Page 19 of Rescuing Abbey

“Okay, you’ve met her. Now will you leave us be?” I wanted Abbey all to myself, and I wanted to ignore everyone else in town like I always did.

“Oh, come on, Duke. You never come to town anymore. I hardly see you, and when I finally do, you have a complete stranger with you. How did you get such a cute woman to even agree to go out to lunch with you?” She waggled her eyebrows.

“This is Abbey. She’s new to the ranch, and we came to town to pick up her car from Chase’s. Happy?”

“And now defensive.” She slowly grinned and turned to Abbey. “So, what do you make of my brother?”

“Umm…” Abbey wrinkled her napkin in her lap. As much as I wanted to know what she thought about me, this was not the time or the way to go about it.

Wait, no. I didn’t want to know what she thought about me. I didn’t need to know.

“Lizzy,” I hissed. “Go away.”

She laughed but didn’t pull her eyes from Abbey.

“Duke found me the other day with my car broken down. I was on my way to the ranch, and he graciously helped me out. Since he was the one who called for a tow truck to take my car, he was the one who volunteered to help me retrieve it. He’s been very sweet and caring since I met him. I would’ve been lost without him and probably still stranded.” Abbey’s eyes held mine as she said the last part, and my heart pounded in my chest.

“Ahh, that’s so sweet. Well, don’t let this jerk scare you away. He barely comes to town ever since he returned home all those years ago. The hero won’t grace us with his presence. But if you like him, he is a keeper.” She eyed me, knowing full well she was overstepping. This was why I avoided town, so no one could be in my business. Especially my family.

“Lizzy…” I warned.

“Okay, I’ll leave you two alone. Make sure to call Mom. You know she’ll freak when she hears you were in town and didn’t stop by.” Lizzy threw up her hands and slowly retreated to her booth of friends.

When Lizzy was out of earshot, Abbey leaned in and whispered, “Why did she call you a hero?”

“I’d rather not talk about it right now,” I grunted.

She nodded solemnly. I didn’t want to sound like an asshole, but this wasn’t really the place to have a heart to heart. The less she knew, the better off she was. She couldn’t judge me or think any less of me if she didn’t know.

“Tell me about your family.” She didn’t need to know about mine, but I was curious about hers. I wanted to continue our easy conversation from the ride to town.

“There’s not much to tell. My father died when I was little. My mother worked hard to provide for us. She now has a new boyfriend who is great for her. I don’t have any siblings besides Blake and Grace. We all grew up together, and I consider them my sisters,” Abbey started, and we flowed into our casual conversation.

It didn’t take long for our meals to arrive, and we dug in. The burger tasted just as I remembered, and Abbey raved over her lunch.

When we piled into my SUV, Abbey turned in her seat and stared at me.

“What?”

“Can you tell me now?” she asked in a soft, soothing tone.

“Tell you what?” I had hoped she would drop it, but she hadn’t.

“Tell me why people were so surprised to see you today. Why you don’t want to come to town?”

I sighed and looked out the window, surprised at how much I wanted to tell her the truth. “Because I don’t want people to see how broken I am. When I’m working, I have a focus. When I’m not, all I can see are people analyzing my every move.”

“How are you broken?”

“It’s a long story.” I rubbed at the back of my neck, working out how much to say.

“I’m not going anywhere.” She scooted closer to me. Not so close we touched, but close enough the heat of her body seared into me.

I sighed. She wasn’t going to let this go. “When I graduated, I wanted to get out of here and do something that mattered. Being in this town… it’s a dead end. So I left, and I joined the military. During my last tour, my team walked into an ambush. Only two of us came out of it alive.” My throat tightened, and I couldn’t continue any farther. My vision tunneled and blurred out completely. It felt impossible to catch a breath.

“Duke?” Everything muffled around me.

A warm presence touched my forearm. It stayed there as the comfort of it seeped into my arm and then throughout my body as a calmness washed over me.

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