by Leslie Kelly
She forced herself to smile, and injected what she hoped was mild amusement into her voice. “So you’re saying you only ever get involved with women you think you might eventually marry?” She made a soft scoffing noise. “That’s pretty limiting, isn’t it? Not to mention idealistic.”
He leaned toward her, and his voice dropped to no more than a whisper. “I’m just saying that when I get involved with a woman, it means something beyond just great sex. I want a commitment.”
His breath was warm against her temple, and Lily felt a shiver go through her, because she knew that sex with Aiden Cross would be great. How many times had she imagined what it would be like to be with him?
“A commitment?” she asked lightly. “Why? I mean, what would be the point? Take it from someone who knows—nothing lasts forever. You’re better off settling for the great sex.”
She sensed Aiden’s surprise, followed by his withdrawal, and immediately regretted her words. She told herself again that she wouldn’t get serious about any man, no matter how appealing he might be. She’d experienced firsthand what happened when you loved someone and then lost that person. She didn’t ever want to go through that again.
3
THE PROCESSING CENTER at Fort Atterbury was packed with soldiers. They either stood in line to return their equipment, or sprawled in chairs or on the floor as they waited. Aiden and Lily had stood in line for nearly three hours just to turn in their weapons. Then, along with the other soldiers on their flight, they’d been directed to an enormous hangar to wait for their medical exams. The hangar was filled with yet more soldiers, who watched television or texted their loved ones as they waited. The scene was a little surreal, as the hangar’s interior was festive with holiday decorations in direct contrast to the palpable frustration of the troops.
Aiden’s joints ached, and he felt a little sick from lack of sleep, but there was no way he’d let Lily know. She’d already done so much for him, and he didn’t want her to continue thinking of him as her patient. He was improving every day; he just needed to get a good night’s sleep. They were both carrying their duffel bags and their military-issued backpacks, stuffed with their Christmas purchases. Finding a spot against the wall, they set their gear down and surveyed the scene. They also each carried a stack of forms that had to be completed before they could proceed to the mandatory checkpoints.
A display screen at the front of the hangar periodically flashed numbers, and Aiden glanced at his paperwork. The number he’d been assigned was literally hundreds away from the number currently being served.
Lily turned to Aiden and gave him a swiftly assessing look that had nothing to do with feminine interest and everything to do with her medical training. “You need rest.”
Aiden bristled. “I’m fine,” he said tightly. He didn’t want Lily viewing him as weak, or as someone who needed to be coddled. “At this rate, we won’t be going anywhere for hours.”
Lily’s shoulders sagged. She was tired, too, although she’d never admit it. “So what are our options?”
Aiden glanced around, weighing their choices. “I’m not sure we have any. I’ll get a read on how long before our numbers are called.”
Before he could do so, however, an enlisted soldier walked to the front of a tent with a microphone.
“Listen up,” he directed. “The MEDDAC is now closed. You’ll be directed to another hangar where you’ll spend the night. MEDDAC will reopen in the morning at 0600 hours. If you do not get through your medical in-processing by 1600 hours tomorrow, you’ll have to spend Christmas here at Fort Atterbury.”
Lily turned to Aiden in astonishment. “That can’t be right. Why is it taking them so long to in-process everyone?”
“The storms likely diverted hundreds of troops from Fort Benning to Fort Atterbury, and they’re probably shorthanded. Not all the staff are military, and civilians may have already checked out for the holidays.”
Rising, they hefted their duffel bags over their shoulders and followed the throng of soldiers out of the hangar and along a road. The temperature had plummeted to below freezing, and the ground was slick with a coating of ice.
“Watch your step,” Aiden advised, and would have put a hand beneath Lily’s elbow, but knew she wouldn’t thank him for it.
They reached a series of hangars and paused at the entrance to the first one, where the male troops were spending the night. The entire interior was lined with rows of metal bunk beds, but all the beds had already been claimed. The new soldiers, unable to find a vacant cot, simply threw their gear on the floor and tried to make themselves comfortable.
“You can’t spend the night here,” Lily said with dismay. “They don’t even have enough beds for everyone.”
“It’s fine,” he muttered. “I’ve slept in worse places.”
Lily turned to him, and Aiden recognized the stubborn set of her jaw. “You’re not staying here tonight, Aiden.”
He thought for a moment, and then realized there was no reason why they should have to stay, as long as they returned in the morning for their medical exams.
“Okay, fine,” he agreed. “Let’s see if we can get a taxi and find a hotel for the night on our own.”
They went back to the main hangar, where hundreds of soldiers were still milling around, apparently having decided that sleeping in a chair was preferable to sleeping on the floor in the bunk house. For himself, he wouldn’t have minded, but Lily needed rest. After what she’d told him, he wanted something better for her than another ruined Christmas. As he watched, two civilian women walked toward the exit, pulling on their coats. Aiden moved quickly to intercept them.
“Excuse me,” he said, giving them his most charming smile, “but can you tell me if there are any hotels around the base? I don’t mind paying for a room, I just want to find a place where we can get some rest.”
The first woman took in his uniform, and then glanced beyond him to where Lily stood guard over their duffel bags.
