A Hero for Tonight Read online

  “I’m not saying she’s not, but did you ever once ask her if she wanted to go somewhere with you? Maybe take her on a road trip, or do something other than eat her dinner?” She lifted her napkin to her mouth.

  “I take her and Dad out to dinner.” Shane couldn’t help but watch the way Krista’s mouth puckered as she wiped at the gravy on her lips. What the hell was wrong with him that the action turned him on? Unreal. She was bitching him out for not being a better son, and here he was wondering what it would be like to...to what? To kiss her? Lick the gravy from her mouth? He took a huge bite of his sandwich.

  “Yes, I know. On her birthday and Mother’s Day. Come on, Shane. This is just like I said earlier. You think only of you.”

  Shane kept chewing to stop his mouth from saying anything until he had a chance to choose his words. He knew part of his annoyance was that Krista probably had a point. He never gave it a thought that his mother might enjoy actually doing something with him other than just stuff around the house. Hell, even when she tried to help him decorate his own place, he’d shoved her aside.

  He swallowed his food and wiped his mouth before lifting his gaze to hers again. “You’re probably right.”

  She laughed, eyes dancing with mirth. “Seriously? You said I’m right? Wow. It’s nearly impossible for you to admit that maybe you were wrong, but to say that I am right?” She pointed to her chest. “This is one for the history books right here.” She sat back against the booth and fanned her hand in front of her face. “You’ll have to give me a moment. I need to take this in.”

  “See, that’s why you annoy me. You have to be so dramatic about everything and act like I’m a selfish pig who can never say I’m wrong.”

  “You can’t. It’s not your fault, Shane. You just don’t see the world the way everyone else does.”

  “Whatever.” He was done with this conversation. Frankly, he was done with the entire dinner and wanted to escape.

  “Don’t you ever wonder why it never works out with anyone you date?”

  He bit his sandwich, refusing to answer.

  “The reason it doesn’t work out is because you can’t give of yourself enough to sustain a relationship for more than a few months.”

  “Give of myself? I can’t give of myself?” His eyes went wide with astonishment. “Did the fact that I voluntarily joined the marines escape you? I signed a contract to die for our country if necessary, yet I’m the selfish one?”

  She nodded “Yes, you did, and I would never take that away from you. What you do every day and what you did over there, well...there aren’t enough words to thank you. But I’m talking the everyday, Shane. Not the military, not even your job as deputy sheriff, but on a one-on-one basis. Have you ever had a deep conversation with someone else? One that doesn’t involve where to go for dinner or how fast can I get this woman into my bed?”

  So he wasn’t one of those guys who talked about his feelings; he was a marine, damn it. Whether she understood or not, he was trained to not show his emotions and keep what he was thinking to himself. A marine didn’t have thoughts unless they were assigned to him by the military.

  He grimaced at the old line. This conversation was going somewhere he had no intention of continuing. “I thought we were talking about you and the farm market, or websites or something?”

  For a long pause, she simply stared at him, her green eyes searching his as if trying to read his mind. “All I was saying is that while you think I don’t have a job, I actually have been freelancing for several years. I’ve designed and sold websites for several local businesses and others that are out of town.”

  He had no idea about websites or design work, but at least she was doing something. It not only surprised him, but he was actually almost proud of her. Proud? Where’d that come from? Maybe it wasn’t so much proud as glad she wasn’t the useless person he thought she was sitting home all year and being supported by her father until it was time to work the farm market.

  “That’s terrific, Krista. Sounds like you’ve found something to do.”

  She set her fork down and pushed her plate away. He longingly eyed all the food she hadn’t eaten.

  “I seem to be good at it, and it brings in really good money. I’ve been saving up, and now I want to do what I really love, which is the Apple Basket.”

  “So, we just have to find a way to convince my mother that you want to do this expansion on your own,” he clarified. “Not because you want to push her out, but because you know it’s not what she wants.”

  “Exactly.” She inched her plate toward him in invitation. “And just to note, if you looked at women the way you’re looking at this chicken and biscuits, you might have a better track record.”

  He eagerly picked up his fork and dug into her leftovers. “I’ve never had any woman complain that I didn’t look at her the right way. In fact, for the record, none of my relationships ended because of a physical reason.”

  “Thank God for that.” She opened her eyes wide and faked relief. “I was losing sleep wondering if you weren’t any good in bed.”

  “Brat.”

  “Ass.”

  Shane finished off Krista’s chicken and biscuits and pushed the plate back across the table. “That was awesome. I can’t believe you didn’t finish it.”

  “I wasn’t very hungry.” She reached for the check but Shane grabbed it.

  “What’s my half?” she asked.

  Shane widened his eyes. “Your half? Your dinner was far more than my steak sandwich.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You ate your dinner and half of mine, plus you had a cola and I had water.”

  He yanked his wallet out of his jeans. “Relax, I’m paying.”

  She grinned. “Works for me.”

  “You aren’t even going to pretend to argue?”

  She shrugged. “Why on earth would I do that? You want to pay, go for it.”

  He slipped out of the booth. “There’s something not right about you.”

