No Man Left Behind: A Veteran Inspired Charity Anthology by Elizabeth Knox (black authors fiction TXT) 📕

grabbed ahold of the bag before it fell to the floor and winced as the woven material grazed across the palm of his hand.

In the meantime, Phil stuck his hand out in front of him and smiled. “Hey, Sterling. It’s nice to meet you. I hope you don’t mind that I came along for the ride. I wanted to spend as much time with Abby as possible. When she said she was meeting her hero best friend at the airport, I had to come along.”

Sterling unclenched his jaw, hiding the tension from their interaction from becoming a dead giveaway to Phil regarding his true feelings about him. He recalled numerous times when Abby cried in front of him as she recounted a selfish or rude act Phil did to shake her confidence. Still, when dealing with the enemy, it was, almost always, best to strategize and attack at a better time.

Rather than taking Phil’s hand to shake it, he nodded at him, instead, and then tilted his head toward the bag as an excuse. “Got my hands full. Hope you don’t mind.”

Phil threw his hands up in the air. “Oh yeah. I understand. You need any help there?”

Sterling grinned, displaying perfect white teeth. “No. I’m good. Lifted more in the Army.”

Phil chuckled. “I bet.” He grabbed ahold of Abby’s hand, an action that sent a stinging pang of jealousy through Sterling’s heart. “Come on, babe, let’s get to the car,” he said as he dragged Abby toward the exit. Abby glanced back at Sterling several times and mouthed a protest to Phil, yet Phil continued his long strides toward their destination.

Sterling sighed. Why was Abby back with Phil? He knew why Abby didn’t tell him and it wasn’t because she forgot. They shared everything with each other. He was almost certain the reason she kept Phil a secret was because she knew he’d be against the idea. Sterling never liked Phil. Giving a doomed relationship a second chance was like watching a hamster spin its wheel. It was useless, pointless and it would, eventually, end up as it did before—with a heart-broken Abby sitting on the sofa eating a pint of her favorite, rocky road ice cream.

Still, if Abby wanted to go down that path again, Sterling would wait on the other side of it, with two pints of ice cream and a nice, comfy lap for her to sit on. He’d hold her in his arms while she cried all night and then kiss her tears away in the morning after declaring his love for her, somewhere in between.

“I’m sorry,” Abby mouthed as she held the trunk open for Sterling to set his bag in. Phil slipped into the passenger seat, ignoring them. “He was at my place and I couldn’t very well kick him out so I invited him to come along, if he wanted to. Unfortunately, he took me up on my offer. I’m so sorry. I just wanted it to be the two of us but he wouldn’t leave.”

Sterling gave her a wry smile. “It’s okay.” He drew her into a hug, sighing into her hair with the feel of her soft body against his when a loud honk jerked him out of his fantasy.

Phil yelled through the open window, “Hey. We got to go. There are others behind us wanting this space.”

Sterling glanced over at Abby. His eyebrows drew together while he tamped down the increasing urge to ask her, “You couldn’t do any better than him?”

Slamming the trunk closed, she rushed over to the driver’s side and slipped behind the steering wheel while Sterling took the seat behind her. As Phil’s legs were longer than Abby’s, making little room for whoever sat behind him, it made sense for six foot-four, Sterling to sit behind Abby’s seat. Yet, his preference remained to sit beside his best friend than behind her.

Sadly, Sterling’s preference for watching Abby beyond her notice, taking note of the loveliness of her delicate cheekbones or the perfect arch of her neatly trimmed eyebrows was, immediately, foiled with Phil’s untimely presence. Still, there was an advantage to sitting behind Abby that he wasn’t previously aware of. From his vantage point, he was able to keep a wary eye on Phil and his maneuverings throughout their car ride. Sterling hid a wicked grin. If Phil tried anything, Sterling could put an immediate stop to it.

Sterling lifted his arms to his sides and settled back into his seat. “Where’s Gunner?”

“Back at the house,” Abby replied.

He glanced out the window as they departed from the airport drop off. “I can’t wait to see him.”

She smiled at him in the rearview mirror. “He’ll be excited to see you too. You want to stop by my place before I take you to your dad’s, so you can see him?”

Sterling caught the meaning behind Phil’s sideways glance and then grunted. The boy wanted time with his girl and that meant Sterling had to go. “No, I think I’ll just head home. I’ll come by sometime tomorrow, if that’s okay.”

“You sure you want to wait?”

He swept his gaze back at Phil and found a smug grin plastered to his face. Apparently the man was pleased Sterling would be nowhere near his girlfriend tonight. “Yeah.”

She sighed with what sounded like a bit of regret. “Okay, then. I’m sorry about tonight. I wish we had more time. If your flight didn’t come in so late . . .”

He gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s okay. We’ll have more time tomorrow.”

“Yes, definitely. I will set aside the whole day for us to spend together.”

One entire, uninterrupted day with Abby? It was Sterling’s turn to smile.

A salt and pepper haired man with silver colored, rectangular framed glasses shouted at Sterling as he walked over the threshold and into a spacious living room. “There’s my boy!” Sterling threw his duffle onto a nearby chair and walked into the warm hug awaiting him. “I’ve missed you, son.” Taking a step back, he