Military Heroes Bundle: A Soldier's Homecoming / A Soldier's Redemption / Danger in the Desert / Strangers When We Meet / Grayson's Surrender / Taking Cover. Merline Lovelace

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      “I don’t think...”

      “Not yet, maybe. But she’s a good woman, through and through. Almost as good as my Faith. You’ll see.” He drained his mug and rose to carry it to the sink. “I’m going to get to the office, make sure that picture of Leo gets out to the force. I think we got us a snake in the corn, son, and it ain’t no stranger.”

      Ethan watched his father leave, feeling as if an important connection had just been made. His father was no longer a stranger. He was becoming a friend.

      For the first time in a long time, he smiled just because he felt like it.

      In the distance he heard a rumble of thunder. Rising, he went to the front of the house to look out and see the clouds. Billowing upward, limned in white so bright it seemed to shine, and black below. Another bad one. A big one, the kind that could build up over miles of open space.

      He closed his eyes as thunder rumbled again, feeling it deep inside himself. Thunder spoke, and he listened.

      He had been chosen. Somehow, in some way, he had been chosen. The shaman in him rose to accept the task, whatever it might be. As thunder rumbled again, speaking in a tongue only his heart could understand, he gave thanks for the rain, for the lightning, for their cleansing, nourishing powers.

      And he gave thanks that he had been brought here at this moment in time, a moment when he was needed.

      Because what good was any man if he didn’t serve a need?

      * * *

      Connie couldn’t sleep. Of course, she hadn’t expected to. She looked in on Sophie several times, then lay on her bed listening to the building storm. The storm, she thought, would drive Leo or whoever it was to ground. She could relax, at least for a little while.

      But anxiety, her constant companion now, wouldn’t let go.

      She heard Ethan’s footsteps on the stairs. He moved almost silently, as usual, but no matter how light his tread, he couldn’t avoid all the creaky steps, even though he missed most of them.

      Straining to listen, she heard him open Sophie’s door, then close it. A moment later her own door opened, just as a bolt of lightning brightened the darkening afternoon. For an instant he looked as if he were stepping out of another world, a mythic being come briefly to earth. Then the lightning faded and he was Ethan again.

      “You okay?” he asked.

      “Can’t sleep.”

      “Hardly surprising. Sophie’s out like a light.” He came into the room and lay down beside her, pulling her close with gentle hands, cradling her head on his shoulder. A shaky sigh escaped her as she relaxed against him, feeling his fingers in her hair, stroking gently.

      “You know,” she said presently, “I’ve been totally self-absorbed this week.”

      “You’re worried about Sophie. I’m surprised you can think about anything else at all.”

      “But what about you?” she asked. “How are you doing? Are you hurting? Are you getting on with Micah? I feel so selfish.”

      “You’re not being selfish. Micah and I are hitting it off better than I hoped. He wants me to come stay with him and Faith for a while after we take care of the threat to Sophie.”

      “That’s a good idea.” But, selfishly, she didn’t think it was a good idea at all. She wanted him to stay here. For the first time in her life she had someone she could really lean on. Someone who seemed to have shoulders broad enough to bear the burdens of life with her. And she didn’t want to let him go.

      Which was purely selfish. Ethan hadn’t come here to take care of her. He’d come here to find a missing part of his life. Only a shrew would deny him that.

      But here, right now, she had found a peace so deep that she hated the thought of losing it, even briefly. When he kissed her forehead, it felt like a blessing. From his lips, a warm relaxation spread throughout the rest of her.

      He didn’t say anything. It seemed as if holding her was enough for him, too.

      “What about pain?” she asked. “I’ve seen how you move sometimes. You hurt, don’t you?”

      He sighed. “Most of the time,” he admitted. “They say it’ll get better eventually.”

      “How do you stand it?”

      “Do I have a choice?”

      “Did they give you anything for it?”

      “Of course. I can have all the painkillers I want. Thing is, I don’t want them.”

      “Why not?”

      “Because I like a clear head, and because I don’t want to become an addict.”

      “But if it gets really bad...”

      “If it gets bad enough that I can’t move, I might consider them. But only then. Discomfort is a state of mind to a large extent.”

      “Pain is a little more than discomfort.”

      “Same thing, different degree. A lot depends on how you look at it. It’s not a fatal disease, it’s an injury. Lots of people live with that.”

      “You’re right.” She sighed again and unconsciously snuggled closer. “Was it hard being raised by a single parent?”

      “I suppose there were disadvantages, but none I really noticed. My mother made sure I knew her people.”

      “Her people?”

      “Her family. Her father’s side was Cherokee, which is how my uncle came to train me. Her mother’s side was...” All of sudden he gave a deep chuckle. “You’re not going to believe this.”

      “What?”

      “Philadelphia mainline.”

      “What?” She nearly giggled. “Mayflower?”

      “They didn’t get here quite that early. But you can imagine. They weren’t rich. That pretty much went away in the Great Depression, but they were still part of that crowd. And they didn’t quite know what to make of me.”

      “Perplexing indeed.”

      He chuckled again. “Quite a combination. So I got exposed to two very different worlds, but mostly to her father’s side. They didn’t seem to care that I was half-blood.”

      “But the Philadelphia crowd did?”

      “I don’t know exactly what it was. I mean, you can see how Cherokee I look. So it wasn’t as if they could ignore it. But they loved my mother, and I came with her, so they tried. Maybe they were just embarrassed that she had never married. It might have been more that than me. But my uncle...he took me to his heart. So in that sense I didn’t miss out on much.”

      “What made you decide to go into the СКАЧАТЬ