IT WAS THREE in the morning now, officially, and Jennifer was so darn glad her clinic was closed for the day. She and Marcie had been sitting at Jennifer’s glossy mahogany kitchen table, talking, for hours, coffee mugs and their second bag of chocolate kisses—Jennifer had snuck them for herself from the party supplies—sitting between them.
“I’m convinced,” Jennifer moaned, shoving her cup away, “whoever said chocolate cures all didn’t eat a bag and a half of kisses and drink three cups of hot chocolate. Thankfully, we put our loose-fitting sweats on. I need breathing room.”
“Wimp,” Marcie said, unwrapping another candy.
“What happened to herbal tea and granola?” Jennifer asked.
“They help maintain a healthy life,” Marcie said, holding up her now bare-naked, ready-to-eat, chocolate kiss. “But chocolate heals the soul and the soul is the window to everything else.” She popped the candy into her mouth.
“Unless you get sick first,” Jennifer said. “Which apparently would be appropriate in my case because my soul doesn’t feel one bit healed and my stomach is pretty angry about the situation.”
Marcie pushed the candy bag in Jennifer’s direction. “I was sick ten kisses ago. Eat more. It gets better.”
“No, thank you,” Jennifer said emphatically. “No more for me.”
Marcie stared at her, the somber look slipping back across her features. “You should call Bobby,” Marcie suggested. “He’s been gone a long time.”
“Let them have their guy time, Marcie,” she urged gently as she had several times already.
“What if Bobby hasn’t even found Mark?” Marcie said. “Maybe he’s looking for him and doesn’t want me to know. What if Mark is off at some bar hanging all over some new woman? What if—”
“Marcie,” Jennifer interrupted. “Don’t. Stop. You’re making yourself crazy. Imagining things that just aren’t so. Mark loves you.”
“Yeah, well, you and Bobby are living proof sometimes love isn’t enough.”
Jennifer flinched as if slapped. “That was low.”
“Oh, no,” Marcie said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be thoughtless. I didn’t mean it as an insult at all. Just the opposite. I know how much you and Bobby love each other and still you’ve been apart the past seven years. Love doesn’t necessarily remove all obstacles. I know you know that. Love isn’t the easy answer.”
Jennifer grabbed a chocolate. Suddenly, her stomach didn’t hurt as much as her soul needed healing. “Maybe you should just have sex with Mark,” she suggested dryly. “Isn’t that what you suggested I do with Bobby?”
“I do have sex with Mark,” she assured Jennifer. “You weren’t having sex with Bobby. There’s a difference.” She picked up Julie and hugged her. “I love this cat. She is so sweet.”
Jennifer might have agreed but the chocolate hit her stomach hard. “Okay, for the record. Sex hasn’t solved anything. Chocolate makes me sick. Love isn’t always enough. I’m not sure where that leaves either of us. I don’t know what to do, Marcie.”
A knock sounded on the door. “You get it!” Marcie whispered, scrambling wildly to fix her hair and straighten in her chair. “That’s what you do.” She waved Jennifer on. “Hurry!”
“I’m trying,” Jennifer said, unfolding her legs from where she’d tucked them beneath her and rushing to the door about the time she heard, “Jen, it’s Bobby.”
She yanked the door open, to find him clean-shaven and showered, the spicy scent uniquely him, making her wonder how she ever thought chocolate held a candle to sex—at least, sex with Bobby. The rain had stopped and he was dry, but his eyes were weary, heavy-lidded. Even the macho hot soldier couldn’t hide his exhaustion.
“Come in,” she urged for the second time in a night.
He took a step forward and passed her and, to Jennifer’s surprise, Mark followed. “Mark!” Marcie yelled and charged forward into his arms, all but knocking Jennifer and Bobby into the wall.
Mark kissed Marcie, long and hard, and then they disappeared into the bedroom. Jennifer’s bedroom. “That went better than expected,” Bobby said, chuckling as he pulled her off the wall where she’d leaned to avoid collision. He directed her toward the living room.
“At least until the chocolate and sex wears off,”
Jennifer said skeptically.
Bobby sat down on the couch and took her with him. “Why did you say that like chocolate and sex were bad things? I think we’ve proven otherwise.” He tugged off his boots.
“The chocolate and sex are great,” she agreed. “But when they’re done, when it’s over—then what?”
“They’ll figure it out,” he said, and then pulled Jennifer and the blanket down on top of him as he lay on his back, head on the pillow cushion. “Just like we will.”
He molded her close and she settled against him. The effect was warm and intimate. “Until you leave again.”
“Why would I leave, Jen?” he asked softly. “I finally came home.”
She lifted her head at that, opening her mouth to ask what that meant but his eyes were shut, his lips hinting at a satisfied smile. Slowly, she slid back down, resting her head on his chest, letting his heartbeat thrum beneath her palm. His strong shoulder cradled her head. Her lashes lowered, and she, too, felt the hint of a smile on her lips as she drifted off to sleep.
