Secrets of War: A Military Romance Read Online Free PDF

home!” she said as she walked in the front door.
    “Hey, Baby Girl!” Geraldine greeted coming out of the kitchen and wiping her hands on her apron. “How was your day? Are you okay, baby?”
    “Yeah, Momma. I’m fine, why do you ask?” Suzy put her bag on the hall table and hung her coat on the hook.
    “Because you look awful, frankly.” Her grandmother, Geraldine had never been a woman to hold back what she was thinking or to use tact when she was expressing it.
    “Well, thank you Momma that is so sweet of you to say!” Suzy hugged her grandmother. Geraldine Stephenson had the best hugs of anyone she’d ever known. She would wrap her warm arms around you and squeeze, making all the bad things of the day go away.
    A stout, portly woman, who always said God hadn’t given her a size eight figure because she was meant to mother people and that’s what she did. Only she’d been unable to have more than one child. So, she’d mothered all the children of the town. Everyone called Geraldine Momma , if you tried to call her Mrs. Stephenson, or ma’am she would just fed you pie until you gave in.
    “I’m serious, Suzy!” she said touching the back of her hand to her forehead. “Did you check your T-cell count today?”
    “Momma, please don’t start,” she said pushing past her and going into the kitchen to see what was for dinner.
    “No, don’t you start! Have you been taking your meds? I know you aren’t getting enough rest. Did you eat today?” her grandmother asked touching her forehead again.
    “I am fine! I had to do inventory today, I volunteered at the hospital, and I had two days straight of a run ins with two members of the Merrick family! I’m fine Momma, I’m just tired.”
    “Wait, back up. Two members of the Merrick family? And what do you mean by run ins?” she asked her sitting down at the table.
    Suzanne grabbed a bowl out of the cabinet and started to scoop some of her grandmother’s world famous Texas chili. “Well yesterday, it was Jamie. He is in my music therapy class over at the hospital. He stayed after to ask me out on a date, and when I told him no…He got pissed and asked if I didn’t like him now, because he had a peg leg.”
    “Why did you say no?” Geraldine asked one eyebrow raised.
    “MOMMA! You know me better than that! You know his injuries doesn’t matter to me. My status matters to me, and I never want anyone in this town to know it. Besides, I can’t get involved with anyone now.”
    “I know you didn’t just say that to me,” Geraldine replied laughing. “Goodness gracious, girl the man asked you to dinner, not to bear his children. You think you can’t sit at a table and have a decent meal with a man without telling him you have HIV, then I think we need to work on your conversation skills baby!”
    She winced knowing she had bailed on Jamie yet a second time today as well. Nope, no dating him. She couldn’t sit down at a table with him or in a car, apparently and she certainly wasn’t going to any dammed barbeque at his parent’s house! “Oh, Momma. You know what I mean. There is history there, I mean a long time ago—I thought I would be Mrs. Jamie Merrick by now. I just don’t want to open that back up. I mean I have HIV. I can’t be anyone’s wife. I won’t do that to anyone, especially Jamie.”
    “Oh, sweetie. So at thirty-four years old, you have resigned yourself to being alone the rest of your life? No baby, you are too beautiful of a spirit for that. The doctors told you over and over, there are safe ways for you to have an intimate, satisfying sex life.”
    “I can’t believe you and granny are talking about sex again . Don’t you guys think about anything else?” Jade asked as she walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water.
    “Hey, Jade. How was school today?” Suzy asked her sister, ignoring her usual sarcasm. “Did you do your homework?”
    Jade and Suzy had been so close when their mother was alive, they spent