Welcome Home, Bobby Winslow

by Christyne Butler

  For a quick moment, a sparkle lit his familiar blue eyes, equal parts pirate rogue and boyish charm, before he blinked and the emotion disappeared.

  The black-and-white pictures in the newspaper had masked the true effect of his charisma, but Leeann knew firsthand how overwhelming Bobby’s eyes, though dim and shuttered now, could be.

  At fifteen, she’d been powerless against them.

  At thirty-two, they still turned her knees to mush. Knees she locked to keep upright.

  He was waiting for a response.

  Leeann said the first thing that popped into her head. “You look a bit worse for wear.”

  “Well, that gets right to the heart of things.” Bobby shoved his hands into his back pockets, the cap and glasses dangling from his fingers. “Same ol’ Lee.”

  He’d been the only one who’d gotten away with shortening her name. Something she’d always hated until the time he’d said it, right before he kissed her in the oversize backseat of his ’71 Duster at the drive-in.

  “I didn’t—I didn’t mean it like that.” Leeann’s words rushed past her lips. “You look good…well, considering you’ve only been—”

  “Sprung from rehab less than a week.” Bobby cut her off with a wave of a hand, the action causing him to sway. He cocked one hip and steadied himself. “Yeah, I’m not doing too badly for a guy who nearly died five months ago.”

  This time the tugging at her heart caused it to flip over completely. “Wh-what are you doing here?”

  “I live here.”

  No, he didn’t, not anymore.

  Never mind the fact that Bobby’s mother still lived in town, just a few houses away from Leeann in a cute cottage complete with a beautiful garden and a white picket fence that Bobby had bought for her with his winnings from his first major race.

  Valzora Winslow had shared that little tidbit with pride when she’d surprised Leeann with a plate of freshly baked cookies as a housewarming gift the day Leeann had moved out of her aunt’s place and into a home of her own.

  They’d struck up a sociable wave-as-you-go-by friendship, often stopping to chat over the fence about simple things like the weather or the activities going on in Destiny.

  But never about Leeann and Bobby’s past.

  So where was Val now that Bobby was back in town?

  Instead of asking, Leeann stated the obvious, “You haven’t lived here for over a decade.”

  “Neither have you,” he countered.

  How did he know that? They certainly hadn’t kept in touch over the years and she doubted he was a fan of high fashion, even when that had been her life. “I’ve been back in town for three years, living on Laurel Lane for the last two.”

  Surprise flickered in his eyes as he put the name of her street together with his mother’s. If that surprised him, he’d be shocked to know that Leeann had driven his mom to the airport the night of his accident.

  “Destiny is my home,” he replied with a vague thrust of his chin, the surprise now replaced with a hint of smugness. “And I’m here to check out my new digs just up the road.”

  The new digs being the monstrous log mansion constructed over the summer. The rumor that the multimillion-dollar house was owned by the town’s favorite son had been confirmed in another newspaper article back in July.

  Leeann hadn’t gone anywhere near the construction, dubbed “Castle Winslow” by the locals, especially after she’d learned who owned the company that had purchased her land months earlier.

  “Well, at least your appearance explains the speed of your oversize home on wheels.” She waved at the camper, latching on to a familiar topic. “You never could resist tinkering with an engine. How much have you messed with the inner workings of that thing?”

  “It’s a 362-horsepower 6.8 liter Super Duty V10 SEFI Triton engine and I haven’t done anything to it,” he said, with another hint of his familiar grin. “Yet.”

  “You sure? You two were hauling butt.” Leeann handed the paperwork and license back to his friend, but kept her gaze on Bobby as a thought came to her. “Or maybe it wasn’t your friend here who was behind the wheel. Maybe it was you.”

  The grin disappeared. “Believe me, I wasn’t driving.”

  Less than seventy-two hours away from a rehabilitation center, probably not. Still, he was standing under his own power.

  “I don’t recall too many times when you willingly sat shotgun,” she said.