BOBBY WOKE TO THE SOUND OF whispers, male and female. He blinked awake, sunlight piercing a line through the curtains, the clock reading nine o’clock. Awareness rushed through him as he felt the sweet warmth of Jennifer resting in his arms, a smile touching his lips as he realized her cat, Julie, was on top of his legs. They’d left Mark and Marcie in the bedroom to talk things out and fallen asleep on the couch. This was a little slice of heaven. This was how he wanted to wake up every day of his life for the rest of his life. He wasn’t sure what that meant—he only knew that this was why’d held off on reenlistment. He needed more than duty in his life.
Jennifer lifted her head and turned to look over the edge of the couch. Marcie and Mark were tiptoeing toward the door. “Does this mean I still have to wear the lime dress?” Jennifer asked.
Marcie huffed, no longer whispering, “It’s yellow—”
“Green,” Jennifer finished. “I know. Which isn’t a real color by the way—but are you two happy now and I get to wear the yellow-green dress?”
“Yes,” Mark said, wrapping his arms around Marcie from behind. “You are most definitely wearing the dress. And if you’ll excuse us, I’m taking my soon-to-be wife home. Oh, and no skydiving for me. You two are on your own today.”
Marcie smiled and turned to Mark, planting a kiss on him before they left. The door shut and Jennifer settled down on the couch, resting on one elbow, her hand on Bobby’s cheek. “Whatever you said to Mark seemed to work. I just hope the baby thing doesn’t become an issue in the future.”
Julie stretched and walked over the top of Bobby before plopping down on his stomach.
Jennifer laughed and picked her up, cuddling her and then setting her on the ground. “She likes you.”
“I like her, too,” he said, reaching down and stroking Julie’s back a moment before leaving the cat to its own entertainment as an idea came to him. He slid his hand behind his head and propped it up. “I know how to solve the baby problem for Marcie and Mark.”
Jennifer’s brows dipped. “How in the world would we do that?”
“We’ll get them a Julie.”
She laughed. “You want to get Mark and Marcie a cat?”
“Or a pet,” he agreed. “Whatever kind you think will make them happy.”
“Well,” Jennifer said thoughtfully, “Marcie does love Julie and Oriental cats are very loving. They tend to become the babies of the house.”
“So a ‘Julie’ would be perfect,” he said. “We’ll go get one today.”
“It’s not that easy,” she said. “You don’t just go get an Oriental shorthair. There’s likely a waiting list and down payments on new litters.”
“You’re a vet,” he said. “Surely you can pull strings.”
She sighed. “I don’t know. I could make some calls, but we might have to drive several hours.”
“I’m willing if you’re willing,” he said.
She studied him. “I can’t believe we’re going to do this.”
He smiled and rolled Jennifer beneath him. She was small and soft, and warm in all the right places. He was hot in all the right places, too. “You know what I think?”
She wrapped her fingers together behind his neck. “I’m almost afraid to ask.”
“I think,” he said, “we should make love, then go to Waffle House like we used to every Sunday morning and eat until we are miserable happily overstuffed. After that, we’ll go in search of an Oriental shorthair.”
“You do realize,” she said slowly after a brief pause, “what you suggest completely breaks the ‘only sex’ rule I set.”
“I dare you to break the rule,” he said, his lips lowering, lingering above hers. “Say you’ll have more than sex with me for the day.”
She laughed. “You’re crazy.”
“For you,” he promised and kissed her. It was long minutes later when he sat on the couch, Jennifer on top of him, gloriously naked, the wet heat of her body wrapped around the hard length of him. Her breasts were high and full, her nipples rosy-pink pebbles pressed against his palms, taut against his tongue. Her kiss even sweeter than the addictive honey flavor he’d never get enough of, because he could taste the change in her, he could taste the unbridled passion—and he knew the walls were coming down. But as he spilled himself inside her, felt her spasm around him, cling to him, hold him, he knew she hadn’t given herself fully to him, nor would she until she knew he’d done so to her. She deserved nothing less and he was trying desperately to find his way there.
For long seconds, they sat together, bodies merged intimately, foreheads together until Bobby noticed the cat was sitting on the arm of the couch watching them. “Okay, now,” he said. “This is like some sort of weird voyeurism. We have to train the cat not to watch.”
Jennifer laughed and kissed him. “I’ll tell her to turn her back next time. Now. Take me to breakfast.” Bobby stood up, still inside her. “I’ll take you in the shower first. Waffle House does breakfast all day.”
JENNIFER SAT IN THE Waffle House booth across from Bobby and finished up a returned call from a breeder. She hung up, feeling excited. “Finally,” she declared. “We have success. They have an adult ready to retire—”
“Retire,” Bobby said, stabbing a link of sausage. “Isn’t a retired cat setting Marcie and Mark up for heartbreak?”
