A Soldier's Journey

She raised an eyebrow. “I seem to recall you nudging Clint and Steph together.”

“Your imagination. Now tell me more about Lieutenant Stuart.”

“She’s getting a fast indoctrination. She volunteered to write our history for the brochure. She’s going through the museum now.”

“Volunteered?”

Eve shrugged innocently. “She wanted to do something to pay for the cabin. We need a history written for your opening. It seemed...fortuitous, don’t you think?”

“Can she write?”

“I don’t know, but she said she keeps a journal and likes history. She really needed something to do. She’s lost, Josh. Really lost.”

Josh took her in his arms. “I love you, Eve Manning, you and that huge heart of yours.”

“Me, too,” Nick piped in.

Amos barked, and a chorus of sounds came from Nick’s four dogs.

CHAPTER FIVE

ANDY SPENT THE rest of the afternoon looking through boxes at the community center.

Bill Evans had brought a chair inside the “museum” after she started glancing through some of scrapbooks, then he disappeared, apparently in pursuit of other volunteer duties.

Joseph lay beside her, his head resting on his paws, his tail wagging occasionally, apparently to remind her that he was there. She didn’t have to be reminded. In a few short weeks he’d become her lifeline. She had someone to feed and water and take for walks. She hadn’t realized how much she’d needed that.

She found twelve different newspapers that had apparently come and gone in the more than 150 years they documented. Some were little more than a single page. They were in chronological order but some years were missing. Still, it was like filing through snapshots of history.

The faded pages presented a glimpse of the town: the marriages, the births and the deaths. The marriage of a Nathan Rowland to Edna Redding caught her eye. The date on the newspaper was May 16, 1930. She counted back. He was probably Nate Rowland’s great-grandfather. The story was accompanied by a photo.

The Nate who had greeted her earlier in the day resembled the groom, except the latter sported a handsome mustache and looked uncomfortable in a black suit and white shirt with a stiff collar. The dark-haired bride was very pretty. Andy turned to another article. The country was deep in the Great Depression. There were rumors, denied, that the bank in the town would close. She suspected she would find out if it had.

Fascinated, she’d turned to the next issue when she heard footsteps behind her. She looked at her watch. Nearly six. She was amazed at how much time had passed.

“Hi, again” came a voice from behind her, and she whirled around. Nate Rowland stood in the doorway. “I hope I didn’t startle you,” he said. “You looked completely absorbed.”

“I was,” she said, feeling oddly as if she knew him better after reading the marriage announcement. “These...are fascinating.”

“You really think so?”

“Don’t you?”

He shrugged. “I grew up on this area’s history.” He knelt next to Joseph, who promptly turned on his back, baring his belly. Nate rubbed it as Joseph hummed with pleasure.

“He’s shameless,” Andy said. “And easy.”

Nate smiled, a slow twist of his lips that was surprisingly attractive. She found herself smiling back. She hadn’t really managed a real one for months, not until several days after she was introduced to Joseph. It was impossible not to respond to an animal that lived every day just to please you and intuit your every mood. It was also...difficult not to respond to Nate Rowland’s smile.

“You must be exhausted,” he said.

She shrugged. “I don’t sleep much.”

“I get that. I didn’t, either, when I returned from Iraq.”

She turned back to the newspaper and closed the bound volume. “It’s probably time for me to go back to the cabin and feed Joseph.”

“Bill had to leave. Something for his wife,” Nate said. “He asked me to close up for him and drive you home. He said you were so engrossed in the files, he didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“That was considerate of him,” Andy said, “and you, but I can walk home. Joseph and I need the exercise.”

“He thought you might want to take some of the material with you.”

Surprised, she blurted out her first thought. “I would think he, or the town, would want keep it under lock and key.”

“I don’t think he’s worried about you taking off with anything in here,” Nate said with that wry smile again. She was prepared for it this time.

She stood, stretched. She considered the newspapers she had been reading. It was either that or a book tonight, and she was becoming intrigued with Covenant Falls. It was the first time in months that she’d felt even a smidgen of interest in anything around her.