  “No, if memory serves, that spot usually belonged to my girlfriend.”

  A low hum of fury at his mocking tone passed through her. She fought to keep her next words light. “So you’ve learned to share now?”

  Bobby cocked his head to one side and his grin returned. “Only out of necessity. You know how I hate to give up a position of power.”

  Power behind the wheel, power over her.

  From the start of their teenage relationship, Leeann had never been able to resist the magnetic pull Bobby had over her. She’d been drawn to his wild, untamed and cocky personality from the moment they met. Maybe because he was so different from the starched and conventional home life she had with her parents.

  Being with Bobby gave her a freedom she’d never known before, even after he’d surprised her with an engagement ring in February of their senior year and convinced her that getting married right after graduation was the best way to be together.

  “Yes, I remember. It took having a diamond ring flung at your head before you finally took ‘no’ for an answer.”

  His smile vanished as soon as the words left her mouth.

  Leeann couldn’t believe she’d said that aloud and in front of an innocent bystander.

  “I’m sorry, that wasn’t fair—”

  “Don’t worry about it.” He cut her off with a wave of his hand. “I think we’ve had enough apologies between us to last a lifetime.”

  His sharp tone brought back the memory instantly.

  Not far from this very spot, between tears and apologies, she’d tried to explain why she’d decided to leave town.

  Alone.

  Why she’d accepted a modeling contract in New York City, the prize for winning a contest she hadn’t known her mother had entered Leeann into.

  Why she’d changed her mind about marrying him before he was set to leave for the U.S. Army the week after their high school graduation. A ceremony that had only been days away.

  Boy, he must’ve waited years to throw her words back in her face.

  Leeann swallowed hard against an old ache she’d thought was long buried. Instead, she pasted on a counterfeit smile, honed to perfection from years in front of the camera. “Okay, well, let’s consider this a warning for both of you.”

  She looked at Bobby’s friend, who’d remained quiet during this whole exchange. “Please obey the speed limits during your stay, Mr. Zippenella.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the man replied, shoving his license into his wallet before pocketing it. “But you can still call me Dean. Or Zippy. Hell, I’ll answer if you yell out a simple ‘hey you.’”

  Leeann’s smile slipped from fake to genuine with ease. Boy, this guy had his namesake’s charm in spades. “I’ll keep that in mind, Dean.”

  “So, are we free to go, Officer?”

  Stepping back toward her cruiser, Leeann glanced at Bobby again, noticing a slight trembling in his ramrod-straight posture and a growing gleam of sweat dotting his skin.

  An urge to ask again if he was okay filled her, but she quickly squashed it as she headed for the driver’s-side door. “Yes, gentleman, you are. Enjoy the rest of this beautiful fall day. And Bobby…welcome home.”

  Chapter Two

  Bobby dropped his arms, the movement causing him to sway again. Bracing his hands on his hips, he kept his eyes trained on Leeann’s cruiser until it disappeared over the hill.

  A familiar shaking of his legs warned him that the searing pain he’d learned to live with over the past few months was fast approaching. He managed six steps towar
d the camper before his strength gave out and he crumpled into a heap near the front tire.

  Zippy raced to his side, crouching next to him. “Dammit, Ace!”

  Bobby’s gaze remained on the empty blacktop, his brain still trying to process the fact that the girl who’d walked away from their foolish teenage dreams in order to become a successful model was back in Destiny.

  And working as a deputy sheriff.

  If not for that low sexy voice of hers, smoky and smooth like the whiskey he’d come to favor over the years, he never would’ve believed his first love was the same person who’d stood in front of him in a khaki uniform, her once-famous waist-length hair now so short it barely brushed her shoulders.

  A cop?

  Really?

  “Hey, bro?” Zip gave him a gentle nudge. “You okay?”

  Bobby shook his head, mentally pushing away the long-ago sealed memories before they had a chance to form. Instead he concentrated on the blinding rush that felt like a thousand pricks of hot needles radiating from his hips to his knees.

