Soldier on Her Doorstep (8 page)

 

What on earth…? Lisa almost turned away just to look back again. Why were they both soaking wet? She ran to get dry towels and headed out the door.

“What happened?” she called as she ran. Her heart was pounding. Talk about giving a mother a fright!

She watched as Alex gave Boston a dirty look. The dog was soaking wet too. Standing on the riverbank.

“Oh, no. Did he…?”

“Leap out of the boat and capsize us?” Alex was at least smiling, if somewhat wryly. “Yup.”

Lisa laughed. She couldn't help it. She held out her arms to Lilly. “Come here, my little drowned rat.”

Lilly scuttled into her arms and Lisa wrapped her in a towel. Then she passed one to Alex.

“He saved me,” her daughter said proudly. “Alex grabbed me and swam me in, and then he went back for the boat.”

Lisa smiled at Alex and mouthed
thank you
. He just shrugged. She turned back to her daughter. “Lilly, if I'd known you were taking Boston in the boat I would have been able to warn Alex. You know he isn't usually allowed in without a lead.”

“Lilly Kennedy, did you forget to tell me that?” Alex asked incredulously.

Lilly looked sheepish.

“Off with you!” He ruffled her hair to show he wasn't cross with her. “And take that filthy mongrel with you.”

“He's
not
a filthy mongirl!”

Lilly's struggle with the word had Alex and Lisa both in hysterics.

“Well, he
is
filthy, so off with both of you,” Lisa finally managed to say.

They watched her run off after the dog, still wrapped in the towel.

“I think there's a hot shower with your name on it,” Lisa hinted.

Alex grinned. “Good idea.” He started to walk off.

“Thank you, Alex.”

He turned back to her. “What for?”

She wanted to stay like this, in this moment, forever. He was so different, happy. Open.

“For saving her, for taking the time to talk to her. It means a lot to me,” she elaborated.

“She's not exactly a hard kid to be around.”

Lisa knew that. When Lilly was happy and talking she'd draw anyone in with her smile and chatter. These last few months it had been like having a nervous, tiny shadow of her daughter—a sliver of the fun little girl Lilly used to be. Her father had been away for a lot of her young life, but she had loved every minute with him when he'd been home, and had lived and breathed the excitement of having him return home one day for good once his term was over.

Now this stranger, this soldier, had turned up, and it was like Lilly's inner dragon had started to breathe fire within her again. Lisa couldn't thank him enough for that.

She stood and watched as Alex made his way inside. He might not say a lot, but when he did his words counted.

“A
LL
I'm saying is that it's hard to meet someone who'll take on a woman and a child,” Marj said calmly.

“Great—thanks, Mom.” Lisa scowled at the phone. “So you're likening me to used goods?” She scribbled down the final ingredient in a recipe and dropped her pen. Having her mother on speakerphone was not helping.

“Honey, you know I don't mean that,” Marj protested.

Did she?

“I'm just saying that he must be a good man.”

“Mom! For the last time, there is nothing—
nothing
—going on between me and Alex,” Lisa said through gritted teeth.

“Well, what I'm saying is maybe you should give the guy a chance,” Marj said.

Would it be so bad, moving on from William? Lisa heard a shuffle of feet and hit the hand control. She didn't want anyone else hearing this conversation. And she didn't want to discuss moving on. She still loved William. Period. What she felt for Alex was just attraction. A natural reaction for a lonely woman with a handsome man nearby.

“Honey?”

“Mom, I appreciate the support—I do. But I just need a little more time.” She sighed.

She could feel his presence. Sure enough, within a handful of seconds Alex appeared in the living room.

“I've got to go. I'll come by soon.” She hung up the phone. “Hi,” she greeted him a little nervously.

He raised a hand in a casual wave. “Hey.”

She tried not to let him see she was rattled.

“I didn't mean to interrupt you,” he said, when she didn't say anything more.

“Don't be silly. It was just my mother. And I told you—the door is always open,” she said in a rush.

He nodded. “She keeps a close eye on you, huh?”

“More like she's nosy. Her
and
Anna,” she muttered. But she sensed he didn't really want to talk about her family. Well, that was fine. Neither did she.

“I'm about to head into town to run some errands,” she told him.

Something crossed Alex's face that she couldn't put her finger on. Then his expression changed.

She waited.

“Would you…ah…like me to drive you?” he asked tentatively.

Lisa smiled. She'd love the company. “Sure—that'd be great.” She watched as his face softened, like he hadn't known how she was going to react to his offer. “Let me grab a few things and we'll go.”

“Am I okay like this?”

He looked down at his attire. She followed his eyes. What about him wasn't okay? Long legs clad in faded jeans. Tanned feet poking out below. Bronzed forearms hanging loosely from a fitted black T-shirt. Her gaze reached his handsome face and went down his gorgeous body again before she finally managed to wrench it away.

