Amanda nodded and followed her back to the bride’s room. They were an odd couple of friends. Addison had grown up in the wealth of DC, a daughter of a federal judge and the niece of a former attorney general. You would never know it by looking at her. From the top of her spikey purple hair—that was the color this week—down to the grunge clothing, she was the antithesis of DC upper class.
“She wasn’t so bad today,” Addy said. “I thought it was going to be horrible after the way she was all the way up to the wedding.”
“There was a little stress inside the family.”
Addy nodded. “I know. We both understand having a mother diagnosed with breast cancer, but still. She attacked my choice of hair color a few weeks ago.”
“It was green. And not just green, but neon green.” Amanda picked up some of the boxes they had brought the flowers over in. “Plus, I think she was worried her mother wouldn’t be here for the ceremony. She lost an aunt just two years ago to breast cancer.”
Addy stopped in gathering up the equipment. “Oh, I didn’t know that. Well, that makes sense. Still, there was nothing wrong with my green hair. And, to be nice, I dyed it purple to match her bridesmaid dresses.”
Amanda chuckled. “She did thank you.”
“Not our worse, huh? I think our worst would be that Denise Charles. It was hard not to run down the aisle and rescue the groom.”
“They just got divorced.”
She smiled. “Oh, see, I could have saved him a lot of money.”
They finished packing away their supplies and headed out to the van. “What do you have on tap tonight? Why don’t we go clubbing?”
“Addy, I don’t know how you do it. All day at work and out at night. And worse, I’m five years younger than you.”
“So that’s a no, right?” she asked. “You have no social life.”
They were walking up the path to the church. “I have a social life.”
“You can’t count these functions as a social life, even if you go to the reception afterward. Are we going to this one?”
She hadn’t thought about it. They’d made the arrangements and they usually went and checked, but they had worked with the reception hall before, and it wasn’t part of the contract. Amanda had thought a hot soak in the tub sounded heavenly, but now going back to her little apartment didn’t hold the same appeal.
“I heard they were going to have shrimp.”
Addy glanced at her. Four inches taller than Amanda, her best friend could eat just about anything. It was disgusting, and if she didn’t love her like the sister she never had, she would hate her.
“You don’t say.”
Amanda shrugged. “Yeah.”
“Is there some reason you don't want to go home?"
Addy was a little too smart for her own good. From the moment they met in a survivor's support group, they had hit it off. Addison's older brother had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, and Amanda had been dealing with the repercussions of the death of her husband and the lies he left behind.
"Nope. I just think a nice big meal, then a relaxing night in is just what I need."
"You did that last night. I know you went to bed before ten."
Of course she had. She hadn't had much sleep because images of Mal looking at her with heat in his eyes had kept her awake all night. She had never seen that look on his face before and it made her...burn.
"Ohhhh, what's his name?"
She glanced at Addy and saw the interested look in her eyes. Dammit. "What do you mean by that?"
"You got a dreamy look on your face, and I have never seen that look on your face. Well, except when you talked about going to the Netherlands for the tulip shows. Did you hook up? Come on, tell me."
She sighed. "I did not hook up and there was no dreamy look on my face. Mal was over last night for dinner."
"Dupree? You had him over for dinner? And you didn't invite me?"
She chuckled. "It was by accident. We bumped into each other at Wegmans."
Addy let out a little sigh of pleasure. "Wegmans. Wait, let me think about that place for a sec." She stopped walking, closed her eyes and hummed. "I love that place."
"Yes, I know you have an abnormal attachment to Wegmans."
"There is nothing abnormal about it. So you bumped into him, and then how did he end up sponging a meal off you?"
"I invited him."
There was a beat of silence. "You invited him over on a Friday night?"
"Yeah. You should have seen what he was eating. Some kind of wings or something, it was disgusting. And I was in the mood for scallops--"
"You made your pan seared scallops and didn't invite me?" Addy asked, pouting again. “I can’t believe you did that.”
"You had a date last night."
"Oh yeah, he was boring. And definitely not a Seal I have a crush on."
"You have a crush on Mal?"
She rolled her eyes. "No, you do, Amanda."
She sat down in one of the chairs lining the hallway in the back of the church. Since there was a row of windows and a door that separated them from the wedding guests, she felt free to talk. "I do not."
"Yes, you do. Remember, I've seen you with him. You get all goo-goo over him, and I say about time."
She sat down next to Amanda with a satisfied smile on her face.
"I do not, and if I was ready for another relationship, I would definitely not pick a Seal. There is only heartbreak with those guys."
She could feel Addison's study of her, but she said nothing else. Amanda told Addison just about everything, but she hadn't told her about the worst part of her marriage. Even being a smart woman and knowing her husband's infidelity had nothing to do with her but was a default in his personality, Amanda couldn't help but be embarrassed by it. It was the one thing that she would keep to her grave.
“Let’s just get through this, get some good food, and then I am spending all day in bed tomorrow with a book. In fact, I might just move only for food.”
“That sounds like an excellent plan. I can’t do it myself because I have been summoned to the family estate for brunch. Wanna come protect me?”
