Back in the Soldier's Bed

Shannyn left work on Friday and stopped for pizza. Every payday, she stopped for a takeout meal, a bi-weekly extravagance. Last payday it had been chicken fingers and fries. Tonight was Hawaiian pizza with extra cheese.

She was leaning against the takeout counter when a door slammed just outside and she saw Jonas getting out of a battered four-by-four truck.

What were the chances?

Obviously pretty good. She took a deep breath and turned her attention to the teen behind the counter who was getting her change. As the glass door opened, she tucked the money in her wallet and slid to the side to wait for her order.

“Pickup for Kirkpatrick,” he said to the girl in the red and white visor.

He dug out his wallet and turned with the box in his hands, stopping short when he saw her waiting to the side.

“Shannyn.”

“Small world, huh.” She attempted a faint, but cool smile.

“Bachelor’s supper,” he replied civilly, lifting the box a little to illustrate.

“Friday night treat,” she replied. Perhaps the initial shock of seeing each other was over, or the casual atmosphere of the pizza place helped, but he seemed slightly more approachable now than he had at his appointment. Which still didn’t say very much.

“Ham and pineapple?”

“Still my favorite,” she replied, feeling ridiculously flattered that he’d remembered that tidbit of information.

They stood there like statues exchanging the most basic of pleasantries, an air of discomfort between them.

“Miss? Your order is ready.” She took the box, shifting her hands from the hot bottom to the sides. “Fresh from the oven.”

And still they stood stock-still, until Jonas chuckled.

She didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until she let it out at the sound of his soft laughter.

“This is a hell of a thing, isn’t it?”

“It is.” She started for the door, and he followed her. It was easier for him to relax, she reasoned, her forehead wrinkling as she frowned. He wasn’t the one carrying a gigantic secret around.

“There was a time when we weren’t uncomfortable with each other at all. I don’t know why we are now. That’s all in the past. I didn’t even know you’d still be here after all this time.”

His words contradicted his cold manner of their first meeting and she wondered at it. “I stayed,” she answered, hitting the door with her hip to push it open.

Jonas held the door and then followed her out, putting his white pizza box down on the hood of his truck. “I just go where they tell me.”

Shannyn paused, the heat from the pizza warming her fingers. That had always been the problem. He was at the mercy of wherever his superiors sent him next. He’d done his training here, at Gagetown, finished when he was twenty-two. Still so young, full of energy and determination to be the best shot in the Army. Then he’d gone to Edmonton, and who know where he’d been since then. Who knew how long he’d be stationed here? Despite his injury, it was obvious he was staying in the military, not looking to be discharged. That meant more moving around.

“And where would that be?”

He smiled but it seemed grim, a thin line. “Here and there. Doing what I do…what I did,” he corrected himself. “I went where I was needed.”

The very level of danger she’d worried so much about lent a sense of the mysterious to him and Shannyn felt a glimmer of awe. He would have performed each task as he was assigned, no questions. For some strange reason, despite his aloofness, she knew what she’d always known. There was something heroic about Jonas Kirkpatrick. Something that made her feel safe. That was odd, because right now, he was her biggest threat and he didn’t even know it.

“What ar

e you doing on base now? When you left you’d just finished sniper school.” She looked up into his eyes. That had been a bone of contention in the end, too. An extra degree of danger that he’d relished, and she’d feared. And it looked as though she’d had good reason to worry. He was only wounded. How many of his men hadn’t come back alive?

His jaw hardened; only slightly but enough that she saw it. Saw his eyes cool until they seemed to shut her out completely. It was like in a matter of a few seconds, he could fully withdraw into himself.

“I’m back at the school.”

“More courses?” She couldn’t imagine what else they’d want him to do; he’d already accelerated through basic and had set his eyes on Special Forces. He’d obviously done his job and done it well.