More Than a Soldier Read online

  “You are somebody special.” Mrs. Baker’s faded blue eyes glistened in the morning sun. “What do you say we indulge in another chalice of coffee while awaiting Sir Hank’s arrival?”

  “Good idea. I’ll go start a fresh pot.”

  * * * *

  “Here comes Hank.” Cindy rose from the porch steps and brushed off the seat of her shorts as the camouflage Jeep crackled across the gravel parking and stopped in front of the duplex. Hank unfolded from the vehicle and cast a wave in Cindy’s direction. His all-male, rugged smile tingled up her neck to her earlobes.

  Cricket bounded out the open door and loped around Cindy like a playful gazelle.

  “If you’d hold still for a second, crazy dog, I’d pet you.” Cindy fell to a knee and grabbed Cricket’s flank. “Ha, now I’ve got you.”

  A wet tongue came around and whipped a slime trail across Cindy’s face.

  “Thanks a lot.” Cindy rose, spat to the side, and dried her cheek with her forearm. “Yuck, I think she licked my teeth.”

  Mrs. Baker’s hearty laugh attracted Cricket’s attention.

  Cindy grabbed her collar. “Oh no you don’t. I’m sure Mrs. B doesn’t need a lube job this morning.”

  “Cricket, sit.” The dog obeyed Hank’s command. “Good girl. Stay.”

  “Hank, I’d like you to meet my neighbor, Mrs. Baker. Mrs. Baker, this is Hank.”

  Hank stretched out his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

  “And you. Would you mind helping me up, young man? The old bones are a little stiff this morning.”

  “Absolutely.” Hank eased her upright with care. “There you go.”

  A man of Hank’s size and strength had the power to break someone in half, yet he handled Mrs. Baker with the delicacy of a shopkeeper cradling a valuable piece of antiquity. The small act added yet another facet to Hank’s outdoorsy persona.

  Cindy tore her eyes from him for a moment.

  Mrs. Baker’s voice brought her attention back.

  “Cindy told me all about her visit yesterday. I’m so pleased that she’s finally met her brother. And you and everyone else, of course.”

  “Nothing could have surprised us more than when she showed up and said she was Edward’s sister. We all stood there with our jaws hanging open, not knowing what to say.”

  Mrs. Baker leaned on the wooden handrail. “Before you go, I’d like to meet that pretty dog of yours. Without me getting too slimy, if we can manage that.” She chuckled.

  “Sure. Cricket, come. Easy, girl.”

  Cricket trotted to Hank and stood with her tail wagging as Mrs. Baker stroked her fur.

  “She’s a beauty. So soft and silky. There, there, aren’t you a sweet girl.”

  Hank patted Cricket’s head. “I’ve never seen her give such a sedate greeting. She seems to sense you’re, you know, that you—”

  “Go ahead and say it.” Mrs. Baker laughed. “She senses I’m an old lady and doesn’t want to knock me down.”

  Hank shot a sideways glance at Cindy and mouthed, “Oops.”

  “It was nice meeting you, Hank. Have a nice day, both of you.” Mrs. Baker retreated into her apartment.

  Hank turned to Cindy. “I called Eddie when I left the house and told him I was on my way to get you. He’d just gotten out of the shower. Oh, he said to ask you to stay the night.”

  “That was nice of him.” And convenient, since she’d already packed for it. “Thanks for coming, Hank.”

  “You’re welcome. I can take a look at your car if you’d like. You’ll need it for work on Monday, won’t you?”

  “Actually, I got laid off last week, so I don’t have a job to go to on Monday.”

  “Oh? Are you okay, you know, money wise and—” He clucked his tongue. “Sorry, none of my business.”

  “That’s all right. I don’t mind you asking. I’m set for a while until I can find another job.” As long as her car didn’t poop out on her completely. Then she’d be sunk.

  Hank tossed his car keys into the air and snatched them as they fell. “Then let’s go get something to eat. I’m starving.”

  “Me too.” Cindy switched her bag from her car to the Jeep.

  Hank eyed it with a small smile, but said nothing.

  “Okay, I’m—” Her phone jangled in her pocket.

  Eric’s name popped up on the caller ID. If her jaws clamped any tighter, she’d crack a molar. “Excuse me, I’ve got to take care of this.”