She was grateful for it, for anything that kept her mind from going back to Afghanistan. But if she took the bound newspapers home, she couldn’t hold Joseph’s leash. She would need a ride.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’ll take that ride.”

“Good. Can I carry that down for you?”

She hesitated, then nodded. The last thing she needed now was to fall down a flight of stairs.

He picked up the heavy, awkward book with ease. He waited for her and Joseph to lead the way down the stairs and he followed.

The building was empty. She waited as Nate locked up the building, then walked with her to his blue pickup.

“What time does it usually close?” she asked.

“Five on Friday. Seven the other weekdays so kids can do homework. Then it’s open Saturday from nine to five.”

“And it’s after six,” she said. “I didn’t realize...”

“Not to worry,” he said. “Bill saved me from doing some paperwork that’s on my desk. Now I can foist it on Josh.” He paused, then asked, “Have you had dinner?”

“No, but I had a late lunch with Eve Manning and there’s enough food in the fridge to feed an army.”

A light seemed to go on in his eyes. “Ah, now I understand,” he said.

“Understand what?”

“Why you’re here. Eve is behind this.”

“I like to pay my own way.”

“I get that, too,” he said as they went down the few steps to the ground. They reached his pickup and she wondered whether everyone in Covenant Falls drove a truck. The Bucket was definitely going to be out of place.

She opened the passenger door before he could reach it and climbed inside. Joseph hopped in and squeezed next to her, then she took the bound newspapers in her lap.

It was warm outside and it seemed to get warmer when Nate stepped inside. The sleeves of his blue shirt were rolled up, displaying bronze muscles. She hadn’t noticed that much this morning. She’d been tired and anxious to get inside and settled, at least as much as she could in a cabin that didn’t belong to her. She had worried every mile of her drive that some loud noise or headlight would send her back to Afghanistan and off the road.

But now she was running on adrenaline. The lunch with Eve Manning had given her something she very much needed: an immediate goal. She liked Bill Evans and thought he could be a friend. Maybe Nate, too, although she wanted absolutely nothing outside a casual friendship.

She leaned against the seat.

“What exactly does Eve want you to do?” Nate asked.

“A brochure about the town’s history,” she said.

Nate didn’t say anything, but then silences seemed to be a part of him.

A minute later they were in front of the cabin. He turned off the engine. “If you want to know the history, you should talk to Al Monroe.”

“Eve mentioned something about him, but Bill indicated he might be difficult.”

“He might. He might not,” Nate said. “But it’s worth a try.”

“Could you ask him?”

“I think you should do it yourself,” he said. “He respects strength and directness. And even if not, I’m the last person to ask him.”

“Why?”

“As far as he’s concerned, I’ve been wrong on every side of an issue in Covenant Falls.”

“That’s intriguing.” She waited for him to continue, but he didn’t. Instead, he stepped down and went around to her side of the pickup and opened the door. He reached for the book, but she shook her head.

“I can take it from here,” she said.

His gaze met hers in the internal light of the pickup. His eyes were predominantly a golden brown but with shades of gray and green mixing with it. What was striking, though, was not the color. It was something she couldn’t define. It wasn’t kindness, but more of an empathy. She resented the hell out of sympathy, or pity or its like, but this was neither. I’ve been there. I know what you’re going through. I respect it.

She suddenly realized she was still sitting in the seat, holding the book as if it were a lifeline. Joseph barked as if to jar her into moving. She handed the bulky volume down to Nate. He took it, and she stepped out and followed him to the cabin. “I can take it now,” she said, but as she took it from him once they were inside, her bad hand failed her and the heavy volume started to fall. He caught it.

“Where would you like it?” he asked as if nothing at all had happened.

“The table, I think,” she said, biting her tongue in mortification.

He placed it down on the table, then he turned to her. “Think about contacting Al Monroe,” he said. “I think he would like you.”

“Why?”

“Because I think you have a hell of a lot of grit, and he respects that.” She was too stunned to reply. Grit? Not recently.

“Listen,” he said. “I don’t know what the hell happened to you out there, but here you are, in a strange town, standing up tall and ready to take on a challenge because you’re not giving up.”

“But I was giving up,” she admitted honestly.

“Was doesn’t matter. Now is what matters. Just know we all have your back. Okay?”

