Sweet Surrender

by Leeanna Morgan

  Brooke leaned across the table. “Willow isn’t like anyone you’ll ever meet. Did you know that she used to be a —”

  “Zac doesn’t want to hear about me. Why don’t you tell him about the cake Megan made for your wedding?”

  Brooke sent Willow a searching glance before turning to Zac. “Megan creates the most incredible cakes I’ve ever seen. Our wedding cake is four tiers of absolute yumminess decorated in vanilla buttercream icing and wafers of dark chocolate.”

  “It sounds impressive.”

  Brooke took her cell phone out of her bag. “I’ll show you a picture.”

  While Brooke hunted through her phone, Zac watched Willow. There was more to her life than she’d told him. And one day, he was going to hear the full story.

  Later that night, Willow held out her hand to Zac. “Would you like to dance?”

  His gaze landed on the people moving in coordinated rows behind them. “I don’t know how to line dance.”

  “It’s not too difficult. All you have to do is follow the person in front of you.” Zac’s frown made her even more determined to get him on the dance floor. Tonight, if nothing else, was about enjoying the company of good friends, good food, and a little home-grown entertainment.

  She held onto his hand and pulled him to his feet. “Come on. I’ll look after you.”

  Zac looked over his shoulder at Levi. “If I’m doing this, so are you.”

  Before Levi could reply, Brooke pulled her fiancé to his feet. “That’s a great idea. It will be good practice for the wedding.”

  Emma and Megan were already on the dance floor, doing the Cotton Eye Joe. Willow had a fairly good idea of what William would say if he saw his very pregnant wife dancing but, Megan was having a great time, and William wasn’t here.

  Zac’s fingers tightened around Willow’s hand. “Just so you know, I don’t have any sense of rhythm.”

  “You’ll be fine. Megan and Emma only learned to line dance after they moved to Sapphire Bay.” She stood at the back of the room and let go of Zac’s hand. “No one will be worried if you step in the wrong direction.”

  “But they will worry if I bang into them.”

  She sent him a reassuring smile. “Trust me. You’ll be fine.” As the next song started, Willow grinned. The Electric Slide was one of the first dances she’d learned. “The first step is to the right,” she said.

  Zac’s frown deepened. Half a beat after the people in front of them moved, he was off, moving his feet almost in time with everyone else.

  Willow kept an eye on him, moving quickly out of his way when he went left instead of right. “You’re doing great,” she yelled over the music.

  Zac’s relieved smile was good to see. She didn’t know how much downtime he’d had in Afghanistan, but she’d bet her last dollar that he’d never line danced his way across a wooden floor in Kabul.

  When the song ended, she turned to Zac and high-fived him. “That was awesome. We’ll make a local of you yet.”

  “It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.”

  The first bars of the next song started and Willow grinned. “You must know this song.”

  Zac rubbed his hands together. “I’m ready.”

  As the Village People’s voices blared from the sound system, Willow watched Zac focus on the man in front of him. This time his feet moved in perfect timing. When they hit the chorus, his arms made the shape of the YMCA letters as naturally as anyone in the room.

  She smiled when she saw Megan and Emma. They were both singing with the music, enjoying every minute on the dance floor.

  When the song came to an end, Willow laughed at Zac’s wide smile. “You’re a natural.”

  “I’d still be sitting in my chair if it weren’t for you.”

  The warmth in his gaze made her toes curl. “It’s just as well I’m here, then.”

  Levi tapped Zac on the shoulder and said something to him. For the first time that night, Zac laughed.

  For some reason, that gave Willow a deep sense of satisfaction. When the next song started, she stopped worrying about Zac and simply enjoyed dancing beside him. At least after tonight, when he went back to Afghanistan, he’d remember the night he line danced his way across a small dance floor in the middle of Montana. And if those memories brought a smile to his face, she’d be even happier.

