A Reason to Love

by Alexis Morgan

  When Mooch draped himself across Spence’s chest and sighed in contentment, Spence gave him a thorough scratching. “Mooch, how did you find me?”

  There were only a couple of possibilities, and just one of them made sense: Somehow the dog had tracked Spence to the cottage. The other option would mean that either Nick or Leif had dropped Mooch off and then simply driven away. Neither of them would’ve done that, not without calling first or at least waiting to make sure that Spence was home.

  Which meant they probably had no idea where the dog was. As much as Spence didn’t want to talk to either of them, he couldn’t let his friends worry unnecessarily. He shoved the dog to the side and rolled up to his feet.

  “Come on, dog. Thanks to you, I’ve got a couple of phone calls to make.”

  Mooch danced around him all way to the back door, nearly tripping Spence again. “Damn it, Mooch, quit it. God, I forgot what a pain in the butt you can be.”

  The dog didn’t care and neither did Spence. Mooch bolted inside and launched an immediate inspection of the tiny house. It didn’t take him long to scope out the living room, the bathroom, and the single bedroom. He was back in the kitchen in time to watch Spence start cracking eggs into a skillet.

  “You’ll have to settle for scrambled eggs with no bacon, Mooch. Be glad you’re not getting a bowl of dry cereal. I wasn’t exactly expecting company.”

  Mooch flopped down on the floor right were Spence had to step over him every time he made a move. Some things never changed. The dog had always taken up more than his fair share of space.

  Spence scraped half of the eggs into a bowl, filled a second one with water, and then set them both down on the floor. He fixed his own plate and poured himself a cup of coffee. It didn’t take long for his uninvited guest to wolf down his breakfast and then assume his official mooching position right at Spence’s feet. Since there was no telling how long the dog had gone without eating, Spence caved and set his own plate on the floor.

  “That’s the only time I’m going to let you eat people food, Mooch. If you’re going to hang around here, it will strictly be kibble for you.”

  If being the operative word there. Logic said the dog had been living with Nick and Callie for some time now. Plus, he needed a stable home, something Spence couldn’t offer him right now, when he didn’t know where the hell he was going to be long-term.

  All of which reminded him that he had no choice but to call Nick or Callie. Drawing a deep breath, he hit Nick’s number on speed dial. It rang four times and then went to voice mail. Spence closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief as Nick’s message played out.

  “Listen, Mooch showed up on my doorstep this morning. He’s safe and fed.”

  What else should he say? “I’ll be gone until late this evening, but the fur ball can hang out with me today.”

  He disconnected the call and considered whether he should give Callie a ring, too. Knowing what a soft heart she had, she’d be worried about Mooch. Who knew how soon Nick would check his messages? On the other hand, they might not even know the dog was gone yet.

  Cursing himself for a fool, he dialed her number next. Experience said that it should kick over to voice mail after four rings. Crossing his fingers that his luck would hold, he counted them off in his head. One, two, three—

  “Hello?”

  Damn, he should’ve known he wouldn’t be lucky twice in a row, but hanging up now would only make him look like a coward.

  “Callie, it’s Spence. Thought you’d like to know Mooch is with me. Not sure how he figured out where I was staying, but he’s okay.”

  “Hold on for a second, Spence, while I tell Nick and Leif. They’ve been going crazy looking for him.” After a second’s hesitation, she added, “Please.”

  He wanted to hang up, but he couldn’t. Not when she sounded as if she knew that’s exactly what he’d been about to do. Despite everything, he couldn’t bring himself to be that rude. Not to her.

  “Okay, but I have to leave for work soon.”

  She’d already put him on hold, but she wasn’t gone long. “Thanks for calling. I’m not sure what we’d have done if something had happened to him. He’s all we had left of—”

  She cut off midsentence, but he knew what she was about to say. Mooch had been all she had left of Spence. Feeling as if he’d just taken a roundhouse kick to the gut, he said, “I didn’t want you to worry.”

  “I appreciate that.” She sniffed as if fighting back some tears. “We all love you . . . your dog.”

  Her voice cracked on that last part. What could he say to that? The silence dragged on until he reached the breaking point. “Look, I’ve got to go.”

  “Wait, Spence. Don’t hang up.”

  “Why?”

  She was crying now, which made him feel like a total jackass for hurting his best friend this way. That didn’t mean he was up for a long discussion about everything that had happened.

  “Look, Cal, I’m sorry you’re hurting right now, but I can’t do this. I get that it’s my fault, that the problem is mine. I really am glad that you and Nick are happy even if most of the time I don’t act like it. It’s just that ever since I woke up in that hospital, everything about my life has been torn apart. Eventually, I’ll make sense of things again, but right now it’s mostly still all a jumble. I hope someday you’ll find a way to forgive me for being such a jerk.”

  He drew a long breath as he tried to find the right words to say, to make things go back to the way they were between them. When he couldn’t, he settled for saying, “Look, I’ll drop Mooch back by the house soon.”

  Not that he could carry the dog on the Harley. Besides, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to give Mooch back at all. Callie had Nick and Leif. Spence had nobody to call his own. Not anymore.

