At His Command

“Somebody mentioned an army nurse named Maddie Bright,” he said as he stepped away from the elevator. “But I didn’t think they could be talking about you.”

“I finished nursing school and joined the army,” she blurted, then felt stupid for stating something so obvious.

A corner of Jake’s mouth quirked in amusement as his gaze traveled slowly down to her boots. “I can see that, Lieutenant.”

Maddie was suddenly self-conscious. This was their first meeting in years, and here she stood in baggy, wrinkled fatigues and clunky boots. She hadn’t showered since yesterday, and it had been months since her mouth had been anywhere near a tube of lipstick. Even worse, she’d sucked her last breath mint somewhere over the Atlantic.

She quickly decided that none of those things mattered. She’d have crawled through slime for this chance to see Jake and satisfy herself that he was all right.

“Mama and I were overjoyed when we heard you’d learned to walk again,” she said. “And when you started law school…oh, Jake, we were so proud.” Her voice cracked on that last word and her eyes had teared up, so she emitted a self-conscious little laugh. “Sorry. I’m exhausted.”

“Is your mother well?” Once again, Maddie detected an odd wariness in his expression.

“She’s fine.” Maddie grasped a lock of loose hair that had flopped against her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. “She’s still with the accounting firm, but she’s on a business trip right now, so it’ll be a few days before I head up to Dallas to see her.”

Jake’s broad shoulders dropped a little and he appeared to relax. “Please give her my best.”

“I will. I can’t wait to tell her I bumped into you. But what are you doing here?”

“Practicing law. My partner and I hung out a shingle in Prairie Springs just over a year ago.” He paused. “I’ve been representing General Willis in the matter of his grandson.”

“Ali? Oh, Jake this is wonderful!” Maddie knew she was grinning like a goof, but at the moment she was happier than she’d been in years. “I guess you’re the attorney everyone’s been talking about.”

His answering smile was wistful and brief. “The general asked me to stop by, and I don’t know how long he’s planning to be here at the hospital, so I’d better get in there.”

Maddie was reluctant to see him go, but she inclined her head. Since he was living and working right here in Prairie Springs, she’d have ample opportunities to see him.

“All grown up,” he murmured, shaking his head as though he could hardly believe it. “You look good, Maddie.”

She made a wry face. “Jake, I’m fresh off a plane from the Middle East. Although ‘fresh’ probably isn’t the best word choice. As I’m sure you remember, it’s a very long, noisy, uncomfortable trip in a C-17.”

Those words had proved to be conversation killers. They’d chased the warmth from Jake’s eyes and made his mouth tighten. “I remember,” he’d said, and then he’d mumbled something about the two of them having a long talk later.

Maddie was still waiting for that long talk. They’d come close to having it just a little while ago, but Jake had clammed up again.

Maddie dropped some sweet Italian sausage into a skillet to brown. She hoped Jake liked sausage, because if the way to a man’s heart really was through his stomach, maybe he’d relax over dinner and they’d finally have that talk.

Her conscience pricked her, but she ignored it. She had assured Jake this wouldn’t be like a date, but that was exactly what she was hoping it would turn out to be.

Seated in his leather recliner with his feet elevated and a stack of folders on the lamp table beside him, Jake silently acknowledged that he was a low-down skunk. No woman deserved to be treated the way he’d been treating Maddie.

His totally inappropriate attraction was his problem, not hers. She was just trying to be friendly and helpful. That was the way she was, the way she had always been. That was why she’d gazed respectfully at his mama’s awful paintings and petted his nuisance of a cat. And that was why she hadn’t told him off and stormed out of his apartment after she’d made that innocent joke about falling in love and he’d made her feel like a fool.

He wished he could take it all back and tell her…

Tell her what, exactly?

“She’s not for you, Hopkins,” he muttered under his breath.

Tripod leaped onto the chair and settled across Jake’s right thigh, as always avoiding his weak leg by some strange instinct. When Jake absently laid his hand on the cat’s long back and stroked a couple of times, Tripod began to purr.

“Glad one of us is happy,” Jake groused, tossing aside the contract he’d been pretending to read. He wasn’t going to get any work done with Maddie in his kitchen sautéeing onions—he could smell them—and singing along with one of his favorite CDs.

