The Marine's Road Home

by Brenda Harlen

  He didn’t respond to that, except to say, “You can check the freezer. There might be a couple of English muffins in there.”

  She opened the door and discovered the space filled with frozen pizzas and prepackaged microwaveable meals, ice-cream bars and yes, a partial bag of English muffins.

  Sky untied the package, took out two muffins, then tied it up again and returned it to the freezer.

  “Toaster’s in that cupboard,” Jake told her, pointing with the spatula.

  “Based on the contents of your freezer, I’m guessing that you don’t do a lot of cooking, aside from bacon and eggs,” she remarked, as she set the appliance on the counter and plugged it in.

  “Not a lot,” he agreed. “Though I’m a gourmet when it comes to cooking frozen pizza.”

  “Jamie Oliver better watch his back,” she said, tongue in cheek.

  “Who?” he asked.

  She chuckled softly. “And considering the stack of frozen pizza boxes, I’m going to assume that you have yet to discover Jo’s.”

  “Actually, I’ve had Jo’s pizza a couple of times.” He lifted the bacon out of the pan and put it on a paper towel to absorb the grease.

  “A couple of times?” she echoed.

  He nodded as he cracked eggs over the pan.

  “How long have you been in Haven?”

  “Almost three months.”

  “And you know about Jo’s but you’ve only had the best pizza in the known universe, conveniently located on Main Street in this very town, twice?”

  “The best pizza in the known universe?” he echoed dubiously.

  “You don’t agree?”

  “It was good,” he acknowledged.

  “Good?” Her tone was incredulous. “French macarons are good. Swiss cheese is good. Jo’s pizza is a culinary masterpiece. If I had to pick only one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be Jo’s pizza.”

  “It’s good pizza,” he said again, reaching into the cupboard beside the stove for a couple of plates.

  At the same time, the toaster popped, forcing Sky to turn her attention to buttering the muffins.

  As Jake plated the bacon and eggs, she found the cutlery drawer and set forks and knives on the table.

  “Juice?” he asked, taking a jug from the fridge.

  She held up her mug of coffee. “No, this is fine, thanks.”

  He poured a glass for himself, then joined her at the table.

  “How are they?” he asked, after she’d sampled the first bite.

  “Really good,” she said, lifting another forkful to her mouth.

  Jake focused on his own breakfast then. He was mopping up the yolk on his plate with the last bite of English muffin before he said, “I stopped in at Diggers’ last night, after a quick trip to the hardware store.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t go to the hardware store in Battle Mountain,” she said, only half teasing.

  “So I guess you don’t work on Thursdays,” he said, pointedly ignoring her cheeky remark.

  “Did you go into Diggers’ looking for me?” she asked, both surprised and pleased by the possibility.

  “I just thought, since I was in town, that I’d say hi.”

  “Now I’m almost sorry I wasn’t there,” she said. “But I only work a couple shifts a week.”

  “So what do you do with the rest of your time?” he wondered.

  “Careful,” she warned. “Asking questions about my life might lead to a quid pro quo.”

  “I’m willing to take my chances,” he decided.

  “Then I’ll tell you that the rest of my time is split between my other jobs, spending time with my family and friends and playing coed softball with the Diggers during the summer.”

  “What’s your other job?”

  “I think it’s my turn to ask a question now,” she said and paused, considering. “I’ll start with an easy one—are you going to eat that last slice of bacon?”

  “What?”

  “I’ll take that as a no,” she said, and snagged it from his plate.

  “That was your question?”

  She nodded as she bit into the crispy meat. “Your turn again.”

  “Okay,” he said, obviously relieved that she hadn’t ventured into personal territory. “Tell me about your other job.”

  “I’m a youth counselor at the local high school.”

  “A counselor helps kids pick out their courses and figure out what colleges to apply to, right?”

  “That’s a guidance counselor,” she said. “My job is to give them tools and strategies to deal with stuff like cyberbullying and sexual harassment and drug and alcohol abuse.”

  “That’s heavy stuff,” he noted.

  She nodded. “And the adolescent years can be particularly challenging ones, so it’s crucial that teens know there’s someone they can talk to, in confidence, whenever they need to.”

  “Even if it’s two o’clock in the morning?”

  “Even if,” she agreed.

  “Is that why you were in such a hurry to leave here the other night?”

  “I was planning to leave, anyway,” she pointed out. “But no, the text message was from a nearby women’s shelter where I volunteer.”

  “Apparently you have a much busier schedule than I realized.”

  “Too busy sometimes,” she acknowledged.

  “So why don’t you cut back on your hours? Or even give up one of the jobs?” he suggested.

  She shrugged. “I only have office hours at the high school two days a week, although sometimes I get called in at the request of a student or to address a specific issue. And I usually spend a few hours at April’s House on the weekends, but I’ll also go in during the week if the shelter is busy.”

  “And Diggers’?”

