A Little Harmless Military Romance Bundle (A Little Harmless Military Bundle) (30 page)

He couldn’t let the evening end this way. “Is there something wrong?”

She shook her head and sighed. “Just a million things on my mind for tomorrow. She’s kind of a bridezilla, so I’ll have my hands full.”

Of course, it had nothing to do with him. She was a woman with a full life, one that didn’t include a man who was too old for her and had sexual needs a woman like her would never understand.

She walked him to the door in silence, and he hated it. They had never had this issue before. She opened the door and offered him a soft, tired smile. It was then that he saw the violet smudges under her eyes and realized she hadn’t been getting sleep.

“Are you getting enough rest? The insomnia isn’t back, is it?”

She looked surprised and shook her head. “No. Just been a long week. Once this wedding is over, I’m going to sleep all day on Sunday.”

He nodded. He moved closer, then realized he was going to kiss her. He stopped himself just short of embarrassment.

“Goodnight, Amanda.”

“Night, Mal.”

She shut the door, and he waited until he heard the locks slide into place. With more than just a few regrets, he headed to his car.

* * * *

Amanda sighed as she watched the bride and father walk down the aisle together.

“Feeling melancholy?” Addy asked from beside her.

She glanced at her business partner and shook her head. “Naw. Well, a little. This time there is more relief.”

Addy slung her arm over Amanda’s shoulders. “Don’t be sad. You’ll have a real wedding one of these days.”

But she wouldn’t. She knew it better than anyone, but she never argued with Addison Mahler. Amanda knew she wouldn’t win.

“What do you say we clean up right now so when the ceremony is done, we can run away?” Addy said.

Amanda nodded and followed her back to the bride’s room. They were an odd couple of friends. Addison had grown up in the wealth of DC, a daughter of a federal judge and the niece of a former attorney general. You would never know it by looking at her. From the top of her spikey purple hair—that was the color this week—down to the grunge clothing, she was the antithesis of DC upper class.

“She wasn’t so bad today,” Addy said. “I thought it was going to be horrible after the way she was all the way up to the wedding.”

“There was a little stress inside the family.”

Addy nodded. “I know. We both understand having a mother diagnosed with breast cancer, but still. She attacked my choice of hair color a few weeks ago.”

“It was green. And not just green, but neon green.” Amanda picked up some of the boxes they had brought the flowers over in. “Plus, I think she was worried her mother wouldn’t be here for the ceremony. She lost an aunt just two years ago to breast cancer.”

Addy stopped in gathering up the equipment. “Oh, I didn’t know that. Well, that makes sense. Still, there was nothing wrong with my green hair. And, to be nice, I dyed it purple to match her bridesmaid dresses.”

Amanda chuckled. “She did thank you.”

“Not our worse, huh? I think our worst would be that Denise Charles. It was hard not to run down the aisle and rescue the groom.”

“They just got divorced.”

She smiled. “Oh, see, I could have saved him a lot of money.”

They finished packing away their supplies and headed out to the van. “What do you have on tap tonight? Why don’t we go clubbing?”

“Addy, I don’t know how you do it. All day at work and out at night. And worse, I’m five years younger than you.”

“So that’s a no, right?” she asked. “You have no social life.”

They were walking up the path to the church. “I have a social life.”

“You can’t count these functions as a social life, even if you go to the reception afterward. Are we going to this one?”

She hadn’t thought about it. They’d made the arrangements and they usually went and checked, but they had worked with the reception hall before, and it wasn’t part of the contract. Amanda had thought a hot soak in the tub sounded heavenly, but now going back to her little apartment didn’t hold the same appeal.

“I heard they were going to have shrimp.”

Addy glanced at her. Four inches taller than Amanda, her best friend could eat just about anything. It was disgusting, and if she didn’t love her like the sister she never had, she would hate her.

“You don’t say.”

Amanda shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Is there some reason you don't want to go home?"

Addy was a little too smart for her own good. From the moment they met in a survivor's support group, they had hit it off. Addison's older brother had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, and Amanda had been dealing with the repercussions of the death of her husband and the lies he left behind.

"Nope. I just think a nice big meal, then a relaxing night in is just what I need."

"You did that last night. I know you went to bed before ten."

Of course she had. She hadn't had much sleep because images of Mal looking at her with heat in his eyes had kept her awake all night. She had never seen that look on his face before and it made her...burn.

"Ohhhh, what's his name?"

She glanced at Addy and saw the interested look in her eyes. Dammit. "What do you mean by that?"

"You got a dreamy look on your face, and I have never seen that look on your face. Well, except when you talked about going to the Netherlands for the tulip shows. Did you hook up? Come on, tell me."

She sighed. "I did not hook up and there was no dreamy look on my face. Mal was over last night for dinner."

"Dupree? You had him over for dinner? And you didn't invite me?"

She chuckled. "It was by accident. We bumped into each other at Wegmans."

Addy let out a little sigh of pleasure. "Wegmans. Wait, let me think about that place for a sec." She stopped walking, closed her eyes and hummed. "I love that place."

"Yes, I know you have an abnormal attachment to Wegmans."

"There is nothing abnormal about it. So you bumped into him, and then how did he end up sponging a meal off you?"

"I invited him."

There was a beat of silence. "You invited him over on a Friday night?"

"Yeah. You should have seen what he was eating. Some kind of wings or something, it was disgusting. And I was in the mood for scallops--"

"You made your pan seared scallops and didn't invite me?" Addy asked, pouting again. “I can’t believe you did that.”