She had as pure and perfect an alto as he had ever heard, and she was going to be the death of him. Jake cocked his head and listened more closely, impressed that she knew all of the words to “I Cross My Heart,” a song George Strait had ridden to the top of the country charts a few years ago. As she sang about true love and lifelong devotion, Jake stared hopelessly at the whirling paddles of the ceiling fan above him.

If Madeline Bright had been put on earth with strict instructions to torture him, she couldn’t possibly be doing a better job than she was doing right now.

He wished she would just hurry up and go away. He wished it so hard that he was almost tempted to pray for it.

Which just went to show how desperate he was becoming.

She’d called him twice, but he hadn’t answered. Had he gone downstairs to his office? Maddie wandered out to Jake’s living area in search of him.

She spotted him beside one of the long windows, sprawled in a recliner, one hand resting on the back of the ugly three-legged cat draped across his right thigh. Head back, mouth open, Jake was snoring softly.

During her deployment, Maddie had heard plenty of snoring. It wasn’t just the patients she’d heard, but the male doctors and nurses she’d worked with in a place where accommodations had often been primitive and privacy a joke. But while none of those whuffles and snorts had ever aroused even a smidgen of tender feeling in her, Jake’s snoring caused a painful tightening in her chest.

Maddie crept closer. Admiring the way the dark crescents of Jake’s lashes rested on his bronzed cheeks, she marveled that such a strong, confident man could look so sweetly vulnerable in sleep. Her fingers itched to smooth back the dark hair that swooped across his forehead. She wished she had the right to brush her thumb over the faint lines bracketing his mouth, perhaps provoking him to smile in his sleep.

Tripod raised his head and regarded her with impersonal curiosity, reminding her that she didn’t belong here.

Jake hadn’t wanted her to come. He couldn’t have made that plainer. He didn’t want to talk about Noah and he wasn’t remotely interested in getting to know Maddie again.

With a heavy heart she returned to the kitchen and removed the second place setting from the table. She finished tidying up and then took a notepad out of her purse and wrote a message for Jake, telling him there was a tossed salad in the refrigerator, ziti with sausage and a loaf of garlic bread keeping warm in the oven, and some black-cherry ice cream in the freezer.

She put the note beside his plate and laid the change from his grocery money next to it. Then she slipped quietly down the stairs, leaving Jake alone, just as he’d wanted.

Chapter Three

So much for last night’s resolution to leave him alone, Maddie thought wryly as she made a loose fist and rapped on the half-open door of Jake’s office.

He lifted his gaze from the screen of his laptop computer. “Madeline. Come in.” His chair squeaked as he pushed it back and stood.

She advanced a step into the office, furnished in the same elegantly threadbare style as the reception area, then glanced nervously over her shoulder. “Your secretary told me to—”

“It’s fine. Come in.” Jake nodded to indicate the large envelope she held like a shield in front of her. “What can I do for you?”

The envelope was a flimsy excuse for being here, Maddie realized belatedly. She should have left it with his secretary. Now there was nothing to do but plunge ahead. “I’ve been helping Anna review some medical files for Children of the Day. As I was leaving, she asked me to deliver this.”

“Thanks.” Jake accepted the envelope and dropped it unceremoniously on his desk, which held so many papers, folders, and books that Maddie couldn’t see an inch of bare wood anywhere. She found something oddly endearing about the fact that after all his years in the military, where order and efficiency had been relentlessly drilled into him, Jake could work at such a messy desk.

“I planned to call you today,” he said. “Can you spare a minute?” He gestured toward a leather wing chair and waited for Maddie to sit down before resuming his own seat.

He cleared his throat. “I would have called this morning, but I had to be in court early. I—” He broke off to scowl at Tripod, who had hopped onto the arm of Maddie’s chair and was looking at her expectantly. “Sorry. He thinks he owns that chair. Just give him a shove.”

“There’s room for both of us.” Maddie drew the cat onto her lap and felt oddly pleased when he settled against her.

Jake leaned forward and folded his arms on a stack of papers. “About last night, I—”

“Jake, Judge Newcastle has moved up the hearing for—” The stunning, dark-haired, blue-eyed man who had just barged into the office stopped speaking as Jake glanced pointedly in Maddie’s direction.

“Oh. Sorry.” The man flashed Maddie a bright smile accompanied by a killer set of dimples. “I thought he was alone.”

