Page 20 of A Soldier's Return

The apartment seemed too quiet and her mind was a tangle, wondering about Cody’s plans, about Sonia’s secrets, and about the disturbing knowledge that when she awoke, she faced an entire day of working in close proximity to Eli.

She dreamed that night that she was trapped on one of the rock formations off Cannon Beach in the middle of a storm. She was hanging on by her fingernails as waves pounded against the rock and a heavy rain stung her face. She was doing all she could to hold tight, to survive. And then suddenly Eli was there, shirtless but in a white lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck, like something off a sexy doctor calendar.

She might have laughed at her own wild imagination if she hadn’t been so into the dream. “I’ve got you,” he murmured in a throaty bedroom voice, and then he lifted her up with those astonishing muscles he had developed since leaving town. A moment later, she was in his arms and he was holding her tightly.

“I won’t let you go,” he promised gruffly, then his mouth descended and he kissed her fiercely, protectively.

Her alarm went off before she could ask him how they were going to get off the rock and why he needed a stethoscope but not a shirt.

She awoke aroused and restless to a fierce rain pounding the window, as if she had conjured it with her dream.

It took her a moment to figure out where her dream ended and where reality began. What was wrong with her? She had been divorced for three years, separated for longer, and had told herself she was doing just fine putting that part of her life away for now while she devoted her energies to raising Skye.

Since the divorce, she had dated here and there but nothing serious, only for company and a little adult conversation. She hadn’t been out at all since she came back to Cannon Beach.

She was lying to herself if she said she didn’t miss certain things about having a man in her life. Topping the list would probably be having big, warm muscles to curl up against on a cool, rainy morning when she didn’t have to get out of bed for another half hour. She sat up, wrapping her blanket around her, trying to push away the remnants of the dream.

Her wrist inside the brace ached, but it was more a steady ache than the ragged pain she had experienced over the weekend, further proof that it was only a sprain and not a break.

She looked up at the ceiling, listening to the rain click against the window. She didn’t have to get Skye up for another hour, so she decided to stretch out some of the kinks in her back and the tumult lingering from that dream with her favorite yoga routine, making concessions to work around her sore wrist.

It did the trick. By the time her alarm went off, signaling it was time to wake up Skye and start their day, she felt much more calm and centered, and that unwanted dream and the feelings it had stirred up inside her mostly subsided.

She would simply ignore whatever was left, she told herself, just as she planned to ignore this inconvenient attraction to Eli.

The wordignorebecame her watchword over the next week. She managed to put aside her growing attraction to Eli, focusing instead on work and her online coursework and Skye.

She wouldn’t exactly call this a good thing, but it helped that the area had been hit with an onslaught of fast-spreading spring viruses and a nasty case of food poisoning from bad potato salad at a spring church potluck.

They were insanely busy all week. Most of her time away from work was spent studying for final exams in the two online classes she had been struggling with, which left her little time to think about anything else.

Her relationship with Eli around the office was cordial and even friendly, but she tried hard not to let the ridiculous crush she was developing on him filter through.

By Friday morning, her wrist was almost completely back to normal except for a few twinges, and Melissa was more than ready for the weekend. It was her late day to go into the office and she decided to again take a quick run after she saw Skye off on the school bus.

She called Rosa to ask if she minded her taking Fiona.

“No!” Her friend said. “You will be doing me a huge favor. My day is shaping up to be a crazy one and I don’t know when I will find the time to walk her.”

A moment later, she and Fiona were heading out through the beach gate on the edge of the Brambleberry House garden, then running across the sand.

The water was rough this morning, the waves churning with drama. Clouds hung heavy and mist swirled around the haystacks offshore. She wanted to sit on the beach and watch the storm come in, but she had to finish her run in order to make it back for work.

As she and Fiona trotted down the beach, she spotted a few beachcombers and other joggers out. A couple holding hands stopped every once in a while to take selfies of each other and she had to smile. They were in their sixties and acting like newlyweds. For all she knew, they were.

She and Fiona made it to the end of the beach. As she neared home, she spotted a familiar figure running in the opposite direction with a little black schnauzer.

Eli.

This time, she gave him a friendly wave as she approached him, ignoring the nerves suddenly dancing in her stomach. His usually serious expression seemed to ease a little when he spotted her, but she wasn’t sure if that was her imagination or not.

He slowed and Max and Fiona sniffed each other happily. “Looks like we’re on the same running schedule.”

“At least on Fridays. I don’t get out as often as I like. The later opening for the office helps since I can go after Skye catches the bus.”

“That must make it tough, trying to work out around her schedule.”

“It wouldn’t be as tough except I’m a wimp and only run when the sun is shining, which hasn’t been very often this week.”

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