Moving to sit beside Katie before someone else took the spot, he sat. Stretching his arm out, he snatched her hand in his, delighted when their fingers laced together. For the next few moments, he had no idea what anyone else had said. The adrenaline from the day was still rushing through his system, topped off by Katie’s declaration, and he didn’t think he’d ever come off the mountaintop high. Katie Lawford loved him.
While more family members arrived, making the din of conversation rise with each new addition around the massive table, Josh’s phone sounded. For one long moment he was tempted to let the call go to voicemail, but reluctantly letting go of Katie’s hand, he pushed to his feet, and phone to his ear, made his way outside. “Hello.”
“I heard you and the dogs are heroes.”
“How far does the Honeysuckle grapevine go?”
Kade barked a sharp laugh. “At least to the base. I’ve been getting updates from pretty much everyone in the family all day, including my aunts Liz and Vicki.”
“I’ll remember that if I ever want to keep a secret.” Which right about now he was pretty sure would be damn near impossible anywhere within a hundred mile radius of the Sweet Ranch.
“As long as we’re talking updates, Mom tells me your vertigo is gone.”
“Why would she say that?” His mind drifted back to her comment by the freezer,he wasn’t careful anymore.
“Is she wrong?”
Was she? He’d been able to nod and shake his head for a while now, and as he thought on it, he realized, he really had stopped being careful. He actually could not remember the lasttime he had to steady himself against a wall, or extend his arms to catch his balance. “I don’t know.”
He could almost hear Kade rolling his eyes through the phone connection. “Of course you do.”
Yeah, maybe he did. “I’ve got a checkup with the doc in a couple of days, I’ll report back.”
“So, if you get a clean bill of health, does that mean you’ll be back on base driving the soldiers crazy?”
Did it? Would he? “I guess.”
Silence hung for several long seconds. “You guess?”
“Truth?”
“Always.”
“I’m not sure. There have been some other changes.”
“Katie?”
“How did you know?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Kade heaved a sigh. “It was pretty obvious when I was home that there was a little chemistry bouncing off the walls whenever y’all were in the same room, and according to Cassie—”
“Ah,” he cut Kade off, “your inside man.”
Again, Kade laughed out loud. “Something like that.”
“Not to cut you short, but any updates on Kent or Boglioli?”
“Coming along. Boglioli should be released from rehab any day now.”
“That’s what he said when I spoke to him earlier this week. He mentioned needing more PT.”
“Yeah. He can walk now, but with the limp, he wouldn’t be able to carry a pack or pass a physical for duty. He’ll need intensive therapy to correct that.”
“I see.”
“I hear the wheels turning.”
Josh laughed, so maybe his buddy wasn’t as good a mind reader as he gave him credit for. “Let me look into a few things and I’ll get back to you.”