"You had a date last night."

"Oh yeah, he was boring. And definitely not a Seal I have a crush on."

"You have a crush on Mal?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, you do, Amanda."

She sat down in one of the chairs lining the hallway in the back of the church. Since there was a row of windows and a door that separated them from the wedding guests, she felt free to talk. "I do not."

"Yes, you do. Remember, I've seen you with him. You get all goo-goo over him, and I say about time."

She sat down next to Amanda with a satisfied smile on her face.

"I do not, and if I was ready for another relationship, I would definitely not pick a Seal. There is only heartbreak with those guys."

She could feel Addison's study of her, but she said nothing else. Amanda told Addison just about everything, but she hadn't told her about the worst part of her marriage. Even being a smart woman and knowing her husband's infidelity had nothing to do with her but was a default in his personality, Amanda couldn't help but be embarrassed by it. It was the one thing that she would keep to her grave.

“Let’s just get through this, get some good food, and then I am spending all day in bed tomorrow with a book. In fact, I might just move only for food.”

“That sounds like an excellent plan. I can’t do it myself because I have been summoned to the family estate for brunch. Wanna come protect me?”

“No. First of all, your father has a big house, not an estate. And secondly, you don’t need my protection. You have your father wrapped around your finger.”

There was a look in Addy’s eyes that had Amanda pausing. There was a vulnerable quality to her, then it disappeared in an instant. “Dad said something about ham.”

“No. I am going to be completely selfish for one day.”

“Fine, but I will tell Dad that you refused to come.”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “I’m sure he’ll really care about that.”

“He likes you.”

“I didn’t say that, but he wants to see you.”

Addy sighed. “Yeah, I know. I just hate that there will probably be another lawyer there he tries to fix me up with. That lawyer will take one look at my purple hair and freak out.”

Amanda slipped her arm over her friend’s shoulders. “But he loves you.”

Addy sighed. “Yeah. So you won’t help me?”

“You’re on your own there, kid. I’m going to vegetate.”

Chapter Three

The next morning, bright and early, Amanda was putting on her walking shoes and complaining about her damned fantasies. All night long, she had been dreaming of the man she shouldn’t even be thinking about that way. Malachai Dupree.

Her plans of being lazy had dissolved ten minutes into her lazifest. She cursed her imagination and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. Her brain would not let her just vegetate. Instead, Mal was there, laughing with her, letting her cry on his shoulder, silently holding her hand the first time she went to her husband's grave in Arlington.

Dammit. Tears burned the back of her eyes, and she scrubbed her hands over her face. As she had learned before, the best way to deal with her feelings was to go out for a walk, think, and let the exercise work its magic on her negative mood.

Ten minutes later, she was walking on the path near her house, enjoying the day. It was cloudy, the hint of rain in the air, and cool enough not to cause her to sweat too much. She loved the DC area for just these kinds of things. She loved seasons, loved the fall, the winters, the springs and summers, and especially liked that she could find a good place to walk or run even out in the boonies. The hot summers in Texas were too much for her to take, and she wasn’t sure she could ever give up the mixture of culture in the DC area.

She was just getting into her walk, listening to the latest Nora Roberts book on her iPod, when she heard someone yelling. She turned just in time to have a biker run into her. She fell back and had no time to brace herself. Her butt hit first, her back, and then her head conked hard against the pavement.

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry," an older woman said. She was leaning over Amanda, her face creased with concern.

"Mildred, I told you we should do this at home," said someone else, a man, but it was hard for her to tell. She was still seeing stars and her ears were ringing.

"I didn't want our neighbors to see me try to learn how to ride a bike."

"Yes, injuring a stranger is even better." Even with her head spinning, she could hear the sarcasm in the old man’s voice.

"Dear, are you okay? Do you need help up?"

They each took an arm, and she tried to stand, but the world around her started to spin. The colors of the surrounding landscape blurred.

"Oh, that's not good," she said weakly as her spinning world went to complete black.

* * * *

Mal's heart was pounding so damn hard as he hurried into the Potomac ER. He rushed to the information desk. "I'm the POC for Amanda Forrester."

"Are you her husband?" the woman asked.

"No. I'm...was a friend of her husband's. The ER called me and said she had been injured."

The woman nodded to the people behind the counter. "This one's here for Forrester.” She turned back to Mal. They’ll let you in."

There was a buzz and he strode over to the doors. A round, happy nurse smiled at him. "She's right down here in room 5F."

"How is she doing?"

"Fine. She hit her head, and they are talking of admitting her for that reason. But I'm not too sure Ms. Forrester agrees."

She opened the door, and he felt his heart slide down into his stomach. She looked so damned pale. She had bandages on both hands. There were dark circles beneath her eyes and at that moment, she looked so still.

“We’re keeping the lights dimmed because they hurt her eyes.”

“Concussion?”

“Slight. Not anything major.”

“I hear you whispering over there,” she said, a smile playing about her mouth. “I didn’t lose my hearing, Nurse Brady.”

The nurse chuckled. “If I thought you were sleeping, I would have had to wake you up.”

She slowly opened her eyes. “Mal, they called you.”

“I’ll leave you two alone. Ms. Forrester, just so you know, the doctor is not giving up on you being here overnight.”

“Tell him to stick it.”

The nurse giggled and left them alone.