Page 14 of A Soldier's Return

It was no big deal. They were only sharing pizza. A Slice of Heaven had notoriously fast service, even on the weekend. With any luck, they could be seated, served and out of there within an hour. Surely she could manage to control her hormones for sixty lousy minutes.

“I like the second Dr. Sanderson,” Skye said from the back seat as they drove to the restaurant. “He seems nice...maybe not quite as nice as the first Dr. Sanderson, but better than Dr. Wu or Dr. Charles. Whenever they used to talk to me, they never even looked at me. It’s like they didn’t think a kid could have anything important to say.”

How did a seven-year-old girl become so very perceptive? The doctors in the clinic where Melissa worked in Honolulu before coming back to Cannon Beach had treatedherthat way, too, as if her opinions didn’t matter.

“They were very good doctors,” she said.

“But are they nice humans?”

That was an excellent question. She hadn’t been sorry to leave, though her coworkers had only been one of the reasons she had moved from Honolulu back to Oregon. Her mother was here, for one thing, and she found she missed being close to Sharon.

And the cost of living had been prohibitive. She had stayed in Hawaii for the last few years mostly because Cody had lived there and she wanted to do all she could to keep Skye’s father in her daughter’s life. His visitations had become so few and far between as he traveled around on the professional surfer circuit that her efforts had begun to seem laughable. When he had told her the previous summer he was moving again, she had given up trying.

Skye needed a stable home base. Melissa couldn’t keep dragging her from town to town, hoping Cody would eventually start paying attention to their child. She had tried for years after the divorce, then decided being closer to her own mother would provide more benefit to her child than infrequent, disappointing visits with her immature father.

Melissa would have loved four or five children, but life hadn’t worked out the way she planned. Good thing the one daughter she had was so amazing. Skye was smart and kind and amazingly intuitive for a child.

“Can I play pool tonight at A Slice of Heaven?”

And persistent. Once an idea took root in her head, she could never let it go.

“If there’s an empty table, maybe. Otherwise, nope,” Melissa said as she pulled into the pizzeria’s restaurant, the same answer she gave every time they came.

The people who hung out at the popular restaurant and played at the three tables in the back were serious about the game. They were probably good humans, but they weren’t at all patient with a seven-year-old girl just learning how to wield a cue.

Skye sighed as they parked and walked toward the restaurant but she didn’t argue, to Melissa’s relief. Her wrist was throbbing, and she really wanted to go home and rest it. She would definitely break out the ice pack after her daughter was in bed.

A wave of garlic and the delicious scent of the pizzeria’s wood-fired crusts hit the moment Melissa opened the door. Oh, yeah, she suddenly remembered. She was starving. She’d kind of forgotten that while she was talking to Wendell and Eli. Now her stomach growled and she had a fleeting wish that the wisecrack she had made to Eli was true, that none of the calories or carbs of the delicious Slice of Heaven pies counted when they were shared.

Somehow Eli had made it there before they did. He was inside talking to the hostess and daughter of the owner, Gina Salvaticci, who had been a year or two ahead of Melissa. She had never liked her much, she remembered now. Gina had been friends with Cody before Melissa and her family moved to Cannon Beach, and always acted as if she thought Melissa wasn’t good enough for him. Since the divorce and Melissa’s return to town, she hadn’t necessarily warmed to her.

If her father’s restaurant didn’t serve such good pizza, Melissa would do whatever she could to avoid her. Fortunately, Gina usually wasn’t here on Fridays.

But she was herethis Friday,andGina looked as shocked by the changes in quiet, nerdy Eli Sanderson as Melissa had been and she was obviously flirting with him. She touched his arm as she spoke to him and looked at him from under her half-closed lids, her body facing him and her mouth slightly open.

Melissa felt a sharp kick in her gut, a weird tension, and realized with chagrin that she was jealous of the other woman, even though Eli seemed completely oblivious to any interested body language.

He looked up when they approached. “Here’s the rest of my party. You said you had a table ready for us?”

Gina turned and Melissa knew the moment she spotted her. Her gaze narrowed and her hand slid away from Eli. Gina didn’t look at all pleased to see another woman joining him.

Melissa couldn’t really blame her. A hot doctor coming back to town, even temporarily, was bound to stir up all the single women.

Nother. She was willing to entertain a friendship with the man but that was all she could give him. She had no room in her life for anything more, especially not a wandering doctor who would be heading off to the next hot spot on the globe the moment his dad had his knees under him again. Been there, done that, with a man whose career was far more important than his family. She would never even consider it again.

Her priority had to be Skye, and providing her daughter the most stable home life possible, after the chaos of her daughter’s earlier years.

She smiled to let the other woman know she wasn’t a threat. If Gina was interested in Eli, she should go for it.

“Right this way,” Gina said coolly.

She led them back to a fairly good table with a nice view of the sunset.

“Will this be okay for you?” Gina asked. She looked only at Eli when she asked the question. He in turn deferred to Melissa.

“Does this work for you and Skye?” he asked.

“Looks great,” she answered. “Thanks.”

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