got up and opened the door for Carmen and Joanie. Natalie and Zoe went straight back to Rebecca’s room.
Carmen carried a box of tissues. Joanie had a bottle of orange juice. The usual fare for the mornings when their husbands left for an extended time. They made it to the kitchen before the tears started. Diana pulled a bottle of champagne from the cabinet and mixed mimosas. Carmen passed out tissues, and Joanie got out three glasses.
“Champagne shouldn’t be used for days like this. It’s a celebration thing.” Diana wiped away tears.
“We are celebrating.” Carmen tossed a fistful of tissues into an empty paper bag. “We’re rejoicing in the fact that one more time we’ve held it together like good little army wives. We didn’t scream and bawl like our daughters, even though we wanted to. We were strong.”
“And now we can fall apart.” Diana filled three glasses and touched hers with the other two, then reached for another tissue.
Chapter One
Over the past thirteen years, the ladies who lived on the same block in Sugar Run had been through wars, rumors of wars, death, divorce, fears, and joys, but nothing had prepared Carmen, Diana, and Joanie for the day they walked away from the army recruiter’s office in downtown San Antonio. Each of their daughters had enlisted and would leave in less than an hour, heading to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for basic training. Backs straight, the three mothers managed to keep smiles on their faces until they were all inside Diana’s van, and then the waterworks started.
“I need a drink.” Diana wiped at the never-ending tears with a tissue, then passed the box around.
“This is ten times—no, a hundred times—worse than when Eli deploys. But, good God, Diana, it’s eight o’clock in the morning. If we start drinking now, we’ll be passed out by noon,” Carmen sobbed as she blew her nose and tossed another fistful of tissues into the plastic trash bag Diana kept in the van.
Diana pushed a strand of red hair away from her wet cheeks. “Passed completely out sounds good to me, and if you’ll remember, we always have mimosas when the guys leave on missions.”
Joanie took a compact from her purse and checked her reflection, then broke down into more weeping. “Zoe doesn’t look a thing like me. She’s got Brett’s dark hair and blues, and since she’s got nurse’s training, they’ll probably send her to some god-awful country. She took ballet, for God’s sake, and she was a cheerleader. She doesn’t belong in a foreign country seeing soldiers with their legs blown off.”
“In the words of Jimmy Buffett, ‘It’s five o’clock somewhere,’ so let’s go to Diana’s.” Blotches spotted Carmen’s translucent skin from crying so hard. Several strands of dark-brown hair had escaped her ponytail and hung limp like a frayed flag of victory on a rainy day. “At least Zoe will be able to tell you where she’s going. Natalie passed that language test with flying colors. She’ll be put somewhere to translate, and you know what that means. Everything will be classified, and she won’t be able to talk about it.”
Diana started the van and then laid her head on the steering wheel. “This is worse than kindergarten, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” the women agreed.
“We were able to pick them up at the end of the day back then,” Joanie sighed.
Carmen stared at the front of the recruitment center. “I wanted one more glimpse of her, but I guess they went out a back door. I prayed every day from the time that Natalie was born that she’d do anything rather than join the service. I didn’t care if she flipped burgers at the local McDonald’s for the rest of her life, but oh, no, she made her daddy proud. He’s over there in God knows where, doing God knows what, and I’m the one left at home with the empty nest,” Carmen declared. “And yes, I need a good stiff drink. Maybe two or three.”
“That would be great. I’m not ready for an empty house.” Diana sniffled as she put the van in gear and headed north toward Sugar Run, population 3,412, according to the city-limit signs on either end of town.
Diana had known when she married Gerald that she’d spend months alone when and if he was deployed. She’d accepted that, and when he divorced her for another woman, she’d lived through that, too, with the help of her friends. She’d raised Rebecca on her own for the most part, and even