Amelia (2 page)

The second Mrs. Monroe was hidden in the back, as if she hadn’t existed.

And the third Mrs. Monroe had walked in late.

Chapter Two

Sam wondered if he would suffocate from the thick air between the three of them. He hadn’t expected Penelope to show up. In fact, he hadn’t even talked to the woman yet, but someone had.

The latter Mrs. Monroe had only been Mrs. for a short two months. But she must have loved the S.O.B. he figured, or she wouldn’t have married him.

He gave it more thought. Two months they’d been married, which meant that he’d only spent a few weeks with this bride. He’d been deployed for the past six weeks—shortly after the second Mrs. Monroe filed for divorce.

Sam shook his head. What was this guy’s deal?

The church was now empty, except for him and the second and third Mrs. Monroes.

Amelia Monroe sat with her arms over her chest and her cheeks were bright red. Penelope Monroe sobbed and sobbed. He wondered if she’d run out of tears.

He swallowed hard. “Are either of you ladies headed to the cemetery?”

Simultaneously they both turned to him and he suddenly worried for his life.

Amelia let out a long breath, but her eyes were focused on Penelope. “I think I’ll head back to my hotel. I will be in your office on Monday morning.”

Sam nodded as Amelia stood.

Penelope pushed her shoulders back. “I hadn’t thought this far ahead.” She began to sob again. “I came to see him off, but I don’t want to look at the faces of his children as they say goodbye to their father.”

The tears came harder and Sam placed his arm around her shoulders. “You should just head back home or to your hotel.” He looked up at Amelia who rolled her eyes.

Amelia brushed a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. “Do you have a place to stay?”

Penelope looked up at her and shook her head. “No. I didn’t think about it. I spent my last paycheck to drive out here. Adam had never sent me money like he said he would. I lost my job. I don’t…” she stopped talking and tried to catch her breath.

“I have a hotel room with two beds.” Amelia dropped her shoulders. “You can stay with me.”

Penelope sucked in a harsh breath. “Are you sure? There is no reason for you to be nice to me.”

“Did you know about me?”

Penelope shook her head, again.

Amelia puckered her lips. “He was a good secret keeper. I’m not going to hold that against you personally.”

Sam couldn’t help the small smile that he felt on his lips. This woman was quite a force—a very attractive quality.

By her physique he knew she was strong. Not many women could boast a sleeveless blouse with defined shoulders and cut biceps like Amelia Monroe had.

Her dark hair was pulled back from her neck, which he didn’t blame her for. That church was hot as hell.

She had her nails done and there was a pink shimmer to her lips. So even though she was as strong as a man a feminine vibe still resonated from her.

Sam pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to Penelope.

“I’m Adam’s attorney. If you need anything you can call me.”

“Why are you two so nice to me?”

Amelia exchanged glances with Sam. This Mrs. Monroe was going to be some work, he could tell.

It had taken another twenty minutes for them to calm Penelope down so that she could drive. When they finally got her outside and into her car, Amelia convinced her to take a ten minute power nap with the air conditioner running. She’d seemed too out of sorts to drive.

They walked toward Sam’s truck. “How did you know there was a third?”

“Wife?” she asked as she opened her door and threw her purse into the passenger seat.

Sam nodded.

“Asshole told me about her. Said I didn’t need to worry about his happiness, he’d found happiness wrapped in a blonde beauty named Penelope. It wasn’t until after he died that I found out that he’d married her too.”

“Was this a game to him?” He didn’t like the way it sounded, but Amelia didn’t seem to be the type to wince at words.

“I’ve never known anyone in such a position. I don’t even care about me. Two years of my life wasted, but hell, he wasn’t around for most of it anyway. I thought he was on duty most the time. I didn’t know some of that time he was home with his family.”

Sam reached out and touched her hand. “I’m truly sorry for your loss.”

“I appreciate that.” Amelia looked over at Penelope’s car. “She’s going to be harder to convince to move on. I moved on months ago. I’m not going to let Adam Monroe ruin the rest of my life.”

