Wrapped Up In Christmas

“Physically, you’re good?”

Bodie shot his friend a look of challenge. “You want to try me and find out?”

Lukas laughed. “After the night I’ve had? I don’t think so. You might take me, and I’d never hear the end of it.”

“I’d take you after your best night.”

“Maybe in your dreams.”

Bodie snorted, but let it drop. “You going to

watch after my dog while I’m out of the country?”

“My dog, and you’d better hope he doesn’t decide he’s missed home. What’ll you do if he chooses to stay when you get back?”

“I’m not worried, but if Harry wanted to stay with you, I wouldn’t force him to leave.”

His friend, and boss, stared at him. “There’s something different about you.”

Bodie glanced toward Lukas and shrugged. “Same old me.”

“Actually, that’s it. You are more like the old you. Much more so than when you left here.”

In some ways, Bodie felt more like his old self. In others, he felt nothing like the man he’d been in the past. His time in Pine Hill had changed him.

“What happened in Kentucky?”

Bodie shook his head. “Not much. Just worked in a small town no different from hundreds of others.”

Lukas looked like he was about to ask more, but they reached their floor and the elevator door slid open.

As they stepped out of the elevator, Bodie glanced at his watch. “My flight’s in four hours?”

“Yeah. Sorry to do that to you, but swapping my flight for yours was the best I could do to get you where I needed you to be in time.” His friend gave a wry look. “As much as I hated to pull you into the company sooner than we’d agreed, I’d have hated leaving for two weeks right now even more.”

Bodie shrugged. “You were the one saying I needed more time to heal before I started work. Not me.”

“I wanted you to go home, see your family, kiss a girl. You know, have a life for a bit and get your head on straight before stepping into the company.”

“I have a life.” He wouldn’t respond to the comment about getting his head on straight. There was no denying there had been a time when his head had been messed up. In some ways, it might always be because he couldn’t un-see things he’d seen.

Nor would he respond to the comment on the kissing a girl.

Because he couldn’t un-see Sarah, either. He’d never forget her.

Lukas stopped in front of a hospital room but didn’t open the door. “What gives?”

Bodie glanced toward his friend questioningly.

“You zoned out on me. Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

That’s when it hit him that he’d thought of what had happened and he’d been okay. The darkness hadn’t clawed at him. Sure, the memory still gutted him, but he could remember it without despair threatening to take over.

Which made him feel stronger than he’d felt in a long time.

His body was healing. His mind was healing. He was on the brink of starting a new career, one that would eventually put him back in the action and allow him to help his best friend.

He met Lukas’s concerned gaze. “I’m good.”