Read Online A Hero to Come Home To by Marilyn Pappano - Free Book Online

workweek?”
    “You’re in customer service,” Therese said with a snort. “It never occurred to you that meant dealing with idiots?”
    The redhead sniffed regally. “I’m an account representative. Which our customers apparently translate to ‘complaint taker.’ Ugh.” Her shudder was delicate, fading as the waitress brought her drink. “Thanks so much, Miriam. One of these every fifteen minutes, and by the time I leave here, I won’t care about work.”
    “Or anything else,” Carly retorted.
    “Carly saw Dane from the cave again,” Therese announced.
    “Really. Was he any less intimidated? More talkative? Did he appear to be involved with anyone else? Is he as cute in uniform as he was in jeans?” Jessy sighed. “I love a man in uniform.”
    Coming up in time to hear the last, Marti Levin and Lucy Hart added their own sighs. “Didn’t we all,” Marti said softly.
    Melancholy settled over the table for a moment before Jessy scattered it with a blunt command. “Sit. Order your drinks. Be quiet. Carly ran into Dane from the cave again. She’s going to tell all.”
    “Ooh. Wait. Here come Fia and Ilena. You can tell us all at once.” Lucy shrugged out of her jacket and scooted into the chair next to Carly.
    Ilena, round with pregnancy, her center of gravity shifted, looked graceful next to Fia, who limped, favoring her left side a bit. When she noticed them watching, she shrugged and gave them a lopsided smile. “Too much fun Saturday. I must have pulled a muscle.”
    Once they were all settled and had ordered drinks—iced tea for Ilena—Lucy turned to Carly. “Okay. Tell us all about running into Dane.”
    With six expectant faces turned her way, Carly laughed. “Guys, it’s not like I never see men. I work on post, remember.”
    “With ankle-biters, which Dane is not,” Jessy said, then mused, “though maybe a gentle nip or two would be fun.”
    “Ahh, I miss gentle nips,” Ilena said wistfully.
    Carly gave the details of the encounter—heavens, that sounded so much more significant than it had really been—then finished with a shrug. “Coincidence.”
    “I don’t believe in coincidence,” Marti said. “However, I do believe in fate.”
    “Right.” Carly scoffed. “It was a matter of timing. If we’d been five minutes later getting there, he probably would have been gone.”
    “But he wasn’t,” several voices chimed together, then Lucy pointed out, “Therese and I work on post, too, but we didn’t run into him. And he must leave the fort occasionally, but no one else has run into him.”
    Marti nodded as if that made her point. “Fate.”
    Carly rolled her eyes, then gestured across the room. “Look, our every-other-weeklies are here.”
    Everyone greeted the four newcomers and the conversation—thankfully—turned to catching up with them. She didn’t need any more talk about Dane. She’d thought about him enough today. And that nonsense about fate…She took her class to the Warrior Transition Unit every Tuesday; he had a buddy there. It was just coincidence that they’d shown up at the same time. Nothing more.
    She believed it, too, until after ordering fajitas, then excusing herself to go to the ladies’ room. On the way back to the table, she took a shortcut through the bar, where she glanced over a half dozen men, hardly noticing them, before her gaze caught on a lone man at a tall round table. She would have skimmed right over him, as well, if he hadn’t looked up at exactly the same moment to lock gazes with her.
    You don’t believe in fate, remember? Coincidence. A matter of timing. That’s all it is.
    A tiny doubt-filled voice spoke up then. Isn’t it?
      
     
    Once Dane had excelled at stealth, camouflage, and going unnoticed, but it seemed he’d lost more than his foot in Afghanistan. He could have chosen a dozen better tables. He could have taken into account that the clear path through the bar, which allowed him to see the women at the back, also