“No. First of all, your father has a big house, not an estate. And secondly, you don’t need my protection. You have your father wrapped around your finger.”
There was a look in Addy’s eyes that had Amanda pausing. There was a vulnerable quality to her, then it disappeared in an instant. “Dad said something about ham.”
“No. I am going to be completely selfish for one day.”
“Fine, but I will tell Dad that you refused to come.”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “I’m sure he’ll really care about that.”
“He likes you.”
“I didn’t say that, but he wants to see you.”
Addy sighed. “Yeah, I know. I just hate that there will probably be another lawyer there he tries to fix me up with. That lawyer will take one look at my purple hair and freak out.”
Amanda slipped her arm over her friend’s shoulders. “But he loves you.”
Addy sighed. “Yeah. So you won’t help me?”
“You’re on your own there, kid. I’m going to vegetate.”
Chapter Three
The next morning, bright and early, Amanda was putting on her walking shoes and complaining about her damned fantasies. All night long, she had been dreaming of the man she shouldn’t even be thinking about that way. Malachai Dupree.
Her plans of being lazy had dissolved ten minutes into her lazifest. She cursed her imagination and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. Her brain would not let her just vegetate. Instead, Mal was there, laughing with her, letting her cry on his shoulder, silently holding her hand the first time she went to her husband's grave in Arlington.
Dammit. Tears burned the back of her eyes, and she scrubbed her hands over her face. As she had learned before, the best way to deal with her feelings was to go out for a walk, think, and let the exercise work its magic on h
er negative mood.
Ten minutes later, she was walking on the path near her house, enjoying the day. It was cloudy, the hint of rain in the air, and cool enough not to cause her to sweat too much. She loved the DC area for just these kinds of things. She loved seasons, loved the fall, the winters, the springs and summers, and especially liked that she could find a good place to walk or run even out in the boonies. The hot summers in Texas were too much for her to take, and she wasn’t sure she could ever give up the mixture of culture in the DC area.
She was just getting into her walk, listening to the latest Nora Roberts book on her iPod, when she heard someone yelling. She turned just in time to have a biker run into her. She fell back and had no time to brace herself. Her butt hit first, her back, and then her head conked hard against the pavement.
"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry," an older woman said. She was leaning over Amanda, her face creased with concern.
"Mildred, I told you we should do this at home," said someone else, a man, but it was hard for her to tell. She was still seeing stars and her ears were ringing.
"I didn't want our neighbors to see me try to learn how to ride a bike."
"Yes, injuring a stranger is even better." Even with her head spinning, she could hear the sarcasm in the old man’s voice.
"Dear, are you okay? Do you need help up?"
They each took an arm, and she tried to stand, but the world around her started to spin. The colors of the surrounding landscape blurred.
"Oh, that's not good," she said weakly as her spinning world went to complete black.
* * * *
Mal's heart was pounding so damn hard as he hurried into the Potomac ER. He rushed to the information desk. "I'm the POC for Amanda Forrester."
"Are you her husband?" the woman asked.
"No. I'm...was a friend of her husband's. The ER called me and said she had been injured."
The woman nodded to the people behind the counter. "This one's here for Forrester.” She turned back to Mal. They’ll let you in."
There was a buzz and he strode over to the doors. A round, happy nurse smiled at him. "She's right down here in room 5F."
"How is she doing?"
"Fine. She hit her head, and they are talking of admitting her for that reason. But I'm not too sure Ms. Forrester agrees."
She opened the door, and he felt his heart slide down into his stomach. She looked so damned pale. She had bandages on both hands. There were dark circles beneath her eyes and at that moment, she looked so still.
“We’re keeping the lights dimmed because they hurt her eyes.”
“Concussion?”
“Slight. Not anything major.”
“I hear you whispering over there,” she said, a smile playing about her mouth. “I didn’t lose my hearing, Nurse Brady.”
The nurse chuckled. “If I thought you were sleeping, I would have had to wake you up.”
She slowly opened her eyes. “Mal, they called you.”
“I’ll leave you two alone. Ms. Forrester, just so you know, the doctor is not giving up on you being here overnight.”
“Tell him to stick it.”
The nurse giggled and left them alone.
“I see you’re already making friends,” he said. He tried to keep his tone light, but it was hard. His throat was still tight. He had never known terror like what he felt getting that call.
“Come on in. I don’t bite, Malachai.”
He collected himself and walked to the side of her bed. “How are you doing?”
“I’ve had better days. You?”
“Well, I was having a great day until they called me.”
“You can go now.”
He heard the amusement in her voice, and he smiled. “Not a chance. I didn’t know I was on your list of contacts.”
She shook her head, and he thought it was more about clearing it than it was to deny what he was saying. “Remember, you said to put you on there after Kyle died, that I was to put you on there.”
He had, but it had been over a year and her brother had moved to the area. He was trying not to let the fact she left him on her contact list get to him, but it was hard. And he was in big trouble if just a simple thing like that was getting him excited.
“I thought they would call your brother.”
