Letters from Home (Love Beyond Reason #1)(8)

Zack focused on the trail ahead of them. Soon, they were running in rhythm. Neither trying to out-do the other. He liked that about her. Even when they’d been stationed together, her drive hadn’t come from proving herself or comparing herself to the male majority.

He, on the other hand, enjoyed the slower pace. A perfect match.

They left the park behind and turned down Main Street, heading back toward her family home. He whistled to get her attention, and when she frowned his way, he nodded toward the café. “Coffee?”

She shook her head, her frown becoming a scowl.

“Come on. I’m buying.”

Just when he thought she would blow right by the small shop, Lena rolled her eyes and stopped. “You’re a distraction, Zack Benson.”

The muscles he hadn’t warmed up before running ached with renewed fervor at the unexpected halt. He stretched when she did and walked with her, pacing in front of the store to cool down.

“Ready?” He opened the door and let her in. Didn’t matter that she’d been running, she still smelled great. Maybe that made him weird, but he didn’t care. He took a deep breath as she walked by—florals, a hint of basil, and the sweet scent of woman.

“Mike says you’re out of the Army for good.”

“Six months now.” There were aspects he missed about military life, but the daily grind, no. Deployment had its own set of problems, but he’d have preferred those.

“You got bored, didn’t you?”

“Maybe. But it was really my dad who got the ball rolling.” Zack stepped up and smiled for the lady behind the counter. “We’ll have two coffees, one black and one with two sugars and cream—the heavy kind.”

Lena looked surprised, and that irritated him a little. Why shouldn’t he remember she liked her coffee sweet and light?

“I guess I did get bored. Seems crazy when I think about it like that. It was never a boring job in the grand scope of things. But in the end, I needed to come home.”

“How’s your dad doing now?”

“He’s hanging in there. Still mostly independent, just…can’t keep his head long enough to handle everything.”

Lena lifted a brow. “Can’t keep his head? Is that what the doctors told you?”

Zack laughed. “No.”

After paying with the few dollars from his pocket, he took the coffee and followed Lena to a table in the corner. “Tell me how it was,” he asked, not needing to explain he meant her deployment.

“Long,” she answered with a shrug.

“Such a talker. You should learn to curb some of that exuberance.”

She blushed. “Blah, blah, blah. You know how it is over there. Do we have to talk about it? Let’s talk about something else.”

“You want to go to Quinn’s tonight?” He hadn’t intended on asking her out—not that she’d think of it as a date.

She evaded. “You know what I really want?” She touched his hand, as if she didn’t know she was doing it.

He held his breath.

“A nice long vacation in the Caribbean, drinks with umbrellas in them, and nothing else. No letters, no funny feelings about those letters or the mystery man who wrote them. I’m fed up with thinking about it. I’m finished.” She rested her elbows on the table, and her shoulders relaxed. “Wow. Feels good just saying it.”

She had funny feelings?

“So, you’ve been getting letters?” Zack picked up his napkin and folded it once, then twice. He glanced at Lena, hoping to come off nonchalant.

“Ugh! Don’t even start. I am not going over it again. If I have to hear one more time about how silly it is for me to fall in love with a guy just because he writes beautiful letters, I’m going to leave town. Maria’s the only one who has any sympathy, but the way she keeps sighing and swooning over it makes me feel like an idiot.”

He stared, the coffee forgotten in front of him. His thought process came to a grinding halt. There was even a flutter in that region of his chest, right under his sternum. He cleared his throat, set his coffee down, and opened his mouth to say…what? She fell in love?

“Zack, you’re a guy.”

He’d had a moment. She hadn’t. No problem. He unscrambled his brain. A guy. “Yes,” he answered with some hesitation, then grinned. “Thank you for finally noticing.”

She stopped, gave him a look, and shook her head with a smile. She pulled her coffee mug into her lap as she sat back, relaxed. She tilted her head and studied him with those dark eyes. Dang, those eyes and the mischievous twinkle in them.

He felt a sigh coming on, which pissed him off a little. What was he? Some little old lady? Or worse, like Maria? But that look said everything. Friends. Compatriots. Pals. Like she was about to tell him secrets she would never tell a lover. Which of course, they weren’t…yet.

“We’re both very practical.”

Maybe. He shrugged. “Okay.”

“Why the secret? Why would a guy pull the secret admirer bit on a woman halfway around the world?” She leaned forward again, crossed her legs, and set the coffee back on the table. “Why not just tell her? If I know the guy…don’t you think that would only be a bonus for him?”

“Maybe he likes surprises.”