

  I welcomed the attempt she made to rush past the threshold as fast as her limping gait would allow, which made me take a few steps back to make room for her as she joined me on the porch. Following the tremors, the clicking sound her crutches made, she did a quick once over, slogging around me.

  “Well, let me get a good look at you.” She continued to inspect me from head to toe, assessing me in my uniform. Other than the extra muscle I’d put on from being away; I hadn’t changed much. Same auburn hair, same long-limbed build, same headache as always.

  When I realized I was still carrying my beret in my hand, I righted my mistake and put it back on to sell the whole look. If it was one thing my mother did appreciate, it was a handsome man in uniform. Standing with my shoulders straight, I put my hands behind my back and watched her lips thin in a grimace before reaching out to rest her hand on my check.

  “You look so much like your father. I swear you’re about the only thing he and I did right. C’mon in, dear. It looks like we have years of catching up to do.”

  The house looked the same way I remembered it. Some old family pictures, including some blown up ones of me in my football days. Same old glass coffee table rimmed in red oak trim and even that old recliner that everyone that ever visited agreed that the ugly thing should have gone out fifteen years ago. My guess was with my mother’s current state; she hadn’t had the time or energy to update décor around the house. It was comforting, though. Knowing the house, I’d always known as home being just like I left it in my m
emories.

  Being away taught me a handful of useful things, but it still didn’t replace that secure feeling of knowing how your day was going to start or end. I looked forward to days like that again.

  “I wished I’d had a better idea of when you’d be back, darling. I would’ve made you something special. In your letters, I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow. I haven’t had a chance to send someone to the store for me.” Although with the shape she was in, it was hard imagining her cooking like she used to. I suppose it was a good thing I was back. It was on my list of things to do to take better care of my mama.

  “It’s alright. If you tell me what you want, I’ll go into town and get it for you. I might be a while, I think. Maybe take a little drive. See where I end up. But make me a list of some of your favorite things, and I’ll cook you up something really good later.” She gave me a look filled with wonder and skepticism.

  “You cook now?”

  “That’s right! And I’m going you make you something good, too.” That and I just really wanted to take that drive. I hadn’t driven my truck since as long as I’d been gone and I was eager to get reacquainted with my baby. I loved that car as much as I loved my mother. I know there were a lot of my high school pals that probably would have come looking for me if I didn’t find them, the thing about where we lived in Kentucky, was that it was a tiny little speck on the map. With a town with less than twelve-hundred people, news spread fast depending on who was telling it.

  My mama might have been bound to this house, but I’m sure that didn’t stop her from calling everyone she might have thought cared to let them know I was back. Figured I might as well get this show over with.

  I helped her to the kitchen, easing a nearby chair in the back of her to sit. “I’m going to go change out of this uniform. Don’t forget to write up that list.” I reminded her.

  “And when I get back, I want to hear more about what you’ve been up to.”

  There was a thing to noted when a man was reunited with his first love. For me, that was my 1992 fire engine red Chevy Silverado. This baby was my first car, managing to take every obstacle I ever put it through and boy was I happy to see her again sitting gorgeously in our garage out back. I was almost afraid she wouldn’t start up, but luckily some people my mother knew in town that came by to help her with her shopping, did some other things around the house, too. That included starting my baby up every once in a while to see that the battery didn’t die on me. When my mother seemed well enough, I knew she used to get around which must not have been too long ago since the tires were still good and as far as I checked the belts and seals looked alright. I was never a huge fan of letting anyone drive my baby, but for that, I was at least grateful.

  The stereo played at a deafening volume as the car revved on. So loud I had to cut it off before I lost the ability to hear in both ears. Even with my hearing being bad in my right ear, it was still crazy loud. Whoever was listening to Fallout Boy, which I only knew because that’s what it said on the radio after I turned it off, well that ended today.

  I stepped out the car when I saw a dog dart in the back of the car. Mama mentioned in taking in a few dogs before my granddaddy passed a few years ago. He was in the business of dog breeding Golden Retrievers mostly, with a good mix of Labrador blended in. Patches, his collar read as I bent down to pet him, resembled a mix of the two.

  I remember Patches from when he was a baby pup. He’d always taken a liking to me, and it was comforting knowing with my mama’s health heading wayward, she’d chosen not to put him down. He was like part of the family.

  “Patches,” I whistled. “Wanna take a ride, boy? C’mon.” As I opened the passenger side’s door and lifted him up on the seat, later joining him on the other side.

  “Ready to go, boy?” He licked the side of my face, missing my ear by just a few short centimeters. The littlest motion knocked this aid out, and while it didn’t replace the sound quality of my left ear, it did help with sensing sounds and the like.

  “Down boy. You be good, and I’ll pick you out something good from the market.” That got him to calm down. Within minutes there I was. On the open road again with my beautiful baby. Though it hadn’t fully sunk in until now. I’d missed this quiet little town.

