The Second Chance Hero (5 page)

“Ha!” she exclaimed. “You are looking for sex!”

“I’m not dead, Kim, and you’re beautiful. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested, but if we took a chance on anything, I can guarantee, you’d be more than a booty call.”

Skeptical as always, Kim didn’t know what to think. He was a man and men tended to think with a more southern portion of their anatomy.

“You don’t really know me, Owen. Like I said, I’m a basket case.”

He reached out and took a lock of her hair between his fingers, drawing it out. “I got that part.”

“Owen!” He looked toward the patio, which was now in view, and saw Harper standing with her hands on her hips. “Stop hitting on her.”

Kim rolled her eyes and Owen laughed. “No! She can take care of herself.”

Kim smiled at that. No one thought she could take care of herself, and while Owen’s logic was a little twisted, Kim found she liked him for that reason alone. And she liked him well enough that if a booty call was what he was looking for, she might not say no.

He was hot as hell. Funny. And he respected her, even if he was a little pushy. There was a lot of good passing between her and Owen Kent. It was too bad nothing was going to come of it.

***

Owen watched Kim as she mingled with Harper, Meg, and Caroline, as well their mothers, and wondered how they’d gotten from talking about her work as a nurse to booty calls. He meant what he said. The woman was worth far more than a one-night stand, not that he’d ever even get that far the way he kept screwing up with her, but it was sure nice to think about.

He had to get to know her on a different level. This wasn’t the crushed woman he held in the hospital last year. No, this woman, while wounded, was a fighter, and he could see she was fighting herself.

He was sitting on the deck with Josh, Nate, and Jason, and they expected Kevin from his game any minute. It was good, comfortable, and they were all at good places in their lives. Owen realized the biggest changes for him happened over the past year when he was away. Mostly, because he realized that he didn’t want to sacrifice one life for the other. The corps was important to him and he would always be part of the brotherhood, but his focus had to stay with his family and friends and about what good he could do here, not seven thousand miles away.

Kim settled into her bungalow at the rear of Harper and Kevin’s house, tired after a long day of hamburgers, sweets, backyard volleyball, and kids. It was a good tired, though. A happy tired.

Kim was never made to feel like anything but family, and that’s why she was so reluctant to give up her job, even though once in a while she missed her nursing.

She wasn’t prepared for combat nursing, but before she was deployed, she loved the work she did as a trauma nurse in the large county hospital. She never knew what to expect each day, and that was part of the thrill.

But she loved Anna and she loved helping her grow up. Harper relied on her in the best way, and Kim had to acknowledge that she wasn’t quite ready to leave this life.

The buzz from her cell phone startled her and Kim cringed when she looked at the caller ID. Her mother. The cringe wasn’t for her mom, but it was for the crushing guilt she felt every time she thought about her family. She was ignoring them simply because they still lived next door to Tom’s family.

“Hi, Mom!”

“Is everything okay?”

“Why do you ask that?” Crap. Were all mothers mind readers? Could they hear feigned happiness?

“You’re forcing it. I can always tell, you know.”

She did know that. Her mother knew her better than anyone, which was why not seeing her hurt so much. Her parents had mourned Tom, and she just couldn’t find the words to tell them what had gone wrong.

Her mother, though, was starting to ask questions. Lots of them.

“I had a good day today. The Campbells throw a nice party.”

“We had a nice party. I saw Tom’s family and they said you bolted from the cemetery and don’t want to see them again? Tess is crushed. She feels you’re their last link to him and doesn’t understand how you could be so cold. And Jenna’s lost. I don’t know what to say about that.”

Right to the point and more than direct. There was no denying Kim missed Jenna. She missed her friend terribly. But Tess was Tom’s mother, and while Kim understood she was grieving, she obviously wasn’t above emotional blackmail. Her mother didn’t seem to understand that piece of it and Kim’s back went up. “I don’t want to see them. I’m not cold, but I have to take care of myself, too.”

“I know, honey. I know.”

“Do you, Mom? Because it seems like you only take their side. Everything is always my fault.”

“Is that what you think? Why you never come and visit? Why you’re always too busy?”

“Pretty much. Yeah.” That stopped her mom cold. Kim could hear the quick intake of breath through the line and felt bad immediately.

Her mother was a strong woman. But she was quiet, and when she finally spoke, her voice was full of sadness, hurt. “I . . . I didn’t realize.”

Did she lie? Did she try to explain? “Mom . . .”

Silence. And a sniffle. More silence. “Okay,” her mom said finally. “Maybe you should tell me why.”

And that’s when Kim’s stomach rolled. “It’s complicated. I just can’t hear about how lucky I was to have Tom in my life anymore. How I’ll never find anyone like him ever again. How I should go back to nursing. With his family and you guys constantly on my back, what am I supposed to think? You’re all telling me my life pretty much ended when Tom died. So, why would I want to be there?”

