LITMIR.BIZ

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moment Charlie turned her back, Aidan swung it at Jake’s chest so hard he would have knocked him off the back of the truck if Sean hadn’t balanced him from the ground. His grin said he’d done it on purpose.

      “Knock that off, Aidan,” Bobby said equably. “Sorry, Jake. He gets above himself sometimes. Likes to show off how strong he is.”

      Aidan shrugged and lobbed the next bale high and easy. Jake fielded it and passed it down to Sean.

      After that Aidan settled down, and the three men established an easy rhythm from Aidan to Jake to Sean to the shavings shed. After all the bales were off the truck, Bobby directed Aidan to finish stacking them.

      As he passed Sean, Aidan asked, “Hey, man, that some kind of phony hand?”

      “Nope. It’s real plastic,” Sean answered cheerfully. “A gift from the United States Army.”

      By the time the stacks were complete, all three men were soaked with sweat and Aidan’s designer jeans were filthy. Bobby rose from the front step of the truck and joined them. “Hot work.”

      Sean’s glance at Jake said “none of which he did.”

      “Y’all got any cold sodas?” Bobby asked. “I’m flat parched.”

      Aidan slouched past him toward the front of the truck. “Aw, come on, Bobby, let’s go get some lunch.”

      Wiping her face with her scarf, Mary Anne came out of the tack room and strode toward them. She wore a sleeveless muscle shirt that revealed the puckered skin that ran from the side of her head to her glove. The sheen of sweat made the scars look red and raw.

      She noticed Bobby and Aidan a minute before they noticed her, and wheeled back toward the tack room.

      “Ooo-eee,” whispered Aidan as he watched her retreating rear in its tight jeans. “Hellooo, mama.”

      She froze in midstride, turned and strode back toward them.

      Jake heard Bobby catch his breath.

      Aidan gaped and looked away. “No way. I don’t mess with ugly chicks.”

      Jake saw Mary Anne stiffen and heard Sean groan.

      “Jake—leave it,” Sean cautioned. “Jake!”

      Jake ignored him and moved into Aidan.

      A moment later, the big man lay flat on his back.

      “Here now,” Bobby said. “Both of y’all take it easy.”

      Aidan was big, but he was fast. He came off the ground in a lineman’s crouch, prepared to tear Jake in two.

      “Back off, fool.” Sean stepped between the two men. Aidan brushed him out of the way.

      Jake felt Sean’s hand on his arm and shook him off. He blocked the fist Aidan swung at his jaw, twisted, bent and thrust. A moment later Aidan was back on the ground, looking surprised.

      “Stay down!” Sean snarled at him.

      Aidan gasped. “What’d I do?”

      “Apologize to the lady,” Jake whispered.

      Aidan struggled to his feet. That a man twenty years older and a hundred pounds lighter could toss him around like a football seemed to hit him square in his manhood. “Listen, old man.” He lowered his voice. “Y’all gotta know that’s a freak.” A moment later, he was back on the ground with Bobby standing over him.

      “Aidan, you idiot, stay down,” Bobby said. “You ain’t got the brains of a goose. Stop running your mouth before you get your teeth handed to you.”

      “I warned you to stay down, goober,” Sean said pleasantly. “Now do what the man says and apologize to the little lady before he tears your arm off and feeds it to you.”

      Jake glanced back at Mary Anne, who was glaring at Aidan. Sean grasped her hand with his right one and pulled her forward. As if his touch inflated her, she squared her shoulders, lifted her chin and snapped, “Yeah, jerk. Apologize to the ugly lady.”

      From the ground, Aidan had to look up at her, but he couldn’t hold her gaze. “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean nothing. Bobby says I got a big mouth.”

      “Ya think?” she said, and kept her hand in Sean’s.

      “You can get up, now,” Jake said. “I assume you were recruited for your size and not your GPA. Come on, Sean, we have horses to groom.” He strode off toward the wash rack.

      Charlie passed him at a trot. “Bobby, what’s going on?”

      “Aidan here,” Sean said, “slipped and fell.” He grinned.

      “Three times,” Bobby said. “A man that big, sometimes he’s real clumsy, aren’t you, Aidan.” He gave his helper a hand up, then a gentle shove toward the truck. “Here’s the bill, Charlie. Me ’n Aidan are gonna go get some lunch.”

      “Good girl,” Sean said to Mary Anne under his breath. He turned to Aidan. “You have just had a narrow escape. The major can take off the top of a man’s head with the flat of his hand.”

      Bobby laughed as Aidan climbed into the truck, put it in gear and waved to them through the driver’s window as they drove away.

      The moment the truck cleared the stable aisle, Mary Anne caught her breath in a sob and ran past Charlie to the common room.

      “Sean?” Charlie asked.

      “Ask Jake.” He followed Mary Anne.

      Charlie trotted after him. “Where is he?”

      “Mary Anne...”

      “Leave her to me,” Charlie said. “You go find Jake.”

      Sean hesitated, then nodded.

      The common room was empty. Mary Anne’s bedroom door was locked again. When she pressed her ear against it, Charlie heard what sounded like sobbing. “Mary Anne? It’s Charlie. Please let me in.”

      “Go ’way.”

      “Not this time. I’m not Jake, but I can sit in the hall and wait as long as he did.”

      She thought she might have to, but after a moment she heard the lock click. By the time she opened the door, Mary Anne lay facedown on her bed with her arms locked over her head. “I want to go back to the hospital.”

      Charlie sat on the bed but didn’t touch her. “You’ll get over being afraid of the horses.”

      Mary Anne rolled over and sat up. “Jake nearly got himself killed because that jock said I was ugly. I am ugly! I’m so ugly people want to vomit when they look at me.”

      “That’s not true.”

      Mary Anne got off the bed and began to pace the small room. “Don’t lie, Charlie. I saw that kid’s face. I saw all your faces when I took off my scarf. The first time my husband—sorry, my ex-husband—saw me in the hospital without my bandages, he ran into the bathroom and threw up.”

      What could Charlie say to that? “I’m sure it was just the initial shock. Soldiers know what happens in a war zone.”

      Mary Anne leaned her forehead against her window. “Charlie, he’s a civilian. An accountant, would you believe. I’d already enlisted when I met him. Bad enough I was a mechanic. Bad enough I deployed six months after we got married, but with the internet we stayed connected. We were in love! We had all these plans for when my enlistment was over. Then this happened.”

      “Of course, he was devastated for you,” Charlie said. “But he didn’t stop loving you.”

      Mary Anne leaned a hip against the windowsill. “He really tried. He took a part-time job close to the hospital to be with me. But the first time one of the nurses tried to teach him to change my dressings, he ran. When they

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