The Marine's Road Home

by Brenda Harlen

  “You shouldn’t feel guilty at all. If I didn’t want you here, I wouldn’t have asked you to stay.”

  “As I recall, you invited me to stay for a nap.”

  “And didn’t you nap?”

  She chuckled. “Sure, we’ll go with that.”

  He set a frying pan on top of the stove and drizzled some oil in it. “I’ve got bread today, but I’m short on eggs,” he told her. “French toast okay?”

  “Are you offering to cook for me again?”

  “You have to fuel up,” he said. “It’s a game day and breakfast is supposedly the most important meal.”

  “It is a game day,” she said. “But I didn’t expect you to remember that.”

  “I not only remembered, I stopped by the park last week to watch a few innings,” he said, as he scrambled the eggs he’d cracked.

  “I thought I caught a glimpse of you and Molly by the bleachers at Diamond Two.”

  “That was us,” he confirmed.

  “Why didn’t you come to the dugout to say hi?”

  He shrugged as he dipped a slice of bread into the egg mixture. “You mentioned it was mostly parents or spouses who come out to the games.”

  “And we don’t have that kind of relationship,” she said, echoing the words she’d spoken once before. Then she followed up with the question he’d asked her: “So what kind of relationship do we have?”

  “I thought we established yesterday that we were friends—and maybe more.”

  Since he was busy at the stove, she retrieved two mugs from the cupboard and filled them from the coffeepot. “Are you going to come out to the game today?” she asked him.

  “I might stop by for a few innings.”

  “It’s a long way into town for just a few innings,” she pointed out.

  “But totally worth it to see you in those snug-fitting pants,” he assured her.

  “Maybe I could come over later tonight and you could see me out of them,” she suggested.

  “Even better.”

  * * *

  Not long after Sky had gone, Ashley and Rey showed up again.

  “I didn’t expect to see you today,” Jake said.

  “I wanted to say thanks for texting me last night to let me know that Sky was crashing here.”

  “I didn’t want you to worry—or wait up all night waiting for her to come home.”

  “I don’t know that I would have stayed up all night, but I might have worried,” she allowed.

  “And you did say thanks when you replied to my message,” he pointed out.

  “I also wanted Rey to get some exercise because she has to be on a leash when we’re at the ballpark.”

  “Right, it’s a game day today, isn’t it?” he said, as if he didn’t already know.

  Ashley nodded. “Are you gonna come?”

  “Maybe. I’ve started something in the workshop, so we’ll have to see what progress I make.”

  “I thought you said you weren’t a carpenter.”

  “I’m not. I’m just messing around.”

  “Are you in the military?” she asked him.

  “Not anymore.”

  “What branch were you in?”

  “Marines.”

  “Once a Marine, always a Marine.”

  He looked up, both surprised and amused by her response.

  “My mom’s a big fan of NCIS, and I watch it with her sometimes,” she told him.

  “I thought kids your age only watched YouTube videos,” he remarked.

  “I’m not a kid,” she said.

  “Right. Sorry.”

  “Why aren’t you in the military anymore? Is it because of your PTSD?” she guessed.

  “You really do just blurt out whatever’s on your mind, don’t you?”

  She shrugged. “I heard it mentioned when my mom and Sky were talking the other day.”

  His scowl deepened.

  “Sky didn’t say that you had PTSD,” Ashley hastened to explain. “In fact, she argued that my mom shouldn’t speculate about the condition of a man she’s never even met, but my mom worries that Sky isn’t seeing the situation clearly because of her feelings for you.”

  “Did you take notes while you were eavesdropping on their conversation?”

  “My teachers say I pay close attention to detail.”

  But Jake could tell it was more than that, and he suspected the girl was worried about the conflict between her mother and half sister. That maybe, despite her outward bravado, she wasn’t entirely confident of her place in the world—or even within her new family.

  “And I thought you’d be more interested in Sky’s response than my listening skills.”

  “I’m not going to ask what your sister said,” he assured her.

  Ashley smiled like a cat with a mouthful of feathers. “But you want to know, don’t you?”

  Yeah, he wanted to know, but he wasn’t going to ask—not without knowing for sure that he was prepared to hear the answer.

  * * *

  Prospect Park did double duty as a neighborhood park, complete with swings, seesaws and a climbing structure, and a sports facility, with soccer pitches, baseball diamonds, basketball courts and even a designated area for lawn bowling. In the ballpark area, there were sets of stadium seats behind each of the home and visitor dugouts—if a players’ bench behind a length of chain link fence could be called a dugout—and a small concrete-block building with food services at the front and restroom facilities at the back.

  The concession offerings were limited to hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn, candy bars and hot and cold drinks, but there were a handful of picnic tables nearby and several were occupied when Jake arrived.

  As he surveyed the scene, he noted that there weren’t a lot of empty seats on the bleachers, and most of the spectators proudly displayed their team loyalty with baseball caps or T-shirts that matched the logos of one team or the other. Duke’s Diggers wore grey pants with dark blue T-shirts emblazoned with a cartoon depiction of a grizzled prospector holding a pickax in one hand and a gold nugget in the other. The opposing team—the Haven Hawks, sponsored by Jo’s—was in red and white.