“Oh, Kim . . .”

“I know you loved him, Mom . . .”

“
Stop.
Stop right now.” Kim took a sharp breath, because her mother was never harsh. She was, probably, the kindest person she knew, which made this that much harder. “You are my daughter and I love
you
.”

For the second time today, her eyes filled with tears. “I know you do. It’s been hard, but . . .” It was brutal keeping the truth from her. So difficult, in fact, Kim couldn’t explain everything she’d been feeling.

“Why don’t you and I meet for lunch one day?” Her mother’s voice was barely there. “Someplace where we won’t run into
people
.”

“I’d like that.” More than anything, because Kim missed her family something fierce. But she still wouldn’t tell her about Tom. It was just too much.

“Is there someone else, honey? Have you gotten involved with anyone? It’s okay. I mean, Tom’s family will adjust.”

“No, Mom.” There hadn’t been anyone who had even sparked her interest. Until today, that is. Owen Kent got her attention. Just thinking about him, and the way he touched her warmed her from the inside out. The man was completely out of her league, but he was awfully nice to think about.

“No one?”

Her mother sounded hopeful, and Kim wished she could say there was someone, but other than a casual date or two, Kim spent a lot of time alone. “No,” she said firmly—pushing Owen Kent out of her head. “And, while I don’t love everyone’s predictions, I don’t think there ever will be. I don’t think I can do it again.”

***

Owen, Jason, and Nate sat around the outdoor fireplace nursing neat scotches and smoking cigars. The evening was comfortably warm, still not too many bugs. Looking up, the light pollution made it so Owen couldn’t see as many stars, but he’d take fewer stars over being shot at any day of the week.

Owen stretched his legs and took a puff, relishing the buzz from the tobacco and the single malt in his hand. “They offered me a promotion if I stayed in the reserves,” he said.

Jason leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and Owen locked eyes with his best friend. “Lieutenant Colonel? What are you going to do?”

Nate took a sip of his drink, and he and Jason waited for an answer.

“It’s done. I turned it down. I told them I’m out once my commitment is up.”

Nate let out a breath. “You’re okay with that decision? It used to be you were going to do at least twenty. You only have a few more years before that happens.”

“I know, but how many more tours?” He took a long drink from the glass and the liquid burned his throat. “This last one was enough. I may have to go back in the fall for a couple of months to help with the drawdown, but as of the first of the year, I’m out. My separation was approved.”

“What happened this time that was different?” Jason asked. “You’re not yourself, man. It’s like something spooked you.”

How did Owen tell Jason and Nate that he was haunted by the pretty little nurse who collapsed against him in Kandahar? That he’d thought about her every day since her fiancé died. That seeing Kim Torres in person again had given his heart a jolt like he’d never experienced. He didn’t know if he could.

“I’m ready to settle down, I think. I’m too old to keep trying to prove myself in the field and my life is here. I missed a lot being away. I missed my family and all of you. My parents are getting older and I—” He stopped and thought. “I just don’t want to miss anything.”

He didn’t know why Kim affected him the way she did. No woman had ever gotten under his skin like this, much less one with whom he’d had two minutes of contact. When he saw her today, she was exactly like he thought she’d be. Kind, thoughtful, but still hurting.

When he got back to camp after he’d met her at the hospital, he had the unhappy task of writing condolence letters to the families of the two men who were killed. He looked through Albanese’s personal effects before they were shipped out to his family, so he could get some idea of what he should say. There were two other officers who knew him better, regular marines who had served with him before, but he felt it was his duty to write the letter.

He found notes and cards from Kim and pictures of her and the sergeant that went back years. In some ways it felt like an invasion of privacy, but in others it gave him insight into the man who was under his command. He had a large, close family and he had this beautiful creature who loved him. Tom Albanese destroyed her. Tom’s friends told Owen he and Kim had been together since high school.
High school
. The woman he’d been cheating with said Tom was planning on telling Kim it was over.

None of it mattered now, but Kim Torres haunted him. He couldn’t forget her even if he wanted to.

“There is something,” he said. “It’s a woman.”

Talk about jumping in to the deep end of the pool.

Narrowing his eyes, Jason tossed the stump of his cigar into the fireplace. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

“Who is she?” Nate asked. “Anyone we know?”

“Actually, yes.” The scotch really burned as he tossed the rest of it back. He was going to need it to fortify his nerves. “You need to keep this to yourselves. I don’t want to spook her. I still need to get to know her, but it was someone connected to my last posting. . . .”

Jason and Nate passed a look between them. Something Owen translated as them thinking he was crazy, but being good friends, they would humor him. To a point.

“Someone we know who’s connected to . . .” Jason’s eyes flew open. “Kim? Is that why you were sniffing around her?”

