From Duty to Daddy by MacKay Sue

Author:MacKay, Sue [MacKay, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

EARLY TUESDAY MORNING Charlie got dressed in her running gear. ‘I can’t believe how much my muscles ache,’ she grumbled as she jogged beside Marshall. ‘It’s going to take weeks to get fit.’

‘Toughen up.’ He nudged her gently and when she flipped her head up he was grinning at her.

‘Easy for you to say.’ She glanced at his long legs, which were eating up the metres no problem at all. One stride of his equalled almost two of hers. ‘I’ve got an idea. Tomorrow I’ll ride my bike while you run. Then we’ll see who’s fastest.’

His laughter made her happy and caused him to lose his breathing pattern. She laughed in return when he had to stop to sort his lungs out and she got a little way ahead. Not for long, though.

‘Going my way?’ He waved as he raced past.

Her lungs were hurting and her legs protesting. Wishing she could take up the challenge, she wheezed out, ‘I’m heading home. See you later.’

He turned and ran backwards for a moment. ‘I’ll bring lunch in to work.’

‘We’ll go down to the lake.’

* * *

A little after midday Charlie swallowed a mouthful of panini filled with salad and chicken and asked Marshall, ‘What did you find to talk about to the other doctors all afternoon yesterday?’

‘Medical stuff. You’d be surprised what other doctors want to know about the trauma cases I deal with out in the field.’ Marshall chewed a blade of grass and gazed out over the sparkling wavelets the light breeze was churning up on the lake. ‘I don’t give a lot of detail but I guess it seems exciting compared to the routine of a clinic. What they don’t get is that there are days I’d happily swap places. At least most of your patients won’t have lost a limb or have holes blasted in their torsos by random gunfire.’

Charlie put her food aside, suddenly not hungry. ‘How do you deal with that all the time?’ Marshall rarely talked about his medical duties.

‘I try to think about the guys I’m helping and put the rest aside.’

‘Like that works.’ Disappointment at being fobbed off grabbed at her. He’d finally said something personal and then backed away the moment she’d picked up on it.

He turned a grim face to her. ‘Not a bit.’

She gasped at the raw pain in his eyes. ‘Marshall?’ she whispered, as she wrapped her hand around his much larger one. Small tremors shook him. His skin felt clammy and cold. His chest rose and fell on short breaths.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ he croaked.

‘Yeah, it does.’ She looked around at Aimee, playing happily with the stones at the edge of the bank. ‘Tell me,’ she said.

His hand turned to cover hers, his grip intense. ‘You remember Rod? My best buddy?’ When she nodded he continued in a low voice, ‘Two months after we left Hawaii we were in Afghanistan.’ His Adam’s apple bobbed. ‘A plane carrying half my troop crashed at the end of the runway. Rod didn’t make it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.