  Jake spotted Ashley, seated in a folding lawn chair behind the backstop, the scorebook in her lap. Rey’s leash was tied to the leg of her chair, and the pup was curled up on the grass beside her.

  Molly must have spotted them at the same time, because she tensed at his side, eager to take off and visit her friend as soon as he gave her the okay.

  Jake didn’t give the okay.

  “Sorry, girl,” he said instead. “Not today.”

  It was the same thing he’d said to her the last time they were at the park.

  And the time before that.

  But they stayed until the end of the game today, when the Diggers ran off the field after making the final out, whooping and hollering in celebration of their victory. Sky smiled as one of her teammates tugged on the ponytail threaded through the hole in the back of her hat.

  Glad to know that she was having a much better day than the one before, he turned away. “Let’s go home, Molly.”

  * * *

  Sky glanced around, a seemingly casual survey, as the spectators began to gather up their stadium cushions and concession garbage at the end of the game. She didn’t see Jake anywhere, although she’d been certain she’d caught a glimpse of him earlier. And if she was disappointed that he hadn’t stuck around, she was pleased to know that he’d been there.

  “You had a successful day at the bat,” Caleb noted as she packed her bat and glove into her equipment bag.

  “Thanks.” She tugged on the zipper.

  “Two for three with four RBIs,” he continued.

  “Are you the official league statistician now?” Sky asked.

  “Nah. But I wa
s thinking that you’ve earned yourself a beer,” he said. “You coming to Diggers’?”

  “Not today.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I want to get home and shower,” she said. “Plus, I promised to drop Ashley off at Chloe’s.” She had some reservations about her little sister hanging out at Chloe’s house since the incident with Leon Franks and learning that Chloe had a taste for vodka coolers, but she understood the importance of the friendship to both girls. More important, she trusted that Ashley had a good head on her shoulders and wouldn’t hesitate to reach out if she found herself in a situation that was at all uncomfortable for her.

  “No other plans?” he prompted.

  “What do you really want to know, Caleb?”

  “If there’s any truth to the rumors I’ve heard about you being involved with Ross Ferguson’s nephew.”

  “His name is Jake Kelly,” she said. “And since when do you pay any attention to gossip?”

  “Since it comes from a trustworthy source.”

  Sky frowned. “What’s your trustworthy source?”

  “Our sister.”

  “Kate?” Sky didn’t believe it. There was no way her by-the-book attorney sister would divulge any information that had been shared with her in confidence, even if in the comfort of her own home over coffee and donuts.

  Caleb shook his head. “Sorry, I should have said our little sister.”

  “Ashley,” she realized.

  He nodded. “She said she saw your car in his driveway the other night and then heard you sneaking into the house at three a.m.”

  “She should have been sleeping at three a.m.”

  “So it’s true?” he asked.

  “I’m twenty-five years old,” she reminded him. “I don’t have to sneak anywhere.”

  “So it’s true,” he decided.

  “What it is, is none of your business.”

  “I’m your brother—”

  “My brother not my keeper,” she interjected.

  “I’m worried about you, Sky.”

  “You don’t need to be.”

  “It’s hardly a secret that you have a lousy track record with men,” Caleb said, not unkindly.

  “No, it’s not,” she acknowledged. “But thanks for the reminder, anyway.”

  Her brother sighed. “Come on, Sky. Don’t be mad.”

  “I’m not mad.”

  “I just don’t want to see you get hurt again, and no one really seems to know much about this guy.”

  “Jake,” she said again. “And I know him.”

  “Do you?” he challenged.

  Before Sky could respond to that, Ashley came over to join them. “Are we going to go sometime today? Chloe’s texted me five times in the last five minutes.”

  “We’re going right now,” Sky promised, shouldering her bag and starting toward the parking lot.

  Caleb fell into step beside her. “Just...be careful,” he urged.

  “I always am.” She unlocked the car and Ashley climbed into the back seat with her dog.

  “I love you, sis.”

  And with those words, Sky’s irritation melted. Because she knew they were true. She might not appreciate Caleb’s interference in her personal life, but she knew that his concern was motivated by affection.

  “I love you, too, PITA,” she said, using the acronym for pain in the ass.

  He grinned, relieved to know that he was forgiven.

  Sky tossed her bag into the back of her SUV and climbed behind the wheel.

  As she drove toward Chloe’s house, she couldn’t help but reflect on her brother’s remarks. Because Caleb was right. She did have a lousy track record with men.

  Everyone that she’d loved—or thought she’d been in love with—had left her.

  Maybe she shouldn’t include Peter Jarrett on that list, because it was probably inevitable that their relationship wouldn’t have survived them going to different colleges in different states. But he’d promised her that they’d make it work because he loved her. And she’d wanted to believe him because she loved him, too. Then he’d dumped her before Thanksgiving that first year.

