Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“She got a look on her face, and I have a bad feeling about it. She didn’t want to take no for an answer.”
“She’ll get over it. And anyway, I don’t want to talk about her.” I kissed him because I couldn’t not. “We had sex.”
“We did,” Major said with a satisfied grin. He moved his hands down to squeeze my butt. “You’re a ringer.”
“Stop. Wait, don’t stop. Tell me I’m the best ass you’ve ever had,” I teased, batting my eyelashes. “Tell me my body was made for you. Tell me—”
“I love you.”
My breath caught. “Even better,” I said softly. “Never fails to surprise me for some reason.”
He laughed and moved his hands up my back, burying one in my hair. “It shouldn’t. It’s been like this for a while now.”
I thought about Betsy, and for the first time, I saw my marriage from his point of view. I imagined our roles reversed where he was married with kids while I had a hopeless crush on him. My chest hurt and my throat thickened. “God, Major, how did you stand it? If you had feelings for me while I was with Betsy… I couldn’t have stayed here like you did. I wouldn’t have been strong enough.”
His strong fingers massaged my scalp. His eyes looked at me like I was the second coming of Christ. It was heady, being on the receiving end of his affection.
“You would have stayed because you wouldn’t have had a choice, Doc. Having one tiny, narrow shaft of sunlight is so much better than living in full darkness. With you around, I always had some sun. Did I wish for more? Every day. But I was lucky, you know? I loved Betsy enough to want her drenched in the light too. It wasn’t that I wished she didn’t have it. I just wanted it too.”
My love for Weston Marian bloomed full and wild like the acres and acres of wildflowers we were always trying to tame on some of our grazing land. He was truly the kindest, most generous person I’d ever known. Not only was I grateful to have him in my life, but I was doubly thankful that my children had him as a role model.
We drifted back to sleep in each other’s arms and woke up with the sun. I made my way back to the farmhouse to spend my day off with the kids, and Major got ready to work. He and the hands were doing some repair work on one of the equipment barns at the farm. I didn’t hear from him or see him for the rest of the weekend, which was strange. Normally he showed up at the farmhouse for most mealtimes, and he especially rarely missed Sunday dinner.
My mom had sent Billy out to the equipment barn to take the guys some big thermoses of lemonade and a tin of cookies late Sunday afternoon. When he returned, I overheard him mention Major’s black eye to my mom.
My heart jumped. “What did you say? How did he get a black eye?”
Billy turned to me after handing the dirty thermoses to Mom. “He told me it was a stupid accident. I asked Jonny about it, and he said Major banged his face into the kitchen sink pipe when the phone rang and startled him. I guess he was working under there.” He shrugged. “It looks worse than it is. He told me not to tell you, Dad. He knew you’d be upset.”
“Of course I’m upset. I’m a doctor. He’s my… friend.”
“He’s fine. The man’s a soldier like you, Dad. I’m sure he’s had much worse,” Billy said before wandering off.
I stood up. “I’m going to run over there and check on him.”
My mom turned from the sink where she’d been washing the thermoses and dried her hands on a kitchen towel. “Liam, honey. You need to stop treating Major like he’s one of your kids.”
That stopped me in my tracks. If she only knew. “I don’t treat him like one of the kids, Mom.”
“You act like he can’t protect himself. Like he needs looking after. The two of you have gotten so close since Betsy’s death, I feel like maybe it’s time you should give him some space.”
“Of course we got close. He’s my best friend, and lord only knows where I would have been without him this past year.”
“I’m just saying maybe you two don’t need to be in each other’s pockets so much. There are rumors about him in town, and I’m afraid you might get caught up in them.”
My blood ran cold. “What rumors?”
Mom looked flustered. “You know the things they say about men who are still single over forty, Liam. Those kind of rumors.”
If I was already tired of hearing about people’s prejudices, I couldn’t even imagine how Major felt. To think he’d had to live his entire life in the shadows because of it just made me angry. Furious.