The Soldier's Sweetheart

by Deb Kastner

  His sweet talk wouldn’t work on Samantha. She was too smart for that, and Will was positive she wouldn’t take it lying down. This was going to be interesting.

  “Look, there’s no sense running around the issues here, so let’s just be blunt,” Samantha countered, her voice soft but firm. “It is my understanding that you’ve purchased a ninety-day option on a piece of property south of town. According to your new plans, you no longer need Sam’s Grocery. And even if you did, I’ve repeatedly declined your offers, generous as they’ve been. How dare you approach me again?”

  Was that sarcasm? From the astonishment written in Cal’s expression, the lawyer certainly thought so. Her declaration was bold and brash and completely Samantha. Call a spade a spade and force the charismatic lawyer’s hand. Will’s chest swelled with emotion—pride, satisfaction and an enormous sense of gratification when the slick fellow’s jaw dropped. She’d clearly caught him completely off guard, which Will expected was exactly what she was trying to do in order to give herself time to think her way out of the situation. Will was happy she’d seen through Cal’s manipulative tactics.

  It wasn’t, however, perhaps the best course of action when it came to Cal Turner. Will knew plenty of men like him—eager to do anything for the right price. He wouldn’t mind bending a few rules, or ignoring them altogether, in order to get the end result he desired.

  At the same time, Will understood Samantha’s anger—shared it, even. And she was right. This guy was here for a reason, not a social call. If Stay-n-Shop had already settled on building a store in Serendipity, they no longer needed her or her grocery. She was, in fact, their direct competition. So why had the man presented himself here today, with legal documents to boot?

  Was it possible that the Howells’ prayers had already been answered? Was Stay-n-Shop pulling out of the picture?

  Cal’s smile disappeared and his blue eyes grew dark. He tapped his fingers against the document. “This is your lucky day. I’ve been authorized by Stay-n-Shop to give you one last opportunity to sign a deal with us.”

  “And why would I do that?”

  “You might want to look over this contract before you make any decisions,” he advised brusquely. “You should be grateful and know a good deal when you see one. Stay-n-Shop has upped the ante for you, although in all honesty, I can’t imagine why.” He took a sweeping glance around the store, a disdainful expression on his face. Clearly the country ambience that was Sam’s Grocery did not appeal to Cal Turner. So much for pleasantness and charm.

  Samantha sniffed. She’d seen Cal’s expression, as well.

  “They’re offering you more than they’ve offered to any of the other grocers in the area. What are you waiting for?” Cal offered Samantha a black pen that was probably worth more than Will had made in a month in the Army.

  “Apparently you are hard of hearing,” Samantha said in a scathing tone. “I have no intention of signing your document. It’s never going to happen. So why don’t you just turn yourself right around and go out the way you came in. I’m sure I don’t have to show you the door.”

  “I suggest you think before you speak, young lady,” Cal snapped, looking down his nose at her. Now there was no question that he was a vulture. “Are there any lawyers in this boondock town? Because I highly recommend you get legal counsel before turning down this offer—not that I expect any lawyers around here will be knowledgeable enough to assist you in this.”

  Samantha merely raised an eyebrow and pointed toward the door.

  “You obviously don’t know what you’re doing.” His once-smooth voice sounded strained. “You’re opposing perfectly good terms for a store that isn’t worth half what they’re offering. You’d be able to buy a house.” He waved a hand in an encompassing movement. “And what do you think all the people in your little town will think about this? Your store is nothing compared to what Stay-n-Shop can offer the people of Serendipity. Variety. Discounts. Jobs. If they decide to build, you’ll be out of business within a year, maybe sooner. Mark my word on that.”

  “Is that a threat?” Samantha asked through gritted teeth, and Will slid a hand around her waist, curling his thumb through one of the belt loops on her jeans. She looked like she was about to spring at Cal like a rabid dog. Not that the guy didn’t deserve it, but choking the life out of him wouldn’t further Samantha’s cause. In fact, it might make things worse. Otherwise, Samantha would have had to wait in line behind Will.

  “Take my words any way you wish,” Cal hissed. “This proposal has a time limit on it, and the corporation is unlikely to put such terms on the table again. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee you that this is the last opportunity you’re going to get. If I were you, I would take it and run, before you have nothing to run with.”

  “Stay-n-Shop can build as big a shopping center as they want to. They can never offer the kind of personal customer service Sam’s Grocery does. I know the names of virtually everyone who walks in my door. I have loyal customers who will never desert me. And if you think they will, you don’t know the first thing about family legacies and small-town dynamics.”

  “Perhaps not, but I do know discounts. And I know how fickle people are once they’ve had a taste of variety. And you’d be surprised how quickly your loyal customers will switch to Stay-n-Shop once they realize how much they can save there.”

  Will could feel the tension in Samantha’s back and knew how much it cost her to remain in control, yet she showed no signs of weakness. Her shoulders were squarely set in determination and her gaze never faltered from the lawyer’s arrogant glower.