  “No, Spence. Keep him. After all, he’s yours. The house is, too.” Callie got real quiet and then whispered, “And there’s nothing to forgive, Spence. You’ve always been my best friend. No matter what, that hasn’t changed. All I ask is that you’ll let me know when we can get together and figure all of this out.”

  What was there to figure out? Did she really think he wanted to move back into that place after she and Nick had been living in it? The thought made him sick.

  “Look, I’ll keep the dog. You keep the house. Call it a fair trade,” he said.

  Then Spence hung up before she could say another word. He ignored it when it started ringing a few minutes later. He might have answered if it was Callie, but the caller ID showed Nick’s name. He set the phone aside and leaned forward, elbows on his knees and head in his hands. What a fucking mess!

  From the beginning, Mooch had been sensitive to the emotional state of the people around him. It said a lot about how upset Spence was that the dog abandoned the last of his breakfast to lay his head in Spence’s lap.

  Stroking the dog’s soft fur, Spence’s fingers brushed across the jagged scar on Mooch’s shoulder, another reminder of the ugly circumstances under which they’d met. The dog had come close to losing his life when he warned Spence and the rest of his squad of an enemy lying in wait for them. That event had forged an unbreakable bond between the two of them.

  It was the same kind of bond that had existed between him, Nick, and Leif as well. Right now that connection was bruised and battered; only time would tell if the three of them could patch it up.

  He stared down into a pair of worried-looking eyes. “So, dog, what am I going to do with you today while I work?”

  He couldn’t lock Mooch in the house all day, not to mention that he didn’t have any more food for him. Maybe he should call Melanie to see if she could give him and the mutt a ride to work this morning. She wouldn’t mind if Mooch rode along with Spence while he made deliveries. Later, the dog could hang out with him and Will Cosgrove while they worked on the machines that night.

 
Glad to have a plan of action, he dialed Melanie’s number, but it went to voice mail. He left a brief explanation of what had happened and asked her to call him back. While he waited, he’d take a quick shower and get dressed.

  • • •

  Half an hour later, he checked his phone to see if Mel had called back, only to find she’d texted him instead. Evidently, she’d had to go into the office early, but she promised to leave him the keys to her father’s car under the planter on the patio. He was free to use it for as long as he needed it.

  Spence stared at the message and frowned. It was a generous offer, one he should appreciate. Instead, what he was feeling was a lot closer to disappointment than gratitude. Not because she hadn’t given him what he needed, but because he’d missed a chance to talk to her.

  It was his fault. He should’ve postponed his shower until the phone rang. But then again, she hadn’t called, had she? Texting was efficient but impersonal. He hadn’t realized how much he wanted to hear Mel’s voice, to make sure that last night hadn’t changed things between them. God knows he hadn’t handled the situation all that smoothly.

  But that kiss had been . . . amazing.

  He didn’t blame her at all for stopping him when he got grabby even if it left him edgy until after midnight. He’d expected the lack of sleep to leave him dragging this morning, but the combination of that encounter with Melanie last night and Mooch’s unexpected appearance had left him feeling energized.

  “Come on, dog. We’ve got places to go and things to do.” He reached down to pat Mooch on the head. “And if you play your cards right, one of those things might just include a stop at the store for some dog food.”

  As Mooch trotted out the door, he sneezed three times. Spence laughed at the dog. It might have been purely coincidence, but it sounded more as if Mooch was expressing his opinion on the subject of kibble. While the dog would eat the stuff, he’d always preferred to share Spence’s army rations with him. Whoever heard of a dog with a craving for MREs?

  Nose to the ground, Mooch ranged back and forth across the yard on the way to Melanie’s patio. It was good to see the dog looking well fed and happy. At least one good thing had come out of the time Spence had spent in Afghanistan.

  The keys and a garage door opener were hidden right where Melanie had said they would be. He let Mooch into the passenger seat of the station wagon before walking around to the driver’s side. After cracking the passenger window for Mooch, he drove out of the garage and headed for the closest grocery store.

  • • •

  An hour later, he and Mooch were in the cab of a fully loaded flatbed truck. The foreman had gone over the list of deliveries with Spence, refreshing his memory on how to match up order numbers to make sure each customer got the right items. One name at the bottom of the list had Spence’s stomach churning: Nick Jenkins.

  There went his good mood. As tempting as it was to get that particular delivery over with first, he couldn’t do it. The various orders were arranged in a specific pattern on the truck that matched the time frame given to the customers as to when they could expect their delivery.

  Cursing under his breath, Spence drove out of the parking lot and headed for his first stop. He could do this. He would do this, if for no other reason than he’d promised Melanie he’d get the job done.

  Hell, how many times had he walked into enemy fire without hesitation? By comparison, delivering a couple of doors to Nick and Leif should be a piece of cake.

  He reached over to pat his partner for this mission on the head. “You distract them while I unload the doors. Once we achieve the objective, we’ll retreat to safety and get the hell out of Dodge. How does that sound?”

