The Long Road Home by Cheyenne Meadows Read Free Book Online Page B

hands gliding over his skin. "Still, Andrew should have told me if they were going to send him home half starved."
    "Maybe he didn't want you to worry?" He didn't tell his family everything, either. Some things they just didn't need to fret about. Not to mention the rules of silence drilled in to each soldier by their commanders. National security depended upon closed mouths.
    "Oh, probably. Even though he's younger, he looked out for me. That's just the kind of guy he is."
    "Sounds like it. My little sister, on the other hand, followed me everywhere. Nosey as could be. I couldn't keep any sort of secret from my parents because Maria would be all too quick to blab." He chuckled. "Nothing got past her."
    "Still doesn't?" Her voice lightened back into a teasing mode.
    "Probably not. If you want to know the latest gossip, just ask Maria. She knows everyone and everything."
    Gwen snorted. "No bringing your girlfriend home for some necking with Maria around, huh?"
    "As if." He shook his head. "I had to get crafty."
    "Uh huh." She moved to his lower back, rubbing with her palms in circular motions, then using her thumbs to lightly dig in along the spine for a deeper massage. Each time, she stopped just short of his rear.
    "Are you going to rub my butt?" The opportunity to yank her chain proved too good to let it slip.
    "Ummm. No. If you need a butt massage, you'll have to get one of those chair vibrators I've seen advertised on TV. You sit and your butt sings with joy." She quoted the advertising slogan.
    He chuckled. "Sings with joy?"
    "That's what the advertising company claims. I've never tried it, so I wouldn't know."
    "A late Christmas present?" He yawned the question.
    "I think I'll pass."
    Closing his eyes, he released a tired and contented sigh. Stretching his arms above his head, he turned his face toward the couch as she widened the area, shifting now and again to explore his full back, shoulders, neck, and arms. Tranquility and peace carried him away to a blissful state of total relaxation.
    He tensed momentarily when she returned to working on his left hamstring but soon lulled back into a light doze, comfortable and content with Gwen's massage. She wiggled closer, started rubbing ingrained tension from his shoulders, and he promptly drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 12
     
    Gwen quietly stood, grabbed her makeshift stool, and returned the item where she'd found it. Returning to the couch, she lightly tugged the comforter over Logan, making sure all the bare skin of his back was covered, protecting him from the sharp chill in the room. Deciding he appeared comfortable for now, she walked across the room and sat down in the sole recliner. Dark had descended, the lavender candle providing the only light left. Enough to throw a flickering shadow across the room.
    Her gaze automatically returned to the blond-haired lump on the couch . How am I going to walk away from this? From him?
    She held no fantasies of the world stopping and Logan carrying her off to his castle to live happily ever after. Unfortunately, the real world, though on the back burner for now, would rear its ugly head sooner rather than later. His parents were flying in tomorrow, and she needed to get back home. If she couldn't spend the rest of the holiday with her family in Nebraska or with Logan, then she might as well go back to work. No sense in spending her remaining vacation time sitting at home alone, bored, and wishing for the impossible.
    Logan sighed in his sleep, dragging her attention back to him. The man she knew four years ago had changed, grown up, and stepped into the role of a hero. His injury didn't detract from his looks, his abilities, not in the least. But she knew he still struggled to adapt, to learn to live with his prosthesis and what limitations came along with being an amputee. She read his face when she touched his cramping stump. A healthy dose of fear and worry had flashed as if he prepared himself for her rejection or crude