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“Madeline.” He rolled over and sat up smartly. He considered smiling, but with his teeth clenched against the pain, he figured he’d look maniacal, rather than reassuring. “What a surprise.”
She was clearly in no mood for chitchat. “Where are you hurt?”
“Just jarred the leg, that’s all.” They were still shouting at each other. “Could you hand me my stick?”
She hesitated, sweeping him with a doubtful look, but then she went to retrieve his cane. While she was gone, Jake flattened one palm against the scalding door of the pickup and one against the blistering fender of the Camry and hauled himself up.
When Maddie returned, the grim set of her mouth communicated her displeasure that he’d risen without assistance. “Jake, you should have let me—”
“I’m fine,” he interrupted, reaching for the cane. “Thanks.”
She looked him up and down, skepticism written all over her pretty face. “Where did you get hit? All I saw was the car speeding away, and then I noticed a pair of legs sticking out from behind this truck.”
“The car didn’t hit me,” Jake said.
“Well, praise God for that.” Maddie’s relief was obvious as she removed her sunglasses and hooked them on the neck band of her shirt. “But what happened?”
Dilemma. Should he admit the truth, that he’d dived behind the truck to avoid being seen by the woman who’d been starring in his dreams for the past month? Or should he attempt to salvage his pride with a little white lie?
Easy call. “I tripped. Over…something,” he mumbled.
She leaned toward him and cupped a hand to her ear. “Pardon?”
“I tripped over something,” Jake repeated loudly, just as the car alarm ceased its obnoxious honking. The lie hadn’t been a good one to begin with, and yelling it into the sudden silence didn’t improve it any.
Confusion wrinkled Maddie’s forehead as her gaze roamed over the smooth asphalt of the perfectly level parking lot. There wasn’t a crack, a bump or even a pebble to be seen. She looked back at Jake and frowned. “Your face is flushed.”
Great. Now he was blushing like a teenager. He jerked his gaze away from her dangerously beautiful eyes, which were as deep and blue as the sea of bluebonnets that covered the central Texas hills in springtime. “The heat’s getting to me, that’s all.”
She stepped closer and laid her palm against the side of his face, no doubt checking his temperature. “Are you staying hydrated?”
“Yeah.” Jake shied away from her touch, hoping she hadn’t noticed his racing pulse.
He’d never felt more ridiculous in his life. He was a thirty-nine-year-old combat veteran, a former U.S. Army aviator who’d flown Apache attack helicopters and twice been decorated for valor. So why was it that whenever this sweet young woman appeared on his radar screen, his heart sped up and he trembled like a nervous Chihuahua?
Maddie brushed some fine gravel off the front of his damp shirt. “I worry about you, Jake.”
Well, that was just great. All he’d needed was one more thing to feel guilty about where she was concerned.
“Is he okay?” A plump, elderly woman holding a paper bag of groceries in one arm approached the driver’s door of the Camry. She looked anxiously from Maddie to Jake, who was now leaning heavily on his cane and wishing he’d just called for a pizza instead of coming to the store in search of dinner.
“Yes, ma’am,” Maddie said sweetly. “He’ll be fine.”
“Oh, good. I saw him fall, but my old legs don’t move very fast.” The woman shook her head. “Wasn’t it just the oddest thing, the way he took that flying leap and—”
“I’m fine,” Jake interrupted. The less said about his flying leap, the better. “I appreciate your concern, ma’am, and I’m sorry I triggered your alarm.”
She dismissed that with an airy wave of her hand. “Isn’t it annoying, the way those dumb things go off every time somebody breathes wrong?” As Jake shifted out of her way, she opened the Camry’s door. “If I wanted to steal a car, I’d set off the alarm first to make sure nobody paid any attention to me.” Cackling at her own joke, she got in and closed the door.
Maddie slid a protective arm around Jake’s waist and silently urged him to back up a little more. Nurse or not, she was a natural-born caregiver. But Jake didn’t want to be fussed over by anyone, least of all by Noah’s kid sister.
Noah.