  Chapter Three

  The next morning, Zac ran along one of the trails surrounding his home. Cold air stung his lungs and made him work hard to keep up with the pace he’d set himself.

  The trail veered to the left. He jumped a fallen log, ducked under an overhanging branch, and kept going. Even here, far above Sapphire Bay, a deep sense of unease followed him. He kept to the trail, avoided anything that looked out of place and tried to ignore the panic that came with being on his own in the middle of an unfamiliar forest.

  When he reached the highest point on the mountain, he stopped and caught his breath. With his hands on his hips, he looked across the pine and spruce trees to Flathead Lake. The early morning sunlight glistened off the water, boding well for the fishing and tourist boats lining the shore.

  Perhaps if he’d come home more often, he wouldn’t have PTSD. He might have been able to process what was happening around him differently, found a way to distance himself from the reality of war.

  He clenched his fists as a familiar surge of adrenaline shot through his body. Who was he kidding? Most of the people in the camp, including his colleagues, had varying degrees of PTSD. For some, it stopped at the nightmares plaguing their sleep. For others, it impacted on everything they did. Zac sat somewhere in between. It was the ‘somewhere’ that worried him the most.

  Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply, focusing on the here and now and not what had happened four years ago.

  As hard as he tried, he couldn’t let go of the images crowding his brain. He knew his response was irrational, that what had happened was only the tip of the iceberg in the inhumane camp. But it had broken him in ways he never thought possible.

  The day had started better than most. A large convoy of trucks was arriving with desperately needed food and medical supplies. For a camp with no running water or electricity, the supplies were the difference between life and death. As the trucks came through the main gate, they were ambushed by a gang of militants. By the time the army took control of the chaos, fifty-two men, women, and children lay brutally slaughtered on the ground.

  The massacre destroyed his faith in humanity. It made him question whether anyone’s life in the refugee camp would ever be better than it was now. And it made him angrier than he’d ever been. Governments around the world could have made the camps healthy, safe communities for the displaced people living there but, for political and economic reasons, they chose not to. It was a disgrace that Zac couldn’t understand.

  The snap of branches sent chills down his spine.

  Grabbing a fallen branch, he swung around. With a pounding heart, he waited for what was coming through the trees.

  The flash of a bright orange jacket startled him. A few seconds later, Willow walked out of the forest.

  Her smile disappeared when she saw the branch in his hands. “I’m hoping you aren’t a crazy psychopath.”

  Embarrassment scorched his face. “Sorry. I didn’t know who was there.”

  Willow studied his face but didn’t say anything.

  He felt like an idiot. “I don’t always have a bat or branch with me. It’s just…I guess I’m a little jumpy.”

  “Is it the same when you’re in Afghanistan?”

  He wished it was. “It’s worse.”

  Willow bit her bottom lip. “Is that why you’ve come home for Levi and Brooke’s wedding? To try and make it better?”

  Zac threw the branch into the trees. “I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Levi’s wedding gave me a reason to come back to Sapphire Bay.”

  As she stepped closer, Willow’s eyes were full of confusion. “Why did you need a reas
on to come home?”

  His hands began to shake, so he curled them into fists, hoping she didn’t see what was happening to him. “I haven’t been home for a long time. I didn’t know if I could fit into a normal life again.”

  “I guess it depends on your definition of normal.”

  Zac looked away, but all he could see was Willow’s deep brown eyes, searching his face for answers he couldn’t give her.

  Her footsteps crunched against the dry leaves and branches littering the forest floor. She stopped beside him, silently staring across Flathead Lake.

  He looked out of the corner of his eyes at the blue baseball cap holding back her hair, the bright orange jacket, and her faded blue jeans. Even at seven o’clock in the morning she was the most attractive woman he’d ever met. And the fact that she hadn’t left his side made him think that maybe, despite his obvious issues, she liked him, too.

  She pointed to the far end of Sapphire Bay. “Do you see the spire of the church?”

  Zac nodded.

