The Soldier's Promise Read online

  “How long was Amos with him?”

  “Four years.”

  The phone rang and she picked it up. “Excuse me,” she said. “I have to answer this.”

  She walked to the other side of the room, said something then returned.

  “The foal is coming. I have to go. I’ll be over tomorrow.”

  He nodded, encouraged by her interest and questions.

  He left and headed for the hardware store. He’d been there before to get tools.

  Four people were in the store, two of them talking to an elderly man at the counter. A younger one had been there during his previous visits. Father and son, he surmised.

  He went directly to the section with paint. He found a primer, then selected a color from the limited selection and took the cans to the counter. He looked at some thick pieces of lumber to temporarily repair the porch.

  “Do you deliver?”

  “Sure do.”

  “I live...”

  “I know. End of Lake Road.”

  He should have known. “Maybe you’d better add an electric saw,” he said.

  “Got a real good one. On sale, too.”

  Josh nodded.

  The man held out his hand. “Glad to have you in the community. I’m Calvin Wilson, and I own the store. Me and my son.”

  Josh had no choice but to shake hands. “I met him on my previous visit.”

  Wilson totaled the tab. Josh paid with his bank card and started to pick up the paint cans.

  “My son will help you carry everything out,” Wilson offered.

  He wanted to say yes. The damn leg was hurting like hell after his work in the backyard. But he’d never asked for help before and he wasn’t going to start now. “I can do it,” he said, then added a belated, “Thanks.”

  He was suffering when he got everything into the dusty Jeep Wrangler, and he realized he’d been a damn fool. But he wasn’t ready to depend on anyone else. His entire life had been built on self-sufficiency. He’d never needed anyone, not since he was ten years old and he’d taken care of his mother rather than the other way around.

  He sure as hell wasn’t ready for women waking him with brownies or a mayor wandering into his backyard when he was working.

  Even a very pretty mayor. To be honest, it wasn’t her he didn’t like, but rather the superheated attraction that had sprung so quickly between them. It scared the hell out of him. The last thing he needed now was complications.

  He glanced at his watch. After two, and he was starved. Maybe he would try the diner down the street. Shouldn’t be too many people there at this time. And he was tired of cereal and sandwiches.

  He passed Monroe Real Estate and Insurance Company and glanced at the photos in the front window: several farms for sale, a ranch five miles out of town and a hunting cabin in the mountains. There were also several small homes.

  Once he finished fixing the cabin, an advertisement for it would probably go up there, as well.

  He stopped to pick up a newspaper from a rack in front of Maude’s Diner. Reading usually kept people away. As he’d hoped, the restaurant was nearly empty. A couple of elderly men sat at the counter with coffee and two young guys sat in a booth chowing down burgers. A young woman behind a counter eyed him as he entered and hurried over as he sat down. “Good afternoon,” she said brightly, holding out a paper menu.

  He nodded and declined the menu. “You have a steak?”

  “We do. Several of them. The sirloin is the best.”

  “Then I want one, rare, and a second one to go,” he said.

  “Comes with two sides. Fries or mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, corn, squash.”

  “Fries,” he said. “And beans.”

  “And with the order to go?”

  “Just a steak,” he said. “Also rare.”

  She nodded and hurried off. He took up the newspaper. A weekly, and not much in it. The restaurant door opened, and he looked up. A youngish man in a deputy’s uniform walked in. He came to Josh’s booth, his eyes cold. “You must be the one living out at the lake.”

  Josh didn’t answer. Just waited.

  “Had a burglary here last night,” the deputy said.

  Josh raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “It happens.”

  “Not until you came to town. Mind telling me where you were last night?”

  “I do,” Josh said. “Unless you have more of a reason than I just moved here.”

  The deputy put his hand on his holstered gun.

  Josh locked gazes with him. The door opened again, and Josh watched the mayor walk in. His stomach muscles tightened as she moved toward them, a frown wrinkling her brow.

  “Mr. Manning,” she acknowledged, then turned to the deputy. “Sam,” she said, “Find anything?”

  “No, ma’am. I just arrived.”

  “Then I suggest you talk to Maude.”

  “I was just asking this...person where he was last night. He refused to answer.”

  “Why don’t you see if you can find some evidence first?” she asked patiently.

  Anger sparked in his eyes, but he turned away and went to the back of the restaurant.

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “Sam’s a little eager. There was a burglary here last night, and we’re all a little protective of Maude. She cooks the best food around.”

  “Glad to hear it,” he said evenly. “About the food, I mean.”

  “Your first time at Maude’s?”

  “You don’t already know that?” he retorted.

  “Well, I know you just bought paint in Calvin’s store,” she admitted. “I thought you might come here.”

  “And...”

  “I wanted to explain about this morning. No one’s lived in that cabin for a long time and...” She faltered as her gaze met his. He was suddenly warm, too warm. And he saw her stiffening as if bracing against something.

  An almost palpable tension leaped between them. Time seemed to slow, and he wasn’t aware of anyone else in the room. Heat simmered inside him like the sun hitting desert rocks.

