“It certainly is.” His eyes never leave my body. He clears his throat when he realizes he’s been caught staring at me. “I know it’s kind of early, but do you want something to eat? I can make us grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.”
It’s only around four thirty in the afternoon. It took me a little longer than I expected to drive up the mountain to his cabin. After Nora and I loaded my SUV, I stopped by the bakery and picked up some cinnamon rolls and cookies as a special treat for Hunter. “I stopped at the bakery. We can have either cinnamon rolls or unicorn cookies for dessert.”
“I’m partial to the unicorn sugar cookies.” His smile softens his features, and I inhale sharply this time.
Recovering quickly, I return his smile. “A man after my own heart.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I wish I could take them back. The smile falls from his face, and I silently curse myself for ruining the moment. “I just mean, they’re my favorite also.”
He nods, accepting my explanation, but the smile doesn’t return. If anything, he looks sad.
Great, Millie. I hope you didn’t screw this up.
He turns back to putting away the groceries, dismissing the rest of our conversation about our favorite dessert. Deciding to regroup, I take a seat on the couch, trying to figure out why he slammed the door in my face when I first arrived.
Afraid of making the situation even more awkward, I didn’t ask him any questions when he finally opened the door for me five minutes later. But watching him now, I notice his gait seems a little off. His left leg looks stiff, and I swear he grimaces every once in a while as he walks around the kitchen.
I don’t know much about the Wounded Warrior Sanctuary, but I do know it mainly helps military veterans injured in the line of duty. I wonder if Hunter has a leg injury—that would make sense. I try not to stare, but I’m curious about the pain and suffering he might be going through, even the mental anguish from the fallout of his injury.
As if reading my mind, he turns around and faces me. “I was in the Army for ten years on active duty.” He takes a deep breath before continuing. “A year ago today, there was an accident. I didn’t care where I was running; I just knew I had to get to my buddy, who was trapped. I stepped on an IED. The doctors couldn’t save the lower part of my leg. I spent the last year in an Army hospital recovering. Now I walk with this.” He pulls up his pant leg, revealing the metal and plastic of his prosthetic leg.
He eyes me wearily, like this will change how I view him. “Does it hurt?”
“Sometimes, it feels like it’s still there. They call that phantom pain. They can get really bad, like last night.”
“Is that why you wanted your groceries delivered?” There’s a glimmer of hope in my voice that he wasn’t trying to avoid me at the grocery store today, but that’s soon shot down.
“Among other reasons.” The look of longing in his eyes saddens me, then turns to anger. How dare he decide to avoid me because he doesn't think I’ll accept him with a missing limb?
He has no idea what he’s unleashed in me. If he thinks he can push me away because of this, he is sadly mistaken. If he thought being in the military was bad, he’s definitely not prepared for my sneak attack. One way or another, he’s mine.
four
Hunter
I’m not sure whatmade me come clean with Millie and tell her about my leg and the accident that caused it. I could feel her eyes on me while I was putting the groceries away. And a part of me needed to know if she knew about the missing part of my leg, if she would be disgusted by it, or not.
“I’m sorry that happened to you, but I’m glad you're still alive.” Her soft-spoken, heartfelt words go straight to my heart.
Taking a chance, I glance into her eyes, finding only kindness lurking in her beautiful sea-green eyes, and nod before turning back to preparing our supper.
The rest of the evening passes in comfortable conversation as we eat grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, then devour the unicorn sugar cookies for dessert.
“That was delicious.” She stands, grabs my empty bowl and plate, and takes them with hers to the kitchen sink. “You cooked. I’ll do the dishes.”
It’s such a simple gesture. One, she’ll never know how deeply it affects me to have her in my kitchen, doing something so domesticated, like a real couple. “I’ll dry.” It takes me a couple of seconds to get my leg to cooperate. I can feel my skin tightening as the swelling worsens. I need to take off my prosthetic before it gets worse. But that’s not going to happen until she’s safely on her way back home and out of my cabin. It’s bad enough I told her about my leg—she doesn’t need to see it.
She gives me a look like she wants to argue, but in the end, she hands over the dish after washing and rinsing it. “You’re kind of stubborn, you know.”
“I’m well aware of my faults, but what about yours? You really shouldn’t have driven into the mountains just to deliver my groceries on a day like today. I can’t believe Matt let you do it.” In the few times I met Matt, he seemed pretty protective. I can’t imagine he would let his sister drive these roads in the predicted bad weather.
“He didn’t exactly have a chance to stop me.” Her confession makes me smile. “He was already in the middle of deliveries, so I decided to help out.”
“And does he know you’re stranded overnight with a stranger? I could be a serial killer for all you know.” I’m not, but she shouldn’t be so trusting of people she barely knows.
The look she gives me is pure sass with a hint of mischief. “If you were a serial killer, you would have killed me by now, or at least tortured me a little.” An image of tying her to my bed while I sexually torture her pops into my head.
It is definitely going to be a long night.
“So, it’s still too early to go to bed.” The word bed hangs in the air between us. I might be a thirty-year-old virgin, but there’s no way I don’t see the lust in her eyes. “Do you want to watch a movie?” I say, needing to change the subject away from a bed or from thoughts of taking her to my bedroom.