  * * * *

  Hank leaned against the Jeep’s fender with arms folded over his chest and feet crossed at the ankle.

  Cindy strutted to the roadside where the gravel petered out and answered the call with a vicious, “What do you want?”

  Even with only one functional ear, tuning out her conversation proved impossible.

  “You’ve got some nerve calling me, you pig... Why would I want to meet you for coffee? I’d rather drink poison... No, I don’t want to see you... You know what you ought to do? Drop dead.”

  Cindy paced like an anxious panther, her tone escalating in volume and face reddening.

  “Are you deaf? I said no.... Step one foot on my porch and I’ll shoot you. I swear I will.... You think I don’t have a gun? Knock on my door and see how fast I plug you full of holes.... I’m warning you. Don’t call again and don’t ever show your face over here.”

  Cindy stood facing the road, arms dangling, cell phone in hand.

  Hank pushed off the fender and took a few steps toward her. “You okay?”

  She nodded, bobbing the ends of her hair up and down her back. Her hand moved upward as if to wipe her face. Shoulders that had slumped like deflated tires rose as she straightened her back and spun around wearing a plastic smile that couldn’t fool even the least perceptive. She lifted her phone with a shrug. “Telemarketer. You know how pesky they can be.”

  Telemarketer? She couldn’t possibly think he’d buy into that one.

  Hank forced a smile. “Just never heard anyone threaten to shoot one before.”

  “Yeah, well you don’t know this one.” Her jaw quivered despite her sorry attempt at smiling.

  Uh-oh, woman-on-the-verge-of-crying alert. Evasive maneuvers.

  Hank patted his stomach. “Let’s eat.”

  Chapter 6

  Wind whipped around the Jeep’s interior and inflated Hank’s shirt as he drove along the highway with the windows down. Beside him, Cindy sat with knees bent and bare feet hiked up on the dash. A lumpy braid, put together in haste as Hank accelerated to merge with traffic, hung over her left shoulder, and wisps of stray hair skipped around her face in the breeze. In the back seat, Cricket padded from one window to the other, tongue lolling and sticking her head out.

  Cindy rolled her head on the headrest, flashed a colossal smile at Hank, and turned again to focus on the scenery zooming past. By all appearances, she enjoyed a car ride as much as Cricket. Calm and relaxed, she’d made a one-eighty from the ranting, raving, almost maniacal woman she’d been at the roadside not more than ten minutes ago.

  Who had she been talking to, and what made her gloss over it by conjuring up a bogus telemarketer? Trust? Hank glanced in the rearview mirror and lifted a shoulder in a small shrug. Women. Who can understand ’em? But maybe she didn’t know him well enough to confide her troubles, or perhaps, like Edward, she tended to bottle her inner turmoil and screw the cap on tight.

  “It’s nice to be a passenger for a change and be able to kick back and enjoy the ride.” Cindy’s lazy half-smile oozed with serenity.

  “Good, I’m glad. You— Whoa, did you see that?” Hank slowed the Jeep and pulled onto the shoulder.

  Cindy dropped her feet to the floorboards and twisted around in her seat. “See what?”

  He backed up, stopped, and pointed to a smallish sign that barely stuck up over the roadside shrubbery. “That.”

  “All-you-can-eat pancakes, all day long, six ninety-nine,” Cindy
read aloud before looking back at Hank. “So?”

  “What do you mean, so? I thought I saw a halo floating over that sign as we passed.”

  Cindy laughed. “I take it you’re a flapjack fan?”

  “Fan? You have no idea.” Hank put the Jeep in gear and merged back onto the road. “I love pancakes. Can’t get enough of ’em. Let’s go shut that place down for the day.”

  * * * *

  “I can’t believe I ate so much.” Cindy stumbled out of the Jeep at the Shultzes’ and leaned her forehead against the doorframe. “Not sure I can make it all the way to the door, Hank. You might have to drag me into the house.”

  Hank laughed and patted his belly. “Couldn’t keep up with the big dog, could you?”

  “Guess not.” She pulled her overnighter from the back seat. “One of the rental cars is gone. I guess Marcus is well on his way home. Where is home for Marcus, anyway?”

