A Hero to Come Home To Read Free Page A

shocks such as her joints had never known.
    One step, then another. The voices faded into the rush of the falls again as she pulled herself up a steep incline. She focused on not noticing that the land around her was more vertical than not. She paid close attention to spindly trees and an occasional bit of fresh green working its way up through piles of last fall’s leaves. She listened to the water and thought a fountain would be a nice addition to her backyard this summer, one in the corner where she could hear it from her bedroom with the window open.
    And before she realized it, she was squeezing past a boulder and the cave entrance was only a few feet away. A triumphant shout rose inside her and she turned to give it voice, only to catch sight of the water thundering over the cliff, the pool below that collected it and Ilena, divested of her burden now and calling encouragement.
    “Oh, holy crap,” she whispered, instinctively backing against the rough rock that formed the floor of the cave entrance.
    Heart pounding, she turned away from the view below, grabbed a handful of rock and hauled herself into the cave. She collapsed on the floor, unmindful of the dirt or any crawly things she might find inside, scooted on her butt until the nearest wall was at her back, then let out the breath squeezing her chest.
    Her relieved sigh ended in a squeak as her gaze connected with another no more than six feet away. “Oh, my God!” Jeff’s encouragement the first time she’d come eye to eye with a mouse echoed in her head: “He’s probably as scared of you as you are of him.”
    The thought almost loosed a giggle, but she was afraid it would have turned hysterical. The man sitting across the cave didn’t look as if he were scared of anything, though that might well change when her friends arrived. His eyes were dark, his gaze narrowed, as if he didn’t like his solitude interrupted. It was impossible to see what color his hair was, thanks to a very short cut and the baseball cap he wore with the insignia of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. He hadn’t shaved in a day or two, and he was lean, long, solid, dressed in a T-shirt and faded jeans with brand-new running shoes.
    He shifted awkwardly, sliding a few feet farther into the cave, onto the next level of rock, then ran his hands down his legs, smoothing his jeans.
    Carly forced a smile. “I apologize for my graceless entrance. Logically, I knew how high I was, but as long as I didn’t look, I didn’t have to really know. I have this thing about heights, but nobody knows”—she tilted her head toward the entrance where the others’ voices were coming closer—“so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything.”
    Stopping for breath, she grimaced. Apparently, she’d learned to babble again, as if she hadn’t spoken to a stranger—a male stranger, at least—in far too long. She’d babbled with every man she’d met until Jeff. Though he’d been exactly the type to intimidate her into idiocy, he never had. Talking to him had been easy from the first moment.
    “I’m Carly, and I hope you don’t mind company because I think the trail is pretty crowded with my friends right now.” She gestured toward the ball cap. “Are you with the Hundred Seventy-Third?”
    There was a flicker of surprise in his eyes that she recognized the embroidered insignia. “I was. It’s been a while.” His voice was exactly what she expected: dark, raspy, as if he hadn’t talked much in a long time.
    “Are you at Fort Sill now?” The artillery post at Lawton was about an hour and a half from the falls. It was Oklahoma’s only other Army post besides Fort Murphy, two hours northeast at Tallgrass.
    “No.” His gaze shifted to the entrance when Jessy appeared, and he moved up another level of the ragged stone that led to the back of the shallow cave.
    “Whoo!” Jessy’s shout echoed off the walls, then her attention locked on the man. The tilt of her green eyes