“You’d be right,” she said on a long sigh. “But I’m young, like you said, and strong, and I can learn how to do anything I set my mind to.”
“I’d bet money on that,” he said with a gentle smile.
“I have to find somewhere to live . . .”
“Why can’t you stay with me?” he asked simply.
She was shocked. “But, people might talk,” she began.
“Sure they might. I don’t care. Do you?”
She was thinking about being on her own. She could probably find someplace that she could afford, but she’d be all alone. She grimaced.
“Or does the idea of living with a one-armed man turn you off?” he asked, and there was such bitterness in the remark that she turned her head and gaped at him.
“Is that what happened?” she asked softly. “Your girlfriend turned her back on you when you came home from overseas? What an idiot she must have been!”
Now he was the one gaping, so much so that he had to right the truck back on the highway.
“You took me in and I could have been anybody,” she continued. “You live with an injured wolf that you could have had put down instead.” She smiled. “You’re not a missing arm with a man attached, you know. You’re a man who lost his arm.”
“Damn!”
Her eyebrows arched. “Excuse me?”
He pulled over onto the grass beside the road and threw the truck out of gear. He looked at her, long and hard, and his lean face was taut with bad memories. “I was engaged to be married,” he said quietly. “My reserve unit, army, was called up, so I went to Iraq with a friend of mine, Parker, who lives locally. He carried me through a hail of bullets, after I took a hit from mortar, in Iraq. He saved my life.” He stared out the windshield at the distant mountains. “I came home wounded and was mustered out. My girl was waiting for me. I got off the bus and she saw the empty sleeve.” He hesitated.
She put out a soft hand and touched his shoulder. “And?”
He grimaced. “She said she was sorry. She couldn’t bear the thought of going to bed with a one-armed man. She put the ring in my shirt pocket, smiled, and just walked away. I stayed drunk for two weeks. Parker snapped me out of it and helped me get a job. This job, working as a wildlife rehabilitator for the state of Colorado in this district, and that helps put money in the bank. But I’ve sort of been off women ever since.”
“No wonder,” she said quietly. “What a burden she might have been. You had a lucky escape.”
He glanced at her, frowning.
“Sorry,” she said, grimacing. “I open my mouth and stick my foot in.”
The frown went away. “I’ve never thought of myself as being lucky.”
“What sort of wife would she have been, if she didn’t love you enough to just be grateful that you came home at all?”
There was a faintly stunned expression in his eyes. It hadn’t ever occurred to him that Sadie might not have loved him in the first place. They were good in bed together, but she’d never been emotionally attached to him. He’d almost died with pneumonia the winter they were engaged, and she’d never even come to see about him. Parker had nursed him until he got well.
“Talk about being blind,” he murmured. “No. I don’t think she loved me at all. We were good in bed together. It was only that. She was on the rebound from another man when I started going with her.”
“Does she still live here?” she asked, without knowing why she asked the question.
“No. The old boyfriend turned up and she married him. They moved away.”
“When did he turn up?”
“Oh, just before I came home . . .” He stopped in mid-sentence. “Why didn’t I remember that?”
“You stayed drunk for two weeks,” she pointed out.
He glanced at her again and this time he was smiling. “You’re a tonic.”
“You mean I taste bad?” she teased.
He pursed his chiseled lips. “I can’t comment until I’ve decided that for myself.”
She blushed scarlet. “Oh, gosh!”
He burst out laughing. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist it.” He put the truck in gear and pulled back out onto the highway. “Are you a witch?” he teased. “You know things you shouldn’t.”
“We had an ancestor who died in Salem who was accused of witchcraft, so who knows?” she teased.
She was bright and beautiful, and Butch felt as if the sun