Fresh-Start Family by Lisa Mondello

Author:Lisa Mondello
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2010-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Their trips to Valentine had become routine already, measured by the time it took for the flight, the wait while Brian underwent dialysis and then the flight home. Tag normally spent some of his time picking up supplies Mr. Peers or one of the other local businesses had ordered. But he’d already picked up the supplies for Mr. Peers, so he decided to find the little coffee shop near the hospital and spend his time eating a slice of pie and reading the newspaper.

His time with Jenna and Brian had become important. He looked forward to the mornings when the sound of Jenna’s truck drew him to the window. He would push back the curtain to see her truck coming down his driveway and his mood would immediately lift.

After the kiss he’d shared with Jenna the other night, he’d found himself listening for Jenna and Brian this morning with anticipation. The kiss wasn’t something he’d planned to do. But he couldn’t say he hadn’t thought about it before or even since. Jenna had a way of putting a smile on his face even when he was down.

He’d spent the night stretched out on the sofa, staring at the cracks in the ceiling of his old farmhouse. And feeling mighty guilty that he actually liked how Jenna’s lips had felt against his when they’d kissed last night. That was what was on his mind all night? Not the award, or the mission that triggered it, or Nancy and Crystal?

Had it been so long since he’d kissed a woman that he’d forgotten the way it made him feel? Or was it just Jenna?

He was reluctant to think it was only Jenna that made the storm that normally raged inside him suddenly quiet. He’d come to Chesterfield to get a new start, to stop thinking so much about painful things he couldn’t change. He’d wanted to get lost in the physical work of the farm. And he’d hoped that at the end of a long day’s work he would be exhausted enough to collapse into dreamless sleep.

He hadn’t planned to spend his days thinking about a woman when there was so much work to be done. The fields had been plowed, but from what Ben had told him, Tag was already behind in seeding. If he didn’t get moving soon, he’d be lucky if a worthy crop came up at all this year.

As he walked the few blocks to the coffee shop close to the hospital, he thought about how different his life had become from the one he used to live as a marine. Moments of importance had turned from dangerous military missions to simple pleasures like a few hours of flying with Jenna and Brian.

He was crossing Main Street, the newspaper he’d been reading tucked under his arm, when he heard a horn blast from an oncoming bus. Tag snapped his gaze in the direction of the noise, and for a split second he wasn’t in Valentine anymore. The street wasn’t filled with people shopping and running back to work after a long lunch.

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