by Amy Vastine
“To a hotel?”
“Or maybe a motel near the airport,” he said. He was supposed to be in Virginia.
“I doubt you’ll find a room. This close to Thanksgiving, they’ll all be booked.”
“I should have given Jared a heads-up. My fault.”
“Don’t rush off. He’ll be back late Wednesday.”
“I’ll be gone by then,” he said.
She repeated her question. “To where?”
Caleb couldn’t answer. He didn’t know that, either. Since he’d taken leave—for the first time in a while—he’d wandered around until he thought of Phoenix. Jared McCall and his sister had been the closest he’d ever come to family.
As if she’d made some decision, Daisy stood up. Her arm from elbow to wrist looked as red as fire. Yet she kept smiling. He hadn’t seen anything like that in ten years…the last time he’d seen her.
Retreat, he ordered himself. But he couldn’t seem to move.
“We have a casita out back. It’s small but clean with a good bed and a kitchenette. You’d be comfortable there. Stay.” She tilted her head. “You haven’t become a serial killer, have you?”
As a woman alone in the house, she was right to wonder about that. Caleb pretended to examine himself. His clean new shirt, his pressed jeans—he’d pulled off the tags this morning—his boots. “Not the last time I looked.”
“Well, then. Let me show you the guest quarters.”
* * *
The man was a hot mess. And way too attractive for Daisy’s comfort.
She led him through the house anyway. How could she refuse?
He was obviously under stress, most likely combat-related. His deep tan couldn’t hide the darker shadows under his gray eyes and, if she didn’t miss her guess, he was about a blink away from falling apart.
Bad sign.
“My brother travels a lot in his job,” she told Caleb. “Kim goes with him sometimes. It made sense for me to give up my apartment and move back here—closer to my job. I’ve become the resident caretaker and the rent is free.”
“Didn’t know Jared was married. Who’s the wife?”
“A nurse,” she said. “Private duty, so she’s able to pick her own schedule. Jared met Kim when our mom was sick.”
“Wouldn’t have expected Jared to fall for a nurse,” Caleb mused behind her. “Remember how he used to be afraid of needles?”
“Getting him to the doctor was an ordeal.”
“What about you?” He glanced at her ring finger. “No husband?”
“I like being single.” Well, like wasn’t the word…and single hadn’t been her plan. Once, she’d had Bryan. Now all she had was her work.
“Me, too.”
She wouldn’t share the rest of her story with Caleb. He obviously needed a place to stay, but he wouldn’t stay long. That suited Daisy, even though she couldn’t take her eyes off him.
“With any luck, I’ll save enough while I’m living here for a down payment on my first house.”
Then she’d be able to make a fresh start, away from the memories she thought she’d left behind on Hayden Road in the apartment she’d shared with Bryan.
But now Caleb Henderson had shown up.
Frowning, Daisy opened the back door onto the enclosed courtyard. A blast of midday sun was a shock, like seeing Caleb after so many years, looking as if he expected to be shot.
She saw that expression often. A fair percentage of the patients at the center were veterans, trying to heal their bodies and reorganize their inner lives. Too many of them didn’t succeed. If she could help Caleb, she had to try.
“This is it,” she said, pushing open the casita’s door.
He looked around. Caleb picked up a pink coffee mug then set it down. He glanced at a flower arrangement on the table. Studied the lace curtains at the kitchen window. “It’s a girly place. Yours?”
“For the time being.” She swooped through the living area, gathering a soft blanket from the sofa, a stack of professional magazines from the table, a stray coffee mug. “I’m usually neat, but work’s been busy this week—the holidays aren’t a good time for some people—so I’m running behind.” She also had Jared’s house—their family home once—to clean before Thanksgiving.
“You can’t give up your space for me.”
“I can,” she said. “The guest bed in the house is too tiny for you.”
“Then it’s tiny for you, too.”
