Thankful for You by Cindy Spencer Pape

 
     
     
Chapter One
     
     
    “I heard you wowed them at the American Legion last night with your talk about living with PTSD.” Elsie Jordan’s soft blue eyes twinkled as she rang up Sig’s order of fish food and aquarium filters. She was small and cute and her smile was out of this world. Just talking to her made his day. “That’s your third public appearance this fall. Seems you’re becoming quite the local celebrity as well as the town’s biggest hero.”
    “Not that Haven is big enough to consider anyone a celebrity. Hell, everybody already knows me anyway.” Sig Nowicki shrugged. He loved talking to Elsie but wished she’d discuss anything other than his so-called celebrity. Then he softened his gruff tone as he looked at Elsie. “I suppose it went okay. I wish to hell everyone would find somebody new to pick on. I’m nothing more than a washed-up vet. Not any kind of hero, and damned sure not any kind of spokesperson.” Granted, he understood a little about living with PTSD, but his only other credential was a BS in psychology that he’d picked away at one course at a time while in the military, mostly online.
    “That’ll be sixteen ninety-five.” Elsie slipped the items into a paper bag. Sig wished it was his scarred-up skin her slender fingers were sliding across. All around them, the animals in the store did their thing, the kittens in the front window mewing and Bluebell clucking like a chicken, one of his favorite tricks. Sig, though, had eyes for nothing but Elsie.
    “And you can quit dishing out the baloney.” Her sharp tone drew his gaze back to her face. “I may not have grown up in this town, but I’ve read the newspaper articles. All of them. You saved a lot of lives in Afghanistan. That’s not exactly something to be ashamed of.”
    So what? Saving lives had been his job. “Yeah, I was a pretty good soldier, I guess, but I’m not a movie star or anything. It’s all because of that damned calendar.” Biggest mistake he’d made since he got home. “I should’ve known better than to let them use me as a model. This town was ignoring me just fine until the mayor’s assistant got ahold of a copy. Now all of a sudden I’m fucking John Wayne or Elvis Presley.”
    “Well, it was for a good cause. You should be proud of helping the families of deceased and wounded soldiers.” She shot him a stern glance over her silver wire eyeglasses. They should have made her look older, but somehow they only emphasized her girl-next-door sexiness.
    “That’s the only saving grace to this whole mess. I’m one of the lucky ones, despite all this.” He scraped his left hand, the one streaked with scars and with the pinkie and first joint of the ring finger missing, along the puckered white scar that ran through his left eye and across his forehead. His glass eye itched. At least Elsie didn’t wince when she looked at him. That had something to do with why he liked her so much. Then he let his shoulders sag. “What the hell. Maybe it’ll all blow over after New Year’s, once everyone’s thrown the stupid thing out.”
    “Fat chance, Bucko. You’re a big deal. Get used to it.” She wrinkled her nose and grinned. Sig reached out his mangled hand. As he closed it around the bag, Elsie’s slim white hand captured it. “You’re a good man, Sergeant. You make a difference, and finally people have noticed. Cope with it.”
    All Sig could do was grunt. Her touch set off sparks in his gut—sparks that had pretty much been dormant since he’d gotten out of the VA hospital over a year ago. Damn near everything about Elsie appealed to him—her strawberry blonde hair, her freckles, the way her rounded ass swayed as she walked. She reminded him of Becky Thatcher, all grown up and hot as hell. He found himself making excuses to come shopping for his aquarium at least twice a week, sometimes more if he was really lonely.
    Once she pulled her hand away, he tipped his chin. “Have dinner with me