Page 50 of Wishing for Christmas
Clara raised her eyebrows.
Laura shrugged. “I’ve experienced it myself.”
Clara pressed her lips into a tight line. She thought about her grandmother and how she had said something similar about special connections that develop from a separation like this. She hadn’t really believed her at the time and still didn’t, if she was being honest. She realized a special connection with Brent was what she desperately needed.
For a second, she thought she felt a sharp pang of envy in her gut. She wasn’t sure where it had come from. Clara knew she’d been feeling guilty about having skipped over the last year, but this was different. That connection was something she wanted, something she should have. It was almost as if she felt cheated out of the experience.
She shook it off, returning to the conversation. Sure, she admired these women for their positive perspectives on things. Still, she wondered how much of it was authentic. Maybe they had all simply drunk the Kool-Aid, and their job was to recruit new unsuspecting spouses into their club. Or perhaps this was the stuff they told themselves to feel better about their life choices. Either way, Clara still had her doubts.
She decided to dig a little deeper, careful not to appear judgmental. She tried to keep her line of questioning casual. Shedidn’t want to come across as intrusive, but she wanted to know more—so much more. The desire surprised her.
“So how do you take care of the kids and the house, everything, all on your own? Especially when you’re always living in a new place, without your family around. That has to be tough.”
“Well, it is,” Ava said. “In fact, anything that’s going to break or go wrongwillhappen right after he leaves for his deployment. The kids get sick, the car breaks down, the air conditioning stops working.” She looked over at Laura with a smile.
Laura dissolved into giggles as she grabbed a tray from behind her. “They call it the Murphy’s law of deployments and I’ve seen enough of them to know this tends to be true. Every. Single. Time.”
The two women laughed.
Clara thought that sounded awful and wondered how Laura and Ava kept their humor through it all. “Wow, you two have really gone through some stuff.”
“Sure. We all have,” Laura said. “And sometimes life’s circumstances are more challenging than other times, no matter how you spin it. But it’s not like we’re single parents either. Although our husbands may be gone a lot, they’re stillthere, and the support goes both ways.”
Clara shrugged. “I guess that makes sense.”
Laura continued. “Besides, once you get to the other side of a long deployment, there’s no better feeling.”
Clara shook her head, not understanding.
Laura let out a long breath, and her shoulders rolled back. “There’s a confidence, a feeling of independence, that is gained by going through it. You learn in these times that you can do more on your own than you may have realized. That doesn’t mean that youwantto or that it’s better that way. But just knowing that youcanis really an important part of life.”
Laura glanced at some of the other spouses in the room. She raised her chin. “They call us dependents, but the truth is, we are actually incrediblyindependent, more so than most. And we have the battle scars to prove it.”
Ava smiled as she waved to someone across the room. She turned back to Clara with a grin as if she were letting her in on a secret. “But at the same time, we are never truly on our own. I have always found military spouses to be the most supportive group of women I’ve ever had the pleasure to know. They will drop everything to help another in a pinch.”
Clara let out a scoff before she could stop herself and hoped they didn’t notice. She didn’t want to insult them—it was just that she was usually skeptical of that sort of thing. Maybe it was because she’d had the same best friend since kindergarten. She’d always had someone—the same someone—by her side to do life with. She never needed to branch out for friendships much beyond that. Clara didn’t really trust other women the way she did Lily. She couldn’t imagine forming these types of bonds at her age. She certainly couldn’t imagine doing it over and over again, with all new people, every few years.
This sisterhood of spouses thing sounded nice enough—for these ladies. But the truth was, Clara thought these women all seemed a little too good to be true.
“Wow, you guys are so positive about everything. Where’s the bitterness? The resentment? Don’t military spouses ever complain?”
Ava let out a cackle. “Oh, yeah, we do,” she said.
She and Laura exchanged a knowing smile.
“Some of us more than others,” Laura added. “We have so many different personalities in this group.”
Ava pointed across the room to where a thin woman with a frown was wiping down tables. “Take Allison, for example. She will criticize just about anything. She’s probably whining rightnow about how the cookies are too crumbly, or the hangar is too cold, or that the people around her are too annoying. But she still shows up to this stuff even though she doesn’t have to. I suspect she loves it all; she’ll just never admit it. I wouldn’t exactly call herdelightfulto be around, but still, she’s truly a caring and nurturing person. But don’t tell her that, or she’ll make fun of you.”
Clara stifled a laugh.
Ava pointed out another woman with short, silvering hair. “Then there’s Charlotte, our very own Pollyanna, who sees only the good in everyone and everything. You’ll never hear her complain, no matter how many canceled plans or changed orders she puts up with. We suspect it’s all just to torture Allison.”
Laura and Clara both laughed.
Ava pointed out another woman across the room with perfect waves falling down her back. “And that’s Meg. She always manages to make the ugliest base housing look like a page out of a lifestyle magazine. She’s potentially a genius with a bunch of degrees but insists on catching up on celebrity gossip when she’s with the group. She can be rather mysterious, though. One of these days, we’re going to find out she’s been working for the CIA—probably from her perfectly styled patio.”
Laura and Clara were both doubled over in laughter. Ava was on a roll now, and Clara couldn’t wait to hear more. “Go on,” she said.
