Wedding Date with the Army Doc by Lynne Marshall Page A

but Charlotte deserved to know the whole story. His version anyway. And, more importantly, he’d reached a point where he knew he could trust her with it. “Evaline was my high-school sweetheart, and she followed me to college. We got married sooner than I had planned. Actually, I wasn’t even sure I was planning on it, but she, or rather we, got pregnant and, well, I did the right thing. We were parents at twenty-one, right when I started med school.” He took a drink of wine, uncomfortable about reliving his past.
    â€œObviously, I wasn’t around much, which didn’t help things, but we muddled through. Two years later, she got pregnant again. I have to admit I was not happy. She’d stopped taking her birth control pills and didn’t bother to tell me.” He took another drink. “I’ll be honest and say I kind of felt like she’d trapped me. Not very heroic of me, but I’m being honest with you.”
    â€œI can understand that. No judgment here.”
    â€œThanks. She was the first woman I loved and I held on to that, and we just kind of kept moving forward. But when I signed on for the army reserve medical unit and was away from home a lot, I’d come home and feel distant. That’s when I realized our marriage was in trouble. The thing was, she liked being a doctor’s wife, and I liked being a surgeon, so at least we had that in common.”
    He tried to make light of it and even forced a laugh, but he glanced at Charlotte and saw understanding and empathy on her face, not sympathy. At least that was how he needed to interpret it. She reached across the couch and squeezed his forearm. Keep going , she seemed to say. “Fast-forward to my coming home from a second tour to the Middle East, this one voluntary, missing part of my leg and a total mental mess, and, well, I fell apart, and she fell apart, and so did our marriage.”
    An old lump of pain started radiating smack in the middle of his chest. He took a deep breath, feeling grateful to be here right now with Charlotte. He wondered about her, too. “And speaking of marriage, why isn’t a fantastic woman like you married?”
    Her brows lifted. She sipped from her glass, looking thoughtful. “I was engaged. I planned to have the American dream of a career, a husband, kids. We were all set for it, too. Then...” she slowly inhaled “...things changed.” She stopped and looked at him. “Would you mind if we went back to talking about how much we like each other?”
    So she didn’t want to open up right now. Maybe it still hurt too much, and if anyone in the world could understand that, he could. “I’ll start. Knowing I’ll see you at work at some point every day makes me happy to wake up. I haven’t felt anything like that in, well, a long, long time.”
    A sly smile crossed her full and kissable lips. “My turn?” He nodded, eager to hear what she’d have to say. “Your blue eyes are killers, and there’s something about your almost curly hair that drives me wild.”
    He hoped she planned to come on to him because the compliments were making him hot. He took a draw from his wine then put down his glass on the nearby coffee table. Something told him if she kept on with this line of conversation, he might soon want the use of both hands.
    â€œAnd you’ve been the highlight of my day more times than I can count. Even when I first started at St. Francis. There you were, sitting in the dark.” He moved closer, took a lock of her thick brown hair and played with it. “You always seemed calm, maybe a little reserved, but it was a welcome change from all the type A personalities in my department. I always looked forward to seeing you. Always.” He leaned forward, and having moved her hair away from her ear, he lightly kissed the shell. “I thought you were sexy but you didn’t seem to know it, which made