Nora emerges thirty minutes later, looking a bit frazzled, but otherwise, no worse for the wear.
“Okay,” she announces triumphantly. “We have a loaf made from meat baking. I don’t know if it’ll be edible, but it’s baking. I’m headed out to the lake. Hopefully the water will wash out the hamburger under my fingernails. Other
wise, it might be there permanently.”
I smile. “Enjoy yourself.”
She glances at me before she heads to her bedroom to change. “After your thigh heals, maybe we could get you out there? It might be a good way for you to exercise since you don’t have to bear weight.”
Alarm floods me, quick and white-hot and I immediately shake my head.
“I don’t swim.”
Nora stares at me in surprise. “You can’t, or don’t?”
“I don’t.”
She’s clearly puzzled, but she doesn’t pry. “Ok. It was just an idea.”
“I know,” I tell her, my pulse still bounding wildly in my throat. “Thank you.”
She nods and leaves and I stare out the window again, calming down.
Stop being a pussy.
But God, it’s hard. The one thing I can’t get past. I was able to get past the bullets and explosions of Afghanistan, for God’s sake.
But not this.
At the mere thought of it, my heart pounds in my chest, threatening to break free from my ribcage.
With a deep breath, I watch the water, rippling peacefully against the shore, in a fluid age-old motion, a harmless, serene motion.
It’s harmless, you fucking pussy.
But I know that it isn’t always.
As I stare at the familiar landscape, I’m filled with trepidation.
I don’t like being home. Being here brings back memories, and uncomfortable feelings…. things I would just as soon keep buried.
Home. Most people take comfort in being back home. Home is a place they always feel safe, secure and loved.
Too bad I’m not most people.
I felt safer in the battlefields of Afghanistan than I did here.
Quit being such a fucking girl.
With a sigh, I turn my attention back to the book, scrolling through each page, until a movement outside distracts me an hour or so later.
Nora is wading out of the lake and onto the beach. She looks like a sea nymph or a siren as she swings her long wet hair out of her face, and the sun envelops her body, glistening on every wet plane.
Her thighs are long, her tits are full and perky and she’s practically naked now, fully wet as the water streams over her body.
My dick tightens in reaction and I suck in my breath.
Through the window, Nora’s eyes meet mine and I’m not sure what I see hidden in hers. Determination, I think.