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The skin at the back of her neck prickled, and with haste she redirected her attention, focusing on Noah, who had come from the kitchen with a round of cold beers. He passed one to Juliet—the perfect lady drank beer?—and then to Marlys.
After he handed over a bottle to Dean, he toasted the man with a clack of glass to glass. “Enjoy it while you can, friend.”
“Planning an abstinence kick?” Marlys asked, then nudged Dean’s ankle with her foot. “I hope you don’t mean to extend that to other sorts of sins.”
“He’s being deployed,” Noah answered. “Once his leave is over, he’ll be heading to another danger zone.”
“Oh.” Juliet’s mouth turned down in distress and her gaze jumped to Noah’s face and then back to Dean. “Give us your address,” she said, “and we’ll be sure to send care packages.”
We? Though there was an uncomfortable chill rolling over Marlys’s skin, that odd word registered. But then it was gone, as her body trembled with a full-on, this-sounds-like-trouble shiver. Deployed. Danger zone. Dean.
His hand squeezed her cold fingers. “What about you, angel? What will you send me?”
She made a grab for her composure and managed to lift the corners of her mouth. Then she leaned down to whisper. “Play your cards right, and I’ll send you away with some very sexy memories.”
This close, she could smell his skin. Her lashes falling, she drew in the scent, holding it deep in her lungs so she could focus on each note—and not anything else. Fresh, green—sage?—it made her think of clean snow and mountain air.
The mountains and cold of some dangerous, undisclosed location.
Oh, God. If she didn’t get him in her bed and out of her system, something very bad could happen here. She might find herself destined to sick worry and hours glued to CNN.
“Marlys?”
She jerked back at the sound of his concerned voice and made another grand effort at an effortless smile. No way would she let him see her alarm, her dread at what might turn into a daily scouring of military websites and a fixation on counting down the days to the end of his deployment.
She couldn’t care that much.
For the first time in her life, she felt an inkling of sympathy for her mother.
“When do you leave?” Juliet asked, leaning forward to put her bottle on the narrow coffee table.
Dean brushed back Marlys’s bangs with his free hand, then turned to Juliet. Whew. And another first—a dollop of gratitude toward her evil stepmother.
“I’m off for another couple of weeks, but I have a few short visits to make here and there. Tacoma, maybe, before I report.”
At his place beside Juliet on the couch, Noah froze, his beer halfway to his mouth. “Why Tacoma?”
“You know,” Dean answered, his easy voice a distinct contrast to the other man’s sudden palpable tension. “I thought I’d check on Tiny Tim.”
“Tim?” Noah shot to his feet so fast, beer bubbled out of the bottle he held. “Why the hell would you do that? You know there’s nothing to see.”
Dean took a breath. “Noah—”
“Never mind. Shit.” He ran his free hand over his face, then looked around at the startled company. “Shit,” he said again, then he mumbled an apology and left the house, leaving the three of them staring in the direction of the slammed door.
“What’s with Private?” Marlys asked, bewildered.
Juliet slid to the edge of her cushion and shifted her gaze to Dean. “His roommate in Iraq, right? He told me about him.”
“Yeah?” Dean appeared surprised. “Noah’s usually close-mouthed about that.”
“He told me Tim’s permanently disabled.”
Dean grimaced. “A traumatic brain injury. In this case, an extremely traumatic brain injury.”
Marlys’s stomach jittered. She didn’t know this Tim, but she kept abreast of military news. Brain injuries were common in this generation of soldiers. Surgeons managed to save their bodies, but couldn’t restore damaged gray matter so much. Without thinking, she slid off the arm of the chair and into Dean’s lap. She needed his heat and the reassurance that he was whole to ease her stomach-tumbling disquiet.
As if he read her mind once again, he wrapped an arm around her middle and drew her closer into the curve of his body. Marlys leaned her head against his shoulder, and despite how weak it showed her to be, she turned her cheek to press a kiss against his soft cotton sleeve. His arm gave her an answering squeeze and it was just silly how comforting she found it to be.
Juliet gazed toward the door again. “His friend’s injuries hit Noah hard,” she said, then frowned. “What a dumb thing to say. Of course they hit him hard.”
