Healing Home

by Madden, J. M.

  He thought he had asked her that once, but he wasn’t sure. She shook her head.

  “No, Mary did not hire me again. I’m here because…” she paused, her hand still stroking his head. “I’m here,” she said firmly, “because I was worried and wanted to be here for you.”

  Anger stirred. “I don’t need your pity.”

  He shifted away from her hand, but she followed him. “I know you don’t, damn it. I thought it would freak you out if I told you I’d fallen in love with you, though.”

  Lincoln stilled beneath her hand, his breathing rasping as he looked at her, trying to see the subterfuge. Was she telling him the truth?

  “We were together two days,” he said harshly. “How the fuck could you have fallen in love with me in two days?”

  A wild hope had exploded in his chest at her words, but he was afraid to trust what she said. Another woman had done the same thing, appealing to his need.

  She shrugged lightly, her mouth crooked in a smile. “I have no idea, but I did, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

  Lincoln closed his eyes, afraid to hope. His heart was racing. If he could have he would have gotten up from the bed and pulled her into his arms.

  “Why are you telling me this now, when I can’t do anything about it?” He whispered.

  BB laughed, lightly, leaning down to kiss him. “You are my captive audience. I’m going to convince you that I love you enough to be the one for you. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, grinning.

  A nurse came in a few minutes later to check on him, and BB moved back.

  “I need to get vertical,” Lincoln growled at the woman, suddenly highly motivated. “Get whoever you need to get to help me out of bed and on my feet. You have two minutes or I’m doing it myself.”

  The nurse bustled out of the room, returning quickly with a tall, lanky orderly and another nurse. Within just a couple of minutes they’d maneuvered his IV around the bed and were helping him out of the bed. Lincoln’s thighs quivered as they had to take his weight for the first time in almost a week, but he braced himself against the tall orderly. After a few minutes he felt solid enough to stand on his own. He motioned BB up out of her chair and toward him. Her brows rose in surprise and she smiled as she walked toward him. Then, cupping his face, she leaned up and kissed him.

  “I love you too, BB Jones. I had to be on my feet to tell you that.”

  BB laughed but he could tell the he’d caught her off guard. “Do you really?” She whispered.

  He nodded. “I do. More than I ever would have thought possible. I’ve thought about you and longed for you for weeks.”

  He burrowed his nose into her hair. “I want you to be part of my life. While I was over there I thought of so many things I wanted to do with you. I want to go grocery shopping with you, and drive you to the dentist, and plant fake flowers.” She giggled, pressing a kiss to his neck, but he continued. “And I want to have puppies with you. Is Frankie fixed?”

  BB chuckled. “Yes, she is. I might have to be the one having puppies.”

  He pulled back and looked down into her eyes, feeling the bottom fall out of his stomach. he didn’t like the vulnerable feeling the thought provoked. “Would that be okay? Having babies with me?”

  She nodded, her eyes filling with tears. He leaned down and kissed her. “Don’t cry, baby.”

  But she did anyway. And there might have been some snuffling from the nurses behind him as well.

  “Are you sure, Lincoln?” She searched his eyes and face. “I know it’s quick but I love everything about you. You’ve got spankin’ week-old bad breath and your Lincoln Log is hanging out, but I still can’t get close enough to you.”

  Lincoln choked on laughter, pulling her tight into his arms, feeling self-conscious for the first time. The nurses and orderly snickered as well, but he shrugged it all away. “I love you, BrandiLynn Beatrice Jones. You might as well get used to hearing it, because I’m going to be telling you a lot. Every minute I can.”

  They stood and swayed for several minutes, until Link’s energy began to wane. “I’m gonna have to lay down, baby,” he admitted. “I love you.”

  BB smiled at the words, already loving hearing them.

  The nurses moved in then and they maneuvered him onto the bed, this time laying on his left side. Lincoln didn’t even notice when he slipped into sleep, BB’s hand stroking along his head.

