A Candle for a Marine (Always a Marine) Read Online Free PDF Page A

began to unload the containers of pottery mix. “In fact, if I had time, I’d march right down to his house and give him a piece of my mind.”
    “I’m really glad you don’t.” Picking up a second box, she joined Shannon in the unpacking effort. “Have time, that is. Really, really glad. He’s home for a few days, and it’s the first time in years. He deserves a little understanding.”
    Shannon put a hand on hers. “How do you do it? How are you this calm? The man verbally slapped you, so don’t dismiss it or try to dress it up. That’s abuse. It drives me crazy.”
    She’d met Shannon during a life study class and discovered a mutual passion for art, but Shannon always retreated from intense social situations and men—definitely men. That had changed a little over a year before when she’d met a Marine named Brody. While she didn’t reveal how they met or anything really of their few days together, she’d been so different since then. She talked about him all the time. For once, Zehava wished she’d change the subject back to her Marine.
    Clasping her hand, Zehava gave it a squeeze. “Because I made peace with my decision. I always knew he didn’t like it. He’s been sitting on that anger for a long time, but—” She shook her head when Shannon opened her mouth to interrupt. “But it’s more than that. Our history has some really dark moments in it and some really beautiful ones. My freshman year in high school, a couple of men with guns walked into my family’s store and demanded everything out of the register. My father didn’t challenge them or try to fight, just gave them the money and asked them to go. They shot him anyway.”
    Shannon paled and her grip tightened. Tears swam across Zehava’s vision. It didn’t take much to catapult her to those years. “The police came to school. They asked me to step out of class. For some reason, Isaac and I were in the same class that year, I don’t even remember which one. He saw the police in the hall, left his seat, and followed me out. When the police asked me if I knew how to reach my mother, I remember thinking, she’s at my grandmother’s in Florida . I didn’t have a cell phone, but I knew the number…. With great regret, they told me what happened.”
    Standing in the hallway in front of the lockers and just a few feet away from her classmates, Zehava struggled under the tidal wave of grief threatening to drown her. “Isaac? Just a guy from the neighborhood, the Jankos’ son. I didn’t know him any better or less than any of the other kids, and he put his arm around me and started asking questions, a lot of them. I remember his tense voice, so much deeper than I