A Soldier's Secret. RaeAnne Thayne

from around here?”

      She shook her head. “I grew up in a small town in the mountains of Utah.”

      He raised an eyebrow, certain he hadn’t unearthed that little tidbit of information in his research. “Utah seems like a long way from here. What brought you to the Oregon coast?”

      Her eyes took on that evasive film again. “Oh, you know. I was ready for a change. Wanted to stretch my wings a little. That sort of thing.”

      He had become pretty good over the years at picking up when someone wasn’t being completely honest with him and his lie radar was suddenly blinking like crazy.

      She was hiding something and he wanted to know what.

      “Do you have family back in Utah still?”

      The tension in her shoulders eased a little. “Two of my older brothers are still close to Moose Springs. That’s where we grew up. One’s the sheriff, actually. The other is a contractor, then I have one other brother who’s a research scientist in Costa Rica.”

      “No sisters?”

      “Just brothers. I’m the baby.”

      “You were probably spoiled rotten, right?”

      Her laugh was so infectious that even Conan looked up and grinned. “More like endlessly tormented. I was always excluded from their cool boy stuff like campouts and fishing trips. Being the only girl and the youngest Galvez was a double curse, one I’m still trying to figure out how to break.”

      This, at least, was genuine. She glowed when she talked about her family—her eyes seemed brighter, her features more animated. She looked so delicious, it was all he could do not to reach across the table and kiss her right here over his aunt’s French toast.

      Her next words quickly quashed the bloom of desire better than a cold Oregon downpour.

      “What about you?” she asked. “Do you have family somewhere?”

      How could he answer that without giving away his identity? He decided to stick to the bare facts and hope Abigail hadn’t talked about his particular twisted branch of the family tree.

      “My father died when I was too young to remember him. My mother remarried several times so I’ve got a few stepbrothers and stepsisters scattered here and there but that’s it.”

      He didn’t add that he didn’t even know some of their names since none of the marriages had lasted long.

      “So where’s home?” she asked.

      “Right now it’s two flights of stairs above you.”

      She made a face. “What about before you moved upstairs?”

      Brambleberry House was the place he had always considered home, even though he only spent a week or two here each year. Life with his mother had never been exactly stable as she moved from boyfriend to boyfriend, husband to husband. Before he had been sent to military school when he was thirteen, he had attended a dozen different schools.

      Abigail had been the rock in his insecure existence. But he certainly couldn’t tell that to Anna Galvez. Instead, he shrugged.

      “I’m career army, ma’am. I’m based out of Virginia but I’ve been in the Middle East for two tours of duty. I’ve been there the last four years. That feels as much home as anywhere else, I guess.”

      Chapter Four

      Oh, the poor man.

      Imagine considering some military base a home. She couldn’t quite fathom it and she felt enormously blessed suddenly for her safe, happy childhood.

      Her family might have been what most people would consider dirt-poor. Her parents were illegal immigrants who had tried to live below the radar. As a result, her father had never been paid his full worth and when he had been killed in a construction accident, the company he worked for had used his illegal immigrant status as an excuse not to pay any compensation to his widow or children.

      Yes, her family might not have had much when she was a kid but she had never lived a single moment of her childhood when she didn’t feel her home was a sanctuary where she could always be certain she would find love and acceptance.

      Later, maybe, she had come to doubt her worth, but none of that stemmed from her girlhood.

      And now she had Brambleberry House to return to at the end of the day. No matter how stressful her life might seem sometimes, this house welcomed her back every night, solid and strong and immovable.

      It saddened her to think of Harry Maxwell moving from place to place with the military, never having anything to anchor him in place.

      “I suppose if you had a wife and children, you would probably be recovering with them instead of at some drafty rented house on the Oregon shore.”

      “No wife, no kids. Never married.” He paused, giving her a careful look. “What about you?”

      She had always wanted a big, rambunctious family just like the one she’d known as a girl but those childhood dreams spun in the tiny bedroom of that Moose Springs house seemed far away now.

      Her life hadn’t worked out at all the way she planned. And though there were a few things in her life she wouldn’t mind a do-over on—especially more recent events—she couldn’t regret all the paths she had followed that had led her to this place.

      “Same goes. I was engaged once but…it didn’t work out.”

      Before he could respond, Conan lumbered to his feet and headed for the door.

      “That’s a signal,” she said with a smile. “Time for him to go out and if I don’t move on it, we’ll all be sorry. Excuse me, won’t you?”

      Though he had a doggie door to use when she wasn’t home, Conan much preferred to be waited on and to go out through the regular door like the rest of the higher beings. She opened her apartment door and then the main door into the house for him and watched him bound eagerly to his favorite corner of the yard.

      When she returned to the kitchen, she found Lieutenant Maxwell clearing dishes from the table.

      “That was delicious. It was very kind of you to invite me. A little unexpected, but kind nonetheless.”

      “You’re welcome. I’ll be honest, it’s not the sort of thing I usually do but…well, it is the sort of thing Abigail would have done. She was always striking up conversations with people and taking them to lunch or whatever. I had the strangest feeling this morning on the beach that she would want me to invite you to breakfast.”

      She heard the absurdity of her own words and made a face. “That probably sounds completely insane to you.”

      “Not completely,” he murmured.

      “No, it is. But I’m not sorry. I enjoyed making breakfast and I suppose it’s only fitting that I know at least a little about the person living upstairs. At least now you don’t feel like a stranger.”

      “Well, I appreciate the effort and the French toast. It’s been…a long time since I’ve had anything as good.”

      He gave her a hesitant smile and at the sight of it on those solemnly handsome features, her stomach seemed to do a long, slow roll.

      Oh, bad idea. She had no business at all being attracted to the man. He was her tenant, and a temporary one at that. Beyond that, the timing was abysmal. She had far too much on her plate right now trying to save By-the-Wind Two and see that Grayson Fletcher received well-deserved justice. She couldn’t afford any distractions, especially not one as tempting as Lieutenant Harry Maxwell.

      “I’m glad you enjoyed it,” she said, forcing her voice to be brisk and businesslike.

      Conan came back inside before he could answer. He headed straight for the lieutenant, who reached down to pet him. The absent gesture reminded her of another detail she