  Epilogue

  BB maneuvered the car into the pick-up lane and left it running to keep the air on. Frankie was in the backseat and seemed to sense that something big was going on, trying to peer over the window, but she was too short.

  “Back in a minute, Frankie,” BB murmured.

  Then she circled the hood of the car, watching the front doors anxiously. An orderly pushed Lincoln through. He was in a wheelchair and she knew it was pissing him off. There was a ball cap pulled low over his eyes and he was wearing lightweight clothing that wouldn’t bother the healing wounds on his back and thighs. It had been four days since he’d told her he loved her, and he’d gotten more and more strength every day. The stitches would have to stay in another week, at least, and he was ordered to seriously chill. No working out, no swimming, no sex.

  The doctor’s eyes had twinkled when he’d said it so she thought he might have been messing with Link, but she was going to take it very easy with him.

  When he saw her, Link’s expression lightened and he planted his hands like he was going to jump up out of the chair, but the orderly stopped him with a word. Then the man flipped the brakes on the chair and nodded that Link could move.

  He still moved a little tentatively, BB noted, but he was doing so much better. Just the fact that he was walking out of the hospital intact was more than she ever would have expected. It was more than some of his teammates had done yet. They’d visited one of his teammates before they left. Luca Carmichael, the K9 handler, had lost a leg in the same firefight Link had been in, and they’d just woken him from a medically induced coma. Even more distressing to Luca was the fact that the dog was gone. As she’d looked into his vacant eyes, BB had worried about his actual physical safety. His mom and dad were there with him, but she had a feeling the hospital staff would be keeping a very sharp eye on him for the foreseeable future.

  As Link climbed into the car, Frankie went nuts. Lincoln laughed, trying to calm her down without hurting himself.

  Once settled into the car, with Frankie on his lap, he grinned at her. “Get us the fuck out of here, baby.”

  “Gladly,” BB said, shifting into gear.

  It took less than half an hour to get back to Lincoln’s beach house. She parked on the street and circled the car to open the door for him. Frankie jumped from his lap and went to the grass to use the bathroom, and BB held a hand down to him to help Link out. Again, he surprised her by taking it, but he pulled her to him for a kiss when he was vertical. “Thanks, baby.”

  Inside the house he sat at the kitchen table.

  Moving to the fridge, BB grabbed a couple of bottles of water, setting them on the table. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Just a little woozy. They gave me pain pills right before I left.”

  “Maybe you should go ahead and go to bed then?”

  He shook his head. “I just want to feel normal for a bit. I’ll go to bed in a while. I am kinda hungry,” he said sheepishly.

  Grinning, BB jumped back to her feet, glad to have something productive to do. “I have just the thing.”

  She removed several plastic containers, popping the lid on one and putting it into the microwave to warm. “I know you like Mexican food.”

  Lincoln grinned. “Oh, damn, girl. I already told you I loved you. What else do you want from me?”

  BB stopped in front of him and leaned in for a kiss. “Your love is enough,” she told him softly. When she tried to pull away, Link tugged her down to his lap.

  BB gasped, afraid she was going to hurt him, but he shook his
head. “I’m good. I just wanted you closer. You look beautiful in your welcome home dress,” he said, fingering the blue fabric, “but I just wanted to touch you, feel you.”

  He cupped her breast through the fabric. “When I first saw you on the tarmac, I didn’t know what to think. You were too beautiful to be believed, and you were there for me. I’m nobody, you know. But you wrapped your arms around me and I felt like I’d just been granted immortality or something by an angel. I didn’t want to let you go.”

  She stroked a hand down his cheek, her throat tight with emotion. “I’ll tell you a secret. I didn’t want to let you go either. You wrapped your arms around me and I felt like I had found home.”

  He leaned his head back to look at her. “Yes, that’s it exactly. It felt like I finally came home.” He glanced around the kitchen. “This house is nice, but you are my home.”

