Page 64 of A Soldier's Return

“While you talk to the Attending, I’ll go straighten up the exam rooms we used today so they’re ready for Monday.”

She was just finishing up when Eli appeared in the doorway, again looking dark and lean and so gorgeous it made her catch her breath.

“Mom and baby are doing well,” he reported. “I figured you’d want to know.”

“Yes. I was going to call her later. I appreciate the update.”

“Everyone is healthy. The attending physician suggests keeping them overnight, but it sounds like Julia is eager to be home with their other children. I’ll go check things out, and if all appears okay she might be released by tonight.”

“She’ll be happy about that.”

He leaned against the door frame and scratched his cheek. “Better yet, I’ll pick up my dad and take him with me to do the honors. He’ll want to see the baby and check on Julia himself.”

Her heart melted at his thoughtfulness, both on his father’s behalf and on Julia’s, and she fell in love with him all over again.

“You are a good man, Eli Sanderson.”

He made a face. “Why? Because I’m going to take my dad with me to the hospital to check on a patient?”

“Because you know how important it is for him to make sure she’s all right and also how much it will set Julia’s mind at ease to have him there.”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“It is to me, just as it will be for Julia and your dad.”

She smiled at him, and he gazed at her for a long moment, then growled something she couldn’t hear and lowered his mouth to hers.

The fierce kiss came out of the blue and was the last thing she expected him to do, yet somehow was exactly what she needed.

His mouth was hard and intense on hers, searching and demanding at the same time. She answered him kiss for kiss, taste for taste. Heat raced through her and she wrapped her arms around him, but the hunger contained something else, something deeper.

This was goodbye.

He was leaving in a week, and this likely would be the last chance she would have to hold him like this before he left. She tightened her arms, trying to burn the taste and the feel and the smell of him into her mind. When he was gone, back doing the work he loved, and she was alone here in Cannon Beach, at least she would have these slices of memories to comfort her.

She tried to pour everything in her heart into the kiss. All her love and admiration and sadness, wrapped together and delivered on a breathless sigh. She had no idea how long they stayed locked together there in the doorway. She only knew the emotions in the kiss would leave her forever changed.

She would have stayed forever, but she was aware, always aware, that someone else needed him, too.

After long, heady moments, she finally pulled her mouth away and stepped back, her breathing ragged and her face flaming. Could he sense in her kiss all the love she couldn’t say?

She looked away, hoping desperately that she hadn’t revealed entirely too much by that kiss.

“Melissa.”

His voice sounded raw, breathless. She could feel his searching gaze on her and forced herself to offer back a bland smile. “You should probably go check out Julia and Miri. The Garretts will be waiting for you.”

“I... Yes.”

She didn’t want him to offer any explanations or apologies or, worse, ask any questions. Any conversation between them and she was afraid she would burst into tears she couldn’t explain.

“I’ll see you later. Drive carefully.”

With that, she turned around and hurried out of the room, wishing with all her heart that things could be different between them.

Though she was tired down to her bones, Melissa spent the afternoon working with Sonia to clean up the battered gardens at Brambleberry House. Rosa was busy doing the same at the gift store in town, which had suffered some water damage from a roof leak.

The gardens looked sad, with broken limbs, crushed flowers, scattered leaves.

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