Laura Altom - Her Military Man

“Hi,” Lindsay said to their unwanted guest. “Do I know you?”

“No!” Constance said after a gasp, pushing open the door, storming out, then slamming it behind her. Only, since it was a fairly puny antique wood door, she didn’t get much bang for her buck.

“You must be Lindsay,” he said, leaning heavily on the nearest rickety wicker chair, glancing around Connie to wave at her daughter through the screen. “I heard about your rabbits.”

“I like ’em lots,” Lindsay said, pushing at the door so hard in her attempt to get out that the screen’s trim dug into Constance’s back.

Lips pressed, Constance crossed her arms and stared off at the neighbor’s pasture. When she was a kid, all the land for as far as she could see had belonged to her parents. But over the years, tough times had forced her to sell off more and more until now all that remained was the three-acre parcel the house and barn sat on.

She’d been an only child. Her parents now lived in a Galveston, Texas, retirement home where she and Lindsay visited as often as they could. But with gas prices so steep, and her car hardly reliable, it’d been six months since they’d last made the trip.

Taking a deep breath, she told her heart to resume its normally peaceful rate. Until she worked up the courage to tell Garret the truth about Lindsay’s parentage, her secret would be secure.

But just to be on the safe side, while he and Lindsay rambled on about rabbits, Connie blurted, “We’re busy. Now, just isn’t a good time to…talk.”

Meeting her challenging stare head-on, he said, “I need a few simple questions answered. Promise, it won’t take but a few minutes of your precious time.”

“Wanna see my rabbit house?” Lindsay asked.

“No,” Constance said for him. “Mr. Underwood’s busy, too.”

“Ouch.” Apparently unfazed by her cool demeanor, he shot her a slow, sexy grin, then surveyed the front porch so different from his mother’s. While they’d both grown up in the quintessential white farmhouse, his mother’s had fared better. Constance’s home was more brown-speckled than white, seeing how more bare wood showed than paint. Flower boxes under the windows used to hold cheery geraniums, but now all they held was cracked dirt.

Weeds choked the once-thriving flower gardens on either side of the winding fieldstone walk. On her own, always working or helping Lindsay with her studies, Constance barely had time to keep the veggie garden going; no way did she have the luxury of planting and constantly watering flowers.

“Looks like this place could use some TLC,” Garret said. The place looked as if it hadn’t seen fresh paint in the decade since Garret had left, and the approach up the dirt drive showed the roof to be in even sorrier shape. A couple of forest-green shutters had gone missing, as well.

“I guess,” Constance said.

Lindsay wandered out the door. “Want to hold Toby?”

“Love to,” Garret said, gently taking the creature from the girl. Favoring his still-healing leg, he held the rabbit close for inspection. Garret twitched his nose right along with the little guy.

Lindsay said, “Be careful not to touch his face. That makes him grumpy.”

“Thanks for the advice. Last thing I need is a rabbit bite to go along with my bum leg.”

“What’s wrong with your leg? It looks fine.”

“I know, but it broke. Doctors had to put a steel pin in it to hold the pieces together. Until I get the all clear from my doctor, I’m supposed to be careful.”

“A steel pin?” The blue-eyed, dark-pigtailed girl grimaced, looking to her scuffed sneakers. “Yech.”

“Tell me about it,” he said with a laugh, surprised by how natural it seemed to be getting along with a child whose very existence had caused him countless hours’ grief. How many nights had he lain awake, wondering what Connie and Nathan’s baby looked like? Their little girl? The girl who, timewise, could’ve just as easily been his? Swallowing the knot in his throat forming over a broken past that could never be fixed, he vowed that before returning to Virginia, he would resolve his feelings for the girl’s mama. He’d thought himself over Connie, but judging by the simmering emotions he’d managed to hold in check since the day he’d foolishly called into her show, he was no more over their breakup than his love for any and all ice cream.

“Is that steel gonna be in you, like, forever?”

“’Fraid so,” Garret said with a slight frown before handing Lindsay her pet. He just hoped that was the end of it. His physical therapist and doctor both assured him his break was healing well, but if it didn’t, the issue of his returning to active duty as he’d known it was up for debate. In the meantime, Garret worked out as best he could and mostly ate right, determined not to let a broken leg diminish his physical edge.

“Does it hurt?” she asked, “having all that metal in you?”

He laughed. “Sometimes, but—”

“Lindsay,” Constance snapped, “shouldn’t you get to work on your report?”

“Do I have to?” the girl whined.

“Yes,” Constance said, hating to be a nag, but figuring the less time she spent with Garret the better. Having him here was dangerous on too many levels. It wasn’t that she didn’t think he’d make a great dad, just that she was afraid. She didn’t have a clue how he felt about kids. What if he’d always wanted one, and upon discovering the truth about Lindsay, he swooped in and took her off to some foreign locale, never to be seen again?

When Lindsay tugged the screechy old screen door open, then trudged up creaky stairs to her room, Constance finally felt able to breathe.

“She’s a great kid,” Garret said. “You’re lucky.”

“Thanks,” Constance said, arms crossed, wishing he would just leave.

“Look, I have to ask. You seem short on money. Is Nathan not giving you any child support?”

Glaring at him, she asked, “What is it you don’t get about the fact that Lindsay and I are fine on our own? The only help we need from anyone would be you agreeing to guest star a couple times on my show.”

“And I already told you no.”

“Why? Because you’re too busy calling in to the show for the sole purpose of thrashing me?” She laughed, only the strangled sound came out more desperate than merry. “Tell me, Garret, how you can come all the way over here with a broken leg to drill me about my financial situation when you alone hold the key to me keeping my job? Only you refuse to use it?”

“My reasons for not helping you in that regard are complicated.” A muscle erratically popped on his jaw. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Just as she didn’t understand how all those years ago she’d found the courage to let him go? Yeah, complicated she understood. Just plain mean, she didn’t. And it was meanness keeping Garret from doing her show.

And it wasn’t mean to have kept Lindsay from him?

Ignoring her conscience, careful to keep her voice low to guard from prying, ten-year-old ears, Constance said, “Since you apparently refuse to leave, please—” she gestured toward the relic of a porch swing “—feel free to have a seat, then explain why you can’t help me out with this one, simple thing.”

Rolling his eyes, he straightened, then eased backward, leaning on the porch rail. “You’re being melodramatic. Your job’s not really in danger. From what I gather, everyone in town loves you.”

“Yeah, everyone except my boss. What’s wrong with you?” she hissed. “What’s happened in the past decade? Because the boy I used to know would never turn down a single mom in need.”

“For one thing,” he said, eyeing her with a stare so intense she felt powerless to look anywhere but at him, “I’m a man now, sugar, and I don’t take crap from anyone. And what you did to me, the way you treated me, that was crap. Now you expect me to just roll over and forget it ever happened?”