Shadowed by Grace by Cara Putman

around her, looking a bit like Scarlett O’Hara in that movie Elaine had dragged him to while they dated. “I’m sorry to disappoint, gentlemen.” Then she accepted his hand, and he led her toward the floor.
    The music swept around them as they danced, and he would swear she snuggled close as the music wrapped around them. The others faded into an impressionist surrounding, details washed out by the moment of holding her. Of feeling how well she fit next to him. The music eased to an end, but Rachel remained where she was, so he continued to sway from side to side. What song did she hear? The bandleader announced a fifteen-minute break, and Scott tipped her chin up.
    “Rachel, we should get off the floor.”
    “Hmmm?” She kept her eyes closed, and the longing to lean an inch closer and kiss her overwhelmed him.
    “Rachel, honey?”
    “Yes?” Her chocolate eyes opened and she startled. “I’m so sorry.”
    With a swirl of her peacock-blue skirt, she tugged her hand from his and slipped out a side door.

    Her heart pounded as Rachel slipped outside. She needed air and distance. Thanks to the Fifth Division, she’d have plenty of space inserted between Lieutenant Lindstrom and herself starting in the morning. Right now, though, he edged perilously close. As they danced, she’d longed to have him hold her forever. She felt like she’d found her home, and she never imagined that would be with a person. The way he’d marched into the middle of the flood of uniforms and swept her away spoke to her. She’d felt alone and trapped in an unwelcome sea of admiration. Then he freed her.
    He’d seen her. And he cared enough to step into the fray.
    She liked to stand on the side, camera poised to snap pictures, but never of her. Always of what she saw, the way she experienced the world.
    She closed her eyes, then tilted her chin toward the sky. The world around her was dark, but an array of stars filled the sky, almost as vast as those she’d seen from the road that fate-filled day she toured with the lieutenant.
    The uncountable nature of the stars made her feel so small, so insignificant.
    A tear threatened to escape as she tilted her face further to the sky.
    “There you are.” Lieutenant Lindstrom’s voice sounded tense.
    She swiped under her eye, then lowered her face, still not looking at him.
    “It’s the middle of the night in Naples. You don’t want to be out here alone.”
    He was right. Rachel knew it was foolish to leave the building. Yet had he sensed she didn’t want to remain alone? How much her heart cried for someone to see her?
    “Can you take me home?” She turned toward him and forced a small smile. “I have so much to do before morning.”
    Scott studied her a moment, his gray eyes laced with concern and awareness.
    Please don’t say it. She couldn’t bear to hear him acknowledge her pathetic excuse.
    “Should you say something to your roommate? Dottie, right?”
    “Yes, we can go back long enough to find her. Then I’m ready to leave.” If they could find Dottie. Was it even possible in that crush?
    “You’ll be all right.” He placed his hands on her shoulders, staring into her face through the shadows.
    What did he see? What kept him looking at her, an ordinary girl far from home? For just a moment she wanted to see the world from his perspective. See herself the way he did.
    His hands slid down her arms until he caught her hands, a trail of goose bumps following his touch. He tugged her a step closer, until they were standing with mere inches between them. Her breath hitched in her lungs, and she felt time still. She tried to read his eyes, but the shadows made it impossible.
    His hands found her waist and pulled her closer still. “I wish you could see the woman I see, Rachel.”
    “I do too.”
    A slow grin spread on his face, and she felt it to her core. “Let me show you.”
    His head tipped down until their lips were a breath apart. He paused as if giving her the