Page 20 of If This is Love

“Oh. I didn’t realize that. I thought soldier meant anyone in the military. What’s the difference between the two?”

“Soldiers are in the army. Marines are Marines.” He lifted the gauze, folded it in half, and pressed it against my cheek again. “I’m sorry about your cheek.”

I wrinkled my nose playfully. “I thought we weren’t apologizing, Gabe.”

“Yeah, well…” He removed the gauze and set it aside, picking up a small tube of ointment and squeezing a dollop onto a clean piece of gauze. “It’s a nice face.” He paused again as he carefully dabbed on the ointment, his hand returning to the nape of my neck. His hand there wasnice,too. “I guess a better way to put it would be it’sregretfulthat your nice face has a scrape, but if you put a little of this on it every day, it won’t scar or anything.”

He thinks I have a nice face.

That wasnice.

I smiled. “So how long were you in the Marines?”

“Eight years.”

“That’s a long time. Did you go overseas at all?”

“Well, I wouldn’t have all thoseawardsif I didn’t,” he retorted, his tone a bit salty.

Okay, fine. So apparently the medals and stuff weren’t calledawardseither.

“I suppose not,” I said with a small, self-deprecating laugh, glancing away from his handsome face and back at the shelves.

I wasn’tcompletelyignorant when it came to stuff about the military. I knew that the Purple Heart certificate meant he’d been hurt in battle. That meant he more than likely had some bad memories of his time overseas.

The puzzle pieces quickly fell together in my mind.

Gunner was a service dog. The Purple Heart meant Gabe had been injured. He didn’tlooklike anything was wrong with him, but I also knew enough about veterans to know a lot of them had injuries that couldn’t be seen. Injured hearts and minds. Something I was intimately acquainted with.

“And that’s your brother in the other frame,” I went on. “He was at the meeting, too.”

He gave the subtlest nod as he released my neck, and I missed its warmth and tenderness immediately. “Luke.”

“That’s right. Luke. Chloe’s his girlfriend,” I recalled. “You’ll have to forgive my terrible memory. I was really stressed out being so late.”

“All good, Ruth.” He caught my gaze for an instant while he affixed a band aid to my cheek. “And yeah, Luke and Chloe are a thing. She’s good for him. She’s got a great little boy named Jackson. He’s five.”

“Aw,” I couldn’t help cooing. “You like kids?”

“I likeourkids,” he said assertively.

I raised my eyebrows. “Ourkids.” What in the world did he mean bythat?

“Yeah,ourkids. Kinda like howwetake care ofourown around here.”

“Ahh, I see.” Of course. What the heckelsewould he mean by that? “Luke and Gabriel. Your mama must be a godly woman giving you two names like that.”

“It’sGabe,” he grumbled with an edge to his voice, but then he paused. “Sorry. I can be kind of a grouch a lot of the time. And yes. She is.”

“Now, now,Gabe,” I said, smiling again. “We’re not apologizing, remember? So, how long have you had Gunner?”

He bristled, but that reaction appeared to have nothing to do with me. “Six years.”

“Well, that must be why he’s so well-behaved.” I nodded at Jax while Gabe picked up the peroxide again and went to work on my skinned knee. “I just got that big baby over there this past week. He lost his family over the holidays, and they taught him the basics. I’ve never had a dog, so I have a lot to learn.”

“He’s a good boy,” Gabe said, softening again.

“He is a good boy.” I looked past his head at Jax, who was obediently curled up on the living room rug next to Gunner, who was sprawled out on his side. “He’s awonderful,good boy. He lost his whole family in a big car accident in December, and I just moved here, and I needed a new friend. I thought we could both use a new friend.”

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