One Good Man

“Yeah,” Gofer said, “she makes a much prettier nurse than you, Lieutenant.”

Jeff paused and studied Gofer as if to assure himself the man would be all right.

“Thanks, Jodie.” Jeff threw her a look that melted her insides, and, with Kermit, hurried back to the site to help retrieve the fallen truss.

Jodie knelt in front of Gofer and gingerly finished removing his bloody sock. “No wonder you swore. The beam split your big toe. You ought to have stitches.”

“Just a scratch, ma’am,” the Marine said without wincing, although his face had the pinched look of a person in agony. “I’ve had worse.”

Jodie cleaned the wound with peroxide, slathered it with an antibiotic cream that also killed pain and bandaged the toe. “You should stay off it.”

She expected protests, but Gofer merely nodded in agreement, and leaned back, elbows on the table, breathing hard. “You an old friend of the lieutenant’s?”

Jodie recognized that he was trying to focus on something besides his throbbing foot.

“Jeff’s several years older than me.” She couldn’t admit that the man whose team worshiped him like a hero hadn’t had any friends. “He graduated high school with my brother.”

“The vet I met this morning?”

Jodie nodded. “Archer Farm’s going to keep Grant busy. Jeff has quite a menagerie.”

“Horses, goats, cows, chickens, ducks and pigs. For the teens to take care of. Teaches ’em responsibility. Might even teach some of them how to love.”

“You a psychiatrist?” Jodie asked with a smile.

“Psychologist,” Gofer answered.

“Really? They taught you that in the Marines?”

He shook his head. “I’d almost finished graduate school when I decided to fight terrorism. I immediately joined the Marines. After leaving the service last year, I completed my Ph.D. And signed on with Jeff as Archer Farm’s resident counselor.”

While talking with Gofer, Jodie had observed Jeff leaving the work site and disappearing into the woods behind the house. He returned with Brynn in tow and approached Gofer.

“Officer Sawyer’s going to drive you into town, Gofer,” Jeff said. “You could have broken bones. I want that foot X-rayed.”

“No need, sir. I’m fine.”

Brynn placed her fists on her hips. “You resisting an officer, soldier?”

Gofer looked from Brynn’s determined expression to the set of Jeff’s firm jaw and grinned. “You’re an officer who’s hard to resist, ma’am.”

“Please, call me Brynn. Or Officer Sawyer. Anything but ma’am. It makes me feel old.”

Gofer’s grin split his face. “You don’t have to worry about age, ma’am.”

“Want a couple of guys to carry you to the car?” Jeff asked.

“If Brynn will give me a hand,” Gofer said, “I can manage.”

He pushed gamely onto his good foot. Brynn slung his arm around her shoulder and steadied him as he hopped to her car where she helped him into the front seat.

“I’ll bring him right back,” she called. “See you soon.”

Jodie found herself alone with Jeff. His face knotted with worry as he watched Brynn drive away.

“He’ll be okay,” Jodie assured him.

Jeff nodded. “Gofer’s a good man. He gave up joining a lucrative practice to work here. I hate to see him injured on top of his other sacrifices.”

Jeff’s concern was genuine, and for an instant Jodie fantasized what having Jeff care for her that deeply would feel like. The former Marine towered beside her, arms and chest bare where he’d stripped off his sweater in the afternoon sun to expose tanned muscles that sent her hormones into chaos. She tried to focus instead on the tattoo on his biceps, the Marine Corps emblem emblazoned with Semper Fi. But his tantalizing smell distracted her. So much for deodorant ads, she thought in desperation. Sweaty with his hair flecked with sawdust, he probably hadn’t a clue that his masculine scent was driving her wild.

Time to deliver herself from temptation. Besides, Brynn had left Brittany alone in the woods with Daniel, a situation that raised the hair on the back of Jodie’s neck.

“I’ll find Brittany.” She silently cursed the breathlessness in her voice. “And we’ll be going. I’ll leave the leftovers. There’s probably enough for supper, at least for your team.”

Jeff gazed down at her, his gray eyes exuding a warmth that sent her already giddy senses whirling. “I can’t thank you enough for today.”

Jodie thought of a hundred ways he could thank her, most of them deliciously indecent, and more heat scorched her. She was probably red as a beet and looked like an idiot. “You don’t have to thank me. You paid well.”

He grinned. “I did, didn’t I? But you were worth every penny.”

She wasn’t about to ask him to elaborate. “I’m glad the food met with your approval.”

His expression sobered. “Some folks in town won’t approve of your being here. You took a risk, catering for me. And I’m grateful.”

The old Jeff, the ostracized teenager who had on rare occasions dropped his don’t-give-a-damn attitude to reveal his loneliness, peeked through the tough Marine demeanor, then disappeared so quickly, she thought she’d imagined his outcast look.

“I don’t let other folks influence my decisions.” She wished she could say the same for her hormones.

“I’ll return your coolers and equipment tomorrow,” he offered.

“Don’t bother.” She practically tripped over her tongue in her haste to reply. “Grant can pick up everything next time he checks your livestock. That’ll save you a trip.”

Jeff considered her, as if trying to discern her motives, and she looked toward the building site to avoid his scrutiny.

“I don’t want to keep you from your work, so I’ll get Brittany and we’ll be going.”

Before he could reply, she sprinted toward the footpath in the woods. Brittany had mentioned a creek, and Jodie seriously contemplated a dip in its icy waters to cool her blood and clear her head.

Chapter Four

In the bride’s parlor of the Pleasant Valley Community Church, Jodie set aside her bridesmaid’s bouquet of pale-pink roses and baby’s breath, adjusted Merrilee Stratton’s triple-tiered veil and smoothed a strand of pale-blond hair that had escaped from her friend’s French twist.

“You look gorgeous,” Jodie said. “There’s nothing prettier than a June bride. Are you nervous?”

Merrilee shook her head and adjusted the pearl-encrusted neckline of her satin gown. Excitement sparkled in her sky-blue eyes.

“No second thoughts?” Jodie asked.