“They did before I was coherent enough to tell them he was still on TDY in San Antonio. Addy is out at her father’s, so I didn’t want to bother her.”
“Nothing like being a woman’s last resort to make a guy feel good about himself.”
One side of her mouth curved, and he felt the flutter in his chest that he hated. The one that kept him up at nights, and the one that was making it damned hard to find another woman.
Pushing that thought aside, he moved to sit in the chair beside her. She looked so small lying there on the bed. Mal knew she hated being considered fragile. She was a tough woman, but at the moment she didn’t look that way. It was damned hard not to gather her in his arms to hold.
“I thought you said you were going to just rest today?” he asked.
She pouted, and he had to resist the urge to kiss it away.
“I was, but I just couldn’t settle.”
“Really?” he asked, not trying to hide the disbelief in his voice. She never did settle that he had seen. Amanda always had something going on, as if she never slowed down.
“Really. Sometimes when I have a big job like yesterday, I get too caught up in the work, and it’s hard to just be still. My mind jumps from one thing to another. Concentration gets hard.”
“So you decided to run?”
“No, I decided to go out for a walk. It was hard to ignore such a pretty day.”
“Only you would think today was a pretty day.”
“I like fall. No, I love fall, especially when we have those storms move through.”
Before he could berate her for not taking care of herself, the doctor slipped into the room. He was wearing scrubs. He strode toward Mal with his hand outstretched. “I’m Dr. Franklin. You must be Mr. Forrester.”
“Ah, no. I’m a good friend.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Her husband was killed in the line of duty.”
The doctor nodded in understanding.
“I didn’t lose my hearing. You can say my husband is dead. I can take it.”
She had that grumpy voice he recognized. She didn’t feel well, and now she was going to take it out on everyone. Amanda could usually smile through anything, but when she was irritable, she couldn’t hide it. But that was one thing he loved about Amanda. She never tried to hide her emotions.
“Well, Ms. Forrester, you’re going to have to stay overnight. You have a slight concussion.”
Her eyelids lifted slightly, and he could read the irritation.
“I don’t want to.” She sounded like a toddler denied a treat, but he understood. Mal wasn’t the best patient either. He really hated hospitals and could never feel comfortable in one.
“You live alone according to your chart. When I saw…”
“Malachai Dupree.”
The doctor nodded. “I thought he was your husband and someone would be with you through the night. But since you do live alone, you’re going to need to stay here. You need someone to keep an eye on you.”
“What about your brother?” Mal asked
“I told you, he’s TDY.”
Malachai nodded. Her brother had been assigned to the Pentagon like him, but he was working in some kind of job that had him out of town a lot. “I can do it.”
The moment he said the words, he wanted to pull them back. It wasn’t a good idea for him to stay the night at her place. But the grateful look she gave him was a little too much to resist. He knew she hated the idea of being stuck in the hospital, and if they couldn’t get a hold of Addy, Amanda would be stuck there all night. The doctor looked between them. “You’ll have to stay through tomorrow.”
He filtered through what he needed to do tomorr
ow, then nodded. “I have to make a few phone calls, but I can swing it.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t need to be taken care of,” she said, her voice filled with irritation. She was going to give him issues if he didn’t nip this attitude in the bud.
Mal saw the doctor open his mouth, but he stopped him.
“Stop being a whiner, Forrester. Do what the doctor wants or I’ll call your folks.”
Her eyes sparked with anger. “Not fair.”
“Most of life isn’t. Get used to it.”
With that comment, he stepped out of the room and into the lobby. He had some things to move around at work. He pulled up his supervisor’s number on his cell and tapped it. He would definitely have to summon all his legendary control to keep himself in check.
* * * *
Amanda came awake slowly. For a moment, she couldn’t figure out where she was but then she realized she was home in her bed. The faint light peeking out from behind the blinds told her it was morning. She didn’t move. Instead, she lay motionless, assessing her bodily injuries. Lifting her hands, she inspected the bandages on them. Her palms no longer stung from the fall to the pavement but her body still ached from the bumps and bruises created by the impact.
She tried to sit up, pulling herself up with her arms, being careful of her palms. The room spun and her stomach started to revolt. Oh, not good. Her head might not hurt, but she wasn’t so sure that she could move at the moment. Swallowing, she lay back down and closed her eyes.
She still felt as if she’d been hit by a bus. Along with the pain of the injury, she hadn’t had much rest. Just knowing that Mal was in her apartment had her itching. Sure it wasn’t romantic, but she hadn’t had a man spend the night since Kyle had left—except one of her brothers. And they didn’t count as men.
After a few moments, she couldn’t ignore the fact that it had been hours since her last trip to the bathroom. As carefully as she could, she sat up again, then slipped out of bed. It only took her a few moments to finish her task. She looked down at her shorts and T-shirt. She really didn’t feel like changing, but she couldn’t walk out into the living room like this. She tugged off her shorts and grabbed a pair of PJ bottoms, then made her way to the living room.
A Little Harmless Military Romance Bundle (A Little Harmless Military Bundle) Page 22