  She’d held off falling in love again until her third year at UNLV. But Xavier Leroux had been in his final year, and when he graduated, he moved on to bigger and better things—and another woman.

  Archie Collins had been one of her faculty advisors when she was working on her master’s thesis—an ill-advised relationship that had probably lasted longer than it should have. But right or wrong, she’d loved him, too. And although technically she’d left him when she moved back to Haven, the end result was the same.

  In the end, she was alone.

  And she knew that if she fell for Jake, he’d be no different.

  He’d already told her that he didn’t intend to stay in Haven for the long-term. It was just a temporary stop—a convenient place for him to get his life together.

  Staying in this small town had never been part of his future plans.

  Except that he didn’t really have a plan.

  So maybe he would change his mind. Maybe, if he could find the peace here that had so far eluded him everywhere else, he would stay in Haven.

  Maybe he’d stay with her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sky didn’t make it back to Jake’s house later that night.

  After driving Ashley to Chloe’s house, she took Rey back to the Circle G and left the pup in the care of her father and stepmother so that she could shower off the dirt and grime from the game. She’d just stepped out of the enclosure and wrapped herself in a towel when her cell phone chimed with a text message.

  An hour later, Sky was back in town, sitting across from Jenny Taft at the kitchen table in her mother’s house.

  “I wasn’t sure you’d come,” the former cheerleader said, sounding both surprised and relieved. “I wasn’t very nice the last time I saw you.”

  “As I recall, you weren’t having a very good day.”

  The other woman managed a smile, then immediately lifted a hand to cover her mouth—and hide the tooth that hadn’t been chipped the last time they’d talked.

  “So why did you want to see me?” Sky asked.

  “When you came to the clinic, you said that there were options...for people in...” She seemed to struggle to say it, to acknowledge the truth.

  Sky waited, not wanting to put words in Jenny’s mouth.

  “Abusive relationships,” the other woman finally continued.

  “There are always options,” Sky assured her.

  “He wasn’t always...mean,” Jenny said. “In the beginning, Darren was really sweet. Even now, sometimes he brings me flowers, or just kisses me softly, and I know he loves me.” She dropped her gaze to her hands, folded neatly in her lap. “But those times aren’t very often anymore. Not compared to the times that he’s mean.”

  “Can you give me examples of what he does when he’s mean?” Sky asked gently.

  “He yells. A lot. Almost all the time now.” She swallowed. “I know he’s unhappy. When we were in high school, he thought for sure he was going to get a football scholarship, but that never came through and he had to go work in the mines, just like his father.”

  “It’s always hard to let go of a dream,” Sky acknowledged. “But I bet you had dreams, too, didn’t you, Jenny?”

  “Not big ones.”

  “Tell me about them,” she urged.

  “There was a time that I wanted to be a teacher,” she confided. “I always thought it would be nice to have a decent job, go on vacation once a year, maybe to Disneyland with the kids—” her smile was wistful “—after we had kids.”

  “And now?” Sky prompted.

  “Now I know I won’t ever have any of those things with Darren.”

&nbs
p; “Because he yells?”

  Jenny nodded. “And sometimes...” She looked at Sky now, her expression stricken. “Sometimes he hits me.”

  Sky knew the admission wasn’t just a crucial first step in moving forward for victims of abuse, but often the hardest one to take. And she credited Jenny’s mother for helping her to take that step now.

  “I don’t want to be hit anymore,” Jenny said, her eyes filling with tears.

  Sky waited, sensing there was more the other woman wanted to tell her. After another minute, Jenny continued.

  “I was pregnant once...about six months ago.” She swiped at the tears that spilled onto her cheeks. “I lost the baby. It wasn’t Darren’s fault—and I’m not making excuses this time. Even the doctor said that sometimes these things just happen.”

  Sky nodded.

  “I cried for a long time afterward. I cried and cried, and Darren got mad at me for mourning a baby that was hardly the size of a pea when I lost it. And I was sad that I’d lost the baby, but I think I was relieved, too. Because I knew that if I had Darren’s baby, I’d never get away from him.

  “So I went to my doctor and I asked to go back on birth control pills.” She wiped away more tears. “The day that you came to see me at the clinic...that was the day he found my pills. He was so mad. I don’t think he wanted a baby any more than I did at that point, but he was mad that I’d made a decision about birth control without consulting him.”

  “What did he do?”

  She closed her eyes. “He grabbed me by the hair and shoved me against the wall. He punched me. And he kicked me.”

  “Are you telling me now that you didn’t fall down the stairs that day?” Sky asked.

  Jenny shook her head. “I didn’t fall down the stairs,” she confirmed. “He pushed me.”

  * * *

  Though Sky wouldn’t have said that she and Jake had settled into any kind of a routine, she was nonetheless surprised when he walked into the bar on Friday night.

  “Sam Adams?” she asked, already reaching for a glass.

  Jake shook his head. “Give me a shot of Jack Daniels.”