  “Yeah, I’m good.” He pushed the words past gritted teeth. “I’m great.”

  “No, what you are is stupid. She obviously knew about your accident. You could’ve had your little reunion through the window.” Zip wrapped one beefy arm around his back, providing a strong and steady presence.

  Just like he’d done from the moment Bobby first opened his eyes in the hospital after the accident. Like he’d done the day they’d met in a desert hellhole ten years ago.

  “Why didn’t you stay inside the camper?” Zip asked.

  No way.

  It took a full-on stare at Leeann for Bobby to match the girl to her voice. No, make that woman. Long gone was the girly-girl he’d known in high school who’d entered beauty pageant after beauty pageant and barely had the strength to carry her own books.

  When he’d finally realized who’d pulled them over, he’d been determined to meet Leeann Harris again for the first time face-to-face and standing unaided on his own two feet.

  “So that was her,” Zip said.

  Bobby looked at his friend and blinked. “Huh?”

  “You know, beauty queen, first love, heartbreaker, high-rent cover model for Cosmo, Vogue, Brides—”

  “Damn you and your steel-trap memory.” Bobby bent his knees and braced his feet in the dirt. “Help me get off my ass.”

  Zip managed to shrug while shouldering Bobby’s weight and helping him back to a standing position. “With all the boo-hooing you did that night, how could I forget?”

  Thankful the pain was fading already, Bobby leaned against the camper. He wasn’t ready to try walking yet. “We drank a lot that night.”

  “We were celebrating finally being back on American soil.” Zip dropped his hold and stepped back, but stayed close. “Drinking for those who never came home.” Bobby remembered.

  Their first night back after a front-row seat in the Middle East during that “quiet” time between the first Gulf War and the second, courtesy of the U.S. Army. The only two guys in their unit who hadn’t had anyone to go home to, he and Zip had ended up shutting down a hole-in-the-wall bar outside the gates of Fort Bragg. Then they’d stumbled to a nearby motel to continue drinking and talking until the sun rose.

  “You know, Ace, if you were so dogged to come out of the camper on your own power, you could’ve at least grabbed a—”

  “Let it go, Zip. It’s done and over.”

  “Famous last words.”

  Bobby glared at his friend. “She’s gone.”

  “Yeah. For now. But if I remember correctly from all of your stories, Destiny is a pretty small town.”

  Meaning he and Leeann would run into each other again.

  Maybe.

  Probably.

  But next time, Bobby would be prepared.

  He dropped his head back against the cool metal of the custom motor home he’d had built a year ago. It was supposed to have been his ride during this past season’s race calendar. Now it was a high-priced ambulance bringing him home.

  “Come on, Zip, let’s get moving. I want to finally see in person what my hard-earned greenbacks have been paying for all summer.”

  “Meaning all those photos, live video feeds and the miniature model you had sent to the rehab hospital weren’t enough?”

  Since he was a kid, first attending and then working summers at a local wilderness camp, Bobby had always wanted to live in a log cabin. He just never thought it would be here in Destiny. Then fate had allowed him to keep a long-held promise.

  He’d approved the plans for his upscale and oversize version back in February, but by the time of his accident in May, only half of the outer shell was complete. He’d watched the rest of the construction from his hospital bed.

  “No, they weren’t nearly enough.” He looked at his friend’s grinning face while shoving his hat back on his head and pocketing his sunglasses. “And you knew that before you asked.”

  “Yeah, I did.” Zip moved to his side. “You okay to walk?”

  Gripping his friend’s oversize forearm, Bobby slowly put one foot in front of the other. The stinging had lessened, but the needling sensation had moved down to his feet. Sort of like when a person sat too long and tingled when he first moved.

  Only about twenty times worse.

  “With a bit of help,” he grunted around clenched teeth.

  “That’s what I’m here for, bud. A promise is a promise.”

  “Knock it off with that promise stuff, would ya?” Bobby shot back. “I’ve told you how I feel about that.”