  “Levi and Pastor John run a support group for people with PTSD. We have quite a few veterans who visit Sapphire Bay in the summer. Since The Welcome Center opened, a lot of those men and women stay for longer. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that you’re not alone. We’re a small community. We know better than most what it means to live with something that can take over your life.”

  “I’ve been to counseling. It didn’t help.”

  Willow smiled. “That’s because you weren’t in Sapphire Bay.”

  He doubted that had anything to do with his mental health, but he appreciated her optimism. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

  “It depends on whether I want to give you an answer.”

  Talking to Willow was like stepping through an emotional minefield. She made him remember what it was like to be human, to be a man who liked the company of a beautiful, intelligent, frustrating, woman.

  “Why are you here?” he asked.

  “In Sapphire Bay or standing beside you?”

  He almost rolled his eyes. “Standing beside me. To hike this far up the mountain, you would have had to leave Sapphire Bay at the crack of dawn.”

  Willow’s eyes widened. “Oops. I forgot to tell you we’re neighbors.”

  Zac frowned. “I don’t have neighbors.”

  “Have you seen Eleanor Davidson’s home?”

  “No one has lived there for years. There was a problem with her estate and…you bought it?”

  Willow nodded. “As soon as I saw it, I knew it was perfect. I’ve spent two years remodeling the cottage. It turned out even better than I thought it would.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me you’re my neighbor when I saw you yesterday?”

  “You were wearing boxers and a T-shirt. It didn’t seem the right time.”

  “I’ve worn less and still managed to have an intelligent conversation with a person.”

  Willow’s eyebrows rose. “Am I supposed to be impressed?”

  Zac’s mouth almost tilted into a smile.

  “It doesn’t hurt, you know.”

  “What doesn’t?”

  “Smiling. You don’t do it very often.”

  “I haven’t had much to smile about.”

  The gleam in Willow’s eyes lit something deep in his chest. “Well, you’ve come to the right place. If you want to see what I’ve done to the cottage, you could come home with me.”

  Zac nearly said yes, until he remembered he was only here for two weeks. The more time he spent with Willow, the more tangled in her life he would become. The only way he’d been able to get through the last few years was to keep his life simple. And he had a feeling a relationship with Willow would never be simple.

  “Thanks, but I’ll have to see your cottage another time. I want to stain the lower deck on my house before I go back to Kabul.”

  If Willow was surprised, she didn’t show it. “That’s all right. I’d better leave you to enjoy the rest of your run.”

  “I’ll see you at Levi and Brooke’s wedding tomorrow.”

  “Sounds great.”

  And before he could call himself every fool under the sun, he left.

  As he ran through the forest, he tried not to think about what he could have said to Willow. If Levi or any of his other friends were here, they would have asked her if she wanted to go to the wedding with them. But he hadn’t, and that was a good thing.

  Or so he kept telling himself.

  Willow parked her truck beside the other wedding guests’ vehicles. As soon as she’d looked through her bedroom window this morning, she’d said a silent prayer of thanks. It was one of those wonderful March mornings when the sky was bright blue and you knew the day would be perfect.

  Opening the passenger door, she took out her camera bag and jacket. Even though it was a beautiful afternoon the weather could change in a heartbeat. The barn was fully insulated and looked adorable, but she didn’t want to freeze if she went outside.

  “You look amazing,” Sam said from behind her.

  Willow turned and smiled. The soft chiffon skirt of her red dress swirled around her legs. “Hi, Sam. I love your jacket, too. It makes your eyes look as blue as the sky.”

  Caleb, Sam’s husband, cleared his throat. “Do you like my dinner suit?”

  Sam rolled her eyes. “Ignore him. Anyone would think he’d never worn a suit before.”

  Willow laughed. “You look very handsome, Caleb. How’s Levi?”

  “Nervous. He told me to come and meet you.”

  “He thought you’d get lost,” Sam added with a dry smile. “How’s Brooke?”