  Mooch sighed and stretched out on the seat. Spence laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

  Chapter 11

  Melanie stood at the window and watched the truck pull out of the parking lot. She’d deliberately stayed up in her office the whole time Spence was downstairs in the factory. Cowardly? Yeah, maybe, but she wasn’t up to facing him yet.

  He’d sounded so normal when he called this morning to ask for a ride for him and the dog. She wasn’t sure what to make of that. Either he didn’t realize what he’d said last night or else he didn’t care, which didn’t seem likely. There was a third option, she supposed. In the best of all worlds, he had said her name and not Callie’s. She wished she knew for sure.

  Jealousy was an ugly emotion, and she wasn’t proud of herself for giving in to it. After all, Callie was married now to a man who clearly made her very happy. Their love for each other had been forged in the pain of their shared grief over Spence’s death and tempered by the peace they found in each other’s arms.

  Callie wasn’t the kind of woman who would have married a man if he was only a substitute for the one she’d lost. Melanie knew her friend better than that, but right now she was flashing back to high school when she’d be at Callie’s house and Spence would drop by. God, how she’d envied their easy relationship, the way they’d laugh and tease each other while she sat in the corner and watched.

  To be honest, Spence wasn’t the only guy who’d left her tongue-tied back then, but he’d been the only one she’d had a crush on during their senior year. At some point she’d realized that part of the attraction stemmed from the fact that in a lot of ways they were both outsiders looking in. People treated her differently because of who her family was. She guessed that was to be expected when both she and the high school they all attended shared the same name.

  Spence’s problems stemmed from his family, too, but for far different reasons. By all reports, his adoptive parents had been good people, and he’d been happy with them. It was only after their death and his maternal uncle became his guardian that Spence’s life had all gone to hell. Vince Locke had a well-deserved reputation as a mean bastard, and he had made life tough for his nephew.

  Spence had responded by running wild. Her parents had frequently warned her to stay away from him, and she didn’t argue. Fortunately, they never realized how much time he’d spent at Callie’s house, and Melanie hadn’t told them. As teenage rebellions went, hers had been pretty pathetic.

  “Ms. Wolfe?”

  Melanie turned away from both her past and the window to face her secretary. These days they were usually called executive assistants, but the job title was one more proof how old school her father had been.

  “Yes, Mrs. Cuthbert?”

  “Your aunt is on line two. She said it’s not an emergency or anything. She can call back later if that would be more convenient.”

  Did Melanie look too busy to take a call? Or was the woman hinting that she wasn’t busy enough? Gosh, she resented feeling as if she had to justify herself to the secretary, but she’d spent her high school summers working directly under Mrs. Cuthbert. Neither one of them was particularly comfortable with the sudden reversal in their roles.

  Crossing to her desk, Melanie picked up a stack of folders and held them out to the other woman. “I finished reading through the correspondence and signed all the letters, so you can have them back. I also completed that additional paperwork the bank asked for. They said to fax it to them since that’s faster and easier than mailing it.”

  She regretted making the suggestion as soon as the words were out of her mouth. They had a fax machine now because Melanie had bought it out of her own pocket. The older woman avoided using it as much as possible because she wasn’t comfortable with new technology of any kind. Melanie bit back the need to point out that she never would be if she didn’t even try.

  Mrs. Cuthbert backed toward the door, her mouth a flat slash. “I’ll take care of it, Ms. Wolfe.”

  Melanie waited until she was gone before reaching for the phone. Even if it wasn’t an emergency, an unexpected call from her aunt couldn’t be a good thing. She took a deep breath and hoped for the best. “Aunt Marcia, ho
w are you?”

  Her mother’s sister was never one to mince words. “Fine, but I’m calling about your mother.”

  What else was new? Melanie leaned back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling. “What’s happened now?”

  “She wants you to send more of her things. I told her to make a list and e-mail it to you tonight.”

  The other woman had hesitated before continuing. Then her words ran together as she spoke as if she couldn’t get them out fast enough. She probably suspected they would upset Melanie. She wasn’t wrong. It was tempting to refuse, but what good would that do? If she didn’t send the stuff, her mother would most likely go on a shopping spree. Neither of them could afford that right now.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to wish away the headache that was coming on. “I assume this means she has no immediate plans to come back home.”

  Her aunt’s voice softened. “I’m sorry, Melanie, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon, if ever. We both know that without your father, she’s like a boat without a rudder. She doesn’t understand what happened to all their money.”

  The image fit, except maybe the boat was also sinking. “She won’t believe me when I tell her it’s gone no matter how many times I’ve tried to explain it all to her. She blames me even if I’m only the messenger. If it wasn’t me who lost it all, she’d have to admit that it was Dad.”

  It was same discussion they’d had several times in the past few weeks. “I hate to speak ill of my own sister, but sometimes I want to shake some sense into her. Your father was a good man, but he wasn’t infallible, especially when it came to money. He treated her like a princess and spoiled her rotten in the process. He didn’t do her any favors, and now you’re having to play the heavy because of it.”

  At least with her aunt, Melanie didn’t have to pretend that everything was all right. “Tell her to send the list, and I’ll ship everything as soon as I have time to pull it all together.”