  Krista grabbed her jacket and purse. “Something not right about me? That’s good coming from someone as messed up as you.”

  Shane held out his hand and let her precede him through the throng of diners. Her rear end, normally clad in old jeans, looked pretty amazing in a sleek pair of black dress pants. She even had on a pair of shoes that weren’t sneakers or flip flops. His gaze seemed transfixed on the sway of her hips as she easily maneuvered the crowded tables. At the counter, he handed the check to the cashier as Krista slipped her jacket on and flipped her hair out of the collar.

  What was it about her tonight? Something about her seemed almost…sexy.

  Even as he thought the word, he was uncomfortable. Thinking of Krista Saunders that way was just plain weird. Something was off today, that was for sure.

  “Thanks, Shane.” Annie handed him his change, and he handed her back a tip. “Sorry you had to share a table, but I appreciate it.”

  “Not a problem. Krista and I have eaten dinner together more years than both of us care to remember. It’s no big deal.”

  “And he paid, so it worked out great for me, Annie.” Krista grinned and pushed through the door to the outside.

  In the parking lot, Krista turned to say goodnight, only to find Shane looking at her with an odd expression on his face. In the dark, with only the lights from the diner behind him, it reminded her of her favorite picture of him. A fellow marine had snapped the photo, and he’d sent it home to his parents in an email that his mother had forwarded to her. The picture had been taken in the desert in Iraq with the sun setting behind him. Strong, sure...a hero. He looked just like that right now, and her heart skipped a beat in response.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “Home. Why?”

  Shane stepped closer. “I’d love to see some of the websites you’ve built. Maybe we could talk a bit about the farm market and your plans.”

  She furrowed her brow. “Or are you just hoping I have some apple pie?
”

  “Well, now that you mention it. You know how much I love coffee and dessert. But seriously, I would like to see the websites you’ve done.”

  “Don’t you have to be up at some insane hour to drive to Fort Drum?” The last thing she wanted was to prolong her time with Shane tonight. It was bad enough she’d broken down and tried to talk to him about her future plans.

  “Yeah, but it’s not even seven thirty. Even I can stay up until to at least nine and still function.”

  She shrugged and turned toward her car. “Okay then, I’ll meet you at my house.”

  Chapter Four

  The short drive to her house from town didn’t take long enough for Krista to figure out what was going on. Usually, Shane avoided being with her at all costs and was rarely ever alone with her unless they were working the farm market. Tonight, though, he was really acting strange. Twice, she’d caught him staring at her chest as if he’d never noticed she had breasts before. And what was up with his sudden defensiveness when she said he was selfish? She’d been telling him that for years, and he never cared what she said before.

  And why was he eating dinner alone instead of out with Melissa tonight?

  She was no closer to answers minutes later as she set a heaping plate of pie with vanilla ice cream melting on top in front of Shane. He had his fork dug in before she could sit down across from him. Her kitchen wasn’t very big to begin with, and with him seated at the table, it seemed to shrink in size even more.

  Krista picked up her coffee and sipped. It was odd having Shane across from her with no one else at the table. What was he thinking? Better yet, why was he here at all? It couldn’t just be for pie; although knowing him as she did, it could very well just be for dessert. He wasn’t that deep, and free pie could actually be his only motive.

  Shane glanced at her, and his mouth lifted in that familiar half grin that he’d been doing since he was five. “Why is it that my mother’s apple pie and yours come from the same apples, the same recipe, and yet yours has a different taste?”

  Well used to his insults, Krista wasn’t even put off by his comment. She set her coffee down. “No one told you to eat it if you don’t like it.”

  He lifted his mug. “There you go again thinking I’m saying something that I’m not. I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”

  She shrugged. “It’s the same pie, Shane. Your mother and I make the same apple pie.”

  He took another bite. “Nope. There’s something in here that she doesn’t do.”

  Okay, she’d tweaked the recipe just a touch, but it was weird that he picked up on it immediately.

  Not wanting to give him the satisfaction of being right, she changed the subject. “Are you still seeing Melissa?”

  He looked up from under his incredibly long lashes and then turned his attention back to his dessert. “Sort of.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “How do you sort of see someone?”

  “We’ve gone out a few times; you know, casual.”

  She sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re bored already. That’s gotta be close to a record, even for you.”

  “I’m not bored. And you can’t lecture me on dates until you’ve been on some.”

  “I’ve been on plenty of dates.”

  He snorted and finished off his pie. “Conjugal visits aren’t dates. I keep trying to explain that to you.”

  Would he ever let her forget about Bruce? Rather than start another round of sniping at each other, she stood up to get the coffee pot.

  Shane put his hand over his cup “I can’t. I have to be able to sleep tonight.”

  “I know. That why I put on decaf.”

  His eyes widened, and he moved his hand so she could pour. She caught him staring at her open neckline as she leaned slightly over him.

  What is wrong with him? Inside her sweater, her nipples hardened. Holy crap! What the hell is wrong with me? Was she really responding to Shane like that? No, it was probably just cool in here, and she hadn’t noticed.