Caleb was a big man. Broad-shouldered. Dark-haired. Tough. Or so she was supposed to think. He had turned to face her, looking instead like the lost kid he’d been years ago, the boy her mother had taken in whenever he came home with Jared. And Daisy was her mother’s daughter. She tamped down the last of her doubts.
Yes, they’d lost touch over the years. But…he was here now.
“Let me do this,” she said.
Friends, she thought. That’s all they would be. Again.
Because, even though she wanted to help Caleb, in a purely professional way of course, he also reminded her of what she’d lost. She would have to be very careful. The last thing she needed was another man in uniform.
CHAPTER TWO
“Rise and shine. It’s reveille, or whatever.”
The words, along with the rustle of the curtains being opened, snapped Caleb out of a restless sleep. He flung one arm over his eyes. How was he here again—and in Daisy McCall’s bed? That fact, and some other stuff, had kept him up most of the night. When he slept, he dreamed of sniper fire, explosions, men bleeding in his arms. The nightmares kept getting worse.
Now she was opening the blinds, too, letting in the harsh morning sun. Caleb spoke from behind his arm. “What time is it?”
“Just after seven. I need to be at work by eight. You’re coming with me.”
He groaned. “No, I’m not.”
“Get up. Get dressed. There’s coffee at the house.”
“I don’t have to be at work,” he muttered. He was on leave—didn’t have a job right now. Caleb didn’t even know what kind of job he’d look for when—if—he decided to quit the team. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d been drawn here by some unseen force. Or maybe Daisy’d had something to do with it.
“You’re my assistant today,” she said. “There’s someone I want you to meet. Get moving.”
Go, go, go. The unspoken words sliced through his head like the wicked blade of a KA-BAR knife. He’d lived with commands for so long, he didn’t know anything else. Go meant go!
“You would have made a great drill sergeant,” he grumbled then motioned for her to turn her back. “I left my pajamas back at base camp.”
“Oh.”
Caleb wrapped the top sheet around his waist and headed for the bathroom. It was filled with feminine stuff. Lotions and perfumes. Even a pink toothbrush. Foreign territory.
“Meet you in the kitchen,” she called through the closed door.
He considered going back to bed. She couldn’t physically pull him out. Why would he want to go to her rehab center? See a bunch of sick people? Hurt people? People with their heads all messed up? Caleb had seen more than his share of the walking wounded. Also the ones who weren’t so lucky.
The bottom of his empty stomach dropped out. Didn’t matter if they were sprawled in the dirt somewhere or lying in a pristine white hospital bed struggling to live. Pretty soon they were all dead.
He put on his jeans, his boots, found a clean shirt in his duffle bag. He shook out the wrinkles then put that on, too.
A few minutes later he was in the kitchen like some private answering roll call, slugging down caffeine and bracing for another unpleasant experience. He never had been able to say no to Daisy. If he did, she’d simply overrule him as she always had. She was certainly not a girl now, or a childhood friend. Caleb liked the woman even better.
Look out, he told himself. He wouldn’t be here long. And if he wasn’t mistaken, she had issues of her own. That cheery, oh-so-sociable a
ttitude didn’t fool him.
The drive to the rehabilitation center didn’t take long. It looked like the rest of the low, stucco-sided buildings in the area. But inside was a welcoming lobby with a big fireplace, a tropical fish tank and a resident longhaired cat that wandered around. It rubbed against the legs of an elderly woman in a wheelchair and her face brightened.
“Good morning, Sunshine!”
The cat hopped onto her lap for a pet. Purr. He could hear it from halfway across the room.
“There’s my girl,” the woman said. She had dyed red hair and pale blue eyes that somehow seemed friendly. “And how are we today?”
Daisy said a few words to the receptionist then hooked her arm through his and led him toward the wheelchair. “Sophie, I want you to meet my friend.”
“Well,” she said, her gaze wandering over him.
Daisy grinned. “Caleb’s a friend of Jared’s, too. He’s home on leave from—?”
He half smiled. “If I tell you, I’d have to kill you.”
