Kathryn Springer - The Soldier's Newfound Family

“Sergeant Wallace, Rob left me.”

* * *

Carter stared at Savannah, more shaken by the words than he let on. Rob hadn’t mentioned that Savannah didn’t support his decision to become a soldier.

“To serve his country, yes,” he said carefully. “Rob thought he was doing the right thing, but he couldn’t wait to finish his tour and come home to you. It was all he talked about.”

Savannah vaulted from the chair and then swayed on her feet. For a split second, Carter was afraid she was going to pass out. Instinctively, he reached out to steady her but she spun away from him, one hand pressed protectively against her belly, the other one palm up, as if trying to keep him at a distance.

“Please. Just go.”

Carter sucked in a breath, the flash of pain in those green eyes landing with the force of a physical blow. It was obvious that Savannah was still grieving. He fumbled for the right words, something that had never come easily. Unlike Rob, who’d entertained everyone on base with his anecdotes.

“Savannah, I know this must be difficult. Have you talked to someone—”

“I didn’t mean that Rob left when he enlisted. I meant that he left me. A week after we were married,” she choked out. “He sent one letter when he finished basic training saying that he’d made a...mistake. After that, I never heard from him again.”

The words hit Carter broadside. “I don’t understand.”

“I think you do.” Savannah’s gaze didn’t waver. “You just don’t believe me.”

Carter opened his mouth, ready to argue, and then realized she was right. What Savannah had just told him clashed with the man that Carter knew. The one who’d been devoted to his wife.

Rob had bragged about their plans for the future. Buying a piece of land. Building a home. Raising a family.

Why would—

Carter’s heart plummeted to the soles of his boots, weighted down by a sudden, unwelcome suspicion. “The baby—”

Emerald sparks flashed in Savannah’s eyes. “Is Rob’s. But he...he never knew.”

“You didn’t tell him?” Carter regretted the question the moment Savannah started toward the door.

To see him out.

But Carter didn’t move. Wasn’t going to move until he got some answers. “Rob never mentioned that you were separated. In fact, all he talked about were the things the two of you were going to do when his tour ended.”

“Then he lied to you, too.”

Too?

The band around Carter’s forehead tightened. “Rob and I were friends. Why would he do that?”

He had looked up to Rob. Admired him.

Envied him.

Carter had dodged serious relationships for years, never going out with the same woman more than once or twice. Knowing how hard it had been on him and his siblings every time their father left on a mission trip, he was determined not to subject someone he cared about to a relationship marked by uncertainty and goodbyes. Something the wife of a soldier had to accept. But listening to Rob talk about Savannah had made him question his decision to remain single. Made him wonder what it would be like to have a woman like her in his life.

Now she was trying to convince him that it had all been a lie?

Savannah opened the door, which didn’t answer his question but guaranteed there wouldn’t be an opportunity to ask any more.

Carter didn’t know what—or who—to believe. Savannah? A woman he’d just met. Or Rob, the guy who’d laughed with him? Encouraged him to pray, even though every mile Carter had hiked through the rugged hills of Afghanistan had taken him that much farther from the faith he’d professed as a child?

The guy that Savannah claimed had abandoned her.

What he did know was that she wanted him to leave.

“I’m sorry,” Carter muttered, although he wasn’t quite sure why he was apologizing. Or even who he was apologizing to. “I won’t take up any more of your time.”

As he started to move past her, she touched his arm. A gesture that stopped Carter in his tracks.

“Sergeant Wallace? Thank you for keeping your promise,” she whispered. “I am... I’m glad that Rob had a friend over there.”

The words brought Carter up short. He had kept his promise—but not all of it.

Find Savannah and make sure she’s okay.

For the first time, he noticed the lavender shadows below her eyes. Being the youngest in the family, Carter didn’t have a lot of experience with kids, but he figured that working at a diner wouldn’t be easy on a pregnant woman.

Savannah’s grief might be coloring her perspective about Rob’s feelings for her—maybe she’d somehow misinterpreted the reason he’d left—but Carter couldn’t simply walk out the door until he knew that she wasn’t alone.

“Are you moving back home?” he asked abruptly.

“Home?”

“Back to your family.”

“I’m staying in Dallas.” An emotion Carter couldn’t identify flickered in Savannah’s eyes. “But my landlady’s nephew needed a place to stay so she asked me to find something else.”

She was being evicted?

“Don’t you have a lease?”

“Mrs. Cabera only agreed to let me stay here because Rob and her son had gone to high school together. It was a verbal agreement.”

Carter didn’t like the sound of that. “But you have somewhere to go, right?”

Savannah hesitated just long enough to make him suspicious. “Of course.”

“Where?”

Her pink lips compressed. “This isn’t your problem.”

In a roundabout way, that answered his question.

“What are your plans?”

Savannah was silent for so long that Carter didn’t think she was going to answer the question.

“I’ll check into a hotel for a few days. Until I find something else,” she finally said.

“Isn’t there a family member who can put you up for a while?”

“No.”

Funny how one simple word could complicate a situation, Carter thought.

“Well, I happen to have picked up a few extras recently,” he said lightly. “And one of them owns a ranch near Grasslands. My sister, Maddie, offered me one of the empty cottages on the property, but you can stay there—”

Savannah’s eyes widened and Carter felt a slow burn crawl up his neck when he realized how that sounded. “—and I can bunk in the main house,” he added quickly. “You’d have a place to rest up. Until you find something else.”

Color swept into Savannah’s cheeks, filling the faint hollows beneath her cheekbones.

“That’s very nice of you.” She regarded him warily, as if she wasn’t sure it was nice of him at all. “But I can’t just quit my job at the diner. And I’m sure that when your sister offered you a place to stay, she wasn’t expecting you to pass it on to a random stranger.”

Carter could have argued the point. Savannah wasn’t a stranger. He’d carried her photograph around in his pocket for the past two months. Memorized the heart-shaped face and delicate features.

But how could he tell her that without coming across as some kind of stalker?

“I heard someone say that sometimes, a change of scenery can change your perspective.”

Carter decided not to mention Rob was the one who’d told him that.

For a moment it looked as if Savannah was wavering. But then her chin came up and Carter saw the answer in her eyes.

“You don’t have to worry about me. I know you were Rob’s friend, but I’m not your responsibility.”

Find Savannah and make sure she’s okay.

Whether Carter wanted it to or not, that made her his responsibility.

“But it’s not just you anymore, is it?” he reminded her. “You have your baby to think of, too.”

Savannah flinched. “Goodbye, Sergeant Wallace.”