The memory of their last hour together was never far from Jake’s mind. How could it be, after what he had done? For more than five years the guilt had gnawed at his insides, ensuring he never forgot how his mistake had cost Noah his life.
“Where’s your car?” Maddie asked with brisk purpose, almost as though she meant to hoist Jake over her shoulder and carry him there.
He shook his head. “I’m going to the store.”
“No,” she said firmly. “Whatever you need, I’ll get it. You took a bad spill, and you’re going home to rest that leg. Now where’s your car?”
Giving in, he pointed with his stick and then hobbled in that direction, each step on his left leg pure agony. Since he used the cane on his right side, Maddie grasped his left arm and stuck to him as though she’d been glued there. She wasn’t supporting any of his weight, but it was clear she was ready to do so if called upon.
“You need water,” she announced as Jake collapsed onto the driver’s seat of the Beemer and stashed his cane behind it. “Wait here. I have some in my car.”
“No need.” Jake reached for the quart-size bottle of spring water on his passenger seat. After removing the cap, he offered the first drink to Maddie.
She grinned down at him and shook her head. “Still quite the gentleman, aren’t you, Captain Hopkins?”
“Don’t call me that.” In the past five years, he’d done his best to forget his old life. He wished the rest of the world would forget it, too.
He saluted Maddie with the bottle and took a long pull of sun-warmed water.
“Good.” She gave his shoulder an approving pat. “Now get some air going.”
Jake started his engine and switched the air conditioner to its highest setting. “Happy now?”
Maddie shook her head. “I can see the pain in your eyes, Jake.” She reached out to touch his face, then apparently thought better of it, which was a very good thing. “Do you have your meds with you?”
“No.” He had a prescription, naturally, but he refused to eat painkillers like candy, so most of the time he just gritted his teeth and bore it. At the moment, however, drugs sounded pretty good.
“Anna Terenkov told me you live in an apartment over your law offices,” Maddie said.
Jake nodded, wondering what else their mutual friend had said about him. Maddie—Madeline—knew him far too well already.
“I think you’re okay to drive that short a distance,” she said. “It can’t be more than a mile from here. Just promise you’ll go straight home.”
“I will.” Anything to get rid of her.
“Thank you.” She leaned down and kissed his cheek. It happened so fast, Jake didn’t have time to avoid it. Fortunately he didn’t have time to enjoy it, either.
“It’s unbelievably hot out here,” Maddie said cheerfully as she tucked an escaped lock of hair under the yellow scarf she wore as a headband.
She had always been crazy about yellow and still wore at least a touch of it whenever she could. It was the color of the sun, she’d told Jake years ago. The color of happiness.
“What am I getting you from the store?” she asked.
“Nothing.” He didn’t want her doing him any favors. “You don’t have time to—”
“Actually, I do, because this is my day off. And guess what?” Her eyes glowed with happiness. “I’ve been house hunting.”
House hunting? Jake almost groaned aloud. Why couldn’t she just stay on post, where she belonged? If she moved into town, Jake would bump into her even more often than he did already.
Just yesterday, he’d seen her at the offices of Children of the Day, an international Christian charity founded five years ago by Prairie Springs resident Anna Terenkov to assist innocent victims of war. For the past year, Jake had been doing pro bono legal work for the organization, so he’d become friendly with Anna and with Olga, her delightfully outlandish mother.
He genuinely liked both women, but lately Anna and Olga had been getting on his nerves because they couldn’t stop talking about their new friend Maddie. She was so sweet, they gushed. So eager to help everyone. And Olga, the inveterate matchmaker, had pointed out on more than one occasion that a man would have to be dead not to notice how pretty she was.
Jake definitely wasn’t dead.
Dreamy-eyed, Maddie stared over the Beemer’s roof. “I’m looking for a place where I can have a flower garden and a kitchen big enough to actually cook in.” Her gaze shifted back to Jake. “The kitchenettes in the bachelor officers quarters at Fort Bonnell must be some architect’s idea of a joke, and…” She stopped and gave herself a little shake. “Never mind. What am I getting you from the store?”