  Krista spun away, crossed to the counter, and set the coffeepot back on the burner. But she couldn’t help sneaking a glance down at her chest. Fortunately, her new bra gave her the full coverage it claimed it would, meaning he couldn’t have noticed her reaction. When she turned back around, his attention slowly slid up her body to her face.

  She lifted her chin and held his gaze for a moment in a bizarre kind of trance. Her heart thudded at the look of…what was it? Curiosity? Interest? Appreciation? Her stomach did a flip-flop. She was a woman after all. It wasn’t as if she was completely immune to Shane in the physical sense. There’d been times over the years when she found him as sexy as any other woman did, but then he usually opened his mouth and any interest quickly fled.

  Krista shifted her gaze off him to his empty plate as Shane cleared his throat.

  “Dave...Dave said you had some work done on the house after your dad moved out.”

  Leaning back against the counter, she latched onto the conversation topic. “I turned the family room into an office and redid the master bedroom. Nothing big, just enough to make it more my own.”

  “Can I see your office? I’m still a bit in shock that you have your own web design business.”

  “Why?” She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, eager for him to leave. That was how uncomfortable the feeling in the room was. “I mean, what’s with all the interest tonight, Shane? Normally, you can’t stand to be in a room with me for more than ten minutes. Now you’ve had dinner, dessert, and want to see what I’ve done with the place? Seriously? Are you bored, desperate, or what?”

  His gaze on hers narrowed before flicking away. She caught the clench of his jaw when he pushed back from the table.

  “Never mind. I don’t know what I was thinking. Thanks for the pie.” He stalked toward the front of the house.

  She’d wanted him to leave, but now she felt bad he was upset, so she followed him down the hall. “Shane?”

  He paused at the front door and turned back. “Yeah?”

  Stepping closer, she sighed. “I’m sorry. You have to see this from my side, though. It’s rare that you’re nice to me, and rarer still that you take any interest in what I do.”

  “I’m not taking an interest in you, I was just being polite. I gotta go.”

  She reached out and grabbed his arm as he turned away. “I’d like to show you the office and maybe a couple of the websites. Do you really want to see them?”

  For a second, she thought he’d slam her offer in her face, and she’d be humiliated, not for the first time. But once again, his gaze met hers and something in the air changed. Something almost electrically charged moved between them. His eyes widened, then narrowed as his attention dropped to her mouth. Heat warmed her cheeks.

  “Yeah. Show me what you got.” His gaze flicked back to hers. “I mean, show me your websites.”

  She nodded and turned toward her office. He’d been to this house enough times over the years, but she still heard herself informing, “It’s through here.”

  She led the way through the house to the room overlooking the backyard. When she was a kid, it was the room her family gathered in to watch television or play board games. As she became a teenager, it was the place she hung out with her friends.

  After her father’s new marriage, she’d had fun transforming the area into a huge work space. “Wow. Look at this place,” Shane commented from behind. “It looks nothing like it did before.”

  Krista ran her hand along the front of her desk. “That’s what I wanted. I needed to feel like I was going to an office if I was going to work from here all the time.”

  Shane stood, hands in his pockets and looked around. She tried to see the room through his eyes. The seriousness of the work area, the cabinets and very comfortable leather desk chair, but also a small relaxed area on the other side with a couch and oversize chair—her favorite place to curl up, read, or use her laptop to review her work. Truthfu
lly, she pretty much lived in this room, and the rest of the house was unused.

  “You use all these computers?”

  She only had a Mac desktop and a laptop, but it must look to him like she was quite the geek. Then again, wasn’t she, a little bit? “Yeah. You really need a Mac to do design work and the laptop for flexibility.”

  “I need to get a new laptop.” He picked up hers. “You like this brand?”

  “Yeah. If you want, I could go with you next week, and we could take a look at what’s out there.”

  “Sure.”

  He didn’t sound too excited about the offer, and she immediately wished she hadn’t said anything. Shane didn’t need her help.

  “So, show me these websites.”

  She took a deep breath, trying to shake off the strangeness of the night. Having Shane in her home was weird to say the least; showing him her office and work was bizarre. But she went through the motions of sitting down behind her desk and keying in the login for one of the sites she’d recently worked on. Shane moved to stand behind her just as the local veterinarian’s website popped up.

  “Here’s the one I did for the Country Vet.”

  As the graphics came to life on screen, she moved the mouse over several drop downs. When Shane didn’t say anything, she explained, “This is where their patients can sign in and have access to their pet’s records. It’s password protected for each individual, so only they can access the information—for example, see the date of a past check-up or print out their rabies certificate. They can also see the hours Doc is available and book their own appointment. Of course, that link can be changed by the office staff if necessary and an email is then sent to inform the client.”

  “Pretty high-tech for a small-town vet, don’t you think?”

  Krista shrugged. “But Doc was willing to let me do whatever I wanted, and with the easy interface, his clients have a wider access to what they need at their fingertips.”

  He laughed. “Sure looks great on the computer, but then you go in his office and it’s the same furnishings since 1950. I think even his receptionist has been there since then.”