“Don’t apologize,” she said, her hand on the doorknob. He’d defended her and helped her keep her emotions in check, forming a buffer between her and the Benton brothers. Without Mark, she might have spilled her secrets.
She glanced over his shoulder at T.J., who remained on the far side of the room giving them space. “You saved me out there,” she added.
Mark’s hand fell to his side, releasing her. “Most of the time when people tell me that, I’m in a helicopter above a war zone.”
“There are different types of saving.”
“I know.”
“You’ve been saving me, helping me pick up the pieces, for the past year and a half,” she said. “Thank you.”
Mark raised his hand to the back of his neck. “You don’t have to thank me, Amy. You helped me right back. The past few days have been great...fun.”
Amy nodded, knowing there was so much more to the time they’d spent together. She had a feeling he did, too.
* * *
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, she walked into Eloise’s office. Daisy, the gray-and-white office cat who looked as though she could give the best guard dog a run for his money, greeted her with a suspicious swish of her tail. Only a cat could manage a look that said, I know you, but I’m still not sure I trust you.
“I know you’re not the only one in the office, Daisy.”
“I’m back here,” her cousin called from an exam room.
Amy walked past the reception desk and down the hall with Daisy at her heels. Standing in the open doorway, Amy scanned exam room one. File folders covered the metal table. No sign of a four-legged patient. “Pressing paperwork?”
Eloise shrugged. “I need to catch up. I have a busy day tomorrow.”
“Uh-huh.” Amy didn’t buy that excuse for a minute.
“What are you doing here?” Eloise asked without looking up. “Everything okay with your dogs?”
“They’re fine.” Amy walked into the room and sat down in the blue plastic chair in the corner. “The morning training session went south, but for me, not the dogs. Luke and T.J. caught me fooling around with Mark.”
Her cousin glanced up, eyebrows raised. “Look who’s wild now.”
“Yes. And it felt so good at first.” Daisy jumped into her lap, and Amy began petting her. “But now I’ve made a mess of everything.”
“Luke and T.J. will get over it.”
“I know, but I told them it was a fling. In front of Mark.”
“I thought you two were on the same page.”
“We are. But, Eloise, he shouldn’t be someone’s secret. Mark should have a home with a woman willing to make the necessary sacrifices to become a military wife.” She held tight to Daisy, petting her, seeking comfort in the cat’s low and steady purr. “And that’s not me. I can’t do it again. I thought about what a long-term relationship would look like between us, and it would put me right back where I started. Waiting and afraid.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Eloise closed the open file folder and set it aside. “You’re not the same person you were when you met and married Darren.”
“Older and wiser, and look where it landed me. In bed with an airman. I tried writing my own rules. I tried to follow your lead, and I failed. And I’m afraid I hurt Mark in the process.”
“You fell in love with him.”
Amy let out a laugh. “No, I’m pretty sure there is a firm barrier between selfishness and love. I’m solidly on the self-serving side right now.”
“What if you stayed there for a little longer and thought about what you want, not what Mark deserves?” Eloise challenged.
“I can’t,” Amy said. “There’s no room for selfish wants and needs in a relationship with a military man. One thing I learned while married—you love the man, but he’s a solider first. His duty to his country comes before your relationship, before everything else in your lives.
“I’ve finally built a life for myself,” she continued. “I don’t want to give it up. I need to end things with Mark and move on.”