The Marine's Road Home by Brenda Harlen

Author:Brenda Harlen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-05-07T13:16:43+00:00

Chapter Ten

Jake was waiting outside when Sky arrived.

“Am I late?” she asked.

“No.”

He brushed her lips with a soft, lingering kiss that made her belly quiver in the same way her sister had described.

“I just didn’t know what you’d be wearing and I didn’t want Molly jumping and messing you up.”

She did a quick twirl. “Do I look okay?”

“Better than okay. You look amazing.”

“You clean up pretty good yourself,” she said, appreciating how handsome he looked in a chambray shirt and khaki pants. “And not a dog hair in sight.”

“I would have been happy to pick you up at your place,” he said.

“This is easier.”

“Because you don’t want me to meet your father?” he guessed.

“We’re neighbors in a small town—I’d assumed you’d already met my father.”

“But not as your date,” he remarked.

“And that’s what I was trying to save you from,” she said. “The interrogation that goes along with that title.”

“I know how to handle an interrogation—name, rank and serial number.”

She smiled, pleased that he no longer seemed to be keeping his military service a secret—at least not from her.

“Well, I have a question for you,” she said. “Where are we going tonight?”

“The Chophouse.”

“In Battle Mountain?” she guessed.

He nodded and opened the passenger-side door of his truck for her to climb in.

“There are restaurants in Haven,” she reminded him, when he was settled behind the wheel.

“That I can count on the fingers of one hand without using my thumb,” he noted. “And of those four, you work at one, your brother owns another, and while the Sunnyside Diner does a great all-day breakfast, I think we’ve eaten enough eggs together.”

“And for some inexplicable reason, you’re not a fan of Jo’s pizza,” she remembered.

“I like it just fine.”

“And yet your freezer is full of the frozen kind.”

“Maybe because I don’t want to go into town every time I’m in the mood for a pizza.”

“Definitely worth the trip,” Sky argued.

“The first time I had it, I thought the same thing,” he agreed.

“And the second?” she prompted.

He sighed. “I walked into the restaurant and before I could even give my name at the takeout counter, the woman working the register—who I assumed to be Jo—said, ‘Your medium sausage and peppers is just coming out of the oven now.’”

“It was the wrong order?” Sky guessed.

“No, it was the right order. But I don’t need everyone in town knowing what I eat on my pizza.”

“And since then you’ve deprived yourself of Jo’s pizza because you’d rather be anonymous than well-fed?”

“It sounds ridiculous when you say it like that,” he acknowledged.

“It is ridiculous,” she said. “I’ll be the first to admit that it’s sometimes annoying that everyone seems to know everyone else’s business. When you live in a town like Haven, you forfeit your anonymity, but what you get in return is a sense of belonging to the community.

“But I’m willing to make you a deal,” she said, as he pulled into the parking lot adjacent to the restaurant.

“What kind of deal?” he asked warily.

“If this date

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