He opened the door to his truck. “You have a good attitude.”

“I’ll have a better one when this is over. I’m over at the Holiday Inn if you need me before Monday.”

“Thanks.”

She started toward Penelope’s car and then looked back at Sam. “You don’t know a good steak place around here do you?”

He laughed. “There’s one off the highway about two miles from where you’re staying.”

“Something tells me I’m going to have to leave this one sobbing in the room. I’ll need a drink and a steak.”

“That sounds good.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You married?”

“No. Never have been.”

She nodded slowly. “Interested in accompanying a non-grieving widow to dinner? I’m guessing I’ll need some decent conversation by tonight.”

Sam wasn’t sure how long he’d stood there contemplating what had just been said. Had he just been asked out by one of Adam Monroe’s widows—at his funeral?

No, he’d been asked to keep her company.

What had gotten into him?

“I could go for a steak. I could pick you up at seven.”

She shook her head. “I’ll meet you there at seven.”

Sam agreed with a wave, got into his truck, and drove away as she woke up Penelope.

As he pulled onto the long dirt road, he looked into his rearview mirror. She might have a hard outside, but he could see the care she was taking with Penelope. There was compassion in that one that didn’t come out too often he figured.

The evening should prove to be eventful.

Sam waited in his truck outside the steak house. He’d arrived ten minutes early and he saw her truck drive in ten minutes late.

Amelia Monroe was one to do things on her terms.

He stepped out of the truck and headed toward her before she turned off the engine. He was reaching for her door when she flung it open, narrowly missing his hand.

“Oops. Did I get ya?” She stepped out and shut the door with her hip.

She had changed into a pair of jeans which rode low on her hips and as she walked a step in front of him to clear the back end of the truck he noticed she had a tattoo peeking out of the waistband. Her fitted T-shirt hid the top part.

“So have you ever eaten here before?” She asked as he caught up to her.

“No. Just saw it on the way in yesterday.”

“I hope they have some good beer. I need a drink.”

He opened the door for her to pass through. “When I think of having a drink I think of something a little harder than beer.”

“Not me. Beer is good.”

The hostess sat them in a corner booth. She took the side that faced the door.

In all his years of representing people, he’d learned to read them. She was cautious. If her back was to the door, she’d forever be turning to see who was coming after her.

Their waiter came to the table as soon as they sat down.

“I’ll have a Blue Moon,” she quickly ordered.

“I’ll have the same,” Sam added. He watched her casually pick up her menu and scan over it. “How was your afternoon? Did Penelope calm down?”

“She finally fell asleep about an hour before I left.” She set her menu down and looked at him. “I usually run out of tears in an hour. This one produces them by the bucket.”

He smiled. “Loss affects people differently.”

“I suppose.” She picked up her menu again.

“How are you doing?”

She set the menu down again and leaned in on her elbows. “The guy screwed me over completely. I married a married family man and the moment I found out I dumped his ass. And before the divorce papers are filed, he’s got another wife. I’m not mourning the loss of my marriage, like Penelope and Vivian are. I’m mourning the loss of two good years I can’t get back. But I’ll make up for them. You can count on that.” She sat back against the booth and crossed her arms over her chest. “The world lost a good soldier though. He could aim a gun, disarm a bomb, and his number of saves outnumbers his kills. I hope they recognize that, even if he was a dick.”

He didn’t mean to chuckle, but he had. He liked her feistiness.

The waiter returned and collected their order. There was no surprise to him when she ordered her steak medium rare, but more on the mooing side.

When their beers arrived, with the customary orange slice balanced on the rim, she took the orange and squeezed it into the beer, then floated it inside.

Sam took his orange off and set it to the side.

“You tossing that?” She made a motion to the discarded orange.

“Yes.”

“Mind?” She reached for it and did the same thing with his orange as she’d done with hers.

“So how did you meet Adam?”

Amelia took a sip of her beer and then set it down. An enormous smile crossed her lips.

“I kicked his ass.”

