Give Me Love // jemi

chapter 27

(Joes pov)

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. I took my army hat off. I thought maybe if I showed up in my army merchandise she'd listen to me better.

I heard someone yell, "hold on." she said sort of stressed.

the door opened and a brown haired girl, Demi's height, that was a little skinnier opened the door with a 2 year old on her hip and a rag thrown over her shoulder.

"can I help you?" she asked.

I nodded. "I uh, just wanted to have a word with you for a moment." I told her.

she noticed my hat and shirt that both said U.S. Army. I had on jeans under and just regular boots.

"look. if this is about my husband. we DONT need any mon-" she started.

"no." I cut her off. "I'm a friend of Corey's. We were in the same troop about 2 years ago. I was one of the survivors, from the explosion." I told her.

she sighed and opened the screen door letting me in.

"is this Dylan?" I asked smiling at her soon.

he looked away from me shyly and buried his head in his moms neck.

"yes." she said putting him down as he ran away with his sippy cup. "so what did you need to talk about?" she asked.

I looked around. it was a farm house. as soon as you walked in there was a hallway and a staircase to the left. the hall leads to the kitchen, bathroom, and living room. I'm guessing all the bedrooms are upstairs.

"uh I um.." I didn't know how to put this. "I'm joe. by the way. I um.. Corey told me right before he..." I trailed off not wanting to finish it. "anyway, he uh, told me to tell you he loves you. I promised him I would. I know I've put this off the past 2 and a half years. I didn't realize how important that promise was, to see it through, until about 4 months ago, when my own son was born." I told her.

"I'm sorry where are you from?" Alyssa asked.

"Grand Prairie, Texas." I told her.

"and you just packed up your stuff and left your wife and son to tell me this?" she asked.

I nodded. "it sounds crazy right. but it was haunting me. and I just, I want to help in any way that I can." I told her.

her eyes teared up. "no one can help. he was my life. my son will never know who his father was or how great he was." she cried.

I pulled her into a hug. yes. i know I'm married. but this girl needed it.

this made me think more about Demi. what if i had died? what would she do?

I need to make things right for alyssa.
(end)