Last Chance Christmas (Last Chance #5)(27)
Author: Hope Ramsay

She screwed up her courage. “About this morning, when I fell apart. See, I had a bad experience in Libya last April.” It seemed like such a relief to say it out loud like that.

He reached across the Formica tabletop and snagged her hand. There was more warmth in his hand than in the mug of tea. “I figured as much. Libya, huh?”

“I was in Misurata and…” Her throat closed up.

“I know. You were there when that TV guy was killed.”

“You know about that?”

He shrugged. “I checked up on you when you first got here. I saw your photos, and I read that you were a witness to the incident in Libya.”

She didn’t know whether to be flattered or ticked off. “You checked up on me?”

“It’s what I do. I always check up on strangers. You want to tell me what went down in Libya? I’m a pretty good listener.”

She already knew that about Stone. If there was anyone who would actually hear what she had to say, Stone would. She took a big breath and started. “His name was Jeb Smith. He was my friend. Well, actually more of a mentor. And if I hadn’t been such a coward that day, I would have been sitting right beside him when the rocket hit. But I chose not to cross the street.”

“Shit.” He squeezed her hand.

“But I shot the whole thing. All of it.”

“What? His death?”

She nodded. “I captured it all. During the rocket attack, I got stuck in some weird way, and I couldn’t move my finger off the shutter. And now, I’m kind of scared of my camera.”

He didn’t say anything for a long time. He just held her hand and managed to communicate a world of comfort with his fingers. When the silence had grown long and deep, he finally said, “I lost a buddy the same way. He was next to me, then suddenly his head exploded. A sniper took him out. It shook me up for days. But that stuff is just random. You can’t blame yourself for surviving.”

She looked up into his eyes. He really did know. He really could understand.

“I have to get on a plane to Somalia in four days.” She left the thought hanging. It was too hard to admit that she really didn’t want to go. She’d never been a coward. But she didn’t want to return to the field.

“Is that why you want to sleep with me? You figure I’m safe because you’re only going to be here for the next few days?”

The vehemence in his tone surprised her. He’d misunderstood. “No, I—”

“See, that’s the reason I’m going to ignore your offer. I know how that goes.”

“How what goes?”

“How easy it is to take comfort in someone and then get on a plane.” He let go of her hand.

“Is that what happened with you and Sharon? Did you love her and then leave her?”

She had been shooting in the dark, but when his jaw flexed, she knew she’d hit the mark. She expected him to get up and walk out. Instead, he took a big breath and started talking. The words came slowly. “We were kids when we got married. Both of us barely eighteen. We were hot for each other, but Sharon was determined to marry a college boy. She broke up with me when I joined the Marines.”

“So how did you end up married?”

“Miriam Randall gave me a forecast that fit. And I talked her into marrying me. Man you should have seen me down on one knee running my mouth. I don’t think I ever talked so fast in all my life.”

She gave him a smile that he didn’t return. “I’m sure your speech was very moving.”

“I wanted to marry her. I loved her. She loved me. But I think she regretted her decision.”

It was hard to think about any woman who might regret marrying Stone.

He stared down at his untouched tea for a moment, then he spoke again, “We thought we had a plan for the future. She was going to go to college while I did boot camp. And then Iraq invaded Kuwait, and I ended up smack dab in the middle of the Gulf War. And Sharon ended up pregnant.”

Lark counted the years. “That was in 1990. Lizzy’s not that old.”

Stone took a deep draught of the tea and put the cup back on the table. “My son’s name was Tyler. He was born three months early with a congenital heart defect. In 1991, when I was off breaching the Saddam Line, my wife was dealing with the mess I left behind. She gave up on getting that college degree.”

He finally looked up at her, his eyes haunted. “She threw herself into caring for Tyler the way she threw herself into everything. Tyler lived for four years. And for most of that time, I was on deployment. I saw the world on Uncle Sam’s dime, but I hardly knew my son.”

“Why weren’t there any photos of him in the album?” Lark blurted. This was shocking. And heartbreaking.

He blinked. “Momma knows better.”

“Really? That doesn’t sound like your mother.”

“Sharon and I decided to put the past in the past when I left the service. And by then Lizzy was here. We had a pretty good life, I thought. But on the day Sharon died, she told me she wanted to sign up to take courses at the community college.”

He paused for a moment, clearly battling his emotions. “And I had the balls to question whether she could manage classes and the kids at the same time. I knew damn well that she wanted a college education. I’ll never forgive myself for what I said that day.

“I also wonder what might have happened if we hadn’t argued. Would she still have ended up at that intersection when that drunken a**hole ran the light?”

