Ever After by Jude Deveraux Page A

quietly.
    For a moment Jamie seemed to be trying to decide whether or not to tell the truth. “None.”
    Caleb nodded. “I hear you won’t take your clothes off.”
    “Too many nicks and holes in this old body,” he said. “People see them and I get the ‘poor Jamie’ routine. Then they start with questions about how I’m feeling. What I’ve learned is that they just want to hear that I’m fine.”
    Caleb understood what he was saying. “Who is Valery?”
    Jamie took a deep breath. “A fellow soldier. We were all half in love with her and envied her husband back home. She kept our spirits up, made us laugh, kept us from being too scared to move.” He paused. “She was in the Humvee that blew up when I was in it. I was the only one who survived with all my limbs.”
    “And Valery?”
    Jamie had to swallow the tears that were beginning to come. “She didn’t make it.”
    “Something like that leaves a man feeling guilty, doesn’t it?”
    “Beyond what you can imagine.”
    “Actually, I believe I can,” Caleb said softly, then changed tone. “When are you going to tell young Hyacinth about all this?”
    “Never!” Jamie said fiercely. “Since I got back, she’s the first person who hasn’t looked at me with pity in her eyes. My whole family tiptoes around me. They tell the kids to be quiet, not to drop things, not to yell because Uncle Jamie is…is half a man.” Closing his eyes, he tried to calm his temper. “But what really hurts is that I need all of it.”
    “How did you get here on Nantucket with Hallie?”
    He took a moment to answer. “When we heard about a physical therapist inheriting this house, it seemed like a solution. It was a chance to get me away from my family. Let me have some peace. I was all for it. I even exchanged some emails with a girl I thought was Hallie. But the night before I was to leave I chickened out. I did
not
want to dump my fears and terrors on some innocent female. You saw that I can’t even hear a gate slam without going into a defensive position! Who deserves that? Who—”
    Jamie’s hands were clenching the arms of the chair, his knuckles white. “My brother drugged me. Mom and Dad knew nothing about it. I went to sleep at home and woke up here, and I met Hallie.”
    At the mention of her name, he started to relax. “She’s beenthe best thing for me. She doesn’t pity me. She just thinks I’m a bit weird.” He gave a little smile. “But that’s okay with her. I get the idea that she’s used to dealing with people who aren’t exactly normal human beings.”
    “And you don’t want to risk losing that,” Caleb said. He knew a lot about being scared of losing something. Long ago he’d been afraid that if he weren’t a very wealthy man, he’d lose the woman he loved. His penalty for that vanity had come down from Heaven itself. “You should tell her,” he said. “Strip down to your skivvies and show her the truth.”
    “And watch her eyes change?” Jamie said. “I’ve seen that too many times. No, thank you. I like her ordering me to do her exercises. I even like her thinking I’m some rich playboy. Better that than feeling sorry for me.”
    Caleb shook his head. “You do know, don’t you, that when women find out a man has lied to them that they are
not
amused.” When he looked at Jamie, he saw that he didn’t seem to be concerned. “I can tell that you have never been on the receiving end of a woman’s rage over a man’s prevarications—no matter how well intentioned they were.”
    Jamie’s eyes were twinkling. “I’m not sure yet, but I think Hallie might forgive me.”
    Caleb laughed. “Ah, the vanity of youth. You make me glad I’m an old man.” He stood up. “Come on and I’ll tell you how the garden used to be. You can use the knowledge to impress your pretty girlfriend.”
    “She
is
pretty, isn’t she? I like the shape of her. She—”
    Rolling his eyes, Caleb pointed out where a row of blueberry bushes had