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Becky twisted, trying to free herself. He’d never hurt her before. Not once. Not even in fun. So what was the deal?
“Zach…” But her protest died at the face frozen above her. Staring straight over the top of her head. Her own warning jets fired and she quickly glanced behind her. “What is it?”
Families. Marines. Flags. Laughing. Crying. Hugging. Nothing weird.
No one watching.
Becky turned back to the blankness chilling his eyes. “Big guy?”
Grooves deepened beside his eyes and mouth, twisting his features into a frown. His nostrils flared with a deep, stuttering breath. What was happening here?
Becky skipped curiosity and moved straight to concern. She nudged at his chest, then reached up and caught his jaw between her hands, giving him a little shake. She uttered his name with more force. “Zachariah!”
He blinked and his eyes blazed back into focus so suddenly she thought she might have imagined the whole weird disconnect.
Except Becky Owens wasn’t given to idle imaginings. “Where did you go?”
He shook his head as if confused by her question. “I’m right here.”
“A second ago, you were a million miles away.”
“Fatigue, I guess.” Zachariah seized her wrists and pulled her hands from his face. “I’m pretty wiped out, adjusting to the time differences and all.”
“Are you sure? It seemed like more than that.”
If it weren’t for the almost tentative restraint in his normally confident touch, she might have believed the cocky grin that slid back into place. “It’s good to see you again,” he said, without explaining anything to her satisfaction. “And to touch you.” He brushed the tip of her nose with his finger.
Okay. Nose tapping aside, she’d go along with the diversionary tactic instead of following up with a more probing question. After all, she couldn’t very well force the husband she barely knew to unburden his secrets to her if she wasn’t ready to do the same for him.
But she could care. She did care. Putting her desires on the back burner, Becky slid her arms around his waist. She walked into his chest and hugged him tightly, offering him something a little calmer, a little saner than the healthy lust that zinged like perpetual lightning between them.
After a moment’s hesitation, Zachariah folded his arms around her shoulders and hugged her back. “Hey. What’s this for?”
She turned her nose into the crisp, starched scent of his uniform. “I’m sorry I wasn’t a better letter writer, and that I didn’t e-mail you more often. I’m sorry I’m not a better…” Oh, crud. The word was sticking to her tongue. “Wife.”
“Hey.” She felt him nuzzle the crown of her hair. “There’s no blame here. It wasn’t like I was a devoted penpal. Besides, there’s no guarantee I would have gotten your messages. Not where we were.”
“So where were—” His hold on her tightened, derailing Becky’s question. Deliberately? Had something changed between them? Or was he drifting again? Just what had Zachariah and his men been doing that he couldn’t—or wouldn’t—talk about it? The APO address and military domain name that he’d sent her several weeks after his departure had told her as little about his location and assignment as his brief messages had. Outside of the base headquarters where his unit had reported in between missions, he and his comrades seemed to have disappeared for weeks, even months, at a time. “Are you okay?”
Captain Somber here was so not playing into the let’s-recapture-what-we-had-but-I-really-need-to-keep-it-light-so-I-can-walk-away-without-either-of-us-getting-hurt scenario she’d planned for this weekend. Was he normally this moody? She hadn’t seen any indication of a darker side to Zachariah Clark back in D.C.
Beyond the military information he couldn’t share, taciturn and evasive were hardly words she’d use to describe her conversations with Zachariah back then. Not that they’d had any deep heart-to-hearts. He’d been so refreshingly up front about what he wanted from her that Becky had found his lack of an agenda as much of an attraction as the breadth of those muscled shoulders and chest. He’d been blunt. He’d been bold. He’d worn his thoughts and emotions on his sleeve, and Becky had responded to his easy forthrightness.
The Zachariah Clark who’d gotten off the bus this morning was too complex for her to read, and that left her at an unfamiliar disadvantage. Becky couldn’t be sure he would understand, much less welcome, the things she had to say and do—not if he was feeling down or preoccupied like this. And her concern about whatever was troubling him complicated her own promises to hurry back to the people who really needed her, people she could actually help.