“Nothing, thanks. I wanted something for dinner, but I’ll just go home and make a sandwich.” With two stale pieces of bread—all that was left of the loaf were the heels—and the last thin sliver of ham, which he’d have to sniff carefully before he risked eating. He never went grocery shopping until he was completely out of food.
“Tell you what,” she said brightly. Maddie—Madeline—was always as cheerful as a songbird. “I’ll cook something for you.”
“No.” Panic roared through Jake. But he realized he’d spoken too sharply, so he added, “Thanks, but I have to finish some paperwork tonight.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll fix something quick and easy.”
Jake opened his mouth on another protest and felt it die in his throat. How could he decline such a generous offer without stomping all over her feelings? “All right,” he said unhappily. “Thank you.”
“Don’t look so delighted.” Gazing at him with amused affection, she ruffled his hair. “You can work until dinner’s ready, and as soon as we’ve eaten, you can go right back to your papers. It’s not like this will be a date or anything.”
No, it would certainly not be a date or anything. Not with her. Jake would give up women entirely before he’d make a mistake of that magnitude.
Her expression turned wistful. “It’s been a long time since we shared a meal.”
At those words, memories Jake had been fleeing for years caught up to him and swirled around him like the rising waters of a flash flood. During his and Noah’s second year at West Point, they’d spent the first few days of their Christmas leave at Noah’s home in Dallas. Jake had liked Noah’s mother and his happy, bouncy little sister, who must have been six or seven at the time. Maddie and her mama had more or less adopted Jake, and he’d seen them often in the years that followed. But in those dark days when Jake had lain in the hospital broken in body and spirit, his faith failing as guilt consumed him, he had refused their visits.
Since that time he’d had no contact with the Brights. Then last month Maddie had appeared, all grown up and exquisitely lovely, right here in Prairie Springs. She’d been openly delighted to see Jake, who was still resolved to stay out of her life. The problem was that whenever this grown-up Maddie smiled, every molecule in Jake’s body shifted toward her, as though she was the moon and he was an ocean tide.
Defeated, he opened his wallet and handed her some grocery money.
“What sounds good to you?” she asked.
She sounded good to him. Her melodious drawl made him think of warm honey dripping from a spoon. His gaze strayed to her mouth and he wondered what it would be like to—
“Jake?”
He hastily collected his wandering wits. “Maybe some kind of pasta. And I like salad. But you should know I’ve developed a severe allergy to peanuts.” And you, he added silently. Just look what she was doing to his brain at this very moment.
Her fine dark eyebrows drew together. “Peanuts?”
“Yeah. I had my first reaction about four years ago. I guess it happens that way sometimes.”
“Do you carry—”
“Epinephrine.” He patted the right front pocket of his jeans. Since that horrifying episode at the restaurant in Austin, he’d never been without his emergency lifesaving kit.
Maddie nodded. “I’ll be careful to read the labels on everything I buy.” She stepped back and started to close his car door, then hesitated. “What about dessert? Do you still like sweet things?”
Sweet things? “Oh, yeah,” he breathed, trying not to stare at her mouth. Her rosy pink lips looked natural, but she might have been wearing lipstick. “I’m a sugar fiend. Cookies, cakes, pies, ice cream…”
“Ice cream.” Her smile blossomed. “Jake Hopkins, you’re a man after my own heart.”
He managed a weak smile to hide his terror.
Chapter Two
As endless waves of oppressive heat shimmered up from the parking lot’s surface, Maddie bit the insides of her checks and watched Jake drive away. Something was troubling him, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.
He was no longer the brash, swaggering helicopter pilot she’d sighed over as a girl, but she admired the man he’d become. Jake had pulled himself together and risen like a phoenix from the ashes of his grief. He had learned to walk again. He’d gone to law school. And while he didn’t appear to be attending church anymore, he was supporting an eminently worthwhile Christian charity; according to their mutual friend, Anna Terenkov, Jake made substantial gifts of his time and legal expertise to Children of the Day.