He was willing her to believe it. She took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said.

He just nodded. “Call if you need anything, or just want to talk. You’ll be coming to the vet meeting Monday night?”

“You said they play poker?”

“Yeah. We’ve been known to do that.”

“You betcha, then.” False bravado, but it just popped out. She was as surprised as he looked.

He simply nodded, his eyes hooded. “Welcome to Covenant Falls,” he said as he headed for the door.

* * *

NATE’S THOUGHTS WERE in turmoil as he drove away from the cabin. He had not meant to say what he had said, nor do more than leave her at the door. The look on Andy’s face when she’d nearly dropped the heavy, bulky book had changed his mind.

She looked so fragile and yet she had the strength to plunge through whatever pain she had. She’d traveled to a strange place with a determination to reclaim her life. She had apparently grabbed at whatever Eve had offered.

Be careful! Women, particularly pretty ones with wide eyes and sad stories, were poison for him. It had taken him five years to claw back from the hell Maggie had put him through. The last thing he needed was any kind of involvement with a woman.

He would keep his distance. He had given her a challenge by mentioning Al Monroe. He suspected she couldn’t ignore it if she was the fighter he thought lurked within her. He’d done his part. He turned on the highway. He had other stops today.

CHAPTER SIX

ANDY WOKE TO sunlight streaming through the bedroom window. She felt a furry body next to her. It was the first full night’s sleep she’d had in months. No demons. No blood. Just a soft snoring.

Joseph opened one eye and peered at her, as if asking whether he could stay. She remembered her resolve three weeks ago. She wasn’t going to get too emotionally invested in the dog. It was a sound decision. It had lasted until the first nightmare, when he’d woken her, crawled up on the bed and let her cling to him.

Bright blue eyes regarded her solemnly now, and she couldn’t help but rub his ears. So much for not getting invested.

She looked at the clock on the stand next to her bed. Nearly seven. She rarely, if ever, slept that late, but then yesterday had been a very long day. She had gone nearly twenty-four hours without more than a nap yesterday morning.

Even after arriving back at the cabin, she’d looked through more of the papers.

One item had jumped out at her. The mention of a camel ordinance being defeated...

For a few hours she hadn’t thought of Jared, of her friends, of the hand that didn’t work very well.

She stretched out in the bed and thought about the day ahead of her.

Saturday. She was committed to dinner tonight. She wasn’t sure whether she was ready for it, but Eve Manning was a force of nature.

She rubbed Joseph’s fur, and he rewarded her with a sneak-attack kiss. As a nurse who had never had a dog before, she was appalled. But then, she reasoned, a lot of people apparently had canine companions and stayed healthy.

Joseph hadn’t attempted such an overt show of affection before. She apparently had passed the Joseph test.

“Time to get up,” she said. She was hungry. Appetite was something else that had been missing. She was actually hungry now. Dr. Payne would be proud. She might send him a text.

She went into the bathroom. The shower was great. She stayed there for a long time, washing her hair, then just reveling in the hot water. It was almost symbolic. Washing away some of the anger and hopelessness that had smothered her.

She stepped out. Joseph stood and wagged his tail. “Want to go out?” she asked.

The tail moved faster.

Andy went back in the bedroom and slipped into jeans and a T-shirt, then went to the back door and opened it. Joseph dashed out.

She stood there and watched as the dog explored the area in back, then did his business and returned. She had been afraid at first that he would run away, but in the two weeks she’d been with him, she’d learned how well he was trained. The word come would bring him immediately.

She prepared coffee. It was slow because she had to do nearly everything with one hand. Then she fried three eggs. One went into Joseph’s bowl along with dog food. Her two went on a plate with one of the sweet rolls Maude had provided with the cabin.

Andy carried her plate outside. She left the front door open for Joseph to join her.

The lake was visible through the trees. The scent of pines perfumed the air. A few wildflowers peeked up out of the ground.

Her thoughts turned to Nate Rowland. Grit. Just his saying the word helped her battered self-image. Grit was something she needed, something she respected, something she’d once relished and in the past months had lost.

Or maybe she hadn’t.