  “I’m there every Wednesday and Friday and every other Sunday,” she said. “The late hours take a toll sometimes, but I really enjoy the interactions with customers. The Daily Grind might be popular for hot coffee and hotter gossip, but Diggers’ is the heart of the community. It’s where people gather for a drink after work or to grab a bite with friends or to celebrate all the big and little milestones in their lives.

  “In three years, I’ve seen a lot of milestones, though there are still people who don’t approve of me working there,” she confided.

  “Like your father?” he guessed.

  She frowned. “How’d you know that?”

  “Ashley mentioned it.”

  “When were you talking to my little sister?”

  He shrugged. “She brings Rey over when she’s bored.”

  “Then she must be here a lot,” Sky decided. “Because she’s always bored. And it’s going to be even worse when school’s out for the summer.”

  “Because most of her friends live in town,” Jake noted, obviously echoing one of her sister’s common complaints.

  “It was no different for me when I was growing up,” Sky pointed out. “Although I had a sister and two brothers, so I was never really alone—even when I wanted to be.”

  “Forced proximity makes convenient playmates.”

  “Sounds like you speak from experience,” she said.

  “I have a brother,” he told her. “Luke. He’s four years older than me.”

  “Where did you grow up?”

  “Here and there.”

  “Military brats, huh? Is your dad a Marine, too?” At his questioning look, she shrugged. “Even in the dark, that tattoo on your shoulder is hard to miss.”

  “Yeah,” he finally said. “My dad’s a major in the US Marine Corps.”

  She didn’t know a lot about military structure, but she knew that major was a pretty high rank.

  Jake gathered up their plates and pushed away from the table, a clear indication th
at the topic of conversation was closed.

  “Do you want me to give you a ride home?” he asked.

  “No, I can walk,” she said. “I just didn’t expect to be kicked out before we had sex this time.”

  He seemed taken aback by her response.

  “I invited you to come over for breakfast because I didn’t want you to think that all I wanted from you was sex,” he said.

  “Are you saying that you don’t want to have sex?”

  “Men pretty much always want to have sex,” he told her.

  “And yet, I’ve been here—” she glanced at the watch on her wrist “—more than an hour, and you haven’t even kissed me.”

  “It’s been a concerted effort to keep my hands off you,” he promised.

  “I like when your hands are on me.”

  “Good to know, but—” he held them up now and took a step back “—I was actually thinking we might try something different next time.”

  “What do you mean by different?” she asked, her tone wary.

  “I mean like going out for dinner.”

  “We just had breakfast and you’re already thinking about dinner?” she teased.

  “I wasn’t necessarily suggesting tonight.”

  Her pretty blue-grey eyes sparkled. “Are you asking me on a date, Jake Kelly?”

  “Yes, I’m asking you on a date, Sky Gilmore,” he confirmed, parroting her with a smile.

  “Then I’m saying yes,” she told him. “When? Where?”

  He wanted to say tonight but since that might come across as too eager, especially considering her remark about their recent meal, he suggested Tuesday instead.

  She gave a slight shake of her head. “I can’t do dinner on Tuesday,” she said, sounding sincerely regretful. “Tuesdays are game nights.”

  “Game nights?”

  “The coed softball team I mentioned—I play third base,” she explained.

  “The hot corner,” he noted, impressed. “You must be good.”

  “I am,” she said, but it was a matter-of-fact statement rather than a boast.

  “Okay, so you have baseball on Tuesday and you work on Wednesday, so how about Thursday?”

  “Thursday sounds good to me,” she agreed.

  “Okay, then,” he agreed. “We’ll do it on Thursday.”

  “But dinner first, right?” she teased.

  He smiled, appreciating not just her humor but the promise implicit in her words. “Definitely dinner first.”

  Chapter Nine

  It was Sky’s opinion that one of the best things about not having a regular full-time job was that she was often available whenever a friend or family member needed her. And while she wasn’t always thrilled to be enlisted to run errands for the ranch, she never hesitated to step up when Katelyn needed someone to watch Tessa for a couple hours or her sister-in-law Macy asked for help with the triplets.

  So on Wednesday afternoon, when Kate called to tell her that she was still stuck in a trial that should have been finished two days earlier, Sky happily agreed to take Tessa to her Tadpole lesson at the community center. The swimming class was made up of a small group of toddlers who, along with their parents or caregivers, were taught water safety and foundational skills.

  Tessa’s favorite part was when she got to be a starfish, spreading her arms and legs wide and floating on top of the water with her aunt’s hand supporting her back. She was less enamored of the putting-her-face-in-the-water part.

  When the class was finished, Sky and Tessa returned to the locker room to shower—“We hafta wash off the kwoween, Auntie ’ky”—and get dressed. Of course, toweling the little girl’s head wasn’t good enough for Tessa, who insisted on standing beneath the hand dryer until there wasn’t a drop of moisture left in her hair.

  “I think I understand now why your mom warned me that a half-hour swim class takes two hours,” Sky remarked, as she wrapped the wet swimsuits in their towels before tucking them into Tessa’s glittery pink backpack. Of course she didn’t really mind, because she’d enjoyed every minute of those two hours she’d spent with her adorable niece.

