The first bars of the next song started and Willow grinned. “You must know this song.”
Zac rubbed his hands together. “I’m ready.”
As the Village People’s voices blared from the sound system, Willow watched Zac focus on the man in front of him. This time his feet moved in perfect timing. When they hit the chorus, his arms made the shape of the YMCA letters as naturally as anyone in the room.
She smiled when she saw Megan and Emma. They were both singing with the music, enjoying every minute on the dance floor.
When the song came to an end, Willow laughed at Zac’s wide smile. “You’re a natural.”
“I’d still be sitting in my chair if it weren’t for you.”
The warmth in his gaze made her toes curl. “It’s just as well I’m here, then.”
Levi tapped Zac on the shoulder and said something to him. For the first time that night, Zac laughed.
For some reason, that gave Willow a deep sense of satisfaction. When the next song started, she stopped worrying about Zac and simply enjoyed dancing beside him. At least after tonight, when he went back to Afghanistan, he’d remember the night he line danced his way across a small dance floor in the middle of Montana. And if those memories brought a smile to his face, she’d be even happier.
Chapter Three
The next morning,Zac ran along one of the trails surrounding his home. Cold air stung his lungs and made him work hard to keep up with the pace he’d set himself.
The trail veered to the left. He jumped a fallen log, ducked under an overhanging branch, and kept going. Even here, far above Sapphire Bay, a deep sense of unease followed him. He kept to the trail, avoided anything that looked out of place and tried to ignore the panic that came with being on his own in the middle of an unfamiliar forest.
When he reached the highest point on the mountain, he stopped and caught his breath. With his hands on his hips, he looked across the pine and spruce trees to Flathead Lake. The early morning sunlight glistened off the water, boding well for the fishing and tourist boats lining the shore.
Perhaps if he’d come home more often, he wouldn’t have PTSD. He might have been able to process what was happening around him differently, found a way to distance himself from the reality of war.
He clenched his fists as a familiar surge of adrenaline shot through his body. Who was he kidding? Most of the people in the camp, including his colleagues, had varying degrees of PTSD. For some, it stopped at the nightmares plaguing their sleep. For others, it impacted on everything they did. Zac sat somewhere in between. It was the ‘somewhere’ that worried him the most.
Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply, focusing on the here and now and not what had happened four years ago.
As hard as he tried, he couldn’t let go of the images crowding his brain. He knew his response was irrational, that what had happened was only the tip of the iceberg in the inhumane camp. But it had broken him in ways he never thought possible.
The day had started better than most. A large convoy of trucks was arriving with desperately needed food and medical supplies. For a camp with no running water or electricity, the supplies were the difference between life and death. As the trucks came through the main gate, they were ambushed by a gang of militants. By the time the army took control of the chaos, fifty-two men, women, and children lay brutally slaughtered on the ground.
The massacre destroyed his faith in humanity. It made him question whether anyone’s life in the refugee camp would ever be better than it was now. And it made him angrier than he’d ever been. Governments around the world could have made the camps healthy, safe communities for the displaced people living there but, for political and economic reasons, they chose not to. It was a disgrace that Zac couldn’t understand.
The snap of branches sent chills down his spine.
Grabbing a fallen branch, he swung around. With a pounding heart, he waited for what was coming through the trees.
The flash of a bright orange jacket startled him. A few seconds later, Willow walked out of the forest.
Her smile disappeared when she saw the branch in his hands. “I’m hoping you aren’t a crazy psychopath.”
Embarrassment scorched his face. “Sorry. I didn’t know who was there.”
Willow studied his face but didn’t say anything.
He felt like an idiot. “I don’t always have a bat or branch with me. It’s just…I guess I’m a little jumpy.”
“Is it the same when you’re in Afghanistan?”
He wished it was. “It’s worse.”
Willow bit her bottom lip. “Is that why you’ve come home for Levi and Brooke’s wedding? To try and make it better?”
Zac threw the branch into the trees. “I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Levi’s wedding gave me a reason to come back to Sapphire Bay.”