It was just an attraction. A natural reaction to a good-looking, fit, healthy male. It would pass
, she told herself fervently.

“You look good. Add a pair of shoes and you'll be good to go,” she said.

He wriggled his toes. She saw it. Which meant she was still
watching him. Darn it if her eyes weren't like magnets drawn to him!

“Let me get Lilly and my handbag and I'll see you at the car.” Lisa forced herself to move. To walk away from him. She could feel him. Sense his big masculine presence. It was like when William had been home on leave, or between postings. The house had felt different. A feeling in the air. Only William had been a comfortable change. Solid, dependable. With Alex it was electric.

Lilly made the house feel alive, kept Lisa from ever feeling truly alone, but she couldn't deny that there was a sense of security, of strength, in a house when there was a man in residence. She dug her nails into her own hand. It was
William's
residence. Alex was just a visitor. Passing through.

But, wrong as it may be, there was definitely something comforting about having a man in her home. Even if it wasn't the man she was supposed to be sharing it with.

She looked at Lilly's closed bedroom door. There was a little thump and lots of giggling. Then there was a woof. Lisa guessed what was going on. Boston would be lying on the bed, on his back, legs in the air. His head would be settled on the pillows. Lilly would either have a bonnet on his head, socks on his feet, glasses on his nose, a blanket tucked around him, or all of the above. She treated the dog as if he was a living doll.

“We're going into town soon, honey,” Lisa told her through the door.

“Can we take Boston?” Her voice was slightly muffled.

“Yes, we can take Boston.”

Lisa let her forehead rest on the door. She owed a lot to that dog. Without him, Lilly would have been even worse. Would have been even more lost over William's death.

She heard a bout of giggles again. Lilly was definitely getting back to her old self. It was nice to have a daughter who was slowly filling up with fuel for life again.

“Get a wriggle on, girl. Two minutes!” Lisa warned.

Lilly didn't answer.

Strange as it might be, it was almost like things
were
getting back to normal again. Or as normal as life had ever been being a soldier's wife. Having Alex here felt right. In some ways. But deep down she didn't want it to be right. If she could wish for anything in the world, it would be to have William back.

So where did that leave her feelings for Alex?

 

Alex looked out the window as they chugged along. He didn't look at Lisa. He couldn't. Even though he'd intended driving her in, she'd laughed, told him to enjoy the scenery and jumped in on the driver's side herself.

Seeing her behind the oversize wheel of the baby blue Chevy had been bad enough when she'd waved him over before they'd left. There was something about her that just got to him. The casual ponytail slung high on her head, the way she wore her T-shirt, even the way her fingers tapped on the wheel to music.

He wound down his window and let a blast of air fill the cab. Boston straddled him and let his tongue loll out the window, nose twitching. Lilly wriggled next to him on the bench seat.

“Tell me again why Boston couldn't ride in the back?” Alex wanted to know.

Lisa laughed. Loud.

Relief hit him. Hard. Like a shock to the chest. He'd wondered if they were ever going to get that easy feeling between them back again. He'd missed it.

“Lilly won't have him in the back,” Lisa explained.

He looked at the kid. She shook her head. Vigorously.

Alex pushed Boston back and wound the window up. He liked dogs, but four of them squished up-front seemed a bit—well, ridiculous. He went back to scanning the landscape. He might be biased, given the years he'd spent seeing sand and little else when he was deployed, but Alaska was beautiful. Incredible.

He'd dreamed of wilderness and trees and water every night before coming back to the US. Now he was here. In a part of the
world that seemed untouched. It was the postcard-perfect backdrop he would have sketched when he was away. The idyllic spot he'd hankered for. As a child, he'd always dreamt of what his life could have been like, the kind of place he could have lived in with his family if they'd been around, and if he could have chosen anywhere Alaska would have made the list.

Even without Lisa and Lilly this place was perfect.
Although they sure did add to the appeal
, a little voice inside him whispered insidiously.

They'd only been driving maybe five, seven minutes before a stretch of shops appeared. They had an old-school type of quality—a refreshingly quaint personality. He'd driven into Brownswood this way, but he'd been so focused on following directions, on finding the Kennedy residence, that he'd hardly even blinked when he'd passed the row of stores. There was every kind of store here a person could need.

Lisa gave a toot and waved to an older woman standing on the street. She turned down the radio a touch and rolled down her window. “Hey, Mrs. Robins.”