This was supposed to be a welcome-home celebration. Escaping for a weekend frolic with her…um…husband.
Damn. Even thinking the word pinched at her conscience.
Oh, yeah. This reunion was going really well.
Zachariah gave her a quick bear hug before pulling away completely, beyond arm’s reach, distancing himself from her questions as well as her touch. “I suppose if we’d had time to go through the newlywed training, we’d have done a better job of keeping in touch.”
Becky arched one eyebrow. Did she know anything about Zachariah’s life? “There’s newlywed training?”
“Yeah. So the new spouse knows what to expect when the husband or wife is deployed. Where to find support groups. How to contact us if there’s an emergency. Familiarizing each of us with what can be said in a message and what can’t. Stuff like that.” He lifted his cap, scratched his fingers over his ultra-short, fawn-colored hair and wedged the cap back on. “Sorry. I guess I cheated you out of all that by gettin’ hitched so quick. I kind of ran off and left you in the dark.” He turned his left hand back and forth, studying his splayed fingers as if seeing them in front of his face reminded him of something he didn’t like. “Hell. I never even took the time to buy us rings.”
Two small boys, darting around the fringe of a family welcoming home the father, accidentally bumped into the back of Zachariah’s legs. He tensed instantly. His hand fisted and his shoulders seemed to expand in a way that made Becky think he was about to turn and attack. Only the Zachariah she knew didn’t have a temper.
The boys must have sensed the brewing volcano, too.
“Sorry, mister,” the little one chirped.
“He’s a captain, dork-butt. Look at his collar.”
“Sorry, Captain.”
“Thanks for all you do for our country,” the older one said, in a well-rehearsed voice.
“Yeah, thanks.” The younger of the two boys stepped between Zachariah and Becky and craned his neck, squinching his mouth into a thoughtful frown as though he was perplexed by how far he had to look up to see Zachariah’s face. “Do you know my dad?”
Zachariah blinked away whatever had seized him and looked over at the family gathering before lowering his chin and mustering half an apologetic grin for the boy. “Yeah. Sort of. He’s in our support unit. We couldn’t do our jobs without—”
“C’mon, Eric.” The older boy put a hand on the young one’s shoulder and pulled him away, apparently not trusting Zachariah’s size or mood. “Dad’s waiting for us. We get to carry his duffel bag.”
As quickly as the boy’s curiosity had surfaced, it disappeared. He chased his brother back to their family. “I get to carry it first!”
“Uh-uh!”
Zachariah scrubbed his palm down over his face and muttered a curse as he watched them disappear back into the crowd. “So how bad do you think I scared those kids?”
“Not half as much as you’re scaring me.” Becky propped her hands at the waist of her denim skirt. “You’re acting like Zachariah Clark’s evil twin. Are you going to tell me what’s bugging you or not?”
His green eyes were the only thing that moved as his gaze bored into hers. “Like I said, I’m beat.” Leaveit alone. She understood the message clearly enough—didn’t like it, but understood. An echo of silence passed before he shook loose his shoulders and twisted his neck from side to side, forcibly relaxing his posture if not convincing Becky he had truly relaxed.
“Then maybe we’d better get going,” she suggested, not knowing what more she could do, even if he were willing to share. She pointed toward the fence. “I’m parked in the visitors’ lot. I can drive until we can get your truck out of storage.”
With a nod, he heaved his duffel bag up onto his shoulder. After holding back for a moment, he lengthened his stride to fall into step beside her and settled his hand at the back of her waist. “Sorry. All the way home I was thinking about falling into bed. With you. I guess it was stupid to think nothing about us would change after eighteen months apart. This marriage thing takes a little getting used to.”
