LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter 5

      “I’ve never seen a smile like that one before,” Buck Yates said as he signaled for the waitress, who immediately came over.

      “I bet I know what you’d like, Buck,” she said as she picked up the empty plates from the table. “A slice of Miss Sue’s famous cherry pie and some coffee.”

      “You know me too well, Lizzy. How about you, Fisher? Was it something sweet that put that smile on your face?” Buck teased.

      Something sweet and hot, Fisher thought, recalling the taste of Macy’s lips and the warmth of her body pressed to his as they had made love that long ago night.

      Shifting in his seat to readjust his increasingly tight jeans, he looked up at the perky young waitress. “I’ll take a slice of that pie with some vanilla ice cream, please.”

      He needed the chill to cool down his thoughts.

      As Lizzy walked away with their empty plates and orders, Buck once again resumed the earlier conversation. “So what had you smiling like the cat that ate the cream? A woman, and I hope a decent one at that.”

      With some force, Fisher shook his head. “Come on, Pa. You know I can’t offer a decent woman the kind of life she’d want.”

      “Nonsense,” Buck began and for emphasis, jabbed a gnarly index finger in his direction. “Plenty of military men have wives and families.”

      He couldn’t argue with his dad, although he understood how difficult it was for such men. Being away from their families for months on end. The fears and dangers that each new mission brought for those left behind.

      “I don’t think I could share my kind of life with a woman.”

      His father was about to speak when Lizzy returned with the pies and coffee, but as soon as she left them, his dad continued his plea. “You could if you took that teaching assignment at West Point.”

      For weeks since the offer had come, he had been debating between that and returning for another tour of duty in the Middle East. As captain of his squad, he had recently led his men safely through three tours. He couldn’t imagine leaving them.

      “I don’t want to abandon my men. Besides, I like the military life. It’s orderly. Disciplined.”

      “Lonely,” Buck jumped in. “At the end of the day when you hang up that uniform with all those medals—”

      “I’ll know that I helped bring home alive as many men as I could. Their families will thank me for that,” he replied and forked up a bit of the pie and ice cream. The taste was wooden in his mouth because a part of him recognized that on some level his father was right.

      At the end of his career, no matter how successful he had been, his uniform would hang in a closet empty of any traces of a woman or family. Despite that, he couldn’t picture himself as a father or husband. Solving a family’s problems instead of those of his men. He wasn’t sure how to handle such things.

      While glancing down at his pie, he said, “I know you’d like grandkids to carry on the Yates name, Pa. Seems to me Jericho’s the one you should look to for that.”

      “Hard to believe it’s only been a couple of weeks since he met Olivia and married her,” his father said.

      “I admire that Jericho’s willing to claim Olivia’s baby as his own and if I know my brother—”

      “He’ll be wanting more with her. I can see how much he cares for Olivia and it really makes me happy. I always worried after what happened with your ma—”

      “Don’t blame yourself. You did what you could and we all know we were better off without her,” he said and yet a part of him acknowledged that her leaving had ripped away a piece of each of them. That for him and Jericho, it had made them leery of loving a woman for fear of being abandoned again.

      Like Macy had abandoned him, he thought, recalling how despite their one night of incredible passion she had walked down the aisle with Tim Ward just over a month later.

      His dad must have picked up on his upset. “You shouldn’t let your ma leaving eat away at your gut like that. Neither you or Jericho had anything to do with that.”

      “You’re right, Pa,” he said, wanting to foreclose any further discussion. Wanting to forget anything and everything relating to Macy Ward.

      He wasn’t meant for women like her or for a family kind of life. The military was what had brought order and happiness to his life eighteen years earlier.

      It was what would bring order and happiness to his life for the future.

      For the first Friday night in too many months, Macy felt like she could actually just kick back and relax.

      The change in T.J. in a little over a week was a welcome surprise. He had clearly bonded not only with Joe, but with Sara. She hoped that friendship would help the young girl come out of her shell and talk about her problems. The Hopechest Ranch policy was not to press for details, but offer refuge. She knew, however, that she did the most good when the children were finally able to talk about their traumas.

      Maybe Sara’s friendship with T.J. and Joe would help her trust them enough to share and begin the road to healing.

      Much as T.J. seemed to be healing.

      In addition to the bonding, T.J. and Joe had completed each and every task that had been asked of them at the ranch and eagerly helped out with the other kids during

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