  BB swiped away a tear and wrapped her arms very carefully around his neck, holding him as close to her as she could. If she could hold him here forever she would.

  “I love you, Lincoln,” she whispered.

  “I love you, BB. Thank you for being my home.”

  She chuckled, leaning back to look into his electric eyes. “I will always be your home,” she promised. The microwave beeped. “Now, Home is going to feed you.”

  They laughed and he let her up. “Maybe Home will cuddle with me later,” he murmured. “No,” he said, laughter lighting in his eyes, “maybe Home will cuddle with my Lincoln Log later.”

  BB burst out laughing and gave him a saucy look. “Maybe. We’ll have to see. Eat your burrito, buster.”

  They grinned at each other and BB shivered at the promise she could see in his eyes.

  The End…

  Following is a sneak peek from Wicked Healing….

  Prologue

  Carolina looked at the note on her desk and shook her head. What the ever-loving hell? She had people dropping like flies! She was happy for her contractor, of course, but did she really have to leave for her honeymoon during one of the busiest times the business had ever experienced?

  Her phone buzzed with a text message from BB. She swiped it open and gasped. She recognized BB’s long-fingered, manicured hand, but the giant rock on her ring finger was new. Immediately she called her sister.

  “Are you serious?” She demanded.

  BB giggled, sounding like a crazy woman. “Yeah, I guess so. I just got engaged.”

  Carolina floundered. “What? I don’t understand.”

  Then she thought of the last assignment she’d asked BB to take. “The welcome home guy? The SEAL?”

  “Yes,” BB giggled again, sounding… amazing. Like she was relaxed and happy and had had sex. Carolina was at a loss.

  “It’s only been, what? Three or four weeks since you met him?”

  “Something like that,” her sister said, voice nonchalant. “I just wanted to let you know not to expect me to be available for anything.”

  “Well, I guess not,” Carolina said, laughing. “When do we get to meet the man?”

  “Um, we’ll see. Gotta run, Carolina! Love you!”

  “Love you too, B.”

  But she was already gone. Carolina stared at her phone incredulously, then swiped through to Weather Bug, looking to see if there was some kind of pheromone alert she hadn’t heard about. Nope, nothing. People were falling in love all around her and it was aggravating.

  How the hell was she going to cover all these jobs?

  Wicked Healing

  Chapter One

  Erica Knox simply didn’t understand. Dogs loved her. Like, seriously, loved her. They would cross the street to get a scratch from her, and jump fences just to be near her. Her house was the dog hangout of the neighborhood. It wasn’t exactly a talent, but definitely an affinity.

  Her affinity was failing her now.

  When Carolina had called her to ask her to foster the dog, she hadn’t even hesitated to say yes. Now, though…

  She looked at the too-lean Malinois laying in the cage and wondered if he would actually follow through with the nasty growling he was doing. His body was tense and his black eyes solid direct. The vet’s office had muzzled the dog, but she was still cautious. She’d seen a dog break out of a muzzle once, and it hadn’t been pretty.

  Wicked, a six year old wounded Belgian Malinois Military War Dog, recently flown in from Germany, was her new foster dog. And she had a feeling he was going to live up to his name.

  Taking a breath, she opened the cage door. The dog didn’t lunge for her, which she counted as a blessing. The growl intensified, though.

  The uniformed Army veterinarian had assured her that he was mobile, but the dog was still laying on his side. “Come on, Wicked. Let’s get you out of here.”

  He seemed to understand the word ‘out’. Laboriously, he pushed to his feet, then stood glaring at her, as if awaiting her next move. Taking her metaphorical balls in hand, Erica reached in and placed the slip lead over his head, very slowly, very carefully. The dog continued to growl, but he didn’t make any movement, just held completely still. Well, he wavered a little, but he had reason to.

