Page 98 of Forever Fallen

“Yeah, they do… and don’t drink his beer. It’s awful.”

Marisol shivered and gave Valkyrie a knowing glance, causing the man to smile indulgently, just before he put his hand in hers easily.

Sophie nodded and looked back to Toby, to see him watching her again, and that milky smile. He had a dimple appear on his cheek as his eyes lit up with innocent joy at having someone smile at him.

“Hey sweet boy…” Sophie crooned tenderly. “Is it time to burp you yet? You are just playing with that bottle, aren’t you?”

“You’re going to be a natural…” Marisol said softly, smiling in approval. “I can’t wait until I can return the favor someday. I’ll be on your couch, giving you a moment of peace, and spoiling your little one…”

“You both are always welcome – and hopefully that sometime is sooner rather than later.”

Sophie sat the big baby up and put him over her shoulder, breathing deeply the smell of formula, baby powder, and just that sweet essence that made her stomach clench and sent every chromosome in her crying out for her own child someday.

Patting him gently, she felt him pushing back against her as he tried to raise his head, marveling at how much babies would change and grow over the years to be a child before turning into a young man. Time would pass before them all so quickly… making her realize that her year would too.

Ryan was right.

This was good for her to come over, get out, and find ways to discover small measures of peace in her life.

“Sundays?” Sophie said softly, rubbing Toby’s back now, trying to encourage him to burp before she gave him a little more formula.

“Yes.”

“How about I tackle Wednesday night dinners then?” Sophie offered. “It would break up my week, give me a chance to see everyone, and help the new moms out, too. Armadillo said that Delilah was ready to go any day now.”

“I think that’s a lovely idea – and we should do the same.”

“Marisol…”

“Aeron, if we are cooking for us – it’s not much more to throw on a few extras and have our friends over.”

“I just don’t want you overdoing it.”

“He’s right,” Sophie said immediately.

“Thank you,” Valkyrie uttered, looking surprised at the support – and Marisol frowned at her.

“Don’t encourage him,” Marisol said flatly. “I think having a small get together is a good thing and would break up the weeks. Y’all used to use the fire pit at Flyboys on Friday nights and hang out… maybe we could start that up again?”

“No. That’s too much. Wednesday at Sophie’s? Sundays here? Now you want to add on Fridays at Flyboys? Marisol…”

“Once a month, you big lunk…” Marisol said, cutting him off. “Once a month we can enjoy some downtime away from everyone’s homes and rememberwhyandhowwe got this lucky to be here.”

“Now, I really like that idea…” Sophie said softly, not wanting to put her two cents in. “When Ryan comes back to visit – can we make sure he can participate? I know he would really like to see everyone, and sitting around a fire pit at Flyboys would be nice.”

“He’s going to want to spend time with you,” Valkyrie said bluntly, causing the two women to look at each other before they smiled knowingly in understanding. “But that’s not a bad idea to get everyone together once a month to just unwind and be together.”

“Perfect,” Marisol smiled. “I’ll reach out to Delilah and…”

“Why don’t we do an email, so everyone knows at one time? I can then copy it to Ryan. Kind of like a Flyboys update or newsletter? I mean, it can be simple with a few bullet points with what everyone has going on in their lives…” Sophie hedged. “It’s stupid, isn’t it?”

“Actually,” Valkyrie began, looking completely baffled and surprised. “That’s a brilliant idea. We can add the rest of the team on there and keep in touch all in one click. Right now, we have a texting thread going, but some of the guys don’t have reception or even phones out in the field. This would be really nice since email is about the only thing that they can count on out there in Ghazni.”

“That’s a great idea,” Marisol said, looking at her husband. “I would have loved to have something simple, just a ‘Hey, I’m still here’notification. I like the idea of it being short and sweet because most of the time the team doesn’t have a lot of time to get on the computers, or the rest of us are busy.”

“Let me figure this all out and I may pick your brain on a few things, Marisol and Valkyrie…”

“Pick away,” Valkyrie offered.

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