Page 36 of The Soldier's Homecoming

She’d been away on tour with a huge number of men. All types of different guys, plenty of them handsome and charming, but she’d never once even considered giving in to temptation. No matter how sad or lonely she was.

Because her marriage meant too much to her.

Was she meant to feel sorry for him? Think it was okay that he’d been with another woman because he’d been lonely?

She would have traded anything not to have to go away again. To be here with Gabby instead of serving overseas. She’d done her time, fulfilled her duty, and now she wanted to come home. No matter how much she loved her unit, liked being part of a team and making a difference.

And Daniel was wrong.She knew exactly what it meant to be lonely.

She’d been livinglonelyever since she’d flown out and left her husband standing beside her daughter. Looked over her shoulder and seen the pair of them holding hands while she had to board a plane and leave them for months on end. When she’d never expected to have to go on tour again. When her contract said that after four years of service she’d be free to be a civilian again.

She’d miss the people she served with, too, but she’d trade it all for being right back here at home.

Penny threw a pillow and a blanket out onto the sofa and hoped Daniel got the message.

Pretending or not, she had no intention of sharing a bed with him. Not tonight, and maybe not ever again.

8

AKNOCK echoed out down the hall. Penny looked up. She was sitting on the sofa reading to Gabby. The last thing she needed was a visitor. Her head was still pounding from the night she’d spent tossing and turning, eyes no doubt verging on seriously bloodshot.

“I’ll get it!” Daniel called out.

She glimpsed him as he walked past the living room door, jeans slung low on his waist, towel still in his hand as he rubbed at his damp hair.

Penny wished she hadn’t seen him. The last thing she needed was to be reminded of how good he looked bare. The golden color of his flat torso, the breadth of his shoulders.

Clearly leaving the navy hadn’t taken a toll on his appearance.

“Oh, hey,” she heard him say.

Gabby jumped up. “Is that Grandma?”

Penny strained her ears but couldn’t hear. “I don’t know, hon. Why don’t you go take a look?”

She watched as her daughter bounded off down the hall, returning less than a minute later towing her grandmother.

“Hi, Penny.”

“Oh. Hi, Vicki,” she responded.

She ran her hands over her rumpled jeans before playing anxiously with her ponytail. She was suddenly conscious that the house was a mess. That she didn’t even have dinner on yet.

But she’d been having such a lovely time with Gabby, Daniel had spent the afternoon at work, and she was only talking to him when she had to, to make sure Gabby didn’t figure out there was anything wrong. She hadn’t even thought about what they were going to eat.

“I, ah, didn’t know you were coming over.” Why hadn’t Daniel told her? “I’ll rustle up something for dinner if you’re staying?”

Vicki sent a confused look at Daniel.

“I’m sorry, darling, was tonight supposed to be a surprise?”

Daniel groaned, the noise only just audible. “I forgot to cancel.”

Great.

“Daniel...” Penny started.

Vicki frowned before bending to talk to Gabby. “Why don’t you run and get some of your presents to show me again,” Vicki asked her. “Silly Grandma’s already forgotten what you got for your birthday.”

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