“I know what you mean.” It shamed her to think of how she’d kept the news of her “gettin’hitched” tucked away like a secret weapon in her back pocket—waiting until the moment was right to tell her parents, until now the secret weighed like an anchor around her neck. It was becoming more and more clear that there was more to making a marriage than a legal document. “It’s as though we have to get reacquainted all over again.”
And there was only one way they’d really known and understood each other, even back in D.C.
“I thought I was doing the right thing—making you my wife—in case something happened to me, or I got you pregnant. I just wanted you to know that what we had meant something to me.”
Becky halted in her tracks. “I’m a big girl, Zachariah.” She snagged his hand as he walked past. At that slightest of tugs, he stopped and looked down over his shoulder at her. “That week meant something to me, too. But you don’t have to take care of me. You just have to…be with me. While you’re here. While we’re together.” Her own plans, which she’d stewed over for months, were changing even as she spoke. “We’ll figure out whatever we’ve missed in each other’s lives later. For now, let’s just try to stay in the moment, shall we?”
He considered the bargain, then altered his grip to lace his fingers together with hers and pull her to his side. “In the moment. Sure. I can do that. Now take me to your car.”
She pointed toward the gate. “Over there.”
He shifted direction and guided them through the fringes of the lingering crowd. He dipped his head to her ear so she could hear him as they hurried past the band, which was playing a Sousa march. “In your last e-mail, you mentioned something about that honeymoon we missed?”
His lips stayed close and nuzzled the sensitive skin beneath her earlobe.
Honeymoon. She liked the sound of that. Becky wound her other hand around Zachariah’s and hugged herself against his arm. The brush of his lips and heat off his skin sparked something prickly and needy inside her. Maybe this awkward tension between them was nothing more than frustrated physical energy. Maybe once they got the lust—which had been simmering for eighteen months—out of their systems, everything else would fall into place. They could talk. He could lighten up. She could walk away.
Becky stumbled over the momentary hesitation of her feet. Don’t go there.
But, linked to the brace of Zachariah’s arm, she couldn’t fall. And because it had to be brief, she didn’t want to retreat from the time they could be spending together. Not wanting to shout, she waited until the band was behind them before she answered, “I might have an idea or two in mind about that honeymoon.”
“Spread those ideas out. Other than a quick visit to my folks out in Nebraska, you’ve got me for six whole weeks.”
Six weeks? Um, yeah. About that…
“Unless you want to come with me?” he offered. “The ranch should be green and pretty in the middle of summer—the lake water nice and cool.”
Nebraska? Ranch? Lake water? “Do you go sailing?”
“It’s not that big a lake. Fishing, mostly.” He released her hand and slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her flush to his side and hurrying their pace. “But I was thinking more along the lines of skinny-dipping after midnight.”
In lake water? “Is that sanitary?”
“Sanitary? Man, you sure know how to sweet-talk a guy. Here I am, imagining the moonlight on your bare skin, and you’re worried about the greeblies in the water.”
“So there is something in the water.”
“Fish. Hence, the fishing.” He grinned. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”
She tensed. In the moment. Stay in the moment. “You told me you live on a ranch. Don’t the cows use the water, too—”
“Yo, Clarksie!”
Becky jumped in her skin as a man materialized from between two parked cars and charged toward them, his arm outstretched. He was big, not by Zachariah standards, but big enough that everything inside Becky jerked with the urge to run in the opposite direction.
Zachariah braced for an instant in a protective stance between her and the man. Then the tension rolled off his shoulders along with his duffel bag and he released her to stick out his own hand to greet the man with a handshake. “Action Man!”
While Becky squashed down the startled heartbeat that pounded in her chest, she took note of the dark royal pants and khaki shirt that marked “Action Man” as another military officer. The handshake became a bear hug that involved backslapping, ribald nicknames and seeing who could squeeze the other harder.
Clearly an old friend, judging by the rapid-fire questions about families and work and the “How’ve you beens?”
Not a threat.
Not even anything to do with her.
Way to play it cool, Owens.
