Muffins and hot chocolate in hand, they headed for the table and sat facing the creek, which at least allowed them the illusion of privacy. Poor Bridey’s muffins might as well have been made from sawdust for all Zoe could tell, and her best mocha hot chocolate tasted like sludge.
Zoe gave up and set everything aside. Leif hadn’t come all this distance just to sample the local baked goods. He’d done a more credible job of consuming his own muffin, but right now he was sitting with his hands wrapped around his drink as if more intent on absorbing its warmth than drinking it.
“Sorry I’ve been off-line and out of touch the past two weeks. There’s been a lot going on, although that’s no excuse.”
“It’s all right.” Although it really wasn’t. “I figured you had something going on.”
He took a deep breath and then another one, which only increased Zoe’s growing sense of dread. “The doctors released me. No more surgery. No more rehab. When it was all said and done, I got back about eighty percent of the mobility in my leg and ankle. If I continue the exercises on my own, I might even get back a little more, but they made no promises. The pain is gone, though. Mostly, anyway.”
She was happy for him. She really was, but did that mean he could get assigned to another combat unit, even if just in a support capacity? There was only one way to find out.
“So are you going to be deployed again?”
There. She’d given voice to the one question she’d never wanted to have to ask him. Despite all her claims that she couldn’t stand being involved with an active-duty soldier again, her heart knew that was no longer true. She would learn to live with the fear if that was the only way to keep Leif in her life.
He set his drink aside and reached for her hand. “That all depends. How are things going for you?”
One of the conclusions she’d come to through the long months of meetings and therapy was that she had no right to force the man she loved to choose between her and the life he wanted. If Leif’s sense of duty drove him to head back into danger, she would somehow find the strength to support his decision and live with the risks. He was that important to her.
She needed to tell him that.
“I haven’t had a nightmare in a couple of months. Joining the support group and talking things out with people who’ve been there, done that, has really helped. So has seeing the therapist Pastor Haliday recommended. I only have to see her once a month now.”
She offered him a teasing smile. “I figure I’ve got about eighty percent of my calmness back. If I keep working at it, I might get back a little more, but no promises.”
Leif’s laughter had her joining in. “Good for you! So I guess it was time well spent for both of us.”
His arm snaked around her shoulders to pull her closer. It felt so good, so sweetly familiar. She leaned against him, taking simple pleasure in the moment.
He drew a long breath. “Damn, I’ve missed you, Zoe. Missed this.”
His words were a gift. She’d hate to be the only one who’d had a gaping hole in her life the past five months. “Yeah, e-mails and phone calls are okay for a while, but they don’t come close to actually having you right here beside me.”
He looked around them and frowned. “I’d really hoped to have you more to myself when I got here.”
She jabbed his ribs with her elbow. “Well, if you had called to let me know you were coming, that could have been arranged.”
“Yeah, I know, but I wanted to surprise you. I’ve been on the run for the past two weeks taking care of a bunch of stuff so I don’t have to go back there for a while. I’d been staying with my father and his family during rehab, but I needed to spend a little time with my mom’s side, too.”
His expression grew more serious. “I wanted to let them know that I would be moving to the West Coast.”
“How did they take the news?”
“They weren’t thrilled that I won’t be living on the same side of the country as they are.”
Her pulse was picking up speed. Did that mean what she hoped it did? That he’d been transferred to the local army base?
And was he going to make her pry it out of him with a crowbar? Or better yet, his combat knife if he didn’t start talking a whole lot faster.
“You still haven’t answered my question, Leif. When are you being deployed?”
“That’s the thing. I’m not.” He looked down at her with a sad smile. “Going back, that is. Yeah, maybe they could have reassigned me, but it wouldn’t be to a combat unit. Things over there are dangerous enough without having someone who isn’t one hundred percent. What if something triggered the nerve pain again?”
She shuddered at the thought. “I’m sorry, Leif. I know that’s what you wanted.”
He stared out at the mountains in the distance. “You know, as it turned out, it wasn’t. That last night, at the barbecue before I left, Mitch told me that he wanted it to be his decision whether or not to walk away from his career. I think that’s what I really wanted all along.
“And when it came right down to it, I couldn’t picture me back over there, going through all of that again, especially without Nick and Spence. It wouldn’t be the same.”
She still owed him the truth. “I guess it’s a bit late to be telling you this, but I would’ve supported your decision to go if that’s what you wanted, Leif.”
“Thank you for that.”
He stood up and looked around. “Listen, can we walk for a little while? I’ve been cooped up in a plane most of the day, and I need to work out some of the kinks.”
They strolled along the river for quite some distance, until they’d left the rest of the work party behind.