  Will admired her strength, but he had seen and heard enough from this slick Cal fellow. He shifted so he was standing just behind Samantha’s left shoulder and slid his arm from her waist to her shoulders, grasping her firmly, keeping her steady as he reached across the counter with his other arm. Leveling the lawyer with a glare, he planted his palm over the contract and pushed it back toward Cal.

  “I believe the lady said she wasn’t interested,” he said. “I highly suggest you take your legal mumbo jumbo and get out of here.”

  Samantha shifted her weight so that her shoulders rested against his chest. He tightened his hold on her even more.

  “This isn’t the last you’ll see of me,” Cal warned, swiping up the contract and furiously waving it in their direction. “Next time I won’t be so nice.”

  “You’d better hope there is no next time, buddy,” Will warned. “You should stay away from here if you know what’s good for you.” If this charismatic scavenger thought he could mess with Samantha, he had another thing coming. Like Will’s fist.

  Cal’s gaze faltered just for a moment as his eyes met Will’s, and Will pressed his advantage, pointing toward the door. “I said go. Now.”

  Cal’s gaze narrowed. “You can count on there being a next time. We’re already in the process of scheduling a town council meeting, so this is not the last you’ll see of me,” he growled. Then he spun on his heel and fled.

  When the man was finally out of sight, Will realized how tightly he was grasping Samantha and loosened his hold on her. A little.

  Enemy thwarted. Crisis averted.

  For now.

  * * *

  The moment Cal Turner was gone, Samantha melted into the strength of Will’s arms. She’d been holding herself so rigidly that when she took a deep breath, her head began to spin and she saw black spots before her eyes.

  She had no doubt that Cal Turner would make good on his threat. He’d be back—no doubt with a legion of corporate lawyers trying to press for what they wanted. It didn’t help to know they usually got exactly what they wanted.

  She wished they would just leave her alone.

  But what if they didn’t come back? What if this was, in fact, Stay-n-Shop’s last attempt to buy out Sam’s Grocery? Perhaps they woul
d simply begin construction on their own site, in which case leaving her alone was probably not for the better.

  She sent up a silent prayer of thanks that Will had been there with her and had her back, both literally and figuratively, during the crisis moment. She supposed she should feel humiliated and embarrassed that he had witnessed the scene with Cal’s counterfeit fawning and flattery, but she only felt gratitude toward him. She wasn’t positive Cal would have left without Will’s physical bulk backing her up.

  Literally backing her up. She had to admit, sometimes muscle was a good thing. His broad chest had been—still was, in fact—a haven for her. She’d drawn strength from the silent power of his intensity, making it possible for her to stand up to Cal and appear strong on the outside when on the inside she was shaking.

  Now that the misleadingly charming, intimidating lawyer had left and the immediate threat was gone, she was quivering with an intensity that frightened her. Even her teeth were chattering. She swiped a hand over her face, trying to steady herself.

  Will tightened his hands on her shoulders and turned her around, staring intently down at her face. His gaze clouded with worry. He led her to a nearby chair, urging her to sit. “Can I get you something? A glass of water, maybe?”

  “No. I’m fine,” she insisted, although she felt anything but fine. She set her jaw, wrestling to contain her emotions.

  “Just try to breathe,” Will murmured, crouching before her and meeting her gaze with his intense brown eyes.

  “I am breathing.” She hiccupped.

  “Yeah, you are,” he agreed with a wry chuckle. “Breathing fire.”

  She laughed despite herself, and he grinned back at her.

  “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

  “I’m okay, mostly thanks to you. You really helped me out today.”

  “You did a great job all on your own.” Will nodded and reached for her hand, stroking it lightly with the pad of his thumb. “But I was glad to be there for you.”

  For her. Did he really mean that, or was it a slip of the tongue?

  It wasn’t as if she could ask him, but when his grip tightened on her hand and his gaze turned dark, words simply weren’t necessary.

  Leaning forward on one knee, he framed her face in his hands. They were large, rough hands—the hands of a soldier.

  The hands of her hero, at least for today.

  One side of his mouth curled into a half smile. His face was close enough for their breath to mingle, and yet he made no move to kiss her. He just drank her in with his eyes.

  “You can always call on me,” he assured her, running a finger down her forehead, over her nose and then brushing it backward across her chin. “Day or night, whatever you need. I’m here for you.”

  She struggled with the desire to reach forward, grab his collar and finish what he’d started. But when he rocked back on his heels, the moment was broken. For whatever reason, Will had pulled away. She didn’t understand it, but she had to respect it.

  Even if what she really wanted to do was fall into his arms.

  Chapter Eight

  “How’s our handsome soldier boy?” Alexis asked Samantha as they stood in line waiting to buy sparklers and cones that sprayed fountains of sparks. The church youth group sponsored the booth on the community green, where the traditional Fourth of July picnic and fireworks display would be held later that evening.

  “You haven’t asked us to be bridesmaids yet. What are we to think?” Mary gave Samantha a friendly nudge with her elbow. “You couldn’t possibly have imagined that we were going to forget about him, now did you?”

  “I could only hope,” Samantha murmured sarcastically, handing the vendor a twenty-dollar bill for the sack of sparklers and fountains she was purchasing. She glanced across the green, where Will was busy setting up lawn chairs for her parents and grandfather and spreading a red-plaid blanket for the rest of their group. He swung Genevieve around in a circle and plunked her down in the middle of the wool blanket, chuckling as she squealed with laughter.

