Page 10 of Stirring Attraction (Second Shot 2)
The air force officer, the only one of the three of them still serving, pushed off the ground and adjusted his uniform. “So are you going to get off your ass, put on some pants, and get on that plane? Or do I need to tell my commanding officer that I won’t be there Monday morning because I need to go hunt down a navy SEAL to watch over my best friend’s ex because he was too chicken to do it himself?”
“I’ll go.” Dominic reached for the jeans, shook off the pieces of broken mug, and started pulling them on. “Lily doesn’t need a SEAL.”
And I’d bet the use of my left hand that she doesn’t want me.
But he’d go. He’d look out for the woman he’d loved in what felt like another lifetime. Before a bullet had busted his hand . . . Before he’d lost his place with the rangers . . .
Once he knew that she’d found a way through her fears, he’d disappear again. He didn’t have a clue what the future held for him, but he refused to screw with hers.
And hell, while he was home maybe he’d find the scumbag who’d taken a knife to his beautiful, perfect Lily.
Chapter Three
LILY TURNED THE lock and flipped the sign indicating that the cows were home and Big Buck’s Bar was closed for the night. Through the bar’
s front window, she saw a few college-age patrons lingering in the parking lot and waiting for a cab. She’d personally placed the calls to Forever’s lone taxi service ten minutes before closing. She might be serving drinks to keep busy until school started again—and to keep her mind off the attack—but she couldn’t escape her instinct to look after students, whether they were five or twenty-five.
“Would you like to have a drink before heading home?”
She glanced over her shoulder. The damaged skin on her neck pulled taut. Her wounds had scabbed over and healed. Mostly. The place where he’d slashed her neck had run deeper than the cuts to her forearms. And the wound on her side looked as if he’d tried to cut open her stomach and missed. The doctors had promised a quick recovery, going so far as to smile at the fact that “the crazy random stranger” had stopped short of doing permanent damage.
Lucky me.
But standing in the closed bar, she didn’t feel lucky or healed.
“Sure,” she said to the dishwasher. Drinking with the reclusive Caroline sounded better than walking through the empty house she’d lived in her entire life. If she went home now, she would spend the rest of the night checking the locks and peering behind doors.
“Good. Wait here. I’ll be right back.” Caroline offered a curt nod then headed for the swinging door that led to the back room. The Employees Only space housed the bar’s office, spare liquor, the kegs, and the dishwasher.
Why did Noah’s friend always sound like she was giving out orders? Lily wondered as she headed to the bar. She’d asked Josie and Noah about the quiet, petite woman who avoided the bar’s front room whenever there were customers present. But Big Buck’s owner and Dominic’s little sister, who had somehow found their way to love and a baby after Noah returned from the army, hadn’t revealed a word about Caroline.
Lily filled a clean pint glass with water and turned to the whiskey. She heard the door to her left swing open. “What would you like to drink?” she called to the other woman.
“What goes with marionberry pie?” Caroline asked.
Lily glanced over her shoulder and spotted Caroline holding what looked like a homemade pie with a lattice-top crust. Caroline moved surprisingly fast, barely making a sound as she crossed the bar’s wooden floorboards, despite wearing what looked like black steel-toed boots.
Who wears combat boots to wash dishes?
But Lily forced the question aside and focused on the bottles lined up against the back of the bar. “I think an Oregon pinot noir would be best. Unless you would prefer whiskey.”
“I’ll have a glass of the wine.” Caroline set the pie dish on the bar’s polished wood surface. Then she reached into the pocket of her black cargo shorts and withdrew two forks. “Do you mind eating out of the dish? I didn’t want to search for plates.”
“Or wash them later?” Lily said with a smile as she uncorked the wine and poured two glasses. She set them by the pie and headed for the service entrance to the bar. Lifting the piece of wood that kept the customers on their side of the space, she slipped out and headed for the stool beside Caroline.
Her coworker nodded, her long dark hair falling over her shoulders.
“You know,” Lily said, adjusting her stool so that she could still see the locked front entrance, “I’ve only been here a week, but that’s the second pie Josh Summers has dropped off for you.”
“We’re friends,” Caroline said in a tone that suggested she still didn’t quite believe it herself. “And he likes to bake.”
“Friends with benefits? I grew up here, surrounded by loggers. I don’t know many who spend their spare time testing new pie recipes,” Lily teased, sinking into the moment. When was the last time she’d sat down with someone and gossiped over a glass of wine? Ever since the attack, her friends and coworkers approached every conversation as if they needed to make it crystal clear they had all the sympathy in the world for her.
But she didn’t want their pity. And she flat out hated it when they treated her like a child who simply didn’t understand when she dared to bring up finding her assailant before he attacked her again.
“Just pie,” Caroline said. “I’m not ready for more. When and if I want to date, to have a relationship again, to fall in love, I doubt I’ll still be here.”
“Planning to move back home?” Lily asked, raising her glass to her lips.
