“I am a bit starving, so yes I will—what was it Rob called you?—Staff Sergeant Crawford?”
“Kurt will be just fine. I’m hoping to settle into civilian life as effortlessly as possible.”
It was Kelsey’s turn to make a face. “Should I remind you that the cops at the warehouse the other day seemed to pick up on your military vibe even before you shared it with them?”
“There’s a Semper Fi sticker on the back of my Mustang. I’m guessing it was that more than any sort of vibe. Though we can go with vibe, if you’d like.”
“Oh,” she said. “Makes sense now.”
She followed him to the back porch, and their hands brushed again as Kurt passed her the Rott’s leash. The hair on his arms stood on end, and a wave of yearning rocked through his core. It’d been a while since he’d been with a woman and even longer since he’d been with someone who stirred him the way she did.
The wind picked up, and Kurt caught her soft scent—flowers and a touch of citrus. He didn’t know whether it was perfume or a hair product. He wanted to lean in and smell it again. Wanted to brush his thumb along the ridge of her jaw. Wanted to wrap his arm around the small of her back and pull her against him.
The fact that Kelsey didn’t seem the type to let anyone do any of those things until she was ready made him want her even more.
He cleared his throat hard and hoisted the bulky kennel as she headed for the backyard, talking softly to the dog. He wished the kennel was heavier. Wished it was more of a distraction. He’d be needing a lot of distractions over the next few months. Without them, he was going to end up letting her in.
And doing that would make a complicated rehab even more complicated.
Chapter 7
Kelsey took a calculated swallow of beer. Any more than half a bottle and she’d start to get tipsy, something she wasn’t about to risk while working. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a beer in the middle of the day. When Kurt ran into the grocery store while she held the pizzas on her lap, she hadn’t been thinking about how unappealing the tap water here seemed or that the jug of water she’d brought with her this morning was empty. When it had come to a bottle of beer or a glass of sketchy tap water, she’d chosen the beer.
Kurt had no worries about drinking water from the faucet, but she bet his system had tolerated worse. He’d downed a glass before they headed out and didn’t comment on the rusty taste. Now he was enjoying a beer, but she was thankful he wasn’t going for a second when the dogs still needed so much attention.
They were seated at a bulky iron table on the half of the wide back porch that wasn’t screened in. After Kurt had scoured the privacy fence for holes, he’d turned one of the pit bulls, a recently spayed female, loose to roam the yard while they ate. She sniffed around for a while, then clambered up the four wooden steps to the porch and eyed him curiously as he ate slice after slice.
He had purchased three large pizzas after making sure one of them had Kelsey’s favorite choice of toppings. When Kelsey commented that it was enough pizza for an entourage, he said the leftovers would be something to put in the empty fridge.
Kelsey settled back in her chair, taking a moment to savor the day. The weather couldn’t be better. No humidity, sunny, blue skies, and temps in the sixties. “So how long were you in the marines?”
“Five years. And about three with the army before that including basic training.” Kurt had just finished his fourth slice of pizza and was reaching for her longtime favorite, ham and pineapple.
“That’s a lot of service.” She was halfway through her third slice and regretting it. If it weren’t for the dogs needing human attention, she would have had a hard time getting motivated. The last couple days had been a whirlwind, and she was feeling it.
At least she could go home tonight to her quiet apartment and sleep like a log. After she stopped by her parents’, anyway. They had invited the whole family over for a cookout around the fire pit in their backyard, and Kelsey hadn’t seen her nieces in several days.
Kurt would stay here, and even if the house didn’t seem as creepy now that the main floor was alive with the sounds and smells of the dogs, Kelsey doubted it would be a peaceful night. The house was creaky and drafty, and the dogs were sure to be unsettled their first night in a new place.
“It felt like enough,” he said, answering her unasked question about his length of service.
When he didn’t add anything else in clarification, Kelsey wondered if he might not want to talk about it. Before she could bite her tongue, her curiosity got the best of her, and another question slipped out. She’d never met a military dog handler before. “Were you hoping to work with dogs when you enlisted, or did you fall into it?”
“Dogs, no question. Rob was my mentor. He worked at the post before he retired. After he did, he focused on training guard dogs in the private sector.”
Since Kurt didn’t seem opposed to talking about it, Kelsey continued. “My whole life, I wanted to work with dogs, but I never thought of the military.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t grow up on a post, did you?”
“You mean you lived at Fort Leonard Wood before you joined the army?” She’d also never known anyone who grew up in circumstances so different from her traditional suburban background.
“My grandfather is an instructor there. He’s a retired consultant now, but he taught weapons instruction for most of his adult life. I was born in a