  “He and his wife Darlene have a house in Virginia, close to both their parents, but they also keep a small apartment near Bragg and stay there unless Marcus is deployed.” Hank held out his hand. “Here, let me carry that bag for you.”

  “Thanks.” Cindy followed Hank through the Shultzes’ side door and into the living room.

  Edward popped off the couch and met her halfway with arms poised for a hug. “Sorry I missed your call earlier. I’d no sooner picked up the phone to call you back when Hank rang in and told me he was on his way to get you.”

  “That’s okay. Hank and I had a good time on the way over here. We stopped at an all-you-can-eat pancake place, and watching him eat was a spectacle I’ll not soon forget. How many of those suckers did you throw down, Hank?”

  He shrugged. “A few.”

  “A few?” Cindy laughed. “The waitress could have stood back and tossed them down his gullet like a SeaWorld attendant chucking fish to a barking seal.”

  Edward hung his arm around his brother’s shoulder. “And I’ll bet Hank barked, ‘I love pancakes. Can’t get enough of ’em.’”

  The gravelly Hank-voice Edward put on made Cindy cackle. “Yes, that’s exactly what he said, and how he said it.”

  “You two finished making fun of me yet?” Hank’s cheek lifted in a pseudo smirk.

  “Hi, Hank. Cindy. I didn’t hear you come in.” Audra came from upstairs and gave each a quick hug. “I just finished changing the sheets in Hank’s old room. You’re staying tonight, aren’t you?”

  Cindy bobbed her head. “Yes, I’m—”

  “Cool, you get to stay in my room. Come on, I’ll take you up there now.” Hank grabbed Cindy’s hand and nearly yanked her off her feet. Halfway up the stairs, he shouted over his shoulder, “Thanks, Audra.”

  Cindy stepped onto a wide landing on the second floor. Straight ahead, double doors stood propped open by two planters brimming with pink and purple petunias. Outside, a wooden balcony presented a clear view of the lake behind the house. “How beautiful. Mind if I go out and take a peek?”

  “No, go right ahead.”

  She looked down at their joined hands.

  “Oh, sorry.” Hank let go and tossed her bag outside the first door on their right.

  With her belly pressed against the rail and arms spread wide, Cindy tipped her head back and breathed a long aah. “What a delicious breeze. I can almost taste it. Would you just look at that view?”

  “I’ve seen it a thousand times, but it’s never been more beautiful than at this moment.”

  Cindy about-faced to follow Hank’s voice.

  He stood in the doorway with a shoulder against the woodwork, his eyes showering her with a look a hundred times kinder and sweeter than common, roguish lust. What could she call it? Admiration? Appreciation sprinkled with flirtation? His lips, closed and coiled into the faintest of smiles, drew her eyes and nudged her heart into a flutter. If she didn’t look away, her face would surely turn crimson.

  “Ahoy!” Dexter’s shout from the lake broke the spell of the moment.

  Cindy spun around and waved as he rowed the small boat toward the pier. Dex paused long enough to lift his hand in salute and continued pulling at the oars.

  Hank’s footfalls approached from behind.

  Cindy tried to cool herself by fanning the neckline of her pullover a few times and smiled when Hank stopped at the rail. “So, Hank, are you and Sergeant Dexter good friends?”

  Hank’s gaze tracked Dexter’s progress on the water. “Mm-hmm. He’s one of several native Upstate New Yorkers in the unit. Sometimes when we headed home on leave, there’d be five of us on the same flight from North Carolina—Eddie, Dex, Jackson, Major Greco, and me. We’re all good buddies. Marcus included.” Hank smiled. “He’s such a nice guy that we decided to forgive him for his Southern roots.”

  “How big of you.” Cindy put on a serious face and inched closer. “Did you at least make sure he was a Yankees fan?”

  “Hmm.” Hank rubbed his chin and stared at her for a long moment. “We might have ourselves a little problem there.” He smiled and nodded toward the double doors. “Let’s put your stuff in my room—my old room, that is—and go downstairs.”

  Cindy entered Hank’s bedroom, stood in the center, and took a slow look around. “So this is where you grew up.”

  “Yup. I did a lot of homework hunched over that desk, had a closet bulging with junk, and clothes jammed to the point of popping out the dresser drawers over there. I wasn’t the neatest kid, that’s for sure.”