Sophie reached for his hand. “Thank you for your service.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Daisy stepped back. “I’ll leave you two to get better acquainted.” She glanced at Caleb, who hoped his growing alarm wasn’t visible on his face. “Sophie, don’t let me catch you flirting now.” Then she walked into her office behind the reception desk and shut the door.
“Daisy,” Caleb called after her. What could he possibly say to a woman almost old enough to be his great-grandmother?
“Sit down,” Sophie said in a tone that didn’t allow for anything but obedience. “I need to take a better look at you.”
Caleb cleared his throat. “I really should—” What? He’d never known either of his grandmothers, and for the past ten years his whole life had been black-ops. Still, he sat.
“Now, then,” Sophie said, studying him before she suddenly sat back with a faint moan. She seemed to be on the verge of tears.
Caleb straightened. “You okay?” There were no medics to call here.
“I’m fine,” she murmured. “You, I’m not that certain.”
Caleb had no answer to that. She was sharper than he’d expected. Like the tribal elders he’d dealt with in too many barren hot spots.
He cleared his throat. “I did my job,” he said. “No more, no less.”
“And now you’re back. Safe, if not well.”
Caleb shifted in his seat. She kept looking at him, finding things he didn’t want her to see.
“I had a great-nephew,” she said. “A wonderful man. Very brave, as I’m sure you are, too. He served in the first Gulf War. Sadly,” she went on, “he didn’t come home. You’re lucky, Caleb.”
“Yeah. I know.” So far.
She probed further. “You must have lost friends. Fellow soldiers.”
“I have. Yes. Quite a few,” he admitted with a pang of fresh grief for Sean Denton. He always remembered Sean first. “One of them was practically a kid. He fell for this girl over there, married her, and they had a baby together.”
“Something positive in the midst of so much violence,” Sophie said.
“Until he was…killed.”
“In combat?”
“No,” Caleb said. “The day his daughter was born, insurgents bombed the hospital. Denton and his bride were killed instantly.”
“Oh, dear. And their baby?”
“She’s with another buddy of mine, my team’s former leader. Brig and his wife, Molly, adopted Laila.”
“That’s a wonderful story—one with a bad beginning but a happy ending.” She paused. “Do you keep in touch?”
“When I can,” he said. He’d been meaning to call Brig. “Actually, our whole team kind of adopted Laila. I was the point man, who kept everyone updated about her. I used to joke she had a dozen fathers. Laila just knocks me out.”
“You like children.”
He shrugged. “I don’t have much experience.”
Caleb blinked. He always melted, just went plain gooey inside, whenever he thought of the baby who’d been orphaned before she was even a day old. Kind of like him. She was still the cutest little kid ever. But he never shed a tear. He’d learned long ago to keep his feelings to himself.
When Sophie reached out again, patting his arm with her age-speckled hand, he jumped.
“Sorry. Got lost in all that for a minute.”
“Of course you did.” She peered into his eyes, as if she could see straight into his damaged soul. “You poor boy.”
* * *
Caleb was too quiet. Daisy had seen that kind of withdrawal before, as if it was easier to stay wherever he’d been rather than try to fit in where he was now. Yet another bad sign.
She’d been in a similar place right after she’d lost Bryan. The worst thing would be to let Caleb sink deeper into the abyss. Daisy knew how hard it was to climb out.
As she pulled out of the center’s parking lot, Daisy realized what she needed to do. “Let’s go shopping,” she said.
“Huh?”
“Retail therapy. We need to get things for Thanksgiving.”
“Can you drop me at the house?” He gazed out the passenger window. “You got me up early. I might take a nap.”
She ignored all that. “Have you ever been to a turkey farm?”
“No.”
“Now’s your chance. I always buy a fresh turkey.”
Daisy had hoped his visit with Sophie, who’d been having one of her better days, would do the trick, but Caleb had never quite come out of his shell. That bothered her. Including him in her preparations for the holiday had seemed the next right step. Which, of course, meant spending time with him.
