A Soldier's Heart

Even his brief romance with Mary Kate and their breakup hadn’t interfered with that friendship. Obviously Mary Kate hadn’t bad-mouthed him to her brothers, or that would have meant the end. The Flanagan boys were notorious for protecting their sisters.

Had Mary Kate needed protecting from him? She wouldn’t have thought so. In her eyes, she was the one who took care of everybody else. Still, he’d hurt her. He knew it and she knew it, even if she’d never told anyone else.

A lifetime ago. He tossed a damp towel in the general direction of the rack and wheeled his way out toward the kitchen. Mary Kate probably never thought of those days. Her life was too full for trips down memory lane, with a job and two kids to take care of.

As for him—he was just a job to her, and that was for the best. Even friendship required more than he had to offer now.

The doorbell rang, followed by the sound of the door opening. Mary Kate, obviously. She’d insisted on having a key in case of emergency, and he hadn’t had the energy to argue with her about it.

He swiveled into the living room and stopped dead. It was Mary Kate all right, but the two men with her weren’t the anonymous hired strangers he’d expected. Seth and Gabe Flanagan seemed to fill the room, and at Gabe’s heels was a big yellow Lab.

Anger at Mary Kate surged through him. He glared at her, and she looked back with a coolly confrontational stare that dared him to make a scene.

Dared him, and won. He’d felt free to vent his anger on Mary Kate when she’d come in uninvited, but he couldn’t seem to do the same to Gabe and Seth. Did that say something about him, or about their relationship?

For a moment no one moved, and then Gabe came forward with his hand extended. “Luke, it’s good to see you again.”

“Gabe. Seth.” At least his handshake was as strong as ever. “I’m surprised to see you. I thought Mary Kate was hiring someone to do this chore.”

Seth grinned. “You know our sister. Never pay somebody else to do something if you can talk a brother into handling it.”

“We’re glad to do it.” Gabe ruffled the dog’s ears absently as he spoke. “How are you doing?”

His throat tightened, but he forced himself to speak normally. He patted the arm of the chair. “I guess you can see. And you guys? Either of you make captain yet?” Flanagans went into the fire service, everyone knew that.

“Seth’s a brigade chief.” Gabe nudged his brother with his elbow. “To say nothing of a husband and father—one little boy and another one on the way.”

“Congratulations.” Hard to picture steady, easygoing Seth being in charge. He’d always been the quiet one among the Flanagan boys. “What about you?” He glanced at Gabe. “You letting your brother boss you around now on the job?”

Gabe smiled slightly, shaking his head. “I got pretty broken up fighting fire. I guess it was after your reserve unit was called up, so maybe you didn’t hear. Left me with seizures, so I wasn’t much good on the fire line.” He stroked the dog’s head. “Max here is a seizure-alert dog.”

For a moment he couldn’t say anything. Mary Kate might have told him before she brought her brothers in here.

“Sorry.” He should say more, but he couldn’t seem to think of anything.

Gabe shrugged. “There’s more to life than firefighting, but don’t tell my dad I said so.” He turned to Mary Kate. “Okay, let’s get at it. Show us this furniture we’re supposed to be moving.”

They trooped off to the dining room, and he heard the scrape of chairs. In a moment Seth and Gabe came back, carrying the table between them, with Mary Kate rushing ahead to open the door. He could hear Seth ribbing Gabe about holding up his end as they went.

Mary Kate came back in. He planted his hands on the chair arms, so annoyed with her he didn’t know where to start. “I told you to hire someone.”

She shrugged, looking ridiculously like the girl she’d been at sixteen in faded jeans and a navy T-shirt emblazoned with the Suffolk YMCA logo. “You heard Seth. I hate paying for something I can get free.”

“This wasn’t about money. You just wanted to get them in here. I suppose that business about Gabe was meant to be a lesson to me.” Even through his annoyance, he had a sneaking suspicion that sounded petty.

Mary Kate held his gaze for a long moment. “Only if you need one,” she said, and walked out.

He sat staring at the kitchen door. Through its window he could see her cross the yard to her brothers, apparently giving them directions about the table. All three disappeared into the garage.

Maybe that was just as well. She’d left him with nothing to say.

A sound had him turning back toward the front door. Two kids stood there staring at him, and with that curly red hair, blue eyes and freckles, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that they must be Mary Kate’s.

He froze, hands gripping the chair, fresh anger welling. Bad enough that she’d brought her brothers here—it was worse that she’d brought her kids to stare at him.

He tried to moderate the scowl he knew he must be wearing. He might be annoyed, but he wasn’t about to scare little children if he could help it. “Are you two looking for your mother? She’s out back.”

Please, just go out there and find her and stop staring at me.

The girl shook her head and took a step backward. The little boy walked right up to him and put his hand on Luke’s arm. “Are you the soldier?”

Are you the soldier? The words echoed loudly in his head, pounding against his skull.

Not anymore. He fought back the urge to say the words out loud. Not when I’m here, helpless, while the men I’m responsible for are still in the line of fire.

Mary Kate stepped into the kitchen and stopped dead, looking through the archway to the living room—at her kids, standing there next to Luke’s wheelchair. Talking to him, with Michael leaning against his knee as if they were old friends.

She fairly flew across the kitchen and into the living room. “Shawna and Michael Donnelly! What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at Grammy and Grandpa’s house.”

Shawna pressed her lips together, looking guilty. Michael turned an expression of blue-eyed innocence on her.

“We were, Mommy.”

“You’re not now.” She couldn’t look at Luke, and she was sure her cheeks were bright with embarrassment. “Who told you that you could come here?”

“Grammy said we could walk to Timmy Nelson’s house to play on the swings.” Shawna found her voice. “We do that lots of times. We stay right on the sidewalk and walk around the block and we don’t cross any streets.”

True, they were allowed to walk to the Nelson place. Mary Kate frowned. “This is not Timmy’s house.”

“Timmy wasn’t home,” Michael said. “And you said you were going to come here and it was only a little bit farther to walk and we wanted to meet the soldier.”

“Lieutenant Marino,” Shawna corrected.

She sent a quick glance toward Luke. He didn’t look happy, but neither did he look outraged, which he had every right to be.

“And you’re here, Mommy,” Michael added.

“You were not invited.” Neither were Gabe and Seth, of course, but that was beside the point.

“Lieutenant Marino doesn’t care,” Michael said. “I was telling him about the letter we got. How everybody liked it. He said that was good.”

At least Luke hadn’t let the children know how he felt about this influx of company. He was undoubtedly saving that for her.

“You should not have come here if Grammy thinks you’re at Timmy’s. What if she goes there and no one’s home? She’ll be worried.” She snatched the cell phone from her pocket and handed it to Shawna. “Go out to the kitchen, both of you, and wait there for me. Shawna, call Grammy and let her know where you are. Tell her you’ll come back with me.”

“Yes, Mommy.” Shawna turned to Luke. “I’m sorry we came when we weren’t invited.”

Luke’s face wore an interesting expression—he was obviously not used to dealing with children. “That’s all right,” he mumbled.