  For a Thursday night, a trip to the grocery was surprisingly empty. If the deserted parking lot didn’t convince me, time spent in a few of these aisles without running into anyone had me thinking they were close if it hadn’t been for the lights on and the one guy up front reading a magazine at the only open register. I loaded up the belt as the cashier delivered their standard, ‘Hi, how are you?’ line without bothering to look up at me. It had been a long time since I saw this place, but even I had to admit it looked emptier than usual.

  “Your total comes to forty-two eighty-seven.” He said, finally looking me square in the face with incredulous recognition.

  “You redheaded son-of-a-gun, I know you. You’re…”

  He looked behind him, and it was then that I took notice to the enlarged glass picture frame that encased my retired jersey when I played for the Wheelwright Wildcats. The star quarterback, everyone had nicknamed me ‘Lucky’ on the count of my jersey number being lucky number seven and the fact that I never fumbled a play or went against someone I couldn’t beat.

  A quarterback was like a god around these parts and because of my playing, it forever changed the way this town looked at football. In my prime, we’d went from being one of the worst teams in the county to being state champions. Girls wanted to be with me while the fellas wanted to be me. They were some confusing but damn good times.

  “Kit ‘Lucky’ Parrish, I don’t think anyone’s seen in…” he narrowed his eyes pondering. “Must’ve been for eight years. Man, back then was the good old days. I’d take my son out to see one of your games and I swear I thought for sure he’d grow up wanting to play football just like you. You were his idol.”

  I laughed at the thought of anyone calling me their idol. I was no role model. Hell, at that age, I couldn’t even claim that I was a good person. That was the problem with people treating you like you were a big deal. After a while, it became who you were; affected how you treated people. If it were one thing I didn’t want to come back to, it was the false persona of the boy I used to be.

  I had a feeling not everyone (and by everyone I meant some of the women I’d played with) would let me forget the past I was so desperately trying to forget.

  “It’s good to see you, son. The game hasn’t been quite the same as when you were out there playing for us. These young boys now, I tell you, couldn’t catch a clue if you gave it to them.”

  “Yea well, that was a long time ago. After serving and some soul searching, I’m ready to just to find me a job. Adjust back to this civilian life.” I smiled.

  “Well if you don’t mind a little drive, I know a buddy of mine who’s looking for a farmhand down in Salyersville. If I didn’t have a bad back, I would’ve taken the job. Pays a hell of a lot more than this one here. It ain’t no walk in the park, but if you want it, I’d call my buddy up, put in a good word for you.”

  “If you would, I’m not going to lie; I’d appreciate it.”

  “No problem at all. Anything for my favorite quarterback.” He said as he bagged up all my groceries and even offered to put them in the cart for me.

  “Surprised you’re not on your way to the Richmond’s. That’s where I’d be if I didn’t have to work. They’re having a huge soiree at the Richmond Manor. The whole town’s supposed to be there. Bet there’d be a line of people there looking forward to seeing you.” I highly doubted that but was in the mood to knock a few back and catch up with some old pals if I could, If everyone was going to be there, it beat checking on folks one by one.

  “Where’d you say that was again? I think I might stop by for an hour or two.”

  “It’s over at Richmond’s Manor. Just follow the trail of cars on their way there. You can’t miss it.” br />
  Beck

  My car had finally done it.

  After almost a year of ignoring every service light blinking on my dashboard, the piece of trash finally cut off on me. The only consolation was that I was at least able to pull off to the side of the road, out of the way of incoming and outgoing traffic. The bad news was I didn’t know what sort of work it’d need to get to get it up and running again. Seeing how my job at Joy’s Diner wasn’t something I’d call a secure job, it looked like I’d be without a working car for the time being until I figured something else out.

  With bills piling up at every corner, it looked like I’d be walking to work unless I could catch a ride with someone most days, which was what I was attempting to do now. I’d been on my way to the big party over on Statman’s road at the Richmond Manor. There wasn’t much to do around here in Wheelwright, Kentucky, where I lived. So when someone was hosting a huge get-together, it went without saying you’d see everyone you knew from in town at that party.

  I didn’t know the Richmond’s well, but at a minimum, I knew they were good, decent people. That and they were generous with the food they were always serving up. Part of the reason I was going tonight. If I was able to grab a plate or two so that I didn’t have to cook for a few days, that was more than enough reason to find myself there.

  I took a sigh of relief when the Jean twins’ car pulled up next to mine, only a half hour after I called Carrie Ann to see if she’d made it the Richmond’s already. They were my best friends since high school, and Carrie Ann and I even worked together at Joy’s. Her sister Minnie had a husband who made enough so that she didn’t have to work but despite them having their separate lives, you rarely saw the two of them apart. In high school, people used to call them Tia and Tamera, which I know had to be annoying but even without trying they did look a lot like the pair. Mixed race like them, too.