CHAPTER 3
Driving into the city limits of his hometown after being away for a while was bound to be a strange experience. The wind in his face glanced off the sunglasses he wore as he slowed the convertible to the local speed limit and took it all in.
Jack supposed it was to be expected, but a wave of nostalgia hit him hard as he passed the high school. Good memories there. He’d been MVP of the football team the year he graduated.
Tapping the brakes, he reduced his speed further at the hairpin turn where he’d lost control of his truck and wrecked it just two weeks after getting his driver’s license.
He smiled when he saw the parking area by the river where he’d lost something else with Mary Sue Barton.
But mingled with the usual hometown sense of belonging was the realization that he was a totally different person from the boy he’d been when he’d left years before. He’d seen and done so much since that time when this small town had seemed like the center of the universe to him.
Maybe the commander had been right. This little furlough trip home would be good. There were no reminders of Carly and Trey in Pigeon Hollow like there were back at the base, and it had been much too long since Jack had seen his mama.
There was an underlying homesickness living deep inside him he hadn’t been aware of, but it hit him hard as he drove down the magnolia-lined drive to the house he’d been born in.
He was so happy to see his old home that his eyes got a little misty.
Damn, when had he become such a pussy? He pushed aside the thought that his emotional instability had begun just about the time he’d fallen hard for Carly, which happened to be the same time his brother had gone missing in Kosovo.
Both of those things were over now. Time to move on.
Perhaps three weeks mental-health leave would put everything in perspective and get his emotions back on track.
Jack parked by the barn, and then put up the roof before he turned off the engine. It could go from sunny to pouring rain in just minutes in the South. He’d learned the hard way not to leave his convertible top down. Not even to just run into the diner for a quick bite.
He grabbed his duffle bag out of the trunk and turned in the direction of the house, but a new colt running after its mother in the paddock just off the breeding stable caught his attention.
Jack paused to admire it. That was one thing he missed about home besides his mama. The horses.
The mare came to the fence where Jack stood watching her. She was probably hoping for an apple or carrot. He had neither, so he rubbed her nose instead.
He didn’t recognize her, which made him realize he had been away too long. There was a time when he knew every horse on this property. That time had passed.
“I don’t take too kindly to strangers handling my stock.”
Jack spun around at the sound of his younger brother’s voice and smiled. “Jared. Damn, little brother. Did you get bigger?”
All dimples, Jared grinned back. He looked broader than usual as his muscles strained the confines of his T-shirt. “Nah, I think you just shrunk some. Whatever you do all day at that super secret spy job of yours can’t build muscles the way unloading and stacking two hundred bales of hay can.”
“I told you, I’m not a spy.” Jack dumped his duffle on the ground and hugged his younger brother hard.
“Whatever.” Jared slapped him on the back before pulling away. He visually sized Jack up. “And I’m only three years younger than you, so get off the little thing, will you?”
Jack had first left for the service when Jared still seemed like a boy, but before him now was a man. They’d been eye level for years, but now Jared seemed as wide and broad as the barn they were standing next to.
Where Jack had followed in his older brother Jimmy’s footsteps and joined the service, Jared had stayed to run the breeding stables with Mama. If he hadn’t, there was no way Jack could have left his mama and the farm without help.
As much as Jack loved horses, Jared lived and breathed them. He had since before he could walk. It had been a chore just getting Jared to go to school most days. He hadn’t wanted to leave the stables. He’d sleep there too if a mare was close to foaling.
It was because of Jared’s dedication that Jack didn’t feel guilty being away so much.
Still, he should try to get home more often. It was obvious from the tightness in his chest he missed the place more than he realized.
Jack pushed the serious thoughts aside and hooked a boot heel on the bottom rail of the white painted fence. “This new mare’s a beauty and the colt looks like a real winner.”
Leaning on the fence, Jared mirrored Jack’s pose. “Yeah. Good stock, this one. Not that you know winners. If I remember right, you always bet the underdog.”
Jack smiled. Always betting the underdog had won him a few sizeable payoffs. He didn’t tend to remember all the times he lost.
“So what brings you home?” Jared turned and picked up Jack’s duffle for him. As Jack followed, Jared carried it toward the house.
“The head shed got the bright idea that we all needed a few weeks off to recharge or something. But I’ve been wanting to check up on Jimmy anyway. How is he?”
“Miserable. Old Doc Jackson won’t let him do much of anything, which is killing him. I keep finding him sneaking down here to the stables when Mama’s not looking.”
Jack laughed. “That sounds like Jimmy.”
Jared nodded. “Of course, his sudden interest in the horses might have something to do with the new hand I just hired. She’s a looker and man oh man she’s hot enough to heal what ails you. Quiet though and real secretive. Can’t get anything out of her, including where she’s from. But she’s real good with the horses. That’s all that matters to me.”
His brother’s description of this new hire raised Jack’s suspicions immediately. He’d have to meet this elusive beauty and figure out what she was hiding and why.
He nearly tripped over his own feet as that thought made him realize a few things. First off, he’d been in special operations too long if he was suspicious of everyone, even a woman he’d never met.
Second, he obviously wasn’t over Carly yet if his only goal regarding this supposedly sizzling hot woman was to get information out of her instead of getting her out of her clothes.
Jack followed Jared to the back door and sighed.
Time. That’s all it would take to move on. Just time.
Then he caught a whiff of something incredible baking. Maybe time and some of his mama’s pie.
Speaking of Mama . . . She screamed when she saw him, rushing forward to fling her arms around his neck before she pulled back and slapped him hard on his arm.
“Why didn’t you call and say you were fixin’ to come home?” She frowned even as she hugged him again. “Sit down. The pie is just out of the oven.”
He laughed. That was Mama. Not that she was really angry with him for not calling before he came home. But even if she had been, she still would have fed him pie.
“Thanks, Mama. I was dreaming about your pie the whole drive here.” He sat in the same chair he’d sat in to eat for as long as he could remember and glanced back to where she stood at the counter, knife poised to impale the golden brown piecrust. “So where you got Jimmy stashed? I’m sure he’s drooling by now. It would be just plain cruel not to share with him.”
“Jimmy can fend for himself. Thank you.”
Jack looked around to see his Jimmy standing in the doorway, smiling and speaking of himself in the third person. His face still showed the yellow tinge of healing bruises, but he looked good. Way better than he had the last time Jack had seen him, half-dead on a backboard being strapped into a military transport heading for the hospital in Germany.
Standing, Jack hugged his older brother hard. Too hard, he realized when Jimmy’s breath whooshed out.
Jimmy winced but tried to dismiss the obvious pain with a crooked grin. “Coupla’ broken ribs.”
“Jeez, Jimmy. I’m sorry.”
Slapping Jack hard on the back, Jimmy proved he was okay. “No problem. Bones heal, little brother. We both know that. Now where’s that pie I’ve been smelling for the last half hour?”
Jimmy walked with a slight but noticeable limp to the table, pulling out his usual chair before easing himself into it. Maybe he was still hurting more than he let on. But he was home and safe and that was good enough for now.
Jared had already grabbed forks and plates for them all and was sitting waiting for their mother to cut the pie.
Jack sat between his two brothers at the same oak kitchen table he’d eaten at since he was born. While his mama slid a piece of her famous sweet-potato pie onto one of his grandma’s china plates, he decided the commander had been right. This visit home might be just what he needed.