He got up violently and stalked out of the room. Lark remained behind in stunned silence. For days now, she’d been hearing about the beautiful love between Stone and Sharon, how their marriage had been predicted by the infallible Miriam Randall, how they were soulmates, how he’d run off with Sharon when they were young. The picture everyone painted was the picture of a storybook love.

No one had said a word about a little boy with a broken heart named Tyler. No one had said anything about Sharon giving up her dreams.

And now the truth was lost forever in the story that was left behind.

Damn it. People needed to quit hiding the truth. Stone and Sharon hadn’t been a fairy tale. They had been a loving couple who’d faced the worst life could hand them and still stuck together. Why was a fairy tale better than a story like that?

Stone stood at the windows and stared down at the sleet accumulating on Palmetto Avenue.

Damn it. Why the hell had he opened his mouth? He’d come to talk to Lark about her problems and ended up confessing his. He ought to turn around and force her to tell him all the gory details about what happened in Libya. It would only be fair, now that he’d spilled his guts about Tyler and Sharon.

He heard her stand up and take a few steps. Stone turned around to find her standing in the kitchen doorway looking both fragile and brave. He couldn’t imagine a woman so tiny in the middle of the Libyan civil war. But she’d been there. And she was battling her way back. Boy, she was some kind of strong woman.

“Things will be better tomorrow,” Lark said. “It’s the winter solstice—the longest night of the year. And it’s a fact that tomorrow there will be more daylight than there was today.”

Two strides had him standing right in front of her. “That’s a comforting thought,” he murmured. He cupped her cheek in his hand.

She leaned into the touch. “Yeah. And if you looked at the photos I shot today, you understand why I see you as a light in the darkness. I don’t really understand how or why. But when I frame you in my camera, all the shadows disappear, and I’m not afraid to squeeze the shutter. Ironically, that scares the crap out of me.”

She reached out and touched his face, her finger tracing fire across his skin.

He trailed his thumb over her lips and then leaned down and gave her a kiss. He lingered there, barely touching her. Her lips ignited a flame inside him.

“I want you,” he whispered. He pulled back a fraction.

She ran her hand up over his scalp, her fingers sending ripples of reaction down his back. “And I told you what I wanted. But I’m still leaving in a few days. Are you okay with that?”

“Are you?”

She nodded. “I’m always getting on airplanes. That’s what I do. It’s who I am.”

She got up on tiptoes and kissed him. Her br**sts pressed up against his vest. Damn it all, why the hell hadn’t he taken the fool thing off? She was way too far away.

She opened her mouth.

Boy, she was sure making this easy for him. He moved in. He lost his mind for a while in the heat of her mouth. He cupped the back of her head to get a little more leverage.

She let him. Then she let go of a little sexy noise that told him she was having a good time. And he ran his hands down to her back and pulled her a little closer.

His hands found her hips. She had a cute little shape, didn’t she? Damn.

She was sure accommodating. His heart beat in his ears, and he felt just like the eighteen-year-old who had lost his virginity on his wedding night. The errant thought wrapped itself around his brain in a toxic way. He pushed at it. Why the hell was he thinking about that right now?

This was now. That was then.

But it was too late.

She backed up a little. “You have second thoughts, don’t you?” She gave him a little smile like she knew what was going on in his head. Then she moved off to the other side of the room.

He stood there breathing hard, trying to figure out just what the hell had happened.

He might have had a chance to figure it out if his damn radio hadn’t chosen that moment to crackle back to life with the news that there had been a three-car wreck at the intersections of Route 70 and the Charleston–Augusta Road.

Lark gave him a weary smile. “Well that’s kind of ironic. Without the ice, you might have slipped.” She sighed. “It’s probably for the best. I wouldn’t want to leave you with regrets.”

He didn’t know how to respond to that, so he answered the dispatcher. Then put on his belt and his holster and raincoat. But right before he headed out her door, he turned toward Lark and studied her.

She was stubborn and hardheaded and different from any woman he’d ever known. She was willing to give herself to him—with no strings attached.

It was just plain stupidity to cling to old-fashioned ideas. He wanted her. He wanted her bad. He was willing to live with his regrets. Hell, he already had a million of them.

So he crossed the room and pulled her right up into a big, fat, wet, sloppy kiss. And boy, it felt real good, and he let her know it, even if he didn’t have any words to explain it.

And then he turned, put on his Stetson, and stepped out into the ice storm. But it sure was interesting the way Lark’s kiss managed to keep him warm the rest of the night.

And it was a long night, too. The longest night of the year.

Chapter 15

Haley cracked an eye. The light from outside her bedroom window looked unusually bright. Lizzy, fully clothed in jeans and her big red Christmas sweater, was standing in front of the window looking annoyed.

“What’s that light?” Haley asked.