Soldiers in Love

Chapter 5: Donovan-1

CHAPTER 5: DONOVANDANIEL AND I SETTLED INTO being in a relationship. He was as sweet as ever and super considerate. But he seemed distracted lately. There were times when he’d be outside the coffee shop on his phone and it looked serious. He must not have liked what the other person said because he’d always come back in peeved.

Today was one of our rare days off together. My classes had been cancelled and I didn’t have to work at the coffee shop either. Ah, freedom! How lovely it felt. And when I’d found out that Daniel was off too, life seemed perfect.

We were walking down by Banks Park, just enjoying the day and each other’s company. Apparently, a lot of moms and dads had the same idea to enjoy the unusually warm fall day by going to the park. There were a lot of toddlers and preschool aged kids running around, squealing, laughing and having fun.

Daniel was watching a cute blond boy playing with his truck in the sandbox. The child was oblivious to everything except filling the back of the dump truck with sand and dumping it out again. His musical laughter drifted to where we stood outside the gate, watching him. I looked over at Daniel.

“He’s so cute, isn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“He looks like he’s having the time of his life in that dumb old sandbox.”

As we watched, the little boy stood up in the sand. He was a bit unsteady on his feet and he toppled over. He seemed to struggle for a moment, trying to right himself.

“Aw poor guy,” I said softly. I looked around to see which parent or set of parents he could belong to. There were a couple of ladies sitting on a bench not far from the sandbox, talking, seemingly oblivious to the floundering toddler. Both women had black hair and I figured they couldn’t be the child’s mother. Not with that mop of blond hair. “Where’s his parent?” I said. “Why haven’t they come to help him?”

Daniel didn’t answer. Instead, he quickly walked around to the entrance of the park and went over to the sandbox

“Wait, Daniel. You can’t just go-”

But he didn’t listen to me. He strode over to the sandbox. Stooping, he righted the child, brushing the sand from his shirt and face. I followed him, stopping at the edge of the sandbox.

“You okay, little dude?” Daniel asked the boy.

The child grinned at him. “Truck!” he crowed happily.

The smile on Daniel’s face was the most beautiful I’d ever seen from him. Reaching over, he picked up the dump truck and handed it to the boy. The child clutched at his toy, his large eyes regarding Daniel’s face. I was startled to see that the baby had the same blue-green eyes that Daniel had. The shape of their faces was also similar. The only difference was that the boy showed a pair of adorable dimples when he smiled that Daniel didn’t have. But that wasn’t that big of a deal. He could have gotten those from his mother or some relative. Still though, the boy c****d his head just as Daniel did. Could this be his son?

The child squatted down in front of Daniel and began scooping sand into the truck again. He looked up at Daniel. “Truck?” he asked, wanting Daniel to help him.

Daniel smiled at the child and helped him put sand in the back of the truck. When it was full, he screeched gleefully and dumped it out again. He looked up at Daniel, clapping his hands. Daniel clapped with him and cheered him on.

“I think this is my son,” he said to me over his shoulder. “This is what he should look like.”

“How do you know Daniel? You said it’s been almost a year since you’ve seen him.”

He watched the child. “My heart says he’s mine. He should have just turned two years old.” His face looked sad all of a sudden. “I’m missing out on playing with him like this. On being around him. Seeing him grow.”

The baby gave Daniel a big smile and threw his tiny arms around Daniel’s neck. His eyelids fluttered closed as he hugged the little boy close for a moment before the child squirmed free.

Suddenly, there was a commotion behind us. One of the dark haired women who’d been sitting on the bench took notice of us and ran over screeching at Daniel in Spanish. He stood, facing the smaller woman.

“Donovan!” she yelled. She glared at Daniel. “Get away from him, you p*****t! Go before I call the police!”

Other parents were beginning to notice us and I grabbed Daniel’s arm. “Come on, Daniel. We’d better just go.”

“Donovan?” he whispered.

“Go away! Stay away from him!” the woman screeched again. She reverted to Spanish and while my Spanish isn’t all that great, I knew she was calling Daniel every bad name she could think of.

He looked at her calmly. “Se cayò, señora. Le ayudè nada màs.” He fell, ma’am. I just helped him. That’s all.

The woman’s eyes widened when he spoke to her in Spanish. “Vàyase de aqui. Deje en Paz a los niños.” She pulled her cell phone from her pocket. “Vayase o llamo a la policia!” Get out of here. Leave the children alone. Go or I’ll call the police.

I tugged at Daniel’s arm. “Let’s go. Please. Don’t get arrested over something you didn’t do.”

He stood for one more second, staring at the child. He glanced at the woman and said softly, “El es mi hijo.” He’s my son.

The woman paused in her tirade and looked at Daniel. Then she looked at the child. I knew the moment that she saw the resemblance between them. Slowly, she backed away, clutching the child close to her as if she were afraid that Daniel would snatch him from her arms.

“Come on, Daniel,” I said softly. “Don’t give her a reason to call the cops and get you arrested.”

Finally, he followed me from the park. We walked back down the sidewalk in silence for a few minutes before he sat down on a bench at a bus stop a block away from the park. I sat down next to him as he buried his face in his hands. Gently, I put a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you okay, Daniel?” I asked softly.

He drew a deep breath. “He’s so big now,” he whispered.

