The Welcome Home Garden Club by Lori Wilde

Author:Lori Wilde
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins US
Published: 2011-03-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Traditional meaning of tulip—symbol of the perfect lover.

For the first time in a long time, Gideon felt the need for a drink.

After running away—yes, like a coward, he’d run away when things had gotten too hot to handle—from Caitlyn in Sweetheart Park, he stalked into the Horny Toad Tavern desperate for something to take his mind off what he’d just done.

Impulsively, he’d kissed her. Before she was ready for it. Hell, before he was ready for it. He’d thought he’d conquered his rashness, that the army had drilled that character flaw out of him. He hated this, his inability to control his impetuous impulses.

If he moved too fast, he could royally screw up this thing with Caitlyn, because he didn’t do anything in small measures. Throughout his life, it had been all or nothing. Moderation hadn’t been part of his mindset.

Uncontrolled impulse had gotten him into trouble time and time again. It led him to burning down J. Foster’s barn, to joining the army, to losing his hand.

He stared down at the prosthesis, opened the hand, closed it, felt nothing. The i-LIMB was a vast improvement over his previous prosthesis. This hand built on myoelectric principles could move each digit individually. The fingers stayed locked into position until he triggered movement through an open signal by flexing the muscles just above where his arm had been amputated. Now, he was able to pick up a Styrofoam cup without crushing it and he was grateful for that improvement. Advancing technology offered the hope of even more progress on the horizon. One day, he would be able to trigger movement just by thinking about it.

Enough time had elapsed since the bombing that he’d dealt with the major psychological issues, but this was the first time he’d left the Middle East since it had happened. Coming home, being in a different environment, it was like getting accustomed to the loss all over again.

“What’ll you have?” asked the bartender.

“Shot of whiskey,” he said.

When he first joined the army, when Caitlyn had first sent his letters back—correction, when her old man had sent the letters back—he’d taken refuge in the bottle. Drinking to excess in a mad attempt to block out the emotional pain. But then he’d realized that wasn’t the path he wanted to continue down. If he couldn’t have Caitlyn, he’d throw himself into his work, heart and soul, and he couldn’t do that if his mind was on drinking. So he’d stopped.

After losing his hand, he’d gone through another bout of self-pity–induced drinking, but with therapy, he’d come to grips with what happened. Gideon stared into the glass of amber liquid. Did he really want to start down that road again?

“That’ll be five dollars,” the bartender said.

“I’m buying.”

Gideon looked up to see Sheriff Hondo Crouch standing beside him. When he’d lived here before, Hondo had been a paramedic working for the ambulance service.

Hondo slapped a ten-dollar bill down on the counter. “Club soda for me, Jim.”

Gideon pushed the sawbuck toward Hondo. “Keep your money, Sheriff.

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.