The answer wasn’t what he’d expected as he took a sip of his beer. It was all he could do not to spit it back out.

“What do you mean?”

“That’s how we met. I’m a martial artist. Third degree black belt. I was helping my instructor, a sixth degree grand master, teach a self-defense class on base for the wives of soldiers. My thought was it would help them protect themselves from their husbands. These guys are trained men that women can’t stand up to. They go through shit you’ll never see. Sometimes they snap. A woman has to be prepared.

“Well, he’d volunteered to be an attacker. He had a cocky grin on his face from the first moment he looked at me. He came at me to attack and I laid him flat. Sucker was a goner. He fell in love with me the moment his vision cleared and he could breathe again.”

Sam was beginning to understand the allure to her.

He didn’t particularly like aggressive women. He’d never been too successful when it came to them responding to his more sensitive side. It wasn’t hard to assume that Amelia would be the same. She’d eat him up and spit him out.

“How long did you date before you got married?”

She snorted a laugh and then sipped her beer. “I had him in bed by the second day of training. He came back to visit me a week later, when he got back to town. We eloped in Vegas two weeks after that.”

“Never a clue that something was up with him?”

“Not a one. But he was trained to keep secrets and execute maneuvers that no one saw coming. It carried over into his personal life.”

“I take it you’re going to be the calm one in my office.”

“Oh, I’ll be calm. This isn’t my fault. It’s none of our faults. I can’t imagine why he felt he needed to do this to people.”

The waiter delivered their dinner and Amelia picked up her fork and knife and started digging in.

Sam couldn’t help but watch and admire. Oh, the last few women he’d taken out were so dainty. He liked this aggressiveness to everything—even dinner.

It was hard to remind himself that she’d buried her husband that morning.

She took a bite of steak and pointed at him with her fork. “What do you know about the other two?”

“I’m not sure I should share my knowledge.”

She shrugged. “I get it. Client stuff.”

“Yes. Client stuff.”

She took another bite. “This is what kills me.” She swallowed. “I’m nothing like either of them. Vivian looks like the perfect little house wife. Penelope, though I’m sure she’s a sweet girl, I don’t think she has a brain in her head.”

“Maybe together you made the perfect woman.” He was afraid the moment it came out it was going to go the wrong way.

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

“So when you’re not kicking the asses of soldiers, what do you do?”

“For a living?” she asked as she took another bite of steak.

He nodded.

“I teach martial arts three days a week. The rest of the time I’m a personal trainer.”

“As in you work in a gym and build bodies?”

She laughed as she took a sip from her beer. “Yeah, I train bodies.”

“Do you compete?”

“No. You will not find me strutting along in some clear heels showing off and being judged.”

He liked her even more now and he wondered who would ever stand up to this woman and judge her?

“So where is home to you?”

“Now I live in Georgia, but originally I’m from Oklahoma City.”

“Really?”

“That’s kinda what got me in bed with Adam in the first place. We had a hometown connection. Or home area connection that is.”

“I see.”

“Are you originally from Oklahoma too?”

“Yes,” he said as he took a drink of his beer.

“Hmmm, looks like we connect too.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him and he nearly choked on his drink.

She laughed.

“Sorry. I’m a bit forward.”

He cleared his throat. “It’s fine. I just…”

“Didn’t expect to be hit on by a woman who just attended the funeral of her husband?”

“Yes.”

“Well,” she lifted her glass in a toast. “I hope he finds an angel to hit on. This angel has moved on.”

“You don’t feel bad?”

“Sure I do. But in two years I’ve only spent maybe thirteen months with my husband here and there. I filed for divorce three months ago. He was deployed for most of that. It’s not like he was a constant in my life.”

He understood that, which in itself confused him. Why did he want to understand it?

But when he looked at her he couldn’t help himself. There was a lot to this woman and he couldn’t help but wonder if he was man enough to find out all about her.

Amelia continued her assault on her steak, washing down every other bite with her beer. When the waiter came back to the table she ordered another beer and a meal to go.