She probably looked more like an Eskimo than the hot chick she originally envisioned being on this day, but it was the coldest February ever. And it was especially frigid when one wasn’t wearing panties…or a bra. The residual heat from the truck engine had kept her butt warm for a short while, but that had quickly faded with the long wait time for the buses to arrive. Clusters of wives huddled together with the official base huggers—there to greet those Marines who didn’t have family here. Hannah knew she could have joined them—maybe she should have. It was the pleasure of anticipating Danny’s return home that kept her from doing so. She basked in the swell of anticipation. A tiny pool of warmth had settled in her core, waiting to flame up the second he was in her arms. Signs dotted the chain-link fence edging the road that led to the base. Several more littered the highway all the way to the interstate. There wasn’t one for Danny. They’d said it all in their letters. Hannah shut out everything around her and focused each thought, each breath, each heartbeat on him.