Finally, Leif coasted to a stop to stare up at the sky. “So I have one more decision to make, but I needed to talk to you first. Nick still wants me to go into business with him. To be honest, I don’t know much about construction, but he says he’ll teach me. Seems if he had to choose, he’d rather have someone he trusts with his life over someone he can trust with a power saw. I think there’s a compliment in there somewhere, but with Nick you never know.”
“That sounds like him.”
“Yeah, it does, but he’s right. Besides, I still plan to finish my degree in business, so I can handle that part of things for our company.”
“It sounds like a perfect plan for both of you.”
“There’s still one piece missing.”
He gathered her into his arms. “When I left, I told you I loved you, and that hasn’t changed. I’m really hoping you still feel the same way about me, because Snowberry Creek is the perfect place for an ex-soldier like me to build a new life. I want to live here, but only if I can have it all: the house, the picket fence, the dog, a couple of kids, and a wife. I’m thinking the first boy should be named David. So, what do you think, Zoe? Any part of that sound good to you?”
It was a good thing Leif was strong. Right now, without his support, she would’ve been in a boneless heap on the ground. This wonderful man was offering her everything she’d ever wanted.
“Not just part of it, Leif. All of it.”
Through a sheen of tears, she glared up at him with an anger she didn’t feel. “But don’t think this is going to count as an official proposal, Corporal.”
“Why not?”
“Look at me and then look at you. I look like I’ve been playing in the dirt all morning, which I have, while you’re all spit-and-polished handsome. It’s so not fair. I want a romantic dinner, flowers, some of that special slow dancing you’re so good at, to be followed by an official proposal. Have I made myself clear?”
He released her long enough to snap to attention, salute and all.
“Yes, ma’am! Perfectly clear. May I have permission to kiss you, ma’am?”
Happier than she’d been in years, she stepped back into Leif’s waiting arms. “Permission granted, Corporal.”
See what happens next in the Snowberry Creek series in
A Rea
son to Love
Available in May 2014 wherever books and
e-books are sold.
Turn the page for a special preview. . . .
A last name shouldn’t be a burden, but Melanie’s sat squarely on her shoulders as she strolled through the cemetery. The pressure increased dramatically as she passed the neat rows of nearly identical markers, all bearing the same inscription: Wolfe.
The library in town had the same name carved in the arch over the front door, as did the local high school. There was no escaping her family heritage here in Snowberry Creek, so Melanie moved on down the hillside, taking her time to enjoy the fresh air and warm sunshine. Rushing wouldn’t change a thing.
Her great-great-grandfather, Josiah Wolfe, had parked his covered wagon next to a small stream tumbling down through the foothills of the Cascades and shoved the family’s roots down deep into the rocky soil. He’d been an ambitious man, one determined to make his mark in the world, and the town of Snowberry Creek was his creation.
There, under his firm hand, the family had proudly flourished in both number and wealth for two generations. Even the stock market crash and the Great Depression had been mere setbacks. Since that time, the size of the family had dwindled dramatically in number until there were only two Wolfes left in town: Melanie and her mother, Sandra. But the money had slowly found its way back into the family coffers, and the Wolfe fortune was rock solid.
Or at least that was the fairy tale Melanie had always been told.
She reluctantly started down the slope to where a brand new granite headstone had been set in place. Her mother had instructed Melanie to ensure that everything had been done properly. Melanie had bitten back the suggestion that if her mother was worried about it, she could always come back to check it out for herself. Lord knows there were more important things on Melanie’s to-do list screaming for her attention right now.
Instead, here she was playing the part of a dutiful daughter again. It was a role she’d never been well-suited for, but right now she had no other choice. Not since something inside her mother had shattered the day her husband’s heart stop beating. Three weeks after the funeral, the reality of their changed circumstances had come crashing down. Sandra had immediately left town on an extended visit to her older sister, Marcia, down in Oregon, abandoning Melanie to deal with the fallout from her father’s death alone.
It would take a better person than Melanie to not resent having her whole life uprooted, especially when she’d worked so hard to escape Snowberry Creek in the first place. But unfortunately, according to Melanie’s aunt, Sandra Wolfe had become little more than a shadow of herself and rarely left the house at all. Figuring out what to do about that was also on Melanie’s to-do list.
She coasted to a stop a short distance from her father’s grave. From a distance, the gray granite marker blended in seamlessly with all the others. It was only on closer inspection that she could see the polished stone was a little shinier than those on either side of it.
Edmond Wolfe would’ve approved. Even in life, he’d preferred to maintain a quiet, dignified lifestyle. The only anomaly had been that bright red pickup truck he’d loved so much. Looking back, Melanie should’ve known something was wrong when he’d sold it days before he’d died. What other signs had she missed that all was not as it should have been? She’d grown up believing her parents were financially secure and that her father had inherited her great-great-grandfather’s head for business.
As it turned out, she’d been wrong on both counts.
The silence in the cemetery was oppressive, but what could she say to a slab of granite? She settled for the obvious. “Well, Dad, looks like they got everything on your headstone right. It suits you.”
