“Eve’s son. Really bright kid. Full of curiosity. Pretty good baseball player, too.”
“Stephanie said you had several dogs.”
“Five, to be exact. I went from being a loner to a husband with a stepson, five dogs, two horses and a cat. Talk about adjustment. I still think I’ll wake up and it will all be a dream.”
“You seem happy.”
“I am. But not without a hell of a lot of mistakes, miscues and doubts. Sometimes, I need to escape, and thank God Eve understands that. You ever been married?”
“For a very short time. Turned out absence didn’t make the heart grow fonder. Got home from a deployment and found she had moved in with someone else, and there had been several other someones.”
“Rough. I saw a lot of that in the service.”
Clint nodded. “After the initial feeling of betrayal, I was relieved. We’d married too fast, and for all the wrong reasons. I thought I wanted a home to return to, but I really didn’t know what a home was. She thought she was marrying someone who would party all night, every night. It was not an unrealistic expectation since that’s what we did in the two months before we married.” Why in the hell was he telling a stranger so much? But he had immediately liked Josh Manning, had felt a kinship with him. “But that wasn’t what I wanted in a home. Hell, I didn’t know what I wanted.”
He looked ahead and saw a sprawling building with a sign that read The Rusty Nail in big letters. The gravel parking lot was about a quarter full.
Josh parked, and they both limped inside. Sawdust covered the floor and a long bar lined one side of the room. The rest of the bar was filled with mismatched tables and chairs with maybe a third of the seats occupied. A bandstand stood out in one corner.
A pretty young girl hurried over to them as they sat. “Hi, Josh. Haven’t seen you in a while. What can I get you two?”
Clint glanced at him. “You order. You know what’s good.”
“Two of whatever crazy beer your dad is experimenting with today, two cheeseburgers and fries.”
“Gotcha.” She dashed off.
Clint eyed his companion. Josh still had the look of a Ranger about him. His gaze never stopped roaming the room.
“Is the veterinarian taken?” Clint blurted.
Josh looked amused. “Taken? You mean in marriage or engagement? Nope. She scares the hell out of most of the eligible men around here. I take it you aren’t one of them.”
“Oh, she scares me, too.” Clint chuckled.
“Good. I like her a lot, and she’s Eve’s best friend. I wouldn’t like to see her hurt.”
“I won’t be here long enough.”
“I’ve heard that before,” Josh said. “Mainly from me. When I came here, all I wanted was to be left alone, and now look at me. A wife, a son, two horses and five dogs.”
Clint grinned. “Well, I doubt lightning strikes twice, but while I’m here, I want to be useful. You mentioned building a dock. I would like to do it.”
“Good.” He paused, then said, “Any idea of what you want to do in the future?”
Clint shrugged. “I’m thinking of going back to college in January. Get my computer science degree.”
“You’re good at that, then? Computers, I mean?” Josh was looking at him speculatively.
Clint wasn’t sure he liked it. He would rather talk about Stephanie. “I’m okay.”
“Eve’s pet project is teaching our older citizens how to use computers. She just bought new ones for the community center. We’ve been looking...”
“Whoa there,” Clint said. “I’m happy to build a dock. I can do that. But teaching a bunch of older people about computers, I just don’t think I would be any good at that. I can’t make that kind of a commitment.”
“I’m not talking about a commitment. A couple of hours a week whenever you have time.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“I have all I can handle right now, and I’m not good with people. You appear to be. I’ve never seen Stephanie flustered before.”
“You haven’t, huh?” Clint mused.
Two men approached their table. Josh introduced them as Jeff Smith and Mace Edwards, two vets from the Iraq War. “Heard you were coming,” the one introduced as Mace Edwards said. “Wanted to say welcome. You need anything, just want to get a beer, talk, call us.” He offered a napkin with phone numbers on it.
He placed his hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Hear you might have some big work soon. If you need any workers, we can sure use the jobs.”
Josh nodded. “Hope it will be soon. Join us for a beer.”
“Don’t mind if we do,” Mace said.
Clint mostly listened to the three men talk. It felt good. He never discussed his service or the war with civilians, but he could open up with other vets. They understood the unbreakable bond that united members of a unit, and nearly every man and woman who had been in war. Many, maybe even most, were closer to each other than they were to their families.
No one else could understand.
But now he was with people who understood. After sharing beers, the two men left, and Clint glanced at Josh. “You’re really making it here, huh?” he asked.
“It’s not always easy. I still have sweating spells at night. And nightmares. I worried about that with Eve. That I might hurt her or the boy. But she knows how to wake me when I have them. And I’m crazy about Nick. The dogs, now, that’s another matter.” But he grinned as he said it, and Clint got the definite impression he really didn’t mind the dogs one bit.
“You miss being over there?” Clint asked.
Josh didn’t say anything for several minutes. “The army was my family for a long time. I miss my team, but most of them died in my last mission.” The trails in his face deepened. A lot of pain was etched there.
Clint hadn’t known. Dr. Payne had said very little about Josh. “I’m sorry.” Then he asked the question that had been needling him. “Why me? Why did you select me for the cabin? You must know I wasn’t injured in battle. It was a dumb car accident.”
Josh shrugged. “Injured in the field or not, we all have scars. Nightmares. Horrors we can’t talk about except to someone who has been there, and still they continue to burn in our heads. And then,” he added in a voice so low Clint could barely hear it, “there are those we left...” His voice trailed off.
Clint could relate. He’d lost several close friends in chopper crashes. One was in his chopper when enemy fire hit it. He could usually lock those memories in a mental box, but sometimes they escaped, swamping him.
He nodded, cleared his throat. “It’s a great cabin,” he said, changing the subject. He regretted asking his question. It was none of his business and it brought back too many memories of his own.
“It was my salvation, that and Eve.”
Their order arrived, and the conversation stopped. The cheeseburgers were fat and greasy and, well, terrific, or maybe it had just been a long, long time since he’d had a good one. The draft beer was icy cold and served in frosty glasses. The world was looking better.
“We’ll go by the grocery store on the way back, and you can pick up whatever you need. The invitation for dinner is also good for tomorrow night,” Josh said. “I think Eve plans to ask Stephanie to join us.”
“Sounds good.” More than good. He hadn’t felt much anticipation for anything since the accident, but he did now.
