Page 48 of Bad For Me (Rock Canyon, Idaho 5)

Everett shrugged. “It was different, and some parts were awesome. But there’s no place like home.”

Callie cringed inwardly. She’d thought the same thing, until her home had been turned into the place of nightmares.

For several minutes they ate in silence, though Callie stole glances at Everett. He still looked like a military man, with his hair buzzed close around his head, exposing the shell of his ear and the burns scars that were pale white. She could only imagine how painful they must have been, and she wanted to reach out and touch him. Still, she’d noticed Everett always watched for how people reacted to him; he did not like to be pitied.

But even the scars on his face that puckered into the collar of his T-shirt couldn’t hide the beauty of his eyes and mouth or the hard muscles working beneath his shirt. He’d said that the scars covered nearly 40 percent of his body, but she hadn’t seen any burns along his stomach. She imagined helping him take off his T-shirt once more and running her hands over his skin, tracing the ridges of muscles as she explored him and learned every scar, every birthmark, and mole until it was burned into her brain.

“Can I ask you about . . . about what happened?”

“With this?” He gestured to the scarred side of his face, and she nodded. “I was stationed in Afghanistan along with my best friend, Robbie. We were headed back to the base, and then . . . ”

She reached out for his hand when his eyes closed in a grimace. “It’s okay. I’m sorry I asked.”

He opened his eyes and squeezed her palm. “Naw, it’s fine. It’s just . . . I only remember waking up to this high-pitched ringing in my ears, and it was hot. I could see my brothers scrambling out of the door and someone tried to help me. Over the ringing, I could hear Robbie yelling and screaming. I got to him as the fire started creeping over his legs and realized his arm was pinned, and I . . . this isn’t exactly light dinner conversation, but I managed to get him loose and carry him out. Only the fire spread to me before I got us far enough away to drop and roll. Our unit tried to put out the fire on both of us, but not before it felt like the skin was just melting from my body.”

“Oh my God.” She couldn’t stop the exclamation, her hand covering her mouth as she watched the pain fill his eyes. He had been through so much and come out of it stronger. She envied that.

“When they put out the flames on Robbie, they found a piece of shrapnel embedded in his back. It was so deep, it was hard to see, but it had severed the aorta. He’d bled out. They rushed me to the closest hospital, and I had to stay there for months as I healed. Afterward, I was honorably discharged and returned home. But when my wife found out all the medical care I’d need, she split.”

Callie’s insides burned as she thought about Everett’s coming home in pain and having lost so much, only to be abandoned by the woman he loved. “What kind of person would leave her husband like that?”

“It was for the best, so don’t lose any sleep over it. Turns out she was really just looking for a marine to marry.” Everett finished off his beer. “She wanted the uniform and the status, and when I couldn’t give her that anymore, she took off.”

Callie had the urge to track down the former Mrs. Silverton and clobber her. “You deserved better.”

“I survived.” He closed his container. “You done?”

She realized she’d been so engrossed in his story, she had stopped eating. It was fine, though; she was full anyway. “Sure.”

Everett stood up and cleaned off the table. When she stood up and tried to help, he said, “No, you’re my guest.”

“But you cooked! Well, sort of.”

“House rules. Now get out of my kitchen,” he said.

Callie walked over to a large bookshelf on his wall and stared at the packed shelves. She heard the water shut off behind her and called, “You do read a lot.”

She heard his footsteps behind her but concentrated on the titles. Suddenly, a pink paperback caught her eye, and she pulled it off the shelf.

Raising her eyebrows, she turned to face him and smacked his chest with both the book and her hand, he was that close. “Did you like The Duke and I?” Looking up at him, her amusement dimmed at the intense gleam in his eyes.

“Do you always snoop around a man’s bookshelf?” His obvious teasing relaxed her, and she turned around, putting the book back.

“I just had no idea you were into romance.” The heat of his nearness warming her arm and shoulder, and she was tempted to lean back into his body and let him wrap that heat around her.

“I’ll read just about anything, but this was actually sent to my unit while we were in Afghanistan. I read it about four times before I was sent home.”

His breath rustled the hair on the back of her neck with every word, and she shivered.

“Are you cold?”

“No.”

“You were shaking.”

“I’m fine.” She turned around to face him, her back to the wall of the bookshelf. “So, The Duke and I was so good that you read it four times?”

“It was fun, but more to the point, it had a happy ending,” he said sadly. “Not all of us get one of those.”

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