  But they weren’t done yet. Because on their way to the exit, they had to go right past the library.

  “Books! Books!” Tessa insisted.

  And there was no way Sky, a lifelong lover of reading herself, could possibly say no to her.

  Another half an hour later, they were finally on their way out of the building, with half a dozen books stuffed in the front pouch of Tessa’s backpack, away from the damp towels.

  Sky held her niece’s hand securely in hers as the little girl carefully navigated the outside steps. As Tessa reached the bottom, Sky caught a glimpse, out of the corner of her eye, of a truck pulling into the parking lot.

  Was that... Jake’s truck?

  She turned her head for a better look, surprised to realize that it was. And even more surprised when his passenger side door opened and a woman got out.

  Sky recognized the stunning, statuesque blonde as Natalya Vasilek, an assistant manager at Adventure Village who occasionally came into Diggers’ with her coworkers for a drink and a bite to eat. In addition to working at the family-friendly activity center, Natalya was a former naval aviator who organized weekly support group meetings for other military veterans.

  As Nat came around the back of the vehicle, Sky saw that she carried a wide flat box from Sweet Caroline’s Sweets. Donuts or some other kind of pastries for the meeting, she guessed.

  Jake fell into step with the other woman, obviously continuing whatever conversation they’d been having in the car. In fact, he was so focused on what they were talking about, he was almost at the bottom step before he spotted Sky standing there with Tessa.

  He stopped abruptly in mid-stride and his lips started to curve, as if he was happy to see her, but the curve didn’t quite reach the point of a smile before his gaze shuttered.

  “Hi,” Sky said, her greeting encompassing both of them.

  “Hey, Sky.” The other woman’s easy response was accompanied by a real smile, even as her gaze shifted from Jake to Sky and back again, curious and assessing.

  Jake’s response wasn’t quite as easy, and Sky realized he wasn’t just startled by this chance encounter but maybe a little uncomfortable, too.

  Because he was with Nat?

  Or because he didn’t want her to know that he was going to a support group?

  Nat clearly sensed the subtext between them because she gestured to the box she carried. “I’m going to take this inside,” she said, and made her escape.

  Jake nodded, though his attention never shifted away from Sky.

  “I didn’t expect—what are you doing here?” he asked, when Nat was out of earshot.

  “My sister was stuck in court, so I brought Tessa to her swimming group today,” she said.

  “I swimmed,” her niece said proudly.

  His gaze shifted now to the little girl clinging to Sky, and his expression immediately softened. “Do you like swimming?”

  Tessa’s head bobbed up and down as she released her aunt’s hand to reach both arms up into the air and stretch her legs out. “I a ’tarfiss.”

  “She means starfish,” Sky translated.

  He nodded. “I’ve got an almost-three-year-old niece, so I’m pretty fluent in toddler-speak. Plus, the pose,” he acknowledged. “Definitely a starfish.”

  Tessa beamed at him. “An’ I got books.”

  “At the library?” he guessed.

  The little girl responded with more head bobbing.

  “Sounds like you’ve both had a busy day.”

  “And mine is a long way from over,” Sky said. “I need to get Tessa home so that I can go home and get ready for work.”

  Jake nodded. “I’ll see you later then?”

 
She smiled. “I hope so.”

  * * *

  Natalya was almost finished arranging the chairs by the time Jake made his way to the usual meeting room.

  “I thought I was here to help you set up,” he remarked.

  “So did I.” But her remark was followed by a smile to assure him that she wasn’t bothered by his tardiness.

  Still, he felt compelled to say, “You could have waited for me.”

  “I’m perfectly capable of unstacking chairs, Jake. The main reason I asked you to come into town early was because I needed a ride.”

  And he knew it hadn’t been easy for her to ask for even that small favor. Natalya Vasilek was one of the most fiercely independent people he’d ever met, and he suspected that she would have preferred to walk to the community center from home rather than accept a ride, except that she had to pick up the donuts from Sweet Caroline’s.

  “How long are you going to be without wheels?” he asked her now.

  “Just a couple more days—I hope.” She finished with the chairs, then moved into the kitchenette to begin making coffee. “It’s just frustrating to be inconvenienced by something that wasn’t at all my fault.”

  She’d given him a quick rundown of the situation on the phone, explaining that someone had backed into her car in the parking lot at Adventure Village. What annoyed her even more was that the driver of the other vehicle took off. Thankfully, there were surveillance cameras on the property that recorded the incident, so her car was now being repaired and the other driver’s insurance was paying for it.

  “Well, I’m generally around,” he said now. “If you need me to play chauffeur again.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “But I only tagged you tonight because we were coming to the same place.”

  “How are you getting to and from work?”

  “I’ve been hitching a ride with a coworker.”

  “Is this, by any chance, the coworker that you’ve sort of been seeing?” he asked.

  “It might be,” she allowed.

  “So...things are going well?” he prompted.