“Retired from being a show cat,” she said. “She’s only two. She’s a great age. None of the kitten craziness. She’s trained. Sweet and loving. Her name is Ella and she’s at the opposite side of San Antonio. A couple of hours’ drive.”
“Ella it is then,” he said. “You catch me up on the past seven years during the drive.”
“You want another?” the cook asked, a fifty-something man who Jennifer suspected owned the Waffle House franchise.
Bobby patted his stomach. “I’m done in today,” he said and glanced at Jennifer. “But we’ll be back.” Not phrased as “he’d be back” but we. His gaze held Jennifer’s and she almost shivered with the warmth there, telling her he was going to spend every minute with her that he could.
“You better,” the cook-maybe-owner said. “I like a couple with a healthy appetite.”
Jennifer laughed as the man departed with Bobby’s plate. “I bet he does. You ate three waffles, bacon, eggs and sausage. I’ve never seen you eat more than two waffles. You’ve expanded your horizons.”
“Technically, it’s breakfast and lunch,” he said. “We never made it out of the house on Sundays before two.” And they hadn’t today either. He eyed his watch. “Right on time.” He leaned forward, lowered his voice. “Just like old times.”
“Indeed,” she said softly, nostalgia a bittersweet thing this day but she wasn’t fighting it. She was with Bobby, enjoying their limited time together. “No wonder I never eat a waffle without thinking of you.”
He smiled and paid their check. “Funny,” he said playfully, standing up and offering her his hand. “I’ve never had a waffle without thinking of you either.”
She laughed and grabbed her purse, before slipping her fingers between his. “Glad to know a waffle reminds you of me.”
They strolled across the parking lot, hand in hand, until they reached the passenger side of the car, a weeping willow grazing the roof and offering privacy and shade.
Bobby leaned against the car and molded Jennifer close. “Far more reminds me of you than I think you realize,” he said. “I missed you. I missed us. I swear to you I never meant to hurt you. I love you. I never stopped loving you.”
“The hardest part was not how you left,” she admitted. “It was the seven years of silence.” Her gaze lifted and she didn’t try to hide the hurt. “I’d see something, or do something, that reminded me of you and that silence made me feel you never had those moments about me. You never called. You never wrote. For seven years, Bobby.”
“I convinced myself you were better off without me,” he said, his voice heavy, thick. “I pushed myself to the point of mental and physical exhaustion so I didn’t have to think about anything but being a soldier. Fighting. Serving my country. I entered a special unit. I was never in the same place more than a few nights at once. And I saw it destroy the few men who tried to have relationships. How could I ask you to endure that life? But I’m up for reenlistment, Jen, and I don’t have to go back.” He laced his fingers around her neck. “I love you, Jennifer. I don’t know if I can be the man you need. I don’t know if you even will allow me to try. But I want to be.”
The longing in his voice, the hope glistening in his eyes, washed over her. All the sorrow faded, became nothing more than a leaf fluttering in the shadow of a tree with years of history. “I love you, too,” she confessed, her voice a rasp of a whisper. “But leaving the Army is a big step. You did so much good last night. You are amazing at what you do. Don’t give that up for me. I’ve loved you since I met you. I can love you between missions.”
“Getting out of the Army is purely selfish,” he said. “In between missions isn’t enough for me. I’ve had seven years of living out of a duffel bag, watching people die, trying to keep it from happening. I have enough nightmares to last me a lifetime. I’m ready to get out before they take over.”
“What will you do?” she asked.
“I have an idea or two floating around in my head.” He wiggled an eyebrow. “Women like firemen. Maybe I’ll be a fireman. I bet we can have fun with a few ‘hot’ fantasies.”
Jennifer laughed. “We can do that without you actually working for the fire department though.”
“Ah, yes,” he agreed, kissing her neck and then whispering in her ear. “We might have to go the fireman route tonight.” His breath tickled her neck and sent a shiver down her spine.
“I’m not over the hot soldier fantasy yet,” she said.
He leaned back. “One hot solider coming up,” he said. “After we go pick up a cat named Ella. We should hurry.” He lowered his lips near hers. “Maybe we’ll get married and get Julie a sister.”
She sucked in a breath. “Bobby.”
He smiled against her lips. “I like it when you say my name.” And he kissed her. Jennifer wrapped her arms around him, but even as she sank into the reassuring feel of his arms around her and holding her close, she knew there was still a barrier between them. A wall that could only come down when she knew nothing, and no one, could push his buttons and make him run again.
“Since we’re all about the past being put to rest, and a bright shiny future,” she said. “Why don’t we get the meeting with your father out of the way? Ella is only about twenty minutes from his place.”
Instant tension crackled off him but he was too smooth to even move an eyebrow. “No need to ruin a great day,” he said and gave her a quick kiss, setting her away from him to open his door. “I’ve decided visiting my father is like giving him control he doesn’t deserve.” He winked. “Giving you control is much more fun.”