The Courage to Love Her Army Doc by Karin Baine Page B

She’d been so happy to be accepted by him and his mum, Shirl, she’d followed him like a puppy. He’d have been justified in pushing his pesky shadow away but he’d never once made her feel like a nuisance or his ugly stepsister. She’d often thought how different her life could’ve been if Shirl had been her actual mother, avoiding all the unpleasantness of her early years.
    Peter rubbed the invisible evidence of their imaginary argument on his leg but his eyes were still focused on something, someone else. That someone who was making her way over to their little group.
    â€˜Can I get you a drink?’
    â€˜That would be—’
    â€˜I’ll help you.’ Peter cut her off as he stumbled to his feet in a hurry.
    â€˜Could he be any more obvious?’ Emily’s eye-roll was born out of her irrational jealousy that there was now a third party competing for his attention. She may as well have been back in high school when he had been the popular kid and she’d been the newbie with no friends of her own.
    â€˜Give him a break.’
    â€˜I thought he was here to spread the word of God, not get romantically involved with his congregation.’ She’d never seen him so smitten as he trailed after his love interest into the school, his tongue practically hanging out, but she shouldn’t be a brat and put her own happiness above Peter’s. This lovestruck bohemian was a far cry from the traumatised veteran she’d last encountered and his healing was all that mattered.
    â€˜He’s a red-blooded, single man, not a monk, and this place is doing him the world of good. He’ll be settled down with two point four kids before you know it.’ Joe plucked a blade of grass from the ground and wound it around his finger until the circulation stopped and it turned white.
    Despite his wise words on the subject he didn’t look any more thrilled about that prospect than she did. He was supposed to be the fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants adventurer, not a stick-in-the-mud who hated change like her.
    â€˜And you? Are you planning on settling down at some point?’ Her heart fluttered as she asked the question, which had been on her mind since he’d kissed her.
    His snort-laugh cut any hope dead that she could be the one to make him think again about his nomadic life choice but it was better to face that truth now before she got carried away over the next few days and considered that a possibility.
    â€˜No chance. These itchy feet of mine don’t let me hang around long enough to develop that kind of attachment.’
    â€˜Why’s that?’ It would’ve made more sense to her that someone who’d been in a war zone would’ve been glad of the normality and stability that a family could bring.
    He was pulling the grass out in clumps now. ‘Life’s too short not to get out there and experience everything the world has to offer. I’m never going to be the pipe-and-slippers type to sit and vegetate in front of the telly with his missus.’
    There was the crux of Emily’s ill-judged attraction towards him. If you swapped the pipe for a bar of chocolate he’d just described her idea of a perfect night in.
    He hadn’t mentioned the events leading to his retirement from the army but she guessed that was part of the reason for his compulsion to live life to the full. In that sense he and her brother were very alike. The blast had had a profound impact on how they lived from day to day and she was in awe of their courage when any new experience brought her out in a cold sweat. If, on the other hand, this drifting from one place to the next had been the guys running away from dealing with what had happened, setting down roots was a huge step forward. Still, long-term relationships didn’t always equal a happy-ever-after.
    â€˜Yeah, marriage sucks,’ she said, trying to convince herself she didn’t want or need it