Thunder Running by Rebecca Crowley Read Free Book Online

warm, were his clinical tools, nothing more. She’d do well to remember that.
    â€œI’m fine, unless you have a different diagnosis.”
    â€œMinor smoke inhalation, no burns. I declare you fit to return to duty.” He dropped his hands and indicated the oven. “What was that, anyway?”
    â€œMeatloaf.”
    â€œFor lunch?”
    â€œMaybe it was a little ambitious.”
    He smiled down at her, his eyes bright with amusement. “Hamburgers are known to do wonders for smoke inhalation. Especially when obtained from a drive-through window.”
    â€œIs that how combat medicine works? The healing power of fast food?”
    â€œIt’s in the manual.”
    She turned to cast a final, forlorn look at her charred meatloaf but he grabbed her arm, then slid his hand down until his fingers interlocked with hers. She looked up at him with wide eyes, and if her heart hadn’t floated right up into her throat it probably would’ve been beating double-time.
    Kiss me, goddammit. Put your head down here and kiss me like I know you can. Like I know you want to.
    Instead he squeezed her hand once, gently, and dropped it. “Don’t worry about all that, we’ll clean it up tonight. Let’s go grab some burgers before I have to get back to work. How does that sound?”
    She brushed away one of the wet locks of hair that had escaped the towel in her dash to the kitchen. She wanted his lunch hour to end in rumpled sheets and bare skin, not ketchup packets and a grease-stained paper bag. Instead she’d flipped out over some stupid letters and left all that effort and grocery money to char in the oven.
    Goddamn, she pissed herself off sometimes.
    She managed a weak smile. “Perfect,” she lied.

Chapter Four
    â€œYou sure you’re going to be warm enough?”
    â€œI’ve got thick skin.”
    Chance kept the flashlight trained on the ground ahead of them, but he had to smile at Tara’s assertion. He didn’t believe it for a second.
    â€œCredit goes to my daddy for blowing the electricity money on whiskey. No better way to learn how to withstand low temperatures in skimpy outfits. Spending your high-school years living in an unheated trailer is such an important part of girlhood.”
    â€œMan’s got to have priorities.” He climbed atop the wooden pasture fence, extended his arm to tug her over, then slid down behind her.
    â€œI think he figured radiators and liquor had the same warming effect, only one was better at helping him sleep. What does your mama drink?”
    â€œDepends on who’s buying. If a man’s hitting on her at the bar she’ll order something she thinks is classy, like a glass of chardonnay. But if she’s on her own at the store it’s bottom-shelf gin every time.”
    â€œGuess we’re both lucky we’re just garden-variety fuckups as opposed to the raging alcoholic kind.” She frowned at the long prairie grass, needlessly lifting the hem of her already short skirt. “Here I was worried about needing thicker tights, but I reckon a snakebite’s a bigger threat than hypothermia.”
    â€œI’m not sure Kansas is known for its abundance of poisonous snakes. It’s not much farther now. See that barn over there? Bonfire should be just the other side of it.”
    Sure enough, after another couple of steps the glow of firelight reflected on the sagging wooden structure. His pulse quickened as a chilly breeze carried the sound of laughter. He hoped he was doing the right thing.
    The end of the week had seen his relationship with Tara progress from the stiff politeness of an unfamiliar houseguest to the tentative camaraderie of two friends reconnecting after years apart. It was a step in the right direction, but it was still worlds away from a marriage, especially one about to be tested by a six-month deployment.
    Now that he’d admitted to himself that she was way more