She hadn’t been a victim in his eyes. She was a person with grit, and that was a gift.

So was a purpose. There were interesting tidbits in the newspapers but very little about the beginnings of the town, and that had been the carrot Eve had offered. Traders. American Indians. Gold. That was the core, the mother lode.

She picked up the plate and coffee cup and went inside, placed them in the sink and looked at her watch. It was a little after eight. She washed the dishes, put them away, then called Eve.

After the preliminaries, she got to the point. “You and Nate mentioned Al Monroe, that he might have original journals from 1850. I would very much like to read them. Question is, how do I approach Mr. Monroe?”

“Quite honestly, I think if you called, he would say no,” Eve said. “He’s had a couple of tragedies these past few years, and he’s retreated from nearly everyone. But he’s very proud of his family roots. We’ll talk about it tonight.”

“You think he would approve of me writing a short history of the town?”

“I never know with Al. I’m not one of his favorite people, but he surprises me at times. He was a curmudgeon on the town council, but under a gruff exterior he really cares about Covenant Falls.”

Andy digested that answer. It raised several questions. And suspicions. She didn’t like being manipulated, either for her own good or for someone else’s.

But despite any misgivings, she was hooked. One of her character flaws was an obsession to finish whatever she started. “What time tonight?” she asked.

“Around six,” Eve said. “Oh, I asked Nate to come as well, since you’ve already met him. If it’s okay, he’ll pick you up. Josh will be working his magic with steaks, and we’re a bit hard to find.”

“It’s fine,” Andy said and with a goodbye hung up. She stood there for a moment. It wasn’t fine at all. Nate was being thrown at her, and she resented it. He probably did, too. He had been helpful last night, but the last thing she wanted, or needed, was a matchmaker hovering around. Damn.

* * *

NATE AND JOSH spent Saturday-morning meeting with the newly hired manager for the Covenant Falls Inn. The daughter of one of his mother’s friends, Susan Hall, had been a hotel manager in Las Vegas—not for one of the huge luxury hotels, but a small boutique hotel.

She was recently divorced and had been looking for a job far away from the ex-husband when her mother had heard about the opening for a manager. Susan was hired after the first interview.

“It may not be permanent,” Nate had warned. “We’re all out on a limb here.”

“It doesn’t matter. Right now, it’s a godsend.”

“You can hire the rest of the staff,” Nate said. “Let us know what you need and recommended salaries.”

“We’ll start off slow until we know about the market,” she said. “I can fill several positions. We’ll need a night manager. I’ll take care of the day desk.”

“We’ll need a cook,” Nate said.

“A chef,” Josh said with a wry smile.

“A cook,” Nate insisted.

Susan laughed. “Maybe we could get Maude.”

“Hell, no,” Nate said. “The town would drive us out on a rail. But we have other great cooks in town. We start out using home talent. Mrs. Byars, for instance, could provide brownies for each room, and Ethel Jones is a great cook. She’s widowed and could use money. We could hire a young person to help her while getting training.”

“I like it,” Josh said. “The whole idea is to bring jobs to the town.”

“I’ll talk to Mrs. Jones,” Nate said. “I have better diplomatic skills than Josh.”

“I resent that,” Josh said. “Eve says I’m one hundred percent improved.”

Nate rolled his eyes. “One hundred percent of zero is still zero.”

Susan laughed. “I think I’m going to like this job.” She looked down at the dog sitting next to Josh. “I take it the inn will be animal friendly.”

“Yep,” Josh said.

“Take a hard look throughout the property, Susan,” Nate said. “See if there’s anything we missed or that we need. We used every wholesale and going-out-of-business company in the country. Call me or Josh anytime with a problem. I’ll take the easy ones, and he, as president of this budding firm, will take the hard ones.”

“When do we open?”

“We have an informal opening in seven weeks. We’ve invited a number of travel agents and tourist information people. We have about eight couples who have accepted. I would like to open to the public shortly after that. As soon as you think we’re ready, we’ll put out news releases saying we’re open.”

“I have contacts with travel magazines and websites,” Susan said. “I’ll get in touch.” She hesitated, then said, “You don’t have the sign yet.”

“No.”

“You might want to think about the name. Something chic and catchy.”