“I was her fiancé’s commanding officer.” He looked into his empty glass, picturing that day all over again. “I hadn’t been there long when he was killed, but I had to write the letters, contact the family. I knew all about her. Tom Albanese was a lucky man to have her in his life.”

“This is officially the strangest coincidence ever,” Nate said.

“I had no idea she was Harper’s nanny. When I picked her up today, it was like the wind had been knocked out of me. I couldn’t believe it.”

“What did she say?” Based on the tone in Jason’s voice, he was more than just shocked. “You guys were pretty casual today, considering.”

“That’s the thing,” Owen said. “She doesn’t know. There was a second when I thought she might have made the connection—she could have heard my name from his family, but it didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t say anything.”

“You should.” Nate stood and, grabbing a fire iron, poked the logs in the fireplace. “If she does find out, it could get ugly.”

It was something to consider, but Owen didn’t want to dredge up anything that could upset her. Then again, if she found out about his link to Tom—to her—if she found out he’d read her letters and knew details about her relationship with Tom Albanese, who knew what she’d do.

Owen was keeping it vague because he was keeping the most important part of the story, the part that had brought him to his knees, to himself. Albanese’s death was a tragedy, but dying in combat was a reality that came with the job. Loved ones may have been in denial about the risks, but deep down, they all knew. Kim Torres had to face not only the horror of witnessing her fiancé’s death, but the knowledge that he betrayed her. It was obvious to him now that she hadn’t told anyone he’d been cheating. This was her secret and Owen had every intention of keeping it.

“I can’t get her out of my head. I hate what happened to her. Now that I’ve met her in person . . . I don’t know.” He knew he sounded like a complete candy-ass, but he didn’t really care.

Jason and Nate were leaning back in their chairs, quiet. They didn’t respond. They didn’t tell him to grow a pair or man up. They sat quietly, until all he heard were the giggles of Jason’s children filtering through the open windows from inside the big house.

“What are you going to do?” Jason’s voice was quiet. Serious.

“Not sure. I knew she was from the island. Part of me wanted to find her, but I knew that was . . . you know . . .”

“Creepy?” Nate asked.

Yeah, it was creepy, but he hadn’t done anything about it. He’d been home for weeks, he had the means to run an extensive search and background check, and he hadn’t even Googled her. “Well, I didn’t. But then I walked into that Starbucks and there she was. I don’t usually believe in signs or fate, but I don’t know if I can ignore that.”

“You can’t,” Jason said. “Sometimes things like this happen subtly, but this is right in your face. You can’t ignore it.”

Nate stubbed out his cigar. “You really like this girl?”

Owen shrugged. “There’s something about her that wrecks me. Maybe I’ve just cracked.” He scrubbed his face with his hands. “This is my PTSD.”

“Don’t be a fucking drama queen,” Jason spat. “You obviously have some kind of, I can’t believe I’m saying this, connection, with her. Somehow, some way, it happened. So, stop crying in your drink and do something about it.”

“Like what?”

“Holy shit.” Now it was Nate’s turn. “Ask her out. Take her to dinner or something.”

Owen could feel the testosterone seeping out of his body. Kim had messed with his head and she didn’t even know it. Of course he should ask her out. “I guess I have to find her number.”

Pulling his cell phone from his pocket, Jason swiped his fingers over the keypad and showed Owen the number on the screen. Owen, in turn, put it in his own phone.

He’d been dreaming about this woman for a year, and now she was there, in his life, and Owen had to get the nerve up to do something about it. But this wasn’t a mission or even a business deal. Kim Torres represented something that scared the living shit out of him. For the first time since he committed to Navy when he was eighteen, Owen was looking at something that could affect the rest of his life, and he had no idea how to handle it.

He really was a candy-ass.

***

His hands moved slowly up and down and Kim arched into the rock-hard body, feeling his warmth through his clothes. Lips. His lips were trailing over her throat and down her chest, and when he pushed open her shirt, the cool air flowing over her breasts made her gasp. He did the most wonderful things with his mouth, and the feel of his tongue on her nipples was exquisite torture. Her hands held his head, his dark hair was softer than she thought it would be, and his eyes, which were the most brilliant blue, flashed at her with mischief when he looked up at her. God, this was perfect. He was perfect. “Owen,” she whispered.

Bzzzzz. A fly? Was there a fly in here? Bzzzzz.

Kim moved her hand to swat at the fly, but she hit the wall behind the couch and started awake. She’d fallen asleep.

And she was dreaming. About Owen.

Dammit. Why did she have to wake up? Her dream was the most vivid she’d ever experienced. It was amazing and so was he. There was no denying it. Kim hadn’t been able to get Owen out of her head all day. Now it seems he’d be with her all night, too.