The Marine Makes His Match

She recognized that a part of her hope for that might be coming from grief over losing the mother she’d loved dearly and been very close to. But that loss had also opened her eyes to the fact that she didn’t have anyone else left, either.

Being completely overwhelmed with caring for her adoptive father and then her mother for the last two and a half years had made it impossible not to neglect her other relationships.

Friends had found mates and she’d missed meeting those new people in their lives, missed their engagement parties, their bridal showers, their bachelorette parties, their weddings. They’d had babies and she’d missed those showers, too, and then the births, and even a first birthday celebration. Her friends had become enmeshed in their own lives, and Kinsey just hadn’t been able to keep up. So those friendships had gone by the wayside and left no meaningful place for her in any of them.

And now there was the potential to have sisters and brothers, a grandmother, nearby. And that had become important to her.

Not that she didn’t want to find a man and have a family of her own because she did, she thought as she finished her shower and began to dry her hair. The hardest thing she’d ever done was saying no to Trevor’s proposal. But it had been the difficulty she’d had rejecting Duncan after Trevor that had told her that she needed to conquer her loneliness before she ventured into any other romantic relationships. She didn’t want to end up with a man she didn’t really love just because she was afraid of being alone.

She opted to leave her hair down again today and dressed in a pair of jeans that she knew fit her to perfection and two layers of T-shirts—a tight yellow scoop-neck over a white tank top. Glancing in the mirror, she realized that once again, she had dressed to impress not the colonel, but Sutter.

There was no denying that he was a hunk and a half. That he was sexy as all get-out and so handsome any and every woman would take a second look and go slightly slack jawed.

But he was wrong for her. As wrong for her as Trevor had been. And yet here she was, here she had been since she’d met him, thinking about him. Factoring him into her choice of hairstyles and clothes again today despite having told herself she wasn’t going to do that again.

Loneliness was coloring her thoughts, her leanings. If not for that she was certain that the simple fact that Sutter was a career marine would have been enough for her to put him out of her mind.

But she didn’t seem able to do that. Instead, she was filled with eagerness to see him again, even though it wasn’t something she should be feeling. Something she doubted she’d be feeling at all if her life was fuller.

So it was better to focus on the Camdens, on the possibility of connecting with them.

And if—hopefully—that went well and she suddenly found herself a part of something bigger, then she could look for a mate of her own and trust that she was choosing wisely.

* * *

“With a little patience and a little effort, Colonel, you’ll have a fine dog in Jack. He’s just a pup—keep that in mind,” Todd Runyun said.

Todd had been working for Pets for Vets since leaving the marines four years ago. Kinsey had met him through her brother Liam, who had done two tours with him. An injury during their last deployment had caused Todd chronic back problems. ffWhen those problems flared he called Kinsey for physical therapy that she’d provided gratis. Returning the favor, he’d come to the Knightlingers’ house after his workday was over to teach Sutter, the colonel and Kinsey what to do with the rambunctious Jack.

Todd had brought his own dog Reggie, a former bomb-sniffing German shepherd he’d adopted when Reggie was retired from service. It had become clear during the two hours he’d been there that the colonel preferred Reggie to Jack and that was only confirmed when the colonel said, “How about you take Jack with you and leave me Reggie?”

Todd laughed. “Give young Jack here a chance—he’s a new recruit who needs to be whipped into shape like all new recruits.”

Then Todd wrapped up the training session with assignments as Jack tried to enlist Reggie into play, front paws outstretched, hind end in the air, tail wagging, at the ready for mischief while Reggie sat regally beside his master, pretending the puppy wasn’t there.

“Jack is a good pup, he’ll make a good dog,” the trainer concluded.

The colonel huffed under her breath as if she’d have to see it to believe it.

What Kinsey could see was that the elderly woman was tiring, and since their lessons were over she thanked Todd for everything and suggested she get the colonel settled for the night.

