Sentimental Journey (Home Front - Book #1) Read Online Free
Author: Barbara Bretton
Tags: Romance, World War II, Women-HomeFront
never occurred to her that her very own husband would feel the same way.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?” He gave her a playful swat on the bottom. “I’m coming home, Doro, as fast as I possibly can. Before you know it, you’ll be so busy taking care of me again that you’ll wonder why you wanted me back.”
“Never.” She covered his neck and chin with swift sweet kisses born of love and fear. She closed her eyes and tried to memorize the feel and smell of his skin as if to fortify herself for the long months when he would no longer be there with her.
Tom hadn’t been drafted. As a forty-year-old married man and the father of two daughters, he was an unlikely candidate for military service. But Tom Wilson was not just a married man with children; he was also a patriotic American who could no more stay there in New York City while his countrymen fought for freedom than he could turn away from the scene of an accident.
She’d shamed herself the day he’d come home with the news of his enlistment.
“How could you!” she’d cried, thinking only of her own fears and the safety of their family. “We need you here, Tom Wilson. The company needs you.” In over two decades of marriage, Dot Wilson had never opposed her husband in anything, but that day she had asked him to choose between his country and his family.
His words still echoed in her memory. “There’s no choice, Doro,” he’d said. “If we don’t win the war, we’ll lose the freedom that makes our family possible.”
And so there they were in the bedroom they’d shared for the first time on their wedding night and every night since. She could still see herself standing there, so young and scared in her white peignoir set, staring at the handsome boy who was now her husband.
The terrible thought that this might be the very last time she felt his arms around her as they dressed for a Saturday night outing made her feel as if her heart would break.
His caresses grew more ardent, and she laughed softly and placed a hand on his chest. “We’ll be late, Tommy.”
He cupped her breast and she swayed toward him. “The Canteen will still be there.”
“And after you told the girls to be ready at six o’clock sharp or you’d have them court-martialed! How on earth would we explain this?”
“Do them good to know their old folks still love each other.”
She longed to stay right there in his embrace, but making love in broad daylight with the girls waiting for them downstairs was too scandalous to consider.
“Get dressed, Tommy.” She kissed him soundly.
The look he gave her was so thrilling that her breath caught for an instant. “Tonight, Doro,” he said as he reached for his army-issue shirt. When we close the door behind us tonight, I don’t intend to let you go.”
Chapter Two
Although she had grown up right there in New York City, smack in Forest Hills in the borough of Queens, Catherine still felt a thrill each time she boarded the IND subway bound for Manhattan. Manhattan was another world, a fairytale land straight from the dreams of a Hollywood director.
Only who needed Hollywood when you had Manhattan right there on your doorstep! From the splendor of Central Park to the broad expanse of Park Avenue, to the electric excitement of Broadway with its neon signs and palatial theaters that housed everything from Shakespeare to Shaw to Rodgers and Hammerstein, all of it was real and only twenty minutes—and one five-cent subway fare—away.
Where else could you see the Camel cigarette man, who presided over a billboard poster that blew giant smoke rings over Times Square, or the mighty Prometheus of Rockefeller Center with the weight of the earth on his shoulders? They said that Henry Ford had worried that the excavating necessary for the Empire State Building would affect the earth’s rotation on its axis, but the spectacular 101-story structure had only added to the city’s grandeur. And who hadn’t met
“Is there something you’re not telling me?” He gave her a playful swat on the bottom. “I’m coming home, Doro, as fast as I possibly can. Before you know it, you’ll be so busy taking care of me again that you’ll wonder why you wanted me back.”
“Never.” She covered his neck and chin with swift sweet kisses born of love and fear. She closed her eyes and tried to memorize the feel and smell of his skin as if to fortify herself for the long months when he would no longer be there with her.
Tom hadn’t been drafted. As a forty-year-old married man and the father of two daughters, he was an unlikely candidate for military service. But Tom Wilson was not just a married man with children; he was also a patriotic American who could no more stay there in New York City while his countrymen fought for freedom than he could turn away from the scene of an accident.
She’d shamed herself the day he’d come home with the news of his enlistment.
“How could you!” she’d cried, thinking only of her own fears and the safety of their family. “We need you here, Tom Wilson. The company needs you.” In over two decades of marriage, Dot Wilson had never opposed her husband in anything, but that day she had asked him to choose between his country and his family.
His words still echoed in her memory. “There’s no choice, Doro,” he’d said. “If we don’t win the war, we’ll lose the freedom that makes our family possible.”
And so there they were in the bedroom they’d shared for the first time on their wedding night and every night since. She could still see herself standing there, so young and scared in her white peignoir set, staring at the handsome boy who was now her husband.
The terrible thought that this might be the very last time she felt his arms around her as they dressed for a Saturday night outing made her feel as if her heart would break.
His caresses grew more ardent, and she laughed softly and placed a hand on his chest. “We’ll be late, Tommy.”
He cupped her breast and she swayed toward him. “The Canteen will still be there.”
“And after you told the girls to be ready at six o’clock sharp or you’d have them court-martialed! How on earth would we explain this?”
“Do them good to know their old folks still love each other.”
She longed to stay right there in his embrace, but making love in broad daylight with the girls waiting for them downstairs was too scandalous to consider.
“Get dressed, Tommy.” She kissed him soundly.
The look he gave her was so thrilling that her breath caught for an instant. “Tonight, Doro,” he said as he reached for his army-issue shirt. When we close the door behind us tonight, I don’t intend to let you go.”
Chapter Two
Although she had grown up right there in New York City, smack in Forest Hills in the borough of Queens, Catherine still felt a thrill each time she boarded the IND subway bound for Manhattan. Manhattan was another world, a fairytale land straight from the dreams of a Hollywood director.
Only who needed Hollywood when you had Manhattan right there on your doorstep! From the splendor of Central Park to the broad expanse of Park Avenue, to the electric excitement of Broadway with its neon signs and palatial theaters that housed everything from Shakespeare to Shaw to Rodgers and Hammerstein, all of it was real and only twenty minutes—and one five-cent subway fare—away.
Where else could you see the Camel cigarette man, who presided over a billboard poster that blew giant smoke rings over Times Square, or the mighty Prometheus of Rockefeller Center with the weight of the earth on his shoulders? They said that Henry Ford had worried that the excavating necessary for the Empire State Building would affect the earth’s rotation on its axis, but the spectacular 101-story structure had only added to the city’s grandeur. And who hadn’t met
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