  “Slob might be a better description.” Edward chuckled, came in and sat on the bed. “Hank was forever losing things in here. He knocked on my door at least twice a day asking if I knew where he’d put something he couldn’t find. The funniest time happened after I’d been living here about five months. Hank came over and asked if I’d seen his hamster.”

  Hank broke into a hearty guffaw. “Eddie looked at me like I was nuts and said, ‘You have a hamster?’ As many times as he’d been in my room, he’d never seen the cage because of all the clutter. He said something always stunk in here but figured it was me.”

  Cindy giggled. “Did you ever find the hamster?”

  “We did, thanks to Eddie’s Sherlockian powers of deduction.”

  “Oh? And what did he deduce?”

  “As I stood looking at Edward, I could almost see the gears grinding in his head. After a few seconds he said, ‘Its basic needs are water first, and food second. It’ll head for the most accessible water source in the house, the drip tray underneath the refrigerator.’”

  Hank sat on the desktop. “That night, I sprinkled cornstarch on the floor in front of the fridge. Sure enough, next morning there were tracks going to and from the drip pan. I set a pet-friendly trap in the hamster’s travel path and caught her the following night.”

  Cindy looked at Edward. “But, how did you figure out so fast where she’d be?”

  “Elementary, dear Cindy. To find a rodent, one must think like a rodent.”

  Laughter filled the room.

  “Knock, knock. May I come in?” Audra smiled from the corridor.

  Hank waved her in with a flap of his hand. “We were just hanging out, telling stories. What’s going on downstairs? Dex still rowing around the lake?”

  “Dexter came back, borrowed a fishing pole and tackle, and went out again. As for your parents, I saw them over in the garage a few minutes ago. It looks like Marlene has a low tire on her car, and Benjamin is trying to start a compressor to air it up. Doesn’t look like the compressor is cooperating though.”

  “Oh?” Edward rose. “I’ll go see if I can give him a hand. Those things can be finicky.”

  “I’ll go with you.” Hank pushed off the desk. “Besides, I don’t want to be caught in the middle when these two start slinging around a bunch of girl talk.” He dodged Audra’s playful swat at his arm as he passed by.

  Hank and Edward’s voices drifted down the stairs.

  Cindy turned to Audra. “Are you
guys staying in Edward’s old room?”

  “Yes. Want to see it?”

  “I was hoping you’d ask.”

  Audra led the way and pointed to two doors across the wide corridor. “Those are two more bedrooms. So there are four up here, and two downstairs. The original owners built this as a hunting lodge. Each bedroom has its own bathroom. Kind of like a hotel, only cozier.”

  A lump formed in Cindy’s throat as she crossed the threshold into Edward’s room. Her hand covered her heart on its own accord.

  Audra came alongside and rubbed the center of her back. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, it’s just that—” Cindy sniffled an uneven breath. “As soon as I walked in, my emotions started colliding like billiard balls. There’s something overwhelmingly nostalgic about knowing that my brother moved about, horsed around, laughed, and maybe even cried in this room. It’s like a knife to my heart to think that for twenty-two years I had a brother, and never knew him.”

  “But you know him now.” Audra’s tender touch spread comfort and warmth across Cindy’s back. “And he adores you.”

  “Does he really?”

  “You’re all he’s talked about since yesterday. Why don’t we sit and talk? I’m sure you have a lot of questions.” Audra kicked off her sandals and sat cross-legged on the queen-sized bed.

  Cindy slipped off her flip-flops and did likewise. “Tell me about my brother. Is he always this cheerful and easygoing, or is there more to him than meets the eye?”

  “There’s much more. Edward is a complex man. If you were to ask his men, they’d tell you he’s tough on them, easily ticked off, and moody as all get-out.” Audra’s smile took on a sweet dreaminess. “But when he comes home, he peels off the outside world like a coat and leaves it at the door. I get the soft, tender Edward. The one who—”

  A mist formed over Audra’s eyes. “Sometimes his love feels like an overpowering avalanche, and I want to stay buried under its power for a long, long time.”

  “He sounds like a good husband. I hope one day to be as lucky and land myself a decent man. The last guy I hooked was a throw-back for sure.”