Taking Charge (Lone Star Burn #4)(39)
RPGs and small weapons fire rained down from the rooftops. As they were returning fire and running for cover, David had made his way toward the alley. With their backs to the wall, his buddy Andrew and his men were cut off.
David remembered thinking, Shit, we are all going to die bringing supplies for these ungrateful bastards. The whole town should be bombed out of existence.
It was then that David had seen a man waving to him to come inside. David had shaken his head. He needed to find a way to get Andrew out.
The man continued to wave frantically to David. He was someone David had given supplies to in the past, but there was no reason to trust him, nothing beyond a look in his eye that said he wanted to help. He led David through his house and the home that adjoined his until they were behind where Andrew was. It was too late to save Andrew, but David and his men carried his body out of the line of fire.
David was one of several men heralded as heroes that day, but he regretted not following his instincts. Andrew might still be with them if he had. Eventually, the town was secured, and the next supply trip went without incident. David never again saw the man who had helped him, but in his mind, he was the hero.
After one tour, David left the Marines, but the lessons he learned there remained very much a part of him. No one gets left behind. Ever.
He’d let himself be persuaded to ignore his gut instinct a second time, years later. Kimberly Staten’s death hung as heavily on David’s conscience as Andrew’s death had. He’d known the horse she’d chosen was dangerous, but when he told her rich father as much, he’d been fired. No one blamed David for the horse trampling her to death, yet he couldn’t help but think he should have fought harder to protect her.
But Kimberly’s father had told him to leave, and he had.
Not a day went by that he didn’t regret that decision, and it had given him a stubborn streak when it came to doing what he felt was right.
Lucy needed him, and he wasn’t going anywhere.
Chapter Ten
Lucy was peeling potatoes while Sarah chopped vegetables for dinner. There was a comfort in the mundane act that helped calm Lucy. “So what was it like to hit the New York Times?” Lucy asked.
Sarah smiled brightly. “Unbelievable. Crazy. Wonderful. I never dared to dream that big. When I think about how close I came to giving up on writing, it’s scary. I have so many stories in my head that are dying to be shared. I can’t imagine doing anything else. When my first book started selling well, my parents thought Tony and I would want to move to New York to be closer to publishers. They don’t get it. My writing freed me. I’m exactly where I want to be.”
“I’m happy for you, Sarah. You deserve to be happy.”
Sarah put down her knife and gathered the vegetable bits into a bowl. “So do you. You can tell me it’s none of my business, but what happened in the car? One minute you and David looked like lovebirds. Then a moment later you were angry. Was it because of the riding lessons? They weren’t his idea. He only went along with them because I begged him to.”
Lucy put her own knife down, turned her back to the counter, and covered her face with her hands briefly. Sarah had asked her to share instead of hide from her. It wasn’t easy, but Lucy lowered her hands and met her friend’s eyes across the kitchen island. “I was jealous, I guess. Then scared when I pictured him with all those other women. How could he want me when he could have his pick of women? I don’t want to blame Ted for anything, because everything I did with him was my choice, but I trusted a man who ended up being nothing like I thought he was. I want to believe David is different. I want to believe this time my instincts are right, but all it takes is the smallest hint that I could be wrong to send me into a full panic.”
Sarah walked around the kitchen island and then rested against it beside her friend. “David is one of the nicest men I know.”
“Then he deserves someone who knows what they want.”
Sarah shook her head and made an impatient sound. “Do you want to be with someone or do you want to go back to living on your ranch alone? Because I can’t figure you out. This isn’t about who David could get or what David deserves. This is you letting your fear rule you. I grew up in a house where everyone was too afraid to say how they felt. They were afraid to talk about my brother’s death, afraid to face their guilt. Fear like that is a disease. It festers and grows. If you’re holding out for David to prove to you that you can trust him, you might as well end it now. He’ll never be able to, because the problem is in you, not in him.”
Lucy tried to blink back her tears, but one escaped anyway and rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away impatiently. “I don’t know how to be like you, Sarah. I don’t know how to simply put my fear aside.”
Sarah laid a sympathetic hand on Lucy’s forearm. “You take it one day at a time. You tell yourself—I will not be afraid today. Not here. Not in this moment. You don’t worry about all the tomorrows and everything that might come with them. You make your stand right here and now. I know you have it in you, Lucy. I’ve seen it.”
“And if we’re wrong about David?”
Sarah put her arm around Lucy. “You will still not be alone. You’ll always have me. Hos before bros.” She made a face. “I’ve never really liked that saying. I don’t usually call myself a whore, but it’s hard to find something that rhymes like that. Girlfriends before dead ends? You’d think that because I’m a writer, I could come up with something better—but it’s not easy.”