“Every hotel in the area is filled to capacity,” she said. “We don’t typically receive this many returning troops and we don’t have room for everyone, so we sent the officers and the senior enlisted to the nearby hotels.”
Aiden glanced at Lily, noting how her slender shoulders bowed beneath the weight of her backpack, and he found he could barely contain his growing impatience. “So what does that mean? That we’re stuck here in the hangar until we can get our out-processing completed?”
The two women looked at each other, and the first seemed to come to a decision. “If you want to come with me, I’ll see if I can find something for you. I have a friend who operates a bed-and-breakfast on the river. I’m not sure if she has any vacancies, but at least it’s a place to stay.”
Aiden nodded. “I don’t care about the cost. We’ve been traveling for more than two days and just need a place to crash until we can get out of here.”
“That might not be anytime soon,” the woman cautioned. “You’re virtually last on the list, with a whole lot of soldiers in front of you and the flights are already pretty booked.”
“Yeah, I got that. Anything you can do to get us out of this hangar is appreciated.”
He and Lily followed the two women to a vacant desk tucked behind a partition and waited while one of them made a phone call.
“My friend says she has only one room available, and it’s small,” she finally said, covering the phone.
“Fine.” Aiden nodded. “We’ll take it.”
“Aiden—” Lily stared at him.
“We can ask for a cot,” he said, reading the expression on her face. “And if there’s no cot, there’s always the floor. Don’t worry so much.”
She looked indignant. “The only thing I’m worried about is your health.”
Aiden shot her a tolerant gaze. “Don’t. I’m fine
.”
He listened as the woman made the final arrangements, and then hung up the phone.
“The bed-and-breakfast is about five miles from here. I go right past it on my way home, so if you’d like, I can give you a ride. You’ll just have to take a taxi in the morning,” she said. She quickly scribbled a number on a piece of paper. “But call me first. This number will connect you directly to my desk, and I can tell you how long the wait will be.”
“Great.” Aiden tucked the paper into his breast pocket. “Thank you.”
Hefting his duffel bag over his shoulder, he took Lily’s arm as they followed the woman toward the exit. Outside, the wind was so frigid it snatched his breath away. He bent his head into the force of it as he drew Lily into the shelter of his shoulder and led her toward a parking lot where the woman’s car was parked. Opening the back door, he pushed Lily inside, taking her duffel bag and putting it in the trunk with his own. Climbing in beside her, he leaned forward.
“Thanks again,” he said to the woman. “You don’t know what this means to both of us.”
The woman smiled as she started the engine. “It’s my pleasure. My name is Ann Norton, by the way. I’ll have you both at Gingerbread Cottage in no time. The owner, Inge, is a good friend of mine. I know you’ll be comfortable there tonight.”
“Gingerbread Cottage?” Lily finally asked, as they drove away from the base, her expression a mixture of disbelief and laughter. “Are you kidding?”
“I’m not,” Ann replied. “The cottage is a little bit of a misnomer, since it’s actually a large house, but I think you’ll love it.”
Lily angled her head to glance at Aiden, amusement dancing in her eyes. He shrugged, but an answering smile pulled at his mouth. “You can’t make this stuff up.”
The drive to the bed-and-breakfast was painstakingly slow. There were almost no other cars on the roads, which were slippery with ice.
“A little different than the African jungle,” Lily mused. “I didn’t think I’d ever miss the heat.”
“You sure complained enough about it,” Aiden teased.
She stared at him in surprise. “Did I?”
“Yes.” He laughed. “You said you hated being hot and sticky. So...do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Miss the heat?”
Lily stared at him for a long moment, as if trying to decipher some hidden meaning in his words.
“Yes,” she finally said, her voice soft. “Actually, I do miss it.”
Aiden knew he shouldn’t ask—hell, he shouldn’t even care—but he couldn’t stop the words from spilling out of his mouth.
“And Brad? Do you miss him, too?”
For a moment she looked at him as if she had no idea what he was talking about. “Who?”
“Brad Dixon. Your boyfriend.”
He watched the expressions that chased themselves across her face—surprise, guilt and then a sort of resignation.
“Brad isn’t my boyfriend,” she finally said. “Where did you even get that idea?”
“From Brad.” Aiden hated that his emotions were still so strong when he thought about Lily with Brad.
She closed her eyes briefly, and then looked directly at him. “I might have given Brad the wrong idea back in Entebbe,” she said in a low voice. “But there was never anything serious between us. I don’t do serious.”
“I saw you,” he pressed. “With Brad, kissing him.”
“No,” she protested, her voice surprisingly forceful. “You saw Brad kissing me. I was not kissing him back, and if that’s what you thought, then—then you thought wrong.”
More than anything, he wanted to be wrong, but Brad had said that he and Lily had a thing. Aiden’s sense of honor would keep him from so much as touching Lily if he thought she was committed to another man. But he believed her when she said there was nothing between her and Brad. And in retrospect, he wondered if Brad’s words had been more boasting than anything else. Which meant he was about to spend the night with the single Lily Munroe.