At the farm, even Daisy had to admit the noise was pretty loud. Caleb covered his ears with both hands. He paced back and forth by the pen that held a bunch of plump fowl and kept glancing over his shoulder. The only thing keeping him from a dash for the car must have been his fear of being seen as less than a macho man. Finally, he gestured at the turkeys.
“I’ve always heard they’re too dumb to come inside when it’s raining.”
“But they’re tasty,” she said.
“I’m still not a fan.”
“You just have to get past the squawking and their odd appearance.”
“You can’t distract me with these birds. I haven’t forgotten how you set me up this morning with Sophie.”
His eyes sparked with the temper she’d nearly forgotten he had. When Caleb had first come home with Jared, he’d been a surly boy. The only emotion he’d seemed comfortable with was anger, and Daisy hadn’t known how to respond. But now she’d had plenty of professional experience. “I think she did you some good.”
“I’m not one of your patients, Daisy. I don’t need a shrink—even one disguised as a sweet old lady.”
She wagged a finger at him. “Sophie wouldn’t like to hear you call her that.”
He let out a breath. “Not funny.”
“No?” She poked his shoulder. “I never did like your angry young man pose. I don’t like it now.”
He grinned like a Halloween pumpkin, but his eyes stayed grim.
“Like me better this way?”
“Yes, but not much. I want to see a real smile.”
Daisy didn’t get her wish. His gaze sharpened. In the pen a couple of turkeys were flapping their wings and flying a foot or two off the ground, lashing out with their feet. Trying to kill each other?
“Can we get out of here,” Caleb said.
He waited in the car while Daisy paid for the turkey she’d chosen.
When they’d left the farm behind, he asked, “Why is Sophie in your rehab center? Is she sick?”
Daisy hesitated to tell him about her mild dementia. Sophie didn’t want anyone to know. “She had a heart attack several months ago,” she said, which was also true. “She’s still regaining her strength—thus, the wheelchair. She’ll probably go to an assisted living facility soon. I’ll miss her when she�
��s gone.”
“I think you’d miss anyone, Daisy.”
“I do,” she admitted. “I miss all my patients when they’re ready for the real world again. I miss Jared and Kim the minute they leave for a trip.” I missed you. And then, there was Bryan.
“Who do you miss most?”
Daisy almost drove off the road. “I told you.”
“I meant a specific someone. Your someone.”
“That’s way too spooky,” she said, pulling into the driveway. Shaking, she put the car in Park.
Who knew he could be so insightful? She supposed that, as long as she was trying to probe his soft spots, Caleb had a right to know about hers, even when she didn’t want him to get too close.
“I was engaged once,” she said at last, running a finger around the steering wheel. “He…Bryan was a firefighter. If you recall, Phoenix isn’t the easiest place to be a fireman. It’s better than it used to be, but sometimes the water pressure still isn’t that great and whole blocks can burn down while everyone stands around feeling helpless.” She took a breath. “We’d already booked our wedding venue and the reception. I’d even bought my dress before he…one night he got called to a fire in a strip of commercial buildings near our apartment.” She tried to sound dispassionate as Caleb might. “There were people inside. He went after them. The roof caved in—he never came out.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.” She bit her lip. “I loved him very much.”
Caleb touched her forearm. “It’s hard to lose people.”
A second later, she was in his strong arms. Her head dropped onto his solid shoulder and she clung to him, weeping—something she tried to do only when she was alone. “I haven’t done this in weeks,” she said at last, dashing tears away.
But Caleb wouldn’t let her pull back.
“I’m an idiot,” he whispered with a light kiss to her forehead. “You don’t have to say any more.”
Except in that moment, she did. He tightened his embrace and she almost lost it again. Because being in Caleb’s arms, being held by him, seemed as dangerous as his war, wherever it might be.
“I can tell you one more thing. I’ll never fall for a man in uniform again.”