The Returning Hero by Soraya Lane Read Free Book Online

was out of bounds.
    “Hey, buddy.” Bear was staring at her with his head cocked to the side, and she was pleased to think about something other than her behavior the night previous. “You hungry?”
    Her stomach growled in response to her own question, so she left her hair pinned up wet and signaled for her dog to follow her. She wasn’t used to drinking, and she sure as hell wasn’t used to dealing with a hangover.
    Jamie removed the dog tag and slung it back on the hook by her shoes, feeling like a traitor for wearing it after the way she’d behaved with Brett the night before, and pulled on jeans and a T-shirt. Then she walked down the hall to find Brett with the morning paper, sprawled out over the kitchen counter as he ate a piece of toast.
    “Hey,” she said as she went straight for the coffee.
    He looked up and held his toast in his mouth as he shuffled the paper so it took up less space.
    “How you feeling now?” he asked with a grin.
    Jamie groaned. “Please don’t remind me about last night.” She poured herself a large cup of coffee, stirred in two sugars and took a gulp. It was piping hot and burned her tongue but she didn’t care.
    She scooped a cup of Bear’s special dog biscuits into his bowl, aware that he’d been patiently waiting at her feet since they’d arrived in the kitchen, then went back to nursing her coffee.
    “I’m feeling a bit responsible for plying you with those drinks,” he said, finishing his toast. “Maybe we should have gone with beer, or just let you a have a few girly cocktails instead of the most potent blend on the menu.”
    Jamie held up her hand. “I’ll take full responsibility for drinking them, so long as you don’t ever mention the words Long Island iced tea to me ever again.”
    Brett laughed and held up his coffee cup. “Deal,” he agreed. “You want me to make you anything for brekkie while you nurse your head?”
    She groaned again, sipping more coffee. “I’ll just have toast, thanks. Cold toast with jam, something easy on my poor stomach.”
    The way Brett was watching her told her he was thinking about something, waiting to ask her something. Please don’t bring up the kiss. The last thing she needed right now was to deal with that particular conversation, especially before she’d eaten anything and had time to process it.
    “Jamie, I don’t know if you remember, but when we were at the bar, and then when we came back here last night…”
    She gulped when he paused, and then he said, “You mentioned that you never told Sam how scared you were coming home to an empty house in the dark.”
    Phew. She could deal with this conversation if she had to. It might have been difficult to talk about, admitting to that, but given what the alternative topic could have been, she was relieved.
    “My dad was a soldier, and he died on deployment, too.” Jamie kept her gaze trained on her coffee, not wanting to look at Brett. “When he died, my mom went on a bender that lasted a few years, and I was home alone when we were burgled. I hid until they left, but I guess I’ve never really gotten over that fear of it happening again. Which is why I’m obsessed with locking doors and being inside before sundown, and my security alarm was always on before Bear came back to live here.”
    Brett was still staring at her, concern written all over his face. “So I’m guessing you told Sam about what happened, but you never told him how much it still scared you. Because you always knew that he’d be going away and leaving you alone. That there was nothing he could do to change that.”
    Jamie nodded.
    “I can’t believe he was away for months at a time, and you had to be a prisoner inside your own house every night. You should have told us.”
    She sighed and moved closer to him, staying on the other side of the kitchen counter and leaning forward. “I just always had that fear of going to sleep and not knowing if someone could have gotten into the house