A few other people turned to wave. Small-town feel, small-town reality. The thought suddenly worried him. Was his being with her going to affect her standing? Surely she wouldn't have agreed to him coming along if she'd had hesitations? But still… He knew firsthand how small-town gossip started. And spread. When his parents had died it had been as if everyone had been talking about it. Pitying him. Whispering. But no one had stepped up to help him or take him in. They'd just watched as Social Services had taken him away.

Alex started pushing the painful memories back into the dark corners of his mind, like he always did. Just because he'd been doing better these past few days it didn't mean he was ready for this. Didn't mean he wanted to be seen or have to interact with anyone.

He did enjoy Lisa's company, he had to admit. That didn't mean he was ready to brave the world again, though. It had taken him years to learn how to force unwanted feelings down.
To push them away and lock them down. But now that he'd left the army after ten years he was struggling. Because he didn't want to be alone.

Having company again was kind of nice.

 

Lisa wasn't going to hide just because she had Alex with her. She had to keep mentally coaching herself, reassuring herself that she wasn't doing anything wrong, but it was hard.

These people had known her since she was a little girl. Known William since he was in diapers. Not to mention known them both together as husband and wife for a good few years. And the worry, the guilt, was eating at her from the inside. She cared about what people in her community thought about her. Plus she cared about her husband. She didn't ever want to be disloyal to him, or to his memory.

For some reason, though, it felt like she was.

But Alex was a friend.
A friend.
There was nothing wrong with having a friend who was a man. Nothing wrong at all.

Besides, she had been forced to start a new chapter in her life the day William had passed away. Like it or not, the residents of Brownswood were just going to have to accept that. She loved being part of the community, but would they expect her to be a widow forever?

Lisa focused her attention back on Alex. At her friend and nothing more. Pity about the flicker of fire that raced through her body when she looked at him. “Is there anything you need? Anywhere you want to go?”

Alex dragged his eyes back toward her. She didn't know what he had been looking at—maybe everything—but he'd seemed another world away in his own thoughts.

“Sorry?”

He
had
been another world away. He hadn't even heard what she'd said. “Is there anywhere you particularly want to go?” she repeated.

He shook his head. “Maybe a fishing shop, if there is one, but it's not really necessary.”

Lisa pulled into a spare parking bay. It wasn't like they were hard to come by here, but she hated to have to walk too far. “I just need to do the grocery shopping, grab a prescription from the pharmacy, and take Lilly to her therapist appointment.”

“I'll come help carry the groceries,” he suggested.

She appreciated that he liked to be a gentleman but she didn't want him to feel like he owed her. Didn't want to need his help.

“Why don't you take a look around and meet me outside the store?” She pointed with her finger at the grocers. “I'll be about twenty minutes in there, and then I'll take Lilly to her appointment.”

“Okay.”

She watched as he gave Lilly a hand out of the cab, her petite fingers clasped in his paw. The one with the real paw whined, but stayed put.

“Won't be long, Boston.” Lilly waved to her dog.

“See you soon, then,” Alex said.

Lilly waved to him too.

 

Alex felt like a fish out of water. He hated that everyone he walked by would know he was new in town. It didn't look much like a tourist spot, so they probably looked at newbies as fresh meat on the block.

He decided to avert his eyes from the few people milling around and check out the shops instead. A hardware store, a small fashion shop, then a bookstore. He let his step quicken as he noticed a place across the road. Bill's Bait & Bullets. He crossed the road.

A stuffed moose head filled the window, along with an assortment of feathered varieties. He wasn't into hunting, but he loved to fish, and if the sign on the door was anything to go by then he was in luck.

“Howdy.”

Alex nodded his head at the man behind the counter who'd just greeted him. He sported a bushy mustache and
was a wearing a blue and white plaid shirt. He guessed this was Bill.

“You after anything in particular?” Bill asked.

Alex did a quick survey around the shop and eyed the rods.

“Looking to do a spot of fishing,” he said, walking in the right direction. “Wouldn't mind a new rod. Or two.”

The man rounded the counter and came back into view. “You've come to the right place, then.” He walked over to the rods. “That what brings you here? Fishing?”

Alex didn't see the point in lying. Not when everyone around would be gossiping later. But he wasn't about to start telling this Bill all his business.

“Here to see an old friend.” He left it at that. “I need a rod for me, and one for a kid. About so high.” He gestured with his hands at what he estimated Lilly's height was. “Six, I think.”

“Girl or boy?” Bill enquired.

He gave the man a stern look. Asking politely was one thing, getting nosy was another. It wasn't like fishing rods came in pink or blue. Bill was just trying to guess which kid in town Alex was buying it for.

“I just need a rod for a child,” he reiterated firmly.

The man shuffled away, and Alex moved to look around the shop. It was at times like this he thought of William, about what he might be doing now if he'd survived. They'd spent a lot of time talking about what they liked to do, and William had always talked about his family.