CHAPTER 5
Six months later
Jimmy sat—or more accurately lay like an invalid—on his bed.
The same book he’d been trying to read for the last two weeks was open on his lap. He stared at the words on the page but they were just a meaningless jumble.
Why couldn’t he concentrate? It wasn’t like he had anything else to do. Or all that much else to think about.
Downstairs his mama was baking one of her famous pies. The smell wafted temptingly up the staircase to his room. He supposed he could limp downstairs and get some if he really wanted.
Jack was still home on furlough for another few days. Maybe he could sneak outside and see what his brother and his new girl, Nicki, were up to.
His other brother Jared had brought in a new stud stallion he was planning on breeding today. He could perhaps hobble over to the paddock and watch that.
Letting his head fall back against the pillow and roll to one side, he stared at the faded wallpaper he remembered so well from his childhood and decided all those ideas for diversions sounded like too much work.
Sighing, Jimmy considered taking a nap, but he doubted he could fall asleep. A man had to actually do something to get tired enough to sleep in the middle of the day.
Instead he let his mind drift to Lia, like he did so often even if it was the most pointless exercise on earth.
He’d thought about her every day he was in Kosovo. He’d jerked off to visions of her each night. He didn’t even feel like doing that anymore. In fact, he didn’t think he’d had a hard-on since getting home from the military hospital in Germany.
The guards who’d taken him had worked him over pretty damn good before the team had rescued him. There’d been a time he’d wondered if he’d ever see home again. But he had made it home.
His body was healing but it seemed his spirit was a little slower in recovering.
Now that he was here, safe, why didn’t he feel happier about it?
Maybe because there was probably something wrong with his dick too.
Great. Something new to worry about in addition to the bruises, broken bones and enlarged spleen.
He was just considering digging his teen stash of girlie magazines out of the back of his closet to test this new horrifying broken-dick theory when Jack knocked on his door.
“Hey, big brother.” Jack was always so damn cheerful, but then why shouldn’t he be? His dick worked just fine and all signs indicated that he was working it out day and night with Nicki.
“Hey.” Jimmy couldn’t muster a smile to go with the greeting.
Jack frowned. “You doing okay? You don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine. What’s up?” Jimmy wasn’t exactly in the mood for small talk today.
Unperturbed by Jimmy’s short answer, Jack walked over to sit in the chair next to the bed. He shrugged. “Oh, not much, except that I was just talking to the commander.”
“About what?” Jimmy wasn’t sure if talking about the team would be a good diversion or just make him feel worse about being away from it, but he asked anyway.
Jack broke out into a wide grin. “He wants you to come back to base with me when I go in a few days.”
Jimmy sat bolt upright. “Really?”
Jack nodded. “You have to call him though. There’s a doctor sign-off or something you have to get before the big brass will let you back on active duty.”
He’d get a note from his mama, the Surgeon General and the President of the US of A if it meant going back on active duty. “I’ll call him now. Thanks, Jack.”
Jack laughed. “I thought that news would cheer you up. I just hope it makes up for my bad news.”
Jimmy paused as he reached for his cell phone on the night table. He knew it was too good to be true.
He narrowed his eyes at his brother. “What bad news?”
“The governor and that bastard senator who tried to shut down our base a few years back are coming here for sweet tea and pie tomorrow afternoon.”
“What the hell? Why?”
His mama was having a senator and the governor over for sweet tea and pie? Was he having a really strange dream? He hadn’t taken any painkillers in months. He couldn’t be hallucinating from them still being in his system.
“You know that organization Jared belongs to? The one that lobbies for the small farmer? Well, the governor and the senator are coming to meet with the organization, along with a shitload of press.”
Great. Nothing Jimmy loved more than the press. “So let Jared deal with them all. He planned this mess.”
“Oh, I plan on it. I’m sending Nicki away for the day too. I don’t want her face in the newspaper right now. And you and I shouldn’t be posing for any photos ourselves. The commander would shit a brick and our undercover days would be over. I figure we can hang out at the barn and watch Jared’s circus from a distance.”
Circus was a good description. From what he knew of the senator, the man was pretty much a clown who’d do anything to get the most people to cheer him on and vote him into office again.
Jimmy would love watching his youngest brother Jared play gentleman farmer for the idiots, as long as he didn’t have to do it with him.
He nodded in agreement with Jack’s plan. “Sounds good.”
But more important than worrying about the big wigs visiting tomorrow was the phone call he had to make to his commander today.
Back on active duty. That was enough to make Jimmy smile.