Distinguished Service. Tori Carrington

Mace, you always do more than your job.”

      “You’d have done the same.”

      “Would I have? I’d like to think I would. But I don’t know. While I would have ultimately done what was needed, I would have likely hesitated that split second to assess the situation before diving in. You …” Dari fell silent, undoubtedly reflecting on that late afternoon in the mountains of Waziristan when they’d been lied to by villagers and surrounded by enemy forces the instant they were outside town. “You charged straight in, to hell with the consequences.”

      “Some would say that’s stupid.”

      Dari squinted at him. “If you had hesitated, a leg wound would have been the least of my worries. And you’d have returned home to attend a very different event.”

      Mace didn’t even want to consider that possibility. Not then, not now.

      “What’s done is done,” he said. “I’d prefer it if everyone looked forward rather than back.”

      Dari half-smiled. “Yeah.” He nodded. “Yeah.”

      Mace shifted his weight from one foot to the other, wishing the subject done.

      “Come on,” Dari said, seeming to pick up on his mindset. “Let’s go into town and grab some grub. I’ve got a favor to ask. Oh, and I hope you don’t mind, I told Megan we’d meet up with her at The Barracks afterward for a drink.”

      Mace nearly sighed audibly in relief. “Fine with me.” He’d known Dari’s wife since she was little more than the reason his friend bought acne cream when the occasional zit popped up on his face. He’d only been in town for a few days and he’d enjoy the chance to catch up with her, find out what both of them had been up to outside their working at Lazarus together.

      “She’ll be alone, right?” he asked, a thought occurring to him.

      “What?”

      Damn.

      His friend had never been any good at lying. “Hell, Dari, I’m not in town for that long. I’d like to spend some time with my friends before heading back.”

      “Surely there’s a little room for some friendly company.”

      “No. There isn’t.”

      “Aw. She’s a real sweetheart. I promise you’ll like her.”

      That was the problem, he thought.

      He didn’t want to like anyone. Not right now. Not without knowing where he was going to land in six months, if, in fact, he landed at all.

      Not after what had happened the last time he’d tried to make a long-distance relationship work.

      “Sorry,” Dari said. “I know you asked me not to do it. And I really haven’t. It’s Megan’s idea. I know how you feel about people knowing your business, so while I made your feelings on the matter known to Meg, I didn’t tell her why you felt that way. Without that …”

      Without that, she couldn’t understand why he was adamant about not dating while on this leave.

      “You’ll understand if I pass on that drink then,” he said.

      Dari looked disappointed, but finally he nodded.

      They walked back to the main structure, passing armed recruits making their way out to the state-of-the-art shooting range along the way. He shared his friend’s disappointment. He truly would have enjoyed having a beer with him and Megan tonight. But to be placed next to a woman hoping to be swept off her feet, one who looked at him with big doe eyes, who promised forever and then moved on to someone else while he was overseas …

      No.

      And that meant a long night stretched out in front of him with nothing to do but stare at his motel room walls.

      He could go over to see his grandfather again, but he’d gotten into hot water with the nursing home attendants for having stayed past regular visiting hours once already. He didn’t want to risk having his visitation privileges revoked.

      His grandfather …

      Mace grinned even as he shook his head. The old man had one foot in the grave and still somehow managed to chase around anything female like a spry twenty-year-old.

      Well, okay, maybe a spry twenty-year-old with a walker.

      He remembered their last conversation. “Give me something, kid,” Dwayne Harrison had requested that morning. “Good-looking stud like you? Them skirts gotta be falling all over you. Surely you could send some sweet stuff my way.”

      Mace had merely smiled.

      Oh, he planned to date again. Hopefully soon. Once he was able to get rid of the bad taste Janine had left in his mouth.

      Of course, he could always go over and visit his parents. They’d settled back in his father’s hometown five years or so ago when his dad finally retired.

      Still, somehow, he didn’t look at their house as home.

      And the shadow hands tightened at the thought.

      Dari cleared his throat. “I don’t think I’ve had a chance to say it yet, but … well, I was sorry to hear about Janine. You deserve better than what she did to you.”

      Mace turned his head so quickly to stare at Dari, his neck cracked. It wasn’t like his friend to mention something so personal in such a casual setting. At least, not without downing a few beers first.

      “What?” Dari asked.

      Of course, his friend couldn’t know that Mace had no sooner switched his cell phone on after his flight than he’d received a voice mail from the woman in question. He’d stopped dead in the middle of the airport terminal, staring at the notification. He hadn’t heard from her in nearly eight months. What could she possibly want now?

      He’d found out soon enough. Her words still reverberated through his mind.

      “Welcome home, Mace. I know I’m probably the last person you expected to hear from, but … Well, I just wanted to say I’m sorry … again. And to tell you I’d love to see you while you’re in town. Call me … please.”

      Curiously, hearing her voice hadn’t moved him in the least. But her apology and her request to see him again had elicited a very specific response: Hell no.

      He opened the door and stepped aside so his friend could precede him inside. “Something tells me you’re getting a bit soft around the middle.”

      Dari rubbed a rock-hard six-pack.

      “Not that middle.”

      They chuckled and walked back to Dari’s office in the front of the building.

      While Mace could make light of his relationship woes when the situation called for it, there was nothing but heaviness in his heart at the memory of Janine’s betrayal.

      “So, Rocky’s Diner after I close up shop here.”

      He nodded. “Rocky’s Diner. Meet you there in an hour.”

      They shook hands and gave each other a bro hug. Then Mace headed out to the parking lot where his rental car waited, trying not to think about Janine … or the phone call he’d gotten from her that morning.

      He failed.

      GENEVA DAVIS TOOK three meat loaves out of the industrial oven, swiping the back of one of the oven mitts across her brow after placing the last on the stainless-steel counter. Two of the kitchen staff had called in sick this afternoon, leaving her and one of the other waitresses to pick up the slack at Rocky’s Diner. Monday’s Meat Loaf Mania was one of their busiest nights when all staff was present. Handling it with two people short was going to make the evening hell on earth.

      Trudy Grant, the mercurial owner who was a combination of Betty White witty cuteness and