The dressed-up Marine pulled an athletic-looking woman up beside him and tucked her under his arm. “I’m as good-lookin’ as ever and I’ve got some of the best prospects I’ve had in a long time. This is Tess.”
“Tess, eh? I’m Zachariah Clark.”
The woman named Tess smiled and took his hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Clarksie. Most of it, I couldn’t repeat to my mother. But to hear Trav tell it, it’s all good. Welcome home.”
“Aw, shucks. Thanks, ma’am.” Zachariah leaned forward. “Is she the one you e-mailed me about?”
The man named Travis didn’t even hesitate. “She’s the one, period. I’ve still got some details to work out, but—”
As embarrassed by her knee-jerk reaction as she was relieved, Becky took a deep breath and stepped forward to be introduced. “Do I have to hang back like the paparazzi? Or do I get an introduction, too?”
“Geez. Sorry, darlin’.” Quickly shifting his stance to pull Becky into the conversation, Zachariah rested his hand at the small of her back and made the introductions. “Travis McCormick, this is my…my wife.” The fingers at her back contracted. An apology? Or did the word feel as awkward on his tongue as it had on hers? “This is Becky Owens. Becky Clark.” The fingers tightened another notch and she felt his gaze sweep across her face. “This is the Beckster.”
Like their missing wedding rings, her new name was another topic they’d never had a chance to discuss.
A cheesy grin split Travis’s face. “What, you forget you were married already?”
They moved past the awkward moment with more handshakes and an introduction to Travis’s girlfriend, Tess Bartlett, whom Becky learned was a physical therapist.
“So how do you know Zachariah, Captain McCormick?” Becky asked, curious to meet one of his friends.
“It’s Travis, and don’t worry about the title.” Despite the woman at his side, Travis seemed to be a bit of a flirt. “Clarksie and I served together on a Special Operations team—until I got wounded.”
At the mention of the word wounded, the good-natured camaraderie between the two men ebbed as though they were rowdy boys who’d been reprimanded by their parents for too much roughhousing. Becky could sense the stiffness that crept into Zachariah’s posture.
“I see you’re not in Charlie uniform—your camouflage work gear,” Zachariah pointed out. “Does that mean the top brass denied your request to return to a Special Ops team?”
Travis waved aside his concern. “I didn’t give them the chance. I asked to be transferred to the training division. General Craddock approved it yesterday. I’m going to be teaching the yahoos who’ll be taking your place one day.”
“Congratulations, man.” Becky glanced up. Despite a smile, Zachariah’s jaw had tensed. “What changed your mind?”
“I realized I couldn’t give the hundred-and-ten percent S.O. teams need anymore. But I figure I can eke out about a hundred-and-one percent to whip some of those new boys into shape. I’ve learned I make a pretty good coach.”
Seeing the blush that dotted Tess’s cheeks when Travis smiled down at her, Becky had to wonder just what kind of “coaching” Zachariah’s pal was talking about.
“I get to choose my own staff.” Travis jabbed Zachariah on the shoulder and grinned. “I could use a big hard-ass like you on the team.”
Zachariah’s hand fisted at Becky’s back before he broke contact completely. “I’ll think about it.”
“Do. I can always use a man with good hands.”
Afraid she was witnessing another reappearance of the secretive stranger who’d been so intense that he’d frightened two little boys, Becky linked her arm through Zachariah’s. “Can’t we all?”
Tess and Travis laughed right along with her, the double entendre buying a few seconds, giving Zachariah’s mood a chance to pass. His deep, rumbly laugh finally joined in. He linked his fingers together with Becky’s and lifted her hand to claim it with a kiss.
Like the laugh, she couldn’t tell if his silent thank you was for real or for show. Still, his words sounded sincere enough. “Duty calls. Thanks for showing up, Trav. It feels good to be on home soil. Good to see you.”
Travis nodded. “Well, you’ve got a homecoming I’m not going to keep you from any longer. Take care, buddy.”
“You, too.” The two men shook hands. “I’ll call you soon, I promise.”