“He’s beautiful,” I agreed.

“I wish I could have him with me. But I know they won’t grant me custody of him.”

“But maybe you can get visitation with him. She’d have to prove that you were unfit to have him. And I doubt a judge would deny you time with your son.”

Daniel listened quietly then said, “Well, I’m fairly certain that I’ll be getting a phone call from Debbie very soon.”

“Debbie?”

“My ex-wife.” He blew out a breath. “At least I got to see him for a few minutes.”

“True. And maybe you can work something out with her where you can see him more often.”

Daniel stood and we began walking again. “Ha. You don’t know Debbie. She is quite possibly the meanest, coldest, most calculating snake on Earth. She doesn’t do anything that ultimately won’t benefit her in some way. Even down to her friends and family.”

“And you married her?”

He grinned ruefully. “She wasn’t like that when I married her.”

“Yeah?”

“Hmm. I fell in love with her in college. I was in the officer program and she was in pre-law or something. But she was beautiful. Smart and sassy. We got along great. After I graduated, I went into the Marines. She finished law school and started working at her dad’s firm. We’d bought a house and were living pretty good. I found out she was pregnant the week before I was to deploy overseas.” He chewed at his lip as we walked. “I was excited that she was pregnant. I’d always wanted children. And I thought that she did too.” He broke off as we went into my apartment. I went and got him a beer and we settled on the couch. He seemed to be in a talkative mood today. And I needed to hear it.

“Thanks,” he said, taking the bottle. “She got really angry with me because I was being deployed. She thought I had done it on purpose so that I didn’t have to go through the pregnancy with her. It was totally the opposite. I wanted to be there with her. But she continued to nag at me, yell at me and accuse me of things that weren’t even true. So when she asked me to try to change my deployment date until after the baby was born, I went to my commanding officer. But I didn’t try to change it.”

“Why not?”

“Because living with her had become hell on earth. And the idea of going to war seemed better at the time then spending nine months plus listening to her viper tongue.”

I nodded. “I get it.”

“You have no idea,” he said, shaking his head. “Living with Debbie was worse than my worst night in that prison. So I left to go overseas. She called me to tell me that she’d had the baby and it was a boy. I was so excited. I told the guys in the barracks and we celebrated Donovan’s birth. I was given a two week leave so that I could go home and see him.” He smiled at the memory. “He was so tiny. So perfect. I didn’t want to put him down. Those two weeks were the shortest of my life. I even thought about not going back. But I knew I had to. I had to provide for him. And for her. The day I left, she made me feel so bad. She yelled at me and told me I’d never see my son again if I left. She didn’t care that I didn’t have a choice.”

He stayed quiet for a long moment. I reached over and took his hand

“She made sure that you couldn’t find him?”

“Yes. When I first got back, I went back to our house to see them. But they were gone.”

“Hold on, how did you know about this?”

He shrugged. “While I was gone, she was having an affair. She’d told me that Donovan may not be mine. I was in the hospital trying to recover from the accident. I got served with divorce papers from her. And I got a letter from her telling me that I’d never see my baby again.”

I looked away from him, hating this woman that I didn’t even know because she hurt this beautiful man. “I’m sorry Daniel,” I whispered. “I know it doesn’t erase anything.”

“Nope,” he said, sitting back against the couch. “It doesn’t. But it helps.”

I pulled my phone from my pocket. “I probably shouldn’t have done this but-” I broke off and opening the gallery, I showed him the picture that I’d taken of him and Donovan.

“Oh man,” he breathed, taking the phone from my hand. Tears filled his eyes as he traced the picture with a finger. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“You’re welcome,” I said.

I hoped that he could figure something out. I was afraid that he might do something stupid and get himself arrested. Then he’d never see his son again.

And that would kill him.

______

Daniel was already back in the kitchen working when I got to the coffee shop. I wandered back there, wanting to greet him before work got started. He had his back to me putting the silverware in the rack to run it through the machine. I went up behind him and put my arms around his waist.

“Hey,” I said, pressing my lips against his cheek.

He turned his head, offering me a small smile. “Hey, darlin’. How was class?”

“Boring. I was thinking about you the whole time.”

“Well no wonder you never get anything done,” he teased me.

“Yes well. I’m just glad to be out of there.”

“And now you’re here, slinging coffee and other highly caffeinated drinks.”

“Yeah. With you.”

He turned, leaning back against the edge of the sink. I slid my arms around his waist and kissed him. Daniel accepted my kiss before taking the lead. I pressed against him, enjoying the feel of his body on mine.

“Seriously?”

I pulled away from Daniel. We both faced a very disapproving Flo who had come in with a bin of dishes. I looked at Daniel and he at me. “Sorry Flo,” I said. “I just wanted to say hello. We haven’t seen each other all day.”

“Hmmm,” she said, slamming the bin down on the counter. “You’d be better off if you didn’t see him at all.”

“Don’t start, Flo,” I snapped.

“You’re the ones who started it. This is a coffee shop for God’s sake. No one wants to see you two groping each other.”

“We weren’t groping each other, Flo,” Daniel said evenly. “There’s nothing wrong with two people who love each other sharing a kiss or two. And you don’t really have much room to tell us not to do anything when I’ve seen you and Tony plenty of times in the storage room.”