Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense July 2016, Box Set 1 of 2 by Lynette Eason

Author:Lynette Eason
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488022258
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

An hour later Dean hadn’t returned, and there had been no word from the doctor. Gwen stopped pacing back and forth in the conference room and shook her head. “Why haven’t we heard anything? Do you think something could have gone wrong?”

Ben frowned. “Waiting’s hard, I know. I do it all the time with families of crime victims. The doctor said he’ll let us know, and he will. In the meantime, how about some coffee? I’ll be glad to go to the dining room and get us some.”

Gwen looked down at her watch and frowned. She hadn’t realized it had got so late. As if to remind her that she hadn’t eaten lunch, her stomach growled. “Coffee sounds great,” she said. “Could you get a snack of some kind to go with it? I don’t have any money with me, but I’ll repay you later.”

He gave a lopsided grin and waved his hand in dismissal. “No need to do that. I’ll be glad to get you something. Be back in a few minutes.”

“Thanks, Sheriff Whitman.”

He grinned again. “Ben.”

Gwen studied the chiseled features of the man she’d met yesterday, and the tension she’d felt in her body ever since that first shot was fired at Rattlesnake Creek seemed to disappear at the kindness of his smile. Her rigid muscles relaxed, and she took a slow step toward him. “Do you really wait with all the crime victims’ families who are brought here, or just special ones?”

His face turned red, and he shrugged. “Maybe not all of them, but you’re different.”

She frowned. “Why am I different?”

“I met Dean the first day he came to school here, right after his grandparents brought him home with them. He’s been my friend ever since. I was away in the army when you two got married, and I never was home when you visited. But we kept up with each other. When he came back here five years ago, he wasn’t the man I remembered.”

Gwen shook her head. “No, I don’t suppose he was.”

“His grandfather had been telling me for several years how worried he was about Dean, said he was drinking too much. When I saw him after he came back, he was still fighting his alcoholism, but he was fighting—he wasn’t letting it take over anymore. And that was the main thing. My church had a group to help alcoholics, and I talked him into going with me.”

Her eyebrows arched. “With you? Why were you going?”

He smiled that slow smile that seemed to put her at ease. “Because I was a recovering alcoholic, too. Became one while I was in the army, but I had gotten help and was moving on with my life. I wanted Dean to get it, too. So he finally went with me, and I became his sponsor. I was there with him when he went through his worst times, and we formed a bond like nothing I’ve ever had with another person. We both know what it’s like to hit rock bottom and make the long, slow climb back to a happy life.

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