Sea Glass Island

Ethan frowned. “How’d you know?”

“I remember hearing way back that she had a crush on you. A couple of guys we hung out with asked her out, but she turned them down flat. She was maybe fifteen, sixteen. You were a senior and all caught up with your adoring horde of beauties. If you ask me, not a one of them held a candle to her, but you were oblivious. I watched her stand on the fringes of a few beach parties, her heart in her eyes.”

Since Boone had mentioned something similar about an old crush, Ethan couldn’t dismiss the comment. “I’m surprised you didn’t rush in to console her.”

“Like I said, she was out of my league. And I had enough issues living in the shadow of your popularity without risking rejection by one of your adoring fans.”

Ethan knew perfectly well that Greg’s ego had been healthy enough to withstand most anything back then. If Ethan had been a star on the offensive side of the football, Greg had been equally outstanding on defense. He’d even played both college and pro football briefly while studying medicine, a taxing combination that proved he had both brains and athletic skills, to say nothing of a whole lot of grit and determination.

And yet with all that potential to choose either a well-paying career in pro football or an equally successful path in medicine, he, just like Ethan, had opted for tours in the military. Unlike Ethan, though, Greg had come back in one piece, physically at least. Only a handful of people knew of the nightmares that tormented him, nightmares that left him emotionally exhausted and his wife and kids shaken.

Ethan’s understanding of the toll PTSD had taken on his friend and Greg’s insights into Ethan’s struggles to cope with his physical disability had made them the perfect partners for this medical practice in a quiet, familiar community.

Ethan noted the signs of exhaustion on his friend’s face and realized that all this focus on his social life was masking another of Greg’s bad nights.

“Change and come running with me,” he suggested, knowing that physical exertion could help them both. “Debra and Pam can hold the fort here and call us if there’s a sudden rush of patients. It’ll do you good. I might even let you beat me for a change.”

Greg laughed. “Let me? Just who do you think you’re fooling? If you’re brave enough to put a little money on this, I think we’ll see that you’re no match for me.”

“You believe that?” Ethan mocked. “You’re even more delusional than I thought.”

“Oh, it’s true. I might just give you a head start to even up your chances,” Greg taunted. “Otherwise it wouldn’t be fair to take your money.”

Ethan scowled at that. “I’m faster these days, even on one good leg, than you are on two. You’ve gone soft, Knotts. Now, come on. Change those clothes and lace up your running shoes. I’ll wait.”

“Two minutes,” Greg said, accepting the challenge as Ethan had known he would. “Loser buys lunch.”

“Works for me,” Ethan agreed.

“And I have a hankering for a burger at Castle’s,” Greg said, his expression gloating. “Just so you know what’s at stake.”

Ethan stared after him. Oh, he knew, all right. Lunch where there was every chance he’d catch another glimpse of Samantha? So much for clinging to whatever hard-won peace of mind he accomplished on this run.

3

“You sent Ethan Cole to the house without warning me,” Samantha said, giving her sister a swat. “How could you do that?”

“I didn’t want you to tell me not to,” Emily said blithely. “And to be totally accurate, Boone sent him. I didn’t.”

Samantha regarded her with a cynical look. “Not much of a defense, Em. Surely you can do better than that.”

“Why should I?” Emily asked unrepentantly, then grinned. “How’d it go? Judging from your mood, I’m guessing it was exactly the push the two of you needed.”

“We did not need a push, or a nudge or any other form of interference,” Samantha retorted.

Emily merely rolled her eyes. “Resent me now, but once the two of you are as happy as Boone and me, you’ll thank me.”

“You think so?” Samantha said direly. “He caught me in his football jersey reaching for a mug in the kitchen cabinet. I think his eyes are still glazed over from the glimpse he probably caught of my bare bottom.”

Emily burst out laughing. “Oh, that’s perfect!”

“It wasn’t perfect,” Samantha contradicted. “It was awkward and embarrassing.”

“But he’s bound to be intrigued, don’t you think? You do have an incredibly shapely bottom, after all. And Ethan hasn’t dated a lot since his fiancée dumped him. He needs someone just like you to get him back into the game.”

“Hold on,” Samantha said as Emily’s offhand remark sank in. “His fiancée dumped him? After he came home from Afghanistan?”

“I know. Really tacky, huh?” Emily said, her expression sobering. “I’d like to give that woman a piece of my mind.”

Samantha agreed. “It was definitely a pretty shallow reaction, assuming it was about the loss of his leg,” she said.

“Oh, it was all about that,” Emily confirmed. “Boone says she told him she couldn’t be with someone who wasn’t whole or perfect or something like that.”

“That’s disgusting. No wonder he’s so sensitive about how people are likely to react,” Samantha said, seeing their conversation in a different light. “He admitted he’d expected me to be shallow and vain. Maybe it wasn’t all about me being an actress, the way I took it. Maybe he feels that way about all women these days.”

Emily’s eyes widened. “He did not accuse you of such a thing! Of all the unmitigated gall. He hardly even knows you. There’s not a shallow, vain bone in your body.”

Samantha sighed at the surprisingly ardent defense. “I don’t know about that. In my business I do spend a lot of time looking in the mirror and fretting over wrinkles.”

“But that’s just the business you’re in,” Emily said, loyally waving off the suggestion. “You don’t judge other people by those standards. You’d never look down on someone who’s not perfect.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” Samantha agreed, thinking of that one moment when she’d gotten a real glimpse of vulnerability in Ethan’s eyes. He’d expected to be judged or, worse, to be pitied. She couldn’t imagine any man wanting pity, but for someone who’d demonstrated so much courage, it would be even more humiliating.

And Ethan, who’d once caught her attention with his charm, good looks and football prowess, was courageous. She had no doubts about that. Even in this morning’s brief encounter, she’d realized the kind of strength it must have taken for him not only to survive his injury, but to move forward, to not accept limitations. In her view, that made him someone to be admired, and lifted her old secret crush to a whole new level.

Even so, she scowled at her sister. “Do not put me in that position again,” she said flatly. “Ethan and I are adults. We’re bound to run across each other in the next couple of weeks with all the wedding hoopla. We don’t need you and Boone manufacturing excuses to throw us together. Understood?”

“Okay, fine,” Emily conceded unhappily. “I was just trying to do something nice.”

“The only way you could have been any more obvious would have been to send him over there with a big fat bow around his neck and a sign that said Keep Me.”

Even as the words came out of her mouth, Samantha caught the worrisome gleam in her sister’s eyes. “Oh no, you don’t. Your meddling days are over.”

“If you say so,” Emily replied dutifully. “But just so you know, I’m an amateur. The real pro, Grandmother, hasn’t even gotten started.”

And that, Samantha thought wearily, was scarier than just about anything else her sister could have said.

* * *

Cora Jane took one look at the sight of Ethan Cole and Greg Knotts walking into Castle’s and slipped into the kitchen and called Emily.

“Have you finished with the dress fitting?” she asked, lowering her voice to a whisper.

“About five minutes ago,” Emily said. “Why? And why are you whispering?”

“Because I don’t want anyone to overhear me,” Cora Jane said.

“Uh-oh,” her granddaughter said, chuckling. “What is it you don’t want Jerry to hear?” she asked pointedly, referring to Castle’s longtime cook who was now courting Cora Jane. “What are you up to?”