“Okay. Dinner?”
“Yeah, I’ll be back by then,” she says, then gives me a small wave and leaves the room without even hugging me goodbye. I stand there for a moment, not sure what to think. Everyone deals with things differently, I guess.
“Come on, I want pancakes,” Eli says, coming up behind me and placing a kiss on my neck.
“You always want pancakes.”
He grabs my hand and pulls me toward the kitchen.
“Well, I had to live without your cooking for a year. That shit was rough. Too much take-out and ramen noodles is hard on a man after being spoiled by you.”
“It doesn’t look like it was hard on you.” I poke at his stomach.
“That’s because the only way I could take out all my frustration was by working out all the time.”
“Well, you have me now, and yet you still seem to be working out your frustrations.”
“Oh, trust me, I’m just working out another kind of frustration.” I turn around to see Eli’s eyes roaming over me. He turns away, shaking his head at his own lack of self-control. I have to bite back a smile, but I know what’s coming.
“I’m going to go take a shower and get ready.”
And there it is. Every time Eli gets that look in his eyes he’s out the door, trying to get away from me. It would drive me crazy, but each time I remind myself that it’s only a few more weeks. And on top of that, I know he’s never going anywhere again.
I make breakfast, plate it, and put it on the breakfast bar. I quickly go to my room to get ready as fast as I can before coming back down to the kitchen. Eli is already sitting and waiting for me to eat by the time I get there.
“Better?” I ask, and he nods, leaning over to give me a soft, quick kiss. I always wonder what he’s doing in those long showers. I have an idea, and maybe one day I’ll get to see it for myself.
“Eli,” I say, and he turns to look at me. “When the time comes, are you going to give me more of you?” My cheeks warm at how that sounded, and a mischievous smile lights up his face. “I don’t mean like that.” I smack his arm. I do, but that’s not what I’m getting at right this second.
“I mean that you never really talk to me about your past.” I reach up and touch the almost completely faded scar on his face, running my finger down it. Then I do the thing I’ve always wanted to do. I lean over and kiss it softly. When I’m finished, I lean back to search his eyes.
“Sunshine, I’ll give you anything you ask for. I haven’t told you too much about it because it’s dirty and dark and I don’t like to think about it. To be honest, I only just got away from it again.”
“What do you mean?” He’s not in the military anymore.
“Nightmares. They came back.”
“I didn’t know you had nightmares,” I say, hating I didn’t know that about him. I’m happy that he’s telling me now, though.
“I did. Right after that bomb blew up on me and my men. It almost killed all of us. The nightmares are echoes of it—hearing people scream into the darkness and not being able to do anything about it.”
“Oh, Eli.”
He cups my face, leans in, and kisses me. It’s soft, but he lingers for a moment as if I’m soothing the memory for him, helping wash away the pain of it.
“When I came here to do my physical therapy, I got some of my own counseling. Living here and becoming better, the nightmares stopped. And I think part of that was you. My sunshine kept the darkness away. But then I left, and they started creeping in again. I know that it was the stress and hurt that brought all the insecurities flooding back in. But mostly, I was sad because I was without you.”
My heart hurts for him.
“My first night back here, they were gone. I don’t know how you do it, but you light up my world.”
“Eli—”
“Don’t do it, babe.” He gives me a kiss on my nose and pulls back. “This is a good moment for us. We’ve had enough crying. Smile for me. Light us up.”
And I do. I give him the biggest smile I can. We eat in comfortable silence before we finally have to head out so he can take me to school.
Before I slide out of the truck to tell him goodbye, he gives me a kiss. Like always, it’s soft and over a little too fast for my liking.
“Love you, sunshine.”
“Love you, too, cupcake.” I give him a wink and shut the door behind me, then I turn around and almost run right into Ms. Petty.
Chapter 18
Eli
I watch as Maggie walks past her teacher and gives me a nervous look over her shoulder. For a half a second Rose glares at me, but then she shakes it off as she comes around to my side of the truck.
“Good morning, Eli.” Her voice is low and much more welcoming than I had anticipated. “Glad I was able to catch you before you took off. Normally you’re dropping little Maggie off so fast we don’t get a chance to chat.”
I don’t miss the way she used catch. Nor the fact that she referred to Maggie as little. She likely caught the two of us kissing, and though that may not be against the law, it’s certainly not going to be looked on highly by a school official. Instead of telling her to mind her own business, I try to be polite and smooth things over.
“I’m usually trying to get to work on time. Is there something you wanted to talk about?”
“Well, I happened to snag a couple of tickets to the hockey game this weekend. I thought maybe you might want to come along and help keep me warm.”
Before I can respond, her hand sneaks in the window of my truck, and her palm rests on my chest. This is bold for the little contact I’ve had with this woman, and to be honest, I’m shocked. She doesn’t even know me, yet she’s trying to touch me. I don’t want to be touched by anyone but Maggie, and the feeling of her hand on my body makes my stomach churn.
“Miss Petty—”
“Rose, and I think you might want to consider the offer. After all, if I don’t go to the game, I’d have to spend my weekend talking to the school superintendent about a student’s guardian and their possible relationship.”
“Did you just threaten me?” I ask through gritted teeth as I grab her wrist and push it away from me.
She takes a step back as an angry look passes over her eyes, the one she was giving me when she saw me kiss Maggie. Her glare turns to a sneer as she straightens her coat.
“Oh, it’s not a threat, Mr. Strong. I’ve had my eye on you and Miss Drummond for a few weeks now. I think the school board would be very interested to see what’s been taking place.” She raises her chin and cocks an eyebrow at me. “I’ll be here after classes today, Eli. Maybe if you change your mind we can come to an agreement. We could have a drink at my place and I could let you work things out.”
She turns on her heels and struts back into the building, swaying her hips exaggeratedly.