  The moment shattered when the waitress shoved a cup of coffee before him, as well as a napkin and utensils.

  “How’s Nick?” the waitress asked the mayor.

  The mayor’s face lit with that infectious smile, breaking the tension. “Doing great. He’s going to pitch tomorrow night. You going to be there with Jamie?”

  “Wouldn’t miss it.” The waitress grinned down at Josh. “Our boys play Little League together.”

  Josh stiffened. God, he should have remembered that ring. Not only was she married, but she also had a son.

  He turned back to his paper. The signal was undeniable. Leave me alone.

  The mayor started to turn away. “Enjoy your meal,” she told him. Then said, “I’ll see you tomorrow” to the waitress.

  She left, and some of the light seemed to leave the room with her.

  * * *

  EVE WAITED AT the school to pick up Nick. It was two miles to her house and she’d resisted his pleas to ride his bike. She wasn’t quite ready for that yet.

  She needed the time to think. She was still unsettled by the meeting with Joshua Manning. Something slammed into her each time they met. She felt tongue-tied and unsure, and she hated that feeling. She certainly didn’t understand why she’d felt compelled to go into the diner when she’d seen Josh Manning inside.

  Or why she’d lied when she went in.... She hadn’t meant to apologize at all, but she’d been drawn inside like metal to a magnet. And then she’d just uttered the first thing that came to her mind. Stupid.

  She told herself it was just to prove to herself that the attraction in the morning was her imagination. Or something fleeting.

  It
hadn’t been, and that terrified her.

  The sound of yelling interrupted her as kids poured through the school doors. Nick came running when he saw Miss Mollie—who could miss the old pickup?—and climbed in next to her.

  “Got an A on my essay,” he said with a relieved grin. “That means a dollar, right?”

  “That’s for an A on a report card,” she replied, suddenly cheery that the love of her life was here. It had been a long time—more than four years to be exact—since he had stood beside her as his father was buried.

  She put her arm around him and kissed the top of his head. She wanted to do more. She wanted to hug him with all the strength she had, but she knew he wouldn’t like that. Not here.

  She started the car and tried to relax. Just having Nick next to her made her feel better. Cleared her mind. He was everything that was important. And he was so like his father. Considerate, likable and always ready for a challenge.

  She sighed, listening to Nick chatter about the essay. It had been about his father, and at first he had been reluctant to write it. But once he’d started he’d written like a whirlwind. He hadn’t let her read it, although she usually helped with homework.

  “Can I read it when we get home?” she asked.

  He went silent for a moment, then nodded.

  “I know you didn’t want me to read it before you turned it in.”

  “’Cause I was afraid it wasn’t good enough.”

  “And your teacher said it was?”

  He nodded again.

  Her heart nearly burst with love for him, and regret that he’d lost the father he loved so much. It was so wrong. So unexpected. A tear slipped down her face and she rubbed it away, relieved that Nick was looking in the other direction.

  They were home in a few moments. They lived two miles from the heart of town and one mile from the lake. She and Russ had saved during the first years of their marriage, then bought a five-acre piece of land inside the city limits. Russ and his buddies had built a ranch house and barn, and she still had the two horses they’d bought together. She also boarded Stephanie’s horse, which paid for her many vet bills.

  A cacophony came from the house as Nick jumped out of the truck and waited impatiently as she unlocked the door. Nick opened it, and four dogs, barking madly, rushed out.

  Braveheart, a mismatched pit-bull mix, hung back as usual. Badly scarred and terrified of people, he’d been found half-dead alongside the road. Nick had named him Braveheart because he thought the encouragement might help cure his fear.

  Miss Marple—the part beagle and who knew what else—charged to the front. Eve couldn’t help but grin at Nick’s naming processes. Miss Marple was so named because she was always on the prowl for a misplaced sock. She, too, had been found along the road, but, unlike Braveheart, she didn’t lack self-confidence. Captain Hook, a three-legged Chihuahua mix, added her high, piercing voice. Fancy, who was anything but Fancy, was probably the plainest dog Eve had ever seen, but she was also the most loving. Inside was Dizzy, a coon cat that spent his time chasing his tail.

  Nick had named them all after much thought, and it said much about him the way he turned their weaknesses into strengths. Her son had been boisterous and curious and active until his father died. Then he climbed inside himself, but now he seemed to be emerging again. She watched as he gave each dog a moment of attention, then ran to the barn, the troop of dogs following him.

  Lord, but he filled her with joy. She ached with it. She wanted to hold him so tight nothing could ever harm him. She knew how fragile life was. Russell had been all strength one day, and the next...

  It didn’t bear thinking about. Watching the dogs following Nick as if he was the Pied Piper reminded her that she hadn’t seen the dog at Joshua Manning’s home, the one that had Marilyn so upset. She suspected Marilyn used the dog only as an excuse to learn more about her neighbor. To tell the truth, once Josh Manning had mentioned voice control, she’d relaxed. She hadn’t seen an ill-treated dog on voice control. And, truth be told, as rude as Josh Manning had been, she hadn’t sensed meanness in him.