  “And when was the last time I ever listened to you?”

  “Three years ago. At your family’s place in Jersey.” Bobby gripped the handrail and hefted himself inside, conscious of his buddy behind him, ready to catch him if he fell. Which he didn’t do much anymore despite what had just happened.

  “I agreed with your sisters, and Frank and Joey.” He kept talking. It seemed to speed up his recovery from these episodes. Or at least distracted him. “That girl you’d brought home was all wrong for you.”

  “And perfect for Frankie,” Zip said with a wry twist of his lips.

  Bobby purposely shuffled past the dining set and leather sectional sofa where Daisy lounged, her snout on her paws as she watched them. That dog always knew when to stay out of the way. A skill most likely learned in the war zone where Zip had found her.

  Thankful when he reached the cushioned passenger seat, Bobby eased into it with a silent sigh. “Yeah, especially when we caught her and Frankie going at it in the backyard gazebo.”

  “That wasn’t my brother’s fault.” Zip moved back behind the steering wheel. “He was young and stupid.”

  “He was twenty-three.” Bobby pulled on his seat belt. “And yet you still made a show of knocking him through the screen door.”

  “Hey, my pride was at stake.”

  “And you made sure the girl got home okay. Even Daisy didn’t want anything to do with her.”

  Zip shrugged, buckled his seat belt as well and started the engine. “Daisy doesn’t like any females. Never has, unlike me. What can I say? I was in love and stupid. Runs in the family, right?”

  Yeah, Bobby and Zip might not be blood, but they were family just the same.

  “Drive, bro.” Bobby kept his gaze on the road and ran his hands along the tops of his thighs, kneading at the tight muscles. “I’m ready to go home.”

  By nine the next morning, Bobby felt much better.

  If better meant enduring a morning physical therapy session that twisted him inside out and upside down. They’d finished the workout by christening the new indoor pool with a race Zip had won, barely, and twenty minutes in the steam room.

  Now fresh from the shower and dressed, Bobby palmed a cup of hot coffee as he sat in his office. He leaned back in his chair and stared out the window at the acres of trees surrounding his new home.

  That was a lot of green.

  And gold a
nd orange and red and burgundy. Fall in Wyoming. His favorite season.

  He’d grown up the child of a single mother, his father gone before Bobby had started kindergarten. They’d lived in a third-floor, two-bedroom apartment located in the center of town next to Mason’s Garage.

  Despite Destiny being a small place, it had plenty of parks, fairgrounds and wide-open spaces, but Bobby had always longed for a tree-filled yard of his own.

  He finally had it—and it was a yard that once had belonged to Leeann.

  A yard where her family’s Georgian-style mansion, the home she’d grown up in, stood, until an electric storm set fire to the empty house.

  He’d only been out to the Harris home a few times when he was young, but he’d never been allowed inside. Her parents had forbidden Leeann to invite him in.

  Not that he’d stayed away entirely.

  A nearby pond, which hadn’t been visible from the Harris house and still couldn’t be seen through the thick forest of trees, was a favorite meeting spot for him and Lee.

  Deep in the woods, with only a well-worn path far from the house marking the way, was a place they’d met when they wanted to be together.

  To talk, to laugh, to fall in love. It was the place he’d asked Leeann to marry him on a snowy Valentine’s Day with a cheap diamond chip of a ring.

  A place that still belonged to his former fiancée.

  When he’d heard from his mother that the Harris land was up for sale—one of the rare times she’d mentioned Leeann—he’d put his lawyers on the task of purchasing the property. Originally made up of thirty-five prime Wyoming acres he’d vowed as a teenager to one day own, it was only twenty-seven acres when the purchase went through.

  Prophetic, as his race car was also number twenty-seven.

  Leeann had held on to the remaining land, eight acres that included the pond. When he’d seen the final offer, he’d had to admit it gave him a warm feeling to know she’d wanted to keep that place for herself.