A Hero for Tonight by Roni Adams

and he’d sent it home to his parents in an email that his mother had forwarded to her. The picture had been taken in the desert in Iraq with the sun setting behind him. Strong, sure...a hero. He looked just like that right now, and her heart skipped a beat in response.
    “Where are you going?” he asked.
    “Home. Why?”
    Shane stepped closer. “I’d love to see some of the websites you’ve built. Maybe we could talk a bit about the farm market and your plans.”
    She furrowed her brow. “Or are you just hoping I have some apple pie?”
    “Well, now that you mention it. You know how much I love coffee and dessert. But seriously, I would like to see the websites you’ve done.”
    “Don’t you have to be up at some insane hour to drive to Fort Drum?” The last thing she wanted was to prolong her time with Shane tonight. It was bad enough she’d broken down and tried to talk to him about her future plans.
    “Yeah, but it’s not even seven thirty. Even I can stay up until to at least nine and still function.”
    She shrugged and turned toward her car. “Okay then, I’ll meet you at my house.”

Chapter Four
    The short drive to her house from town didn’t take long enough for Krista to figure out what was going on. Usually, Shane avoided being with her at all costs and was rarely ever alone with her unless they were working the farm market. Tonight, though, he was really acting strange. Twice, she’d caught him staring at her chest as if he’d never noticed she had breasts before. And what was up with his sudden defensiveness when she said he was selfish? She’d been telling him that for years, and he never cared what she said before.
    And why was he eating dinner alone instead of out with Melissa tonight?
    She was no closer to answers minutes later as she set a heaping plate of pie with vanilla ice cream melting on top in front of Shane. He had his fork dug in before she could sit down across from him. Her kitchen wasn’t very big to begin with, and with him seated at the table, it seemed to shrink in size even more.
    Krista picked up her coffee and sipped. It was odd having Shane across from her with no one else at the table. What was he thinking? Better yet, why was he here at all? It couldn’t just be for pie; although knowing him as she did, it could very well just be for dessert. He wasn’t that deep, and free pie could actually be his only motive.
    Shane glanced at her, and his mouth lifted in that familiar half grin that he’d been doing since he was five. “Why is it that my mother’s apple pie and yours come from the same apples, the same recipe, and yet yours has a different taste?”
    Well used to his insults, Krista wasn’t even put off by his comment. She set her coffee down. “No one told you to eat it if you don’t like it.”
    He lifted his mug. “There you go again thinking I’m saying something that I’m not. I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”
    She shrugged. “It’s the same pie, Shane. Your mother and I make the same apple pie.”
    He took another bite. “Nope. There’s something in here that she doesn’t do.”
    Okay, she’d tweaked the recipe just a touch, but it was weird that he picked up on it immediately.
    Not wanting to give him the satisfaction of being right, she changed the subject. “Are you still seeing Melissa?”
    He looked up from under his incredibly long lashes and then turned his attention back to his dessert. “Sort of.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “How do you sort of see someone?”
    “We’ve gone out a few times; you know, casual.”
    She sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re bored already. That’s gotta be close to a record, even for you.”
    “I’m not bored. And you can’t lecture me on dates until you’ve been on some.”
    “I’ve been on plenty of dates.”
    He snorted and finished off his pie. “Conjugal visits aren’t dates. I keep trying to explain that to you.”
    Would he ever let her forget about Bruce?