Jake leaned back in his chair. “Madeline Bright, allow me to introduce the second-best lawyer on Veterans Boulevard. My partner, Travis Wylie.”

“No, don’t get up,” Travis said when Maddie tried to shift Tripod so she could rise from the chair and shake hands. “Jake’s ugly cat looks comfortable.”

Maddie wanted to protest that Tripod wasn’t ugly, but that was an indefensible position. “He’s a very nice cat,” she temporized, cuddling him closer.

Travis smiled again, and Maddie marveled. With that chiseled jaw and those vibrant blue eyes, the man was even better-looking than Jake. But in his western shirt, Wranglers, and boots, he looked more like a cowboy than a lawyer.

“Madeline’s an army nurse,” Jake said. “Hails from Dallas.”

Travis’s eyes widened suddenly. He looked at Jake, raised his eyebrows as though in a question and mouthed a word that looked like “allergy.”

Jake glowered at him.

Travis barked out a laugh, then turned a look of frank admiration on Maddie.

“She’s come to Fort Bonnell for additional medical training,” Jake said calmly, as though the conversation hadn’t just taken that weird little detour. “She wants to switch from emergency nursing to maternity.”

Travis perched on the arm of a chair. “How do you like Prairie Springs?” he asked, swinging one long, denim-clad leg.

Maddie’s smile came easily. “It’s a wonderful town. And I’ve found a great bunch of Christians here. Do you know Prairie Springs Christian Church? The big stone building next to the town green?”

Travis shot a glance at Jake. “Gloria, our office manager, goes there.”

“Are you talking about Gloria Ridge?” Maddie asked eagerly. “She’s one of my new friends. I love her sense of humor.”

“Oh, she’s a character,” Travis agreed.

“Travis.” Lexi McNally, the pencil-thin, Hollywood-blond secretary stood in the doorway. “Sorry to interrupt, but the court reporter just arrived and they’re ready to start the Henley deposition.”

“On my way.” Travis hopped off the chair and turned another devastating smile on Maddie. “It’s been a pleasure.”

She murmured something equally polite and watched him go.

“Madeline.” Jake unbuttoned the collar of his white dress shirt and tugged on his tie until it hung limply from a mangled knot. “About last night, I’m sorry I—”

“Please don’t,” she said quickly. She couldn’t let him apologize for last night’s date-that-wasn’t-a-date. Not when she had forced her company on him. “I wasn’t offended, Jake. Your leg was hurting and I’m sure you needed the rest.”

His eyes softened. “I enjoyed the meal. But it wasn’t right that you didn’t get to eat any of it.”

“Oh, I ate. I can’t cook without tasting, so by the time I sit down at the table, I’m usually not hungry anymore.” She grinned. “Although I did have my heart set on that black-cherry ice cream. It’s my favorite.” She thought she’d struck just the right note with that response; she had also left an opening for Jake to invite her to share the rest of the ice cream.

He just smiled. “It was good. Thanks for all you did.”

Maddie concealed her disappointment by giving Tripod another cuddle. When she looked up, Jake was pulling documents out of Anna’s envelope, his long hands moving gracefully as he sifted the papers. When he paused to read something, Maddie studied his furrowed brow and pursed lips and felt a little thrill at the realization that she was actually watching him work. She was incredibly proud of all he had accomplished. In her eyes he was even more heroic now than he’d been as a daring young helicopter pilot.

“Anna tells me you were a huge help in getting Ali to Texas,” she said.

“That was simple enough,” he said without looking up. “We just petitioned for a managing conservatorship and requested an emergency ex parte order. The judge granted it the same day.”

Maddie stroked Tripod’s back as she struggled to translate that. “So in plain English, General Willis is now Ali’s legal guardian.”

“No.” Jake tossed the papers aside. “In Texas guardianship is handled through probate court. As Guardian of the Person, the general would have to file annual reports to prove he was acting in the boy’s best interests. With a permanent managing conservatorship, we get out from under all that. Of course the general’s conservatorship is just temporary right now, but we’ll go back to court at the end of this month to finalize things.”

“And you expect that to go well?”

“No reason it shouldn’t. The judge has appointed an ad litem to discover what’s in Ali’s best interests and make recommendations to the court. But both parents are deceased, there are no other interested relatives, and anyone who knows the general knows he’ll take good care of Ali. So we’re fine.”

