Return of a Soldier (Soldier Series Romance Novellas) (7 page)

“I picked up some beer for you,” I said, grabbing a diet coke for myself.

“I saw that; thanks.  I’ll have one later on.  I need the caffeine now.”

“Jet lag?”

“It’s just starting to hit me.  All that adrenaline kept me going before,” he said with a grin.  “Man, it’s good to be home.”

“Think you’ll be up for drinks with everyone later on?  I can reschedule it.”

“No, no, it’s fine.”  His deep voice sounded a little gruff, and I wondered if he really would make it until dinner time.  “I’ll probably crash for a couple of hours before we head out.  What time are we meeting everyone?”

“Seven-thirty.
  We’re going to check out that new Mexican place.  It’s supposed to have awesome burritos, and I could go for a margarita.”

“Mexican sounds great.  I’m so sick of eating the same mess hall grub over and over again—I’m sure anything would taste amazing right about now.  The airplane food didn’t really cut it either.  So Mike’s not coming tonight?  Does he have a shift?”

“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug.  “We broke up.”

“What?”  Josh choked on his drink.

“Yeah, a few months ago,” I said nonchalantly.  I don’t know exactly why I hadn’t told Josh about the break-up.  I mean certainly some of it was because we didn’t have much time to talk while he was deployed.  But I’d always gone running to him in the past with all my boy troubles.  He knew that Mike and I were having problems, but something inside me just couldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d been right about this.  Josh had sensed something was wrong before he left—it wasn’t hard to since we lived together and Mike had been staying over less and less.  We’d both said it was due to work shifts, our crazy schedules, etc., but a part of me knew it was because we’d been drifting apart.  Whenever I’d try to tell Josh everything was okay, he’d make some noncommittal comment.  He didn’t want to stir up any trouble in my relationship, but it was obvious the way he felt about the matter.

“A few months ago?” he asked in disbelief.  “Were you ever going to tell me?” he asked with a small laugh.

“I knew you’d figure it out sooner or later,” I replied with a grin.  “Plus, I didn’t want to listen to you saying ‘I told you so,’ one more time.”

“Oh, okay,” Josh said, rolling his eyes jokingly.  “That makes perfect sense.”

“Look, it just seemed like you were hoping we’d break up or something.  I mean, you weren’t exactly upset that we were having problems when you left.”

His eyes met mine, and for a moment I detected some flash of emotion behind them.  “I just want you to be happy, Jess,” he said, his voice deep.  He finished his soda, before crumpling the can and tossing it into the recycling bin that we kept under the sink.

I watched him carefully for a moment and wondered why things felt slightly off between us.  Josh had always watched out for me, in a brotherly type of way, but he didn’t really bash any of my ex-boyfriends.  I’d just been teasing him about Mike, but it seemed like he was taking it the wrong way.  Maybe it was just the jet lag on his part and my being caught off guard by his early arrival home that made our reunion seem slightly different than I’d imaged.  I certainly hadn’t planned to announce first thing that I’d broken up with my boyfriend.  I wanted to talk about how Josh was doing, not an old relationship that had ended months ago.

Josh turned around and saw me staring thoughtfully at him.  “We’re okay, right?” he asked.  “I didn’t mean for this to turn into an awkward conversation.”

“Sure, it’s fine,” I answered.  “I need to finish getting ready anyway.  Why don’t you rest and then we can catch up tonight over dinner?  I’ll even tell you the whole miserable break-up story if you want.”

Josh gave me a small smile.  Rather than answering though, he walked over and pulled me into a quick hug.  “God, I missed you.”  Just as quickly he released me and grabbed one of his duffle bags from the living room before walking down the hallway to his room.  I stood there in the kitchen, puzzled, and wondered what exactly had just passed between us.

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