  Erica pulled back, out of the cage and gave the male room to move. The dog was big for a Mal, and he wouldn’t be the type to like being crowded, so she duckwalked backwards a few steps. The animal followed her out, steps wobbling as he slipped out of the cage. His head was lowered and he looked around, as if to see who was observing his humiliation.

  Because that was how it struck Erica that he was feeling. It was like he’d been this warrior badass, and now, because he only had three legs, he’d lost his sense of being a badass.

  Unfortunately, she’d seen this kind of demoralization before, and it didn’t always end well. For the most part, dogs and cats could survive easily without a leg, but they had to have the determination to do it.

  She glanced up at the vet standing a few yards away. “What happened to his handler?”

  The woman frowned. “All we heard was that the dog saved his life, but he was injured just as badly as Sir Wicked here. He’s still in the hospital in Bamburg, Germany, as far as we know.”

  Erica frowned. When Carolina had called her she’d known that she would help out— there’d been no question— but she didn’t realize how dire the situation was. The dog was alone in the world. There had probably been some catastrophic explosion or blast or something to cause the damage and burnt hair she could see along his sides, and then he’d been separated from the man he’d come to rely on for his health and companionship.

  But then, the reverse was probably true as well. Erica wondered about the soldier who was the other half of this pair.

  There was a large swath of bandages around his abdomen and hips. The end of the leg that had been amputated hung in the air. It was wrapped in bright pink medical wrap. Erica was actually surprised at how much they’d left behind. It looked like he’d lost the lower part of his foot only. “Will he be eligible for a prosthetic later?”

  The vet nodded, her eyes kind. “That’s why we left it that way. After a while he’ll figure out he can’t use that foot and he’ll keep it up. Bandages need changed every other day or when they get wet.”

  Though she knew it was dangerous, Erica wanted to reach out to give the dog some kind of encouragement, but he was still giving her the evil eye, as if looking for a reason to chew her up and spit her out. She really and truly didn’t blame him, but she hoped he decided to pass on her tender skin. Pushing to her feet, she did one of the hardest things she’d done in a long time. She turned her back to the animal. But, at the same time, she ordered, ‘heel’.

  Barely daring to breathe, she waited. There, out of the corner of her eye, she could see the dog come to her side. “Forward.”

  They walked forward a few feet and she took the discharge papers and a bottle of pills from the uniformed veterinarian. Respect shone in the woman’s expression, but Erica didn’t let it detour her path. With a final nod, she headed to
her vehicle in the visitor’s lot. She told Wicked to sit, then she opened the back hatch of her SUV and drew out the textured ramp she used for her geriatric patients. Wicked gave her another beleaguered look, but very carefully hobbled up the ramp. He went into the large dog cage she had in the back without issue, and sat and watched as she latched the door.

  Erica’s heart ached for the dog. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and love on him, but she knew that would be the quickest way to alienate him. They were building the tiniest sliver of trust right now, and she could wait for him to decide to come to her.

  The front gate guard gave her an odd look as they exited Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, looking at the release papers several times, then into the back of her car, before finally waving her through. She wasn’t sure what had made him pause, but something. She’d have to look at the paperwork later. It was a long drive to Phoenix, though. They needed to get moving.

  First, though…

  She drove for about an hour to a dog park that she’d found on the way down. It was in a pretty little town called Vacasa. It was shaded and cool, and when she’d checked it out yesterday there had been no one there. Same today, she noted, looking around carefully. Parking the SUV she opened the passenger door behind her seat and retrieved the long lunge line she’d stowed there.

  Erica had fostered more than one dog after they’d been through military quarantine or a long illness, and she knew that actually getting outside into grass and open air sometimes had an amazing effect on the animal. Moving to the back hatch she lifted the door, then settled the ramp to the edge. Wicked watched her for a long moment. Erica took it as a good sign that he no longer growled at her.

  Then he growled at her.

  “Listen, buddy,” she told him sternly. “I’m trying to do a nice thing for you. Cool your jets.”