  “You could only hope what? That you’d have a ring on your finger, or that we’d leave you alone?” Mary teased.

  “Really?” Samantha rolled her eyes.

  “Can we help it if we want to see our best friend settled down and living happily ever after?” Alexis gently prodded Samantha’s ribs with her elbow.

  “I don’t know why you two are picking on me all of a sudden,” Samantha grumbled. “I don’t see either one of you showing off your diamond solitaires.”

  “That would be because our knights in army-green camouflage haven’t yet ridden into our lives,” Mary said with a sigh. “You are so blessed and you don’t recognize what you have when it’s right before your eyes. God just dropped him right into your lap.”

  Samantha snorted and shook her head. “I don’t even know what that means. And trust me when I say that I don’t even want to know.”

  “You can fool the rest of the world, but don’t try to play ignorant with us. We understand you all too well. And even if we weren’t besties, anyone with eyes can see the way he looks at you when he thinks nobody is watching him.” Alexis’s sly smile grew to epic proportions and her blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “Like right now, for instance.”

  “What?” Despite all her good intentions, Samantha turned to look at Will. He was seated on the blanket next to Genevieve, propped on one elbow with his legs stretched out before him, laughing at something her mother was saying to him. “He’s not—”

  “Ha! Made ya look,” Alexis crowed. “Anyway, he was looking at you a second ago.”

  “That was so not nice,” Samantha admonished, her face warming, but she chuckled just the same. She should have known better than to fall for that old trick.

  Her best friends could always tell when she was down, and surely they’d noticed something was bothering her lately. She wasn’t spending as much time with Alexis and Mary as she usually did. At first they might attribute her absence to her spending extra time with Will, but it wouldn’t be long before they figured out there was more going on. She hadn’t yet shared with them the trials she was facing with Stay-n-Shop, but it was only a matter of time before they picked up on it—and before the entire town knew what the large corporation had planned.

  Alexis bought her own sack full of fireworks and looped her arm through Samantha’s. “Seriously, now. No progress to report to us girls?”

  “I guess it would depend on what you mean by progress,” Samantha countered, seeing a way to lead her erstwhile friends away from their floundering matchmaking efforts. It wouldn’t take them long to figure out they were on a deliberate detour, but at least it would take the heat off Samantha, if only for a moment so she could catch her breath.

  “Will is doing well at the store. Far better, actually, than I anticipated he would.” Despite her best efforts, her gaze kept drifting to Will, which she knew was not lost on her friends. “He actually seems to like his work, although he’s a bit of a perfectionist. He takes it seriously, in any case, and puts a great deal of effort into whatever he does.”

  “Was there ever a doubt?” Mary teased.

  “In my mind, at least,” Samantha admitted. “He’s fresh from Afghanistan. He’s got to be used to power and adrenaline on a daily basis. I thought he’d be bored to tears in a minute.”

  “Maybe the peace and quiet is just what he needs,” Alexis suggested.

  “Perhaps,” Samantha agreed, watching Will from under her lashes. As long as he didn’t look her way, she was good.

  “And he’s a daddy. He has a duty before the Lord to be responsible,” Mary added. “That means he has to be all grown-up and manly and everything.”

  Alexis let out a low whistle. “He certainly has the manly thing going in spades.”

  Samantha r
olled her eyes. “You guys are too much. Just leave the poor guy alone. He’s my employee, for crying out loud.”

  “Is that all he is to you?” Alexis asked merrily, her blue eyes gleaming with gratification. Clearly she believed she already knew the answer to her question.

  Samantha broke her gaze away from her friend’s torment rather than answering the question. It might be friendly fire, but it still put her in a dangerous position.

  “I thought not.” Alexis’s voice dropped as she pulled Samantha to a halt underneath a large, stately oak, out of hearing distance of all except Mary, who was a step behind them. “So what is the deal, really?”

  Samantha sighed. It was so much easier on her when her friends weren’t being serious. When they were just playing around with her, she could pretend all was right with her world. Maybe it was just a subconscious thing, but sometimes when she was laughing with her best friends, she found herself able to cling to the past, remembering her high-school days when the most taxing thing she had to worry about was whether or not her hair was working and who was going to take her to prom.

  But when Alexis and Mary started asking genuine, compassionate questions—hard questions—her emotions became engaged, and she found herself very much on the verge of tears—like right now. Too much stress, she supposed, from every angle. Enough to throw any woman, even a strong one, for a loop.

  But she was determined not to break down in the middle of a community event. Especially not in front of her friends—she knew them well enough to know they would worry about her incessantly and make a big deal over her problems, which was exactly what she didn’t want to happen. It was more or less the same reason she hadn’t brought her parents into the Stay-n-Shop fiasco.

  Alexis and Mary had her well-being and best interests at heart. They were far more than mischievous matchmakers—they were the closest friends she had. They loved her, and at the end of the day, no matter how much they teased her and gave her a hard time, she loved them right back.