“Here we are,” Ann said, interrupting his thoughts. “If I know Inge, she’ll have a fire going inside, so you should have your heat in no time.”
Aiden exchanged a glance with Lily, and then bent forward to look through the window at the bed-and-breakfast. Lights were on inside the pretty Victorian house, lending it a warm, welcoming glow. Aiden could see why it was called the Gingerbread Cottage. The roofline and windows were trimmed in decorative scrollwork, so that the house resembled something from a child’s storybook. Candles glowed in each window, and outside, beside the door, an evergreen tree twinkled with bright lights beneath a glittering layer of ice.
“Oh,” Lily breathed in awe, as she leaned over his shoulder for a better look. “It’s like a fairy-tale house.”
“More like a doll’s house,” Aiden grunted, but her obvious pleasure made him equally pleased that they would spend the night there. Maybe he could rescue this Christmas for her, after all.
Thanking Ann again, and promising he would call in the morning before they returned to the base, he indicated that Lily should go ahead while he retrieved their duffel bags from the trunk.
“I can get my own bag,” she insisted, shivering in the frigid cold.
Aiden wanted to argue with her, but more than that, he wanted her inside and out of the weather, so he just nodded and handed the heavy bag to her. Besides, as he hefted his own bag over his shoulder, he realized he was running out of steam. Every joint in his body ached, and a dull throb had begun to drum behind his eyes. Bending his head against the icy wind, he followed Lily along the walk to the front door, which was opened before they even had a chance to knock.
A middle-aged woman stood aside to let them in, and Aiden followed Lily into a tall foyer that was strung with evergreen garlands and mistletoe. The woman was small and round, with her brown hair worn in a braid wrapped around her head. A red-and-white striped apron protected her clothes, and Aiden detected a smudge of flour on one cheek. As he stepped inside, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply, inhaling the warm, fragrant scent of cinnamon and ginger, and his mouth watered. From somewhere deep in the house, he could hear the strains of Christmas music.
“Come in, come in,” the woman exclaimed, waving goodbye to Ann before she closed the heavy door behind them, firmly shutting out the wild weather. “I’m Inge Buchwald. Welcome to Gingerbread Cottage.” She surveyed their uniforms and duffel bags. “Well, you must be exhausted. Let me show you to your room, and you can relax for a bit. Then, if you’re interested, you can join us for a refreshment. I just made a fresh batch of cookies.”
She turned toward a wide staircase, whose decorative balustrade was wound with garland. Glancing at Lily, who was staring after the woman with something like awe, he followed Inge up the curving stairs.
“It’s fortunate that I have a room available,” Inge was saying over her shoulder. “I normally close the cottage for the holiday, since my family comes to stay. But the storms in the south prevented my older daughter and her husband from joining us, so I have just one room available.”
They reached the top of the staircase, and Aiden saw they were in a long corridor with a deep, cushioned window seat at the end and another staircase that wound its way to the third floor of the enormous Victorian.
“Here we are,” Inge said, pausing at a door near the end of the hallway. “This is my favorite room. It’s small, but I think you’ll be quite comfortable here.”
Aiden stepped inside and dropped his duffel bag and backpack onto the floor. Lily came to stand beside him with a softly indrawn breath. He didn’t dare look at her. An enormous canopy bed with a white crocheted bedspread and a delicate lace canopy dominated the room. Two red-and-white striped peppermint candies rested on the lacy pillows. A small fire burned in a fireplace at the foot of t
he bed, and two cozy, upholstered chairs had been drawn up close to its warmth. A Christmas wreath hung over the mantel, and the deep window seats had been strung with tiny, twinkling lights.
“There’s a small bathroom through that door,” Inge said. “You’ll find everything you need. My family and I will be in the parlor for several hours yet, so please come down and join us for some hot chocolate and cookies. There’s usually a board game or a card game going on if you’re interested. But if you’re tired, I can send up a pot of tea or cocoa for you to enjoy in the room.”
Aiden glanced at his watch. It was barely nine o’clock, but his entire body ached for sleep. The last thing he wanted was to go downstairs and be sociable.
“Thank you,” Lily said, before he could respond. “But we’ve been traveling for two days, and I’m not sure I can keep my eyes open for another minute. If you don’t mind, I think we’ll just call it a night.”
“I understand,” Inge said, her voice sympathetic. “You look exhausted. Sleep as late as you’d like, and come down when you’re ready. We usually serve breakfast between seven and ten o’clock, but if you need to be up earlier, just help yourself to anything in the kitchen.”
After she left, an awkward silence settled over the room. Aiden cleared his throat. “I’ll take the floor.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re still recovering, and you need your rest. I’ll take the floor.”
Aiden gave her a tolerant look. “You’re not sleeping on the floor.” He frowned. “In fact, I’m not sure there’s enough room for anyone to sleep on the floor.”
The room was comfortable enough, with its sitting area in front of the fireplace and the large canopy bed, but they’d have to push the chairs aside in order to clear some floor space.
Lily drew in a deep breath. “Even if one us was willing to sleep on the floor, there really isn’t a need. We’re both adults. The bed is enormous. I think we can agree to share, if we just lay some ground rules.”