Jake unbuttoned his cuffs and began rolling up his shirtsleeves. “None of this is confidential, by the way. The general’s grateful to everyone who had a hand in delivering his grandson into his care, so he’s authorized me to answer any questions y’all might have.”

“That’s…very generous.”

Jake looked at her. “You sound surprised.”

“Not surprised, exactly.” Maddie didn’t like saying unkind things behind people’s backs, but concern for Ali forced her to speak up. “Granted, I’ve just seen the man a few times, but he strikes me as a little…gruff.”

She didn’t believe for a minute that the retired three-star general, a bear of a man even if he was older than dirt, would abuse or neglect Ali. But surely the boy needed a gentler hand. “It’s just that Ali’s such a timid child. And he’s only five.”

Jake finished his sleeve-rolling and linked his hands together behind his head. “They’re doing fine together. I saw them just the other day.”

Maddie hadn’t seen Ali in almost two weeks. She was just one of a crowd of people interested in the boy, so she worried about overwhelming him, especially as he was sick and also dealing with culture shock. “I hate to think of him being dragged into a courtroom,” she said.

“Ali?” Jake shook his head. “We won’t need him at the hearing.”

Jake’s assurances helped put her mind to rest, but Tripod comforted her also, Maddie realized as she continued to stroke his soft fur. She’d never been a cat lover, but the gentle vibrations of Tripod’s purring were oddly soothing.

Jake gathered up Anna’s papers and returned them to the envelope. “Just how serious is Ali’s medical condition?” he asked.

“Extremely.” Maddie sighed. “The bomb blast caused trauma to his heart, resulting in a ventricular septal tear. In other words, he has a hole in his heart. He’s being closely monitored, and as you probably know, Dr. Nora Blake is standing by to do the surgery in Austin.”

When Jake opened his mouth, Maddie anticipated his question. “She’s the best, Jake. She has a tremendous reputation.”

“But why is she stalling? Why hasn’t she done the surgery already?”

“Because there’s still a chance Ali’s heart might heal on its own, and that would be best. Dr. Blake wants to wait. And Ali’s not yet as strong as she’d like for the surgery, anyway.”

Jake frowned, and Maddie worried that he’d press her for more information about the surgery—specifically its mortality rate. She’d looked into that last month, and now wished she hadn’t.

She gave him a reassuring smile. “But even if he ends up having the surgery, there’s every reason to believe things will go well.”

“You always did look on the bright side of things.” Jake’s tone hinted at disapproval.

Maddie wondered what he’d think if he knew how the events of the past year had crushed her old optimism. “I’m sure he’ll be fine,” she said firmly, wishing that was the truth. “We’ll just have to keep praying.”

Jake’s frown deepened. “I prefer to deal in reality.”

So they were back to that. Maddie wondered just how far his doubts extended. “You don’t believe in prayer?”

He stared at her for several seconds before he answered in clipped words that discouraged further comment, “Not anymore.”

Maddie knew there was a world of pain behind that admission, so Jake’s bitterness didn’t really shock her. But he desperately needed to talk to someone, and if she could just figure out how to reestablish their old camaraderie, he might talk to her.

She checked her watch, then set Tripod on the floor and got to her feet. “I’m on duty at the hospital in a little over an hour, so I’d better get back to post and grab something to eat.”

There. She couldn’t have made it any clearer that she was available for a quick lunch. That made things nice and convenient for Jake, who was probably still feeling a bit guilty about last night.

To her dismay, he didn’t even nibble at the bait. He grabbed his cane and escorted her to the door, thanking her again for bringing the papers from Anna.

Disappointment lodged in Maddie’s throat, making speech difficult, so she just nodded and went on her way.

An hour after Maddie left his office, Jake was still having trouble keeping his mind on his work. He decided to make a few more notes on an immigration case, then go upstairs and clear his head with a long workout on his rowing machine. Maybe after that, he’d have some black-cherry ice cream.

Or maybe he would just throw the ice cream out.

He wished Maddie hadn’t told him it was her favorite flavor. The only thing he wanted to know about Madeline Bright was that she was safe and happy. Apart from that, he didn’t want to see, didn’t want to hear, didn’t want to think about her at all.

“Jake?”