  Who was he? If she was right about him being a soldier, it followed that he wouldn’t want to talk about his experiences. But he seemed to carry it to the extreme. Or maybe she was wrong. Maybe he’d met Dave Hannity somewhere else. Or, as Tom had surmised, maybe he was a relative.

  She wished she could remember more about Dave Hannity. His family had spent summers at their cabin on the lake. She’d met him at the annual Fourth of July picnic and other summer events for several years. He’d been a swimmer and runner, and Russ had known him better than she.

  Now David, too, was dead, apparently in the service of his country.

  They had lost other young residents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Too many for a small town, but then the military attracted small-town kids. There weren’t many other opportunities.

  As for Mr. Manning and Dave Hannity, maybe Tom would have some answers tomorrow, and she could reassure Manning’s neighbors.

  His image sprung into her mind again. His face was hard, the angles stark. It was...more interesting than handsome. There was a presence about him, an I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude that perversely intrigued her.

  “Mom, I’m hungry.” She hadn’t seen Nick approach from the back of the barn. Again he was followed by his four little tagalongs. She looked at him and hoped he would never have to go to war. She hugged him—hard—until he wriggled free. She didn’t want to let him go. She never wanted to let him go. She wanted to protect him against grief and loss and disappointments.

  He’d already had too many.

  And, she suspected, so had Joshua Manning.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  JOSH WOKE WITH a start. Sunlight was streaming though his windows.

  He stretched and glanced at the clock. A little after 0700 hours. It was the first time in days that he’d slept more than four hours without the nightmare. Or night sweats.

  But then he had worked late into the night, first replacing the rotten boards on the porch, then scraping paint from the walls of the main room. Work, it seemed, was the best sleeping aid.

  He thought about the day ahead and the growing list of things to do. Not for the first time, he wondered why in the hell he didn’t just walk away.

  He heard the soft snoring of Amos and knew why. Amos needed a safe place where he could learn to play. Learn to feel safe. Being dragged from one temporary place to another would not be helpful.

  But, he admitted to himself, maybe part of him wanted to stay, too. A part hidden deep inside. He’d never belonged to anything but the army and his buddies, and that, he’d learned, had no permanence.

  He needed a challenge, and the cabin was certainly a challenge. He hadn’t known what to expect, but he sure as hell hadn’t anticipated the amount of work needed. He welcomed it. Bringing order to chaos was something he knew.

  And once this place was fixed, it wouldn’t be half-bad. He envisioned a large porch that overlooked the lake and the mountains beyond. But then what?

  Josh turned to the edge of the bed and ran his hand over Amos’s back as he’d seen Dave do countless times. Amos would usually roll over and beg a belly rub. But Amos ignored the overture, merely looked at him with a gaze that held a sorrow and confusion that broke Josh’s heart.

  He’d read and heard about dogs like Amos. Greyfriars Bobby for one, the little Scottish terrier who wouldn’t leave his master’s grave until he died, or more recently tales of other service dogs who’d mourned for their handlers.

  “Aw, Amos,” he said. “One of these days you’ll offer your belly to me, too.”

  He hoped. It was the least he could do for Dave—Dave, who’d had his own demons. Maybe that was why they’d bonded as much as two loners could.

  Time to get up. The vet—Stephanie—was
coming today. He needed to clean up as much as possible. He stood slowly, ignoring the pain that flared. He needed to do the exercises he’d neglected the past few days. But first Amos had to go outside.

  “Come on, Amos. Latrine time.” Josh pulled on a pair of jeans and opened the door. Amos reluctantly left the safety of the cabin and did his business, then returned immediately to the door. No sniffing. Or playing or wriggling with delight.

  “What am I, chopped liver?” he asked Amos as he opened the door. Amos didn’t bother to answer as he slunk inside.

  Josh stayed outside and soaked in the cool breeze. The sun was a huge golden ball rising in the east, and the fresh, spicy scent of evergreens filled the air. He was beginning to understand the appeal of the cabin.

  He needed his coffee. He brewed his in an old-fashioned percolator he had found in the general store. He’d had enough bad coffee to appreciate the good. He poured cereal into a bowl, got milk from the cooler and knew he had to do something about a fridge.

  Josh spent the next thirty minutes on the exercises prescribed by his doctor and physical therapist. His leg would never be what it once was. New manufactured parts had taken the place of old ones, particularly in his ankle. There had been three operations, including two bone transplants and one to fuse his left foot where the main nerve had been severed. He would never have the old mobility, but he was grateful for what he did have. A lot of guys in the hospital had much, much less, and their courage was humbling.

  He was sweating when he finished. He took a hot shower, then dressed in a clean pair of jeans and polo shirt before the vet arrived. The cabin was bad enough without his looking like a deadbeat. Amos could still be taken away from him if the army thought he wasn’t being treated properly.

  Josh stared at his image in the mirror and thought about the visit from the mayor. He needed a haircut. Bad. There were touches of gray in his sandy hair although he was only in his mid-thirties. Lines had deepened around his eyes and tightened around his mouth. He looked tired and cynical. Face it. You look like hell. It hadn’t mattered for months but, for some reason, it did now.