Page 14 of A Veteran's Protection
“Honest truth. I’ve been figuring out life after the military, and I didn’t want to complicate it with a woman.”
She’s scrutinizing me, searching my face for the truth. She must find what she’s looking for, because she relaxes in my arms.
“Then why me?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I saw you, and something ignited in me. Something bigger than you or me, and something I can’t stop. I’ve been waiting for you, and I didn’t even know it.” I take her hand and place it on my chest, over my heart. “My heart came to life yesterday by the bonfire. You must feel it, too.”
Her eyes are shiny and her voice a whisper as she says, “Yes. I do. But I don’t know what it means.” She looks down. “I’m not experienced with men. I’ve never been with a man before, and I’ve got to go back home in two days.”
And there it is. The countdown that’s looming over us. Two days to prove to Lexi that this is where she belongs.
“What do you have to go back for?” I ask tentatively, hoping she’ll see what I already know. Her life is here with me.
“My mom and my studies. I’m doing a business degree. I need to finish it. I don’t want to waitress my entire life.”
A business degree. My girl is smart, too. No wonder she wants to get back.
I’m not such a caveman that I’ll ask her to give that up for me. But if the military taught me anything, it’s that there’s always a way to work the problem. And I’ve got two days to figure out how to give my girl what she wants while keeping her here with me.
While my mind gets to work on the solution, my body leans forward, drawn to her. “We’ll figure it out, firefly.”
I press my lips to hers, and my body follows as I press her backside against the boundary marker. Only it gives way, and my girl squeals as I catch her from falling.
The boundary marker lies on the forest floor with an empty hole next to it.
“That’s not very stable,” she says.
I crouch down to inspect the boundary marker. The end that goes in the ground is pointed, and the wood looks old. There’s a brown line about a third of the way up where it’s been stuck in the ground for years. I pick it up and stick it back in the hole and push the loose dirt around it. But it doesn’t go all the way in, and it’s wonky.
“That’s odd.” I push down on the marker, but the ground is hard here, and no matter how hard I push, the brown line showing where it’s been buried remains a few inches above the ground.
“It won’t go down any deeper.”
I glance at Lexi, and she gets it at the same time as I do. “Someone’s moved the boundary line.”
8
LEXI
Aiden and I spend an hour walking the eastern boundary line, and every single marker shows signs of being moved. We try to find the original marker holes, but with the overgrown woods and grass, it’s impossible to spot them.
The Baxter sisters own only a small holding, and smaller landholders split the rest of the eastern boundary.
It doesn’t make sense that one of them would move the entire line. It’s one more thing to ask my lawyer about when I meet him this afternoon.
We still have an hour before the meeting, and Aiden had the good sense to pack sandwiches and a hot flask of coffee. We eat lunch on the crumbling steps of the house, and I’m not sure which is the better view: the man sitting next to me or the majestic mountain behind him. Both of them make me feel strange; alive and insignificant all at once, like there’s a bigger power at play here, something I don’t understand. I don’t believe in fate. My life’s too shitty for that. But with the brooding mountain looking down on us and Aiden chatting as he pours me hot coffee from a flask, his dimple peeking out of his stubble, it’s hard not to be drawn to this place.
I close my eyes for a moment and let myself dream. What if Mom didn’t need me back in Jersey? What if I had finished my studies? What if I didn’t have to work? What if I could be a carefree girl like my mom was when she came through here twenty-three years ago? When she met a man and had a fling. Except instead of running, what if I stayed?
The thought hits my heart with a jolt, and my eyes fly open to see Aiden peering at me, and I stand up abruptly.
“Let’s check out upstairs.” I turn away from him and head into the house, shaking off the thought.
I can’t stay. It’s not an option. I’m not passing through like my mother. I have responsibilities and studies, and things to do with my life. I will not repeat her mistakes.
Aiden follows me inside and to the staircase. “I haven’t been upstairs yet.”
The staircase is ornate with a crimson patterned carpet. I put my hand on the banister, about to take a step when Aiden pulls me back.
