Page 35 of A Soldier's Return

How was she supposed to resist that?

She had to. He was leaving again. He’d told her so himself. She couldn’t afford to lose her heart to a man destined to break it into a thousand pieces.

Though it made her ache inside to do it, she forced herself to step away. “Thank you. I’m sorry you had to talk me down off the ledge.”

“You’re welcome. Anytime.” He studied her. “You know what you need tonight? A distraction.”

For one crazy second, her mind went into some completely inappropriate directions. She could come up with some pretty delicious ways to distract herself involving him, but she had a feeling that wasn’t what he was talking about. “What did you have in mind?”

“Tiffany from work and her band are playing at The Haystacks tavern tonight. She gave me a flyer yesterday on her way out the door. I was thinking it would be nice to support her.”

Melissa tried not to wince at the suggestion. She adored the young CNA for many reasons, but her musical ability wasn’t among them.

“You haven’t heard her sing, have you?”

“Is it that bad?”

“Taste can be such a subjective thing.”

“In other words, you hate it.”

“I don’t hate it, exactly. Her band’s style is what you might call an acquired taste.”

“Well, hers isn’t supposed to be the only band. According to the flyer, there are two other bands playing after hers. Who knows, we might get lucky and one might even be tolerable. What do you say?”

Why was he asking her? Because he felt sorry for her? Was he only being kind, or did he also dislike being alone on a Saturday night?

Did his reasons really matter? She didn’t want to stay at home by herself watching television and feeling sorry for herself. He was offering a perfect distraction. If she didn’t go, she would be alone all evening, without even Fiona for company, since Rosa was leaving town.

“I suppose it would mean a lot to Tiffany if we both came out to listen to her.”

“There you go. A night on the town, plus supporting a coworker. You can’t lose.”

She wouldn’t go that far. There was always the chance she would end up letting down her guard too much and inadvertently reveal the big crush she had on her boss.

She would simply have to be careful that didn’t happen. The benefits of getting out of the house offset the small risk that she might make a fool of herself.

“What time?”

“Does eight work?”

“Yes. It’s a d—” She caught herself before she said a word that rhymed with eight. This wasnotat date. They were simply two coworkers going out on the town to support someone else who worked with them.

“Deal. It’s a deal,” she improvised quickly. “Eight works for me.”

“Perfect. I’ll pick you up then.”

“Great. Meantime, I hope your dad enjoys the banana nut bread. If you’re lucky, he might even share some with you.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

She smiled, grabbed Fiona’s leash and headed back toward Brambleberry House, feeling much better about the world than she had a few moments earlier.

Chapter Seven

As he drove up to the big, sprawling Victorian house where Melissa lived with her daughter, Eli was aware of a vague sense of danger.

He knew it was ridiculous. He had been in war zones, for heaven’s sake, in countless hair-raising circumstances. He had operated on people with bullets flying, had jumped out of helicopters into uncertain territory, had tried to provide medical care in villages where he knew armed hostiles were hiding out.

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