Considering all it contained was his full name and the years that spanned his life, there wasn’t much that could’ve gone wrong. The Wolfe family didn’t go in for inspirational sayings or emotional displays, private or public. Melanie snapped a picture with her phone to text to her mother after she got home. For now, she set down the small bouquet of lilies she’d brought for her father’s grave.
Staring down at the headstone, she whispered, “Dad, the business is on the brink of disaster. I’m doing my best to figure things out, but I’ve got so many questions I wish I could ask you right now.”
Not that he would’ve liked answering them. He’d never discussed finances with his wife, much less his only daughter. No, like his father and grandfather before him, her father had preferred to shelter women from the hard realities of the business world. Well, that train had left the station. Melanie now knew all too much about the precarious state of the family’s finances.
It was time to get moving. She had other, happier places to be this evening. Turning to leave, she realized she was no longer alone on the hillside. A man dressed in a camouflage uniform stood by a grave on the far side of the cemetery. He had his back to her as he stared down at one of the markers. From the slump in his shoulders, the name on the headstone had to be causing him great pain.
She knew why because she knew who was buried there: Spence Lang. Last summer, the whole town had turned out for his funeral to pay homage to one of their own. The war was being waged on the other side of the world, but that day it had come home to Snowberry Creek.
Although she’d been living in Spokane at the time, Melanie had taken the day off work and had driven down to attend the service. She’d owed Spence that much. The solemn ceremony had been excruciatingly painful in its intensity. As the final strands of “Taps” faded away, the army honor guard had carefully folded the flag that had covered the coffin and presented it to Vince Locke, Spence’s uncle.
Melanie bet she hadn’t been the only one who had wanted to snatch it right back out of that bastard’s hands. Considering the despicable way that man treated his nephew in life, Vince didn’t deserve the honor of claiming that last reminder of Spence’s service to their country. It had been a relief to see Callie, Spence’s best friend, take it from him before he left the cemetery.
Even now, months later, the memory still made Melanie’s heart ache. He’d been such a force of nature, always a bit wild but with an easy smile for everyone.
Even the shy daughter of the first family of Snowberry Creek.
God, she’d had such a crush on Spence back in their senior year, not that she’d ever admitted how she felt about him. If anyone had found out, it would’ve only embarrassed Melanie in front of the whole school. Not to mention her parents would’ve been horrified to learn their daughter was attracted to the town bad boy.
Enough about the past.
No doubt the soldier had come to town for the wedding, the same one Melanie would be attending. Callie was marrying Nick Jenkins, who had served in Afghanistan with Spence. The couple had met when Nick had driven across the country to bring Callie the dog their unit had adopted over there. The couple might have bonded first over their shared loss, but there was no doubt about how much they loved each other. In truth, Melanie was a little jealous.
It was time to get moving if she was going to arrive at the church on time. But before heading for her car, the least she could do was introduce herself to the soldier and maybe nudge him along, too, since he hadn’t moved since she’d first spotted him. Visiting Spence’s grave was no doubt hard for the guy, and who could blame him? How many of his other friends had been wounded or killed over there?
As she made her way across the cemetery, she decided to do more than simply exchange names with the man. For Spence’s sake, she would offer to show him the way to the church. If he was in town by himself, maybe she would even invite him to sit with her. That way he would meet at least one other person in the crowd of locals besides the groom and his best man, Leif, another member of Spence’s unit.
If the soldier was aware of Melanie’s approach, he gave no sign of it. He remained frozen in that one spot even though Melanie made no effort to be especially quiet as she approached. She stopped a few steps away, paus
ing right in front of the double headstone that marked the grave of Spence’s parents.
“Excuse me? I don’t mean to intrude, but I was wondering if you were in town for the Jenkins-Redding wedding. If so, I’m headed there myself and thought you might like to follow me to the church.”
The soldier’s shoulders snapped back as if coming to attention. He didn’t turn to face her, but something about his rigid stance and clenched fists bothered her. Melanie backed up a step, keenly aware that she was a woman alone with a strange man on an isolated hillside.
Suddenly, she didn’t want him to turn around even if she couldn’t pinpoint the reason for her misgivings. When he finally glanced back over his shoulder, her pulse went into overdrive as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. That jawline. That profile. They were all too familiar even as her head tried to convince her heart that what she was seeing—no, make that who she was seeing—just wasn’t possible.
“Melanie?”
With that single word, her lungs quit working altogether as her knees buckled and the ground came rushing up to meet her. She heard a muttered curse as a pair of strong arms caught her right before she hit the ground. She stared up at the man’s face, blinking hard as if that would clear her vision. When that didn’t change the new reality of her world, she pointed out the obvious.
“Spence?”
More Than a Touch: A Snowberry Creek Novel Page 28