“The Covenant Falls Inn isn’t chic and catchy?” Nate asked.

“Truthfully?” Susan answered.

“We’ll think about it,” Josh said. “We haven’t confirmed the design yet with the sign company.” Josh stood, ending the meeting. “We’re really happy to have you,” Josh said to Susan.

“Not nearly as happy as I am to be here. We’ll make it work,” she replied.

Nate and Josh walked out together. “She might just do that,” Josh said.

“I like your enthusiasm,” Nate replied drily.

“I hear you’re coming to dinner tonight.”

“All Eve has to say is ‘steaks.’”

“I also hear Eve conned you into meeting our new arrival.”

“Yep.”

“That tells me a lot,” Josh said.

“She’s like most of us when we got back. There’s a lot of pain there.”

“You liked her.”

“She’s nice enough. Obviously hurting. But don’t you or Eve even think of matchmaking. She’s certainly not ready, and neither am I.”

“I would never harbor the thought,” Josh said. “A confirmed bachelor is a confirmed bachelor.” He smirked.

“I mean it,” Nate said.

“I know you’ve been avoiding every woman in town and something bad went down. You don’t talk much about personal things, my friend.”

“Not just bad. I was an idiot. I fell for a pair of blue eyes and a sad story. I thought I could fix things. I discovered I’m not worth a damn in fixing broken things. I married for the wrong reason and to do the right thing, and it exploded on me. My ex-wife had totally different motives, including another guy. I ended up losing my career as well as everything I had saved.”

Josh knew the results. Nate had returned to Covenant Falls two years ago. He’d worked at every construction job he could find. It was how they’d met—Josh had needed help installing a new floor and hired Nate. He found a talented craftsman with three years toward an architecture degree in addition to eight years in the army.

Nate had shared stories about his time in Iraq but not the years afterward. Josh had never asked and never would, but he knew Nate carried a load of hurt. He’d just had a glimpse of how heavy it was.

Josh gave him a searching look, then nodded. “Eve is going to ask you to pick her up tonight. She and I will be cooking, and Andy doesn’t know Clint or Stephanie. Do that, and I’ll tell—ah, ask—her to refrain from asking anything else. Okay?”

Nate nodded. “Deal.”

They separated, Nate going to his truck and Josh, Amos at his side, to his Jeep.

* * *

ANDY WAS RESTLESS. She’d finished the last few issues of the bound newspapers. She had scrawled a couple of notes of dates and events she thought might be important.

She wanted to know more about the Monroe family. If she was going to talk to the man, or even try to, she needed as much information as she could find. She decided to drive to the community center, return the volume she had and look at more recent newspapers.

She drove the Bucket, since she had the newspapers with her. Bill Evans wasn’t there, but a Mrs. Wilson was.

“Bill told me you might be showing up. I’m real glad to meet you. My husband is Calvin Wilson. He and my son run the hardware store. You need anything—a replacement lightbulb, anything at all—you call them. They would be real proud to help.”

The real proud reminded Andy of home. It sounded like her mother. It also reminded her she needed to call her mother, make sure everything was all right and let her know where she was. She had made duty calls once a week, but she knew they had been more worrying than comforting. She had repeatedly refused to go home to heal. She didn’t want to add another burden to a family that already had more than they should have to handle.

“You need anything, you just call me,” Mrs. Wilson said. “There’s usually coffee in the club room.”

“Thank you. I might try that.” After Mrs. Wilson left, Andy looked through the stacks of bound newspapers and picked up one that covered the years 2005 through this year. Someone, probably Bill Evans, had conscientiously added each newspaper.

After flipping through them, she understood exactly what Bill Evans had meant when he’d dismissed The Covenant Falls Herald as a serious newspaper. The editions were little more than a collection of gossip, dry recounts of city council meetings and legal ads. She flipped through them until she came to a headline—Councilman Monroe Resigns After Arrest of Nephew.

She read the article. Al Monroe, chairman of the city council, had resigned when his nephew was arrested for kidnapping. Her interest boiled over when she read that the victim had been the mayor’s son, who was rescued by the mayor’s current husband and her husband’s dog, Amos.