As Kinsey and the colonel left, she heard Sutter asking about the Pets for Vets organization itself, lamenting that he hadn’t known about the group when he had been looking for a dog for the colonel.

“Good man,” the colonel said once they were in her room, referring to Todd.

“He is.”

“Boyfriend?”

Not only didn’t Kinsey mind answering most personal questions, she was glad to have any show of interest from this particular patient. The colonel wasn’t one to make polite chitchat. If she was asking, it was because she wanted to know more about Kinsey, which was a sign that the colonel was warming to her.

“No, he’s only a friend,” she said, thinking as she did how true that was and wondering why, in comparison to Sutter, Todd’s good looks had no impact on her whatsoever. He was an attractive guy, after all—tall, blond, Nordic-looking. But nothing about him had ever inspired in her what she was struggling with over the colonel’s son.

“Todd is actually one of my brother’s friends,” she said, shying away from analyzing that phenomenon. Instead she forced herself to concentrate on the colonel and went on to explain how Todd knew Liam.

That led to the colonel’s asking about all three of her brothers and their military careers as Kinsey prepared the older woman for bed.

The fact that Kinsey had such close ties to the military in her brothers and her late stepfather—who had just retired from the marines when he’d met her mother—went a long way toward establishing greater rapport with the colonel, and by the time Kinsey was finished and the colonel was situated with a book and the remote control for her television, the atmosphere between them was considerably friendlier.

Friendly enough for the colonel to confide on the sly, “You know, I like a little brandy before bed...”

“I can’t call your doctor for permission for that now, but I’ll check with him first thing in the morning to make sure it won’t interfere with any of your meds. If we get the go-ahead, I’m fine with that. Even though you seem to sleep without it, I’ll tell him you need a little help and that should do the trick,” Kinsey offered.

For the first time she saw a small smile cross the older woman’s lips, apparently appreciating Kinsey’s willingness to conspire with her. “You do that,” the colonel said with the arch of one eyebrow.

Then, as Kinsey headed for the door after making sure the older woman didn’t need anything else, the colonel said, “Glad your other brother made it through his surgery this morning.”

“Thanks. Me, too. See you tomorrow.”

Apparently Sutter had found quite a bit to talk to Todd about because he was just closing the front door as Kinsey came from the colonel’s room. He had Jack slung under his good arm.

“Jack wanted to go home with Reggie?” Kinsey guessed as Sutter bent over to set the dog on the floor now that the opportunity to make a run for it was taken away.

“Yes. And I thought Todd might be tired of this puppy pestering his dog. I think there’s some hero worship going on there,” Sutter said. “Maybe Reggie can be his role model and Jack will work at improving himself to impress him.”

“Looked more to me like Jack was trying to corrupt Reggie, but let’s think positive,” Kinsey said.

“The colonel’s down for the count?”

“She’s in bed but not asleep if you want to say good-night, then we can do your physical therapy since we didn’t get to it earlier.”

“Yeah, we can’t skip that,” Sutter agreed with more enthusiasm than the prospect usually brought on in most of her patients. Not that that was a surprise to her—recovering meant he’d be able to return to combat, and her experience with her brothers had taught her that that was all the motivation a marine needed. “Meet you in the living room.”

Jack followed Kinsey while Sutter went to his mother’s bedroom. Once in the living room the puppy promptly leaped onto the sofa.

“Todd says you’re not supposed to do that unless you’re invited,” she whispered.

Jack wagged his tail and stayed put.

“Come on, get down,” she said before she recalled that she was to use one-word commands, and repeated only, “Down!”

Jack still didn’t budge so she picked him up and set him on the floor while saying, “Down!” again and then adding, “I bought you a reprieve from going back to the breeder, you’d better use it wisely.”

Jack wagged his tail again and she took that as encouragement. Until he jumped on the sofa again.

“Jack, down!” came Sutter’s deep voice from behind Kinsey as he joined them.

This time the puppy actually got off the couch.