  “She’s remarkably calm. The photos with her parents are lovely.”

  Caleb took Willow’s camera bag out of her hands. “You’d better come with me before Levi sends out a search party.”

  As they walked toward the barn, Willow checked her watch. “We’ve got plenty of time. There’s still twenty minutes until Brooke arrives.”

  “Try telling that to Levi,” Caleb muttered. “He’ll wear a hole in the floor with the amount of pacing he’s doing.”

  “Don’t worry about Levi,” Willow told him. “Once he sees Brooke, he’ll feel better.”

  Caleb opened a door at the back of the barn. “I hope so. He’s waiting upstairs in the loft with his parents.”

  Willow climbed the wide wooden stairs.

  Taking the photographs of Levi and Brooke’s wedding was an honor and a huge responsibility. So far, everything had gone really well. The photos of Brooke, her family, and the bridal party were stunning.

  If the images she took during the rest of the day were as good as those, everyone would be happy.

  When Levi told Zac he was getting married in a barn, Zac hadn’t known what to expect. He’d imagined bales of hay for seats, cobwebs spun around the rafters, and mice living in the loft. But this barn was beyond anything he expected to see.

  The red, two-story building sat tall and proud in the middle of a working ranch. Instead of horse stalls and a tack room, rows of wooden seats decorated with white bows and small bouquets of lavender filled the large, open-plan space.

  Garlands of pine wove around the rafters, filling the barn with the sweet scent of the forest. At the front of the room, an arch covered in white roses provided a focal point for the celebration that was about to happen.

  He found a seat, said hello to the people beside him, and tried to look as though he belonged.

  He’d searched for Willow when he arrived, but couldn’t find her. If he had her cell phone number, he would have called to make sure she was okay. Because, if there was one thing Zac knew, she wouldn’t want to be late for her friends’ wedding.

  “Is anyone sitting beside you?”

  Zac looked at Mabel Terry and smiled. “The seat is all yours.” He looked over his shoulder for Mabel’s husband. “Isn’t Allan coming?”

  “He had to keep the store open, but he’ll join us for the reception. Isn’t the barn lovely? I a
lways knew it would make a beautiful wedding venue.”

  “Is this the first wedding they’ve held here?”

  Mabel shook her head. “No, but it’s the first one I’ve been to.” She opened the wedding program and sighed. “Brooke and Levi have chosen some lovely readings.”

  A door opened at the side of the barn. A man who wasn’t much older than Zac walked toward the rose covered arch, followed by Levi and Caleb.

  “Oh, my. I’ve never seen Levi look so nervous. I just hope Caleb hasn’t forgotten the rings.”

  As if hearing Mabel’s voice, Caleb’s hand lifted to his jacket pocket. Even from where he was sitting, Zac could see the relief on his face.

  Another group of people entered the barn. Willow wasn’t one of them. “Have you seen Willow?”

  Mabel’s eyebrows rose. “I thought she would have been here ages ago.”

  “So did I.”

  “She’s probably waiting at the front of the barn for Brooke to arrive.”

  Zac had no idea why she would be waiting outside. Even though the sun was still shining, it was a lot warmer in the barn.

  The jazz music that was quietly playing in the background drifted into silence. In its place, the first notes of Nat King Cole’s, “When I Fall in Love,” filled the barn.

  “Brooke must be here,” Mabel whispered.

  The atmosphere inside the barn became electric, then softened to something much gentler as the bridal party arrived.

  A little girl walked down the aisle holding a basket filled with pale pink rose petals. With an impish grin, she dipped her hand into the basket and threw the petals high into the air.

  Mabel leaned closer to Zac. “That’s Nora, Megan’s niece.”

  “She looks different from the photos I’ve seen of her.” While Zac was in Afghanistan, William had sent him photos of Megan and Nora. Three years ago, Nora’s mom and grandparents were killed in a car accident. Megan had given her niece a happy and stable home and William had become the father she’d never known.