He looked dearly familiar, yet he had changed. Time had softened the sharp angles of his jaw and filled out his tall, lean-as-a-whippet frame. His dark, straight hair, which he still wore in a traditional cut parted on the side, was now shot with silver, and his brown eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled. His mouth seemed firmer and thinner than Maddie remembered, but it hinted at a determination she liked. He was more handsome than ever, she concluded as she turned back toward the grocery store entrance.
He intrigued her on every level, but she was beginning to despair that he would never stop thinking of her as Noah’s baby sister and see the woman she’d become. She had never flirted so hard in her life, or to so little effect.
She claimed a shopping cart and pushed it toward a pair of automatic doors. As they swung open, delivering a welcome blast of chilly air, Maddie squared her shoulders and resolved not to give up on Jake. He might be uninterested in romance, but he still needed a friend, and friendship just happened to be Maddie’s specialty.
She tossed a cheery wave to a new acquaintance behind one of the cash registers, then made a beeline for the produce department. After a year’s deployment to a place where she couldn’t always count on having a banana to slice over her breakfast cereal, being able to buy all the fresh produce she wanted was true luxury. She halted beside a display of golden pineapples and selected one that seemed heavy for its size.
That means it’s full of juice.
As Maddie heard the voice of Whitney Paterson Harpswell in her head, a pain zinged through her chest. It just didn’t seem possible that her best friend might never come home.
They’d grown up together in Dallas. Whitney had joined the army, too, but had gone into a different field, so she and Maddie now did most of their confiding via e-mail. Whitney had recently married fellow soldier John Harpswell, and their unit had subsequently deployed to the Middle East. The day after Maddie’s arrival in Prairie Springs, she’d heard the devastating news that Whitney and John had been missing for more than a month.
Since then, Maddie had been fighting to hold on to hope.
She sighed heavily and moved to the lettuce counter to select salad greens for Jake’s dinner.
Jake. She couldn’t recall the last time they’d had dinner together, but she clearly remembered the first time. She’d been a lisping first-grader when Noah had brought one of his fellow West Point cadets home for Christmas.
Maddie had fallen instantly in love. She’d dreamed about Jake until her sophomore year of high school, when she finally began to notice boys her own age. But even after her childish crush had run its course, she’d kept a special place in her heart just for Jake, and he continued to be a powerful influence in her life. It was Jake who encouraged her to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse. Later, after he expressed his profound admiration for the doctors and nurses at the combat support hospitals overseas, Maddie had joined the army in hopes of becoming one of those heroes.
That had turned out to be a mistake. While she was proud of her affiliation with the U.S Army Nurse Corps, she wasn’t cut out for nursing soldiers and civilians in a war zone. The horrors she’d witnessed during her deployment had nearly crushed her naturally sunny spirit.
As she slipped a bunch of green onions into a plastic bag, she recalled the day she’d e-mailed Whitney and confessed that she was terrified of losing herself. Every time she watched a boy-soldier die and every time she saw a child who had been maimed by an insurgent’s bomb, another piece of Madeline Bright disintegrated.
“You’ve done a wonderful service to our country,” Whitney had written back. “But maybe your personality isn’t suited to ER and trauma nursing. Wouldn’t you rather take care of pregnant women and newborn babies, or something like that?”
Yes, she would. So as her tour had drawn to a close, Maddie had collected the necessary recommendations and applied for admission to a new obstetrics program at the Fort Bonnell/Prairie Springs Medical Center. A couple of months of distance-learning classes on her computer, plus some on-the-job training with a nurse preceptor, all overseen by the hospital’s head nurse and the supervisor of the OB floor, and Maddie would be living a whole new life. Nursing happy expectant mothers was exactly what she wanted now.
That and a little house with a flower garden and maybe even a dog.
She had no idea how long a convalescence her injured heart would require, but until she could process and put away the disturbing memories of the past year and recover her old sunny spirit, she would continue faking it. She hated deception, but her friends and loved ones had always depended on her to be upbeat. And surely she wouldn’t have to pretend for long before she became her old cheerful self again.
Reminding herself that Jake was waiting, she pushed her worries aside and quickly finished her shopping.