He glanced up as Gloria Ridge strode into his office and pointed an accusing finger at Tripod, who had reclaimed his favorite chair after Maddie’s departure. “His Highness doesn’t like that fancy new food I bought.” Gloria rested her hands on her wide hips and looked at Jake expectantly over the tops of her glasses.

Jake calmly turned a page and made a note on his legal pad. “If he’s hungry, he’ll eat it.”

“Hah.” Gloria’s short gray curls bounced as she shook her head. “You were hungry yesterday, but did you eat that chili I brought in for you and Travis? No, you did not. You both turned up your noses because I put beans in it. And you like beans.”

“Not in chili. No self-respecting Texan does.” He couldn’t believe she didn’t know that. She might have been raised in Alabama, but that was no excuse. Not when she’d been married to a Texan—a retired rodeo cowboy, no less—for almost as long as Jake had been alive. Was Leland Ridge aware that his wife was going around putting beans in chili?

Gloria walked over to Tripod’s chair and bent down to stroke him, muttering, “You contrary thing.”

Unsure whether she was addressing him or the cat, Jake shook his head and made another note on his tablet.

Gloria turned a speculative gaze on him. “Travis says Maddie Bright came by while I was at lunch.”

Here it comes. Jake did his best to rein in his exasperation. Gloria was always pushing nice women at him because she thought it was a crime against nature for a man to be almost forty and still unmarried. Jake never talked about his past, so she didn’t know he was a widower.

“You’re interested,” Gloria guessed.

“No, ma’am,” he said firmly.

Gloria laughed. “You’re a lying dog.” She paused, then asked silkily, “Have you kissed her yet?”

“Gloria.” Appalled by the blunt question, Jake dropped his ballpoint pen and gave his office manager a hard look. “Cease and desist.”

She waved that order away with a pudgy hand. “Travis told me all about you being ‘allergic’ to that sweet girl.”

Jake eyed the silver-handled ebony cane propped against his desk and fantasized about beating his loose-lipped partner with it.

Gloria shook her head pityingly. “You are one clueless man, Jake Hopkins.”

“What I am is busy.” The instant the words were out, he felt guilty for speaking to a woman, especially one his mama’s age, so harshly. But rather than looking crushed, Gloria laughed at him, at which point Jake scrapped his plans for an apology.

“What’s this?” Gloria’s mirth subsided as she stepped closer to Jake’s desk and bent down in front of it. When she bobbed back up, she held out a small gold woman’s watch for his inspection.

“It looks familiar,” Jake said. “It might be Madeline’s.”

Gloria pinned him with a look of intense curiosity. “Why don’t you call her Maddie like everyone else does?”

“Because I’ve known her since she was seven years old.”

Gloria snorted. “What kind of answer is that?”

The only kind of answer she was going to get. She could take it or leave it. Jake pressed his intercom button. “Lexi, somebody dropped a woman’s watch in my office. Is it yours?”

His secretary answered in the negative. He thanked her and looked at Gloria. “I’ll take care of it.” He didn’t want to call Madeline, but if he asked Gloria to do it, she’d wonder—out loud—why he was so reluctant to make a simple phone call.

Gloria laid the watch on a stack of papers on the corner of the desk. “I’ve been getting to know Maddie at church. She’s perfect for you.”

Jake studied the watch, so diminutive compared to his own, but that made sense because Maddie’s wrists were nearly as small as a child’s. Which reminded him: “She’s too young, Gloria.”

“Hogwash. That girl has more maturity in her little finger than you and me and this cat put together. I repeat—she’s perfect for you.”

Jake bristled at the heavy-handed matchmaking attempt. “She’s twenty-six,” he said evenly. “And I’m thirty-nine.”

Gloria harrumphed. “What does that matter? She’s special, Jake. And a couple of the young men at church are interested, so I hope you get over your age fixation right quick. At least put an engagement ring on her finger so she won’t wander off while you’re waiting for her to get old and wrinkled enough to suit you!”

The thought of marriage to Maddie caused Jake’s brain to stall out, so by the time a scathing retort rose to his lips, Gloria had already left his office.

He tamped down his impatience. Gloria wasn’t the only person who wanted to see him married. His mama introduced the subject at every opportunity, usually as a prelude to some wistful comment about grandchildren. But even if Jake wanted to marry again—and he emphatically did not—the absolute last candidate he would ever consider was Madeline Bright.