The Marine's Family Mission by Victoria Pade

Author:Victoria Pade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mills & Boon Cherish
Published: 2019-10-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

“I didn’t know if I’d ever be saying this, let alone so soon, but yeah, I think you’ll pass your med eval—and not just for limited duty. I think they’ll clear you.”

The words were music to Declan’s ears.

On Wednesday his older brother, Conor, had arrived at the Madison farm with Conor’s old-flame-now-new-bride Maicy. After putting in a full day’s work at the Samms farm, Declan and Emmy had left Trinity and Kit with a second babysitter for the evening. Later on, they planned to attend a meeting of the organic farmer’s co-op in Northbridge.

But first they’d made a stop at the Madison farm so Declan could see—and be examined by—Conor, who combined his medical degree with his overbearing-eldest-brother nature to fuss over Declan like a mother hen. While that was going on, Emmy was meeting with Kinsey to plan the wedding pictures.

“Your range of motion is surprisingly good,” Conor continued. “There’s no swelling. If the pain isn’t enough for you to take a pain reliever even after a full day of hard labor—”

“And after walking with a crying baby for hours last night,” Declan put in.

“Then yeah, I think you could actually get back to your unit—if that’s what you want.”

“That’s what I want,” Declan said resolutely.

In fact, knowing he and Emmy would leave here to go into Northbridge—where he would see people he’d known and loathed while growing up—made him all the more eager to be back on the job. The idea of facing those people who had disliked and looked down on him was about as appealing to him as getting shot.

But apparently that didn’t show because his older brother frowned curiously at him and said, “Seems like you’re in better spirits, too.”

“Does it?” Declan countered, wanting—as always—to avoid another conversation about his emotional state.

Still, his brother’s observation did make him think about his mood lately, and it struck him that he might be in a slightly improved frame of mind.

He wasn’t quite sure why. There was nothing about losing Topher that had gotten any easier for him. Walking with Kit in the dead of night was actually an exercise in mental and emotional torture—every room he went in and out of brought memories of times there with the friend he’d lost. Every bounce, every jiggle, every whisper to that tiny baby boy in his arms reminded him that Topher had never gotten to hold his own son.

And yet, in spite of that, he realized that his feelings of guilt, his remorse, even some of his grief, weren’t as constant as they’d been before. That he was weighed down a little less...ever since he’d talked about it with Emmy.

Nothing she’d said had made him feel absolved. But thinking about Topher’s letigo motto had eased some of his depression. And he guessed that maybe it did help to know that Mandy hadn’t blamed him—that she didn’t seem to think Topher would have blamed him either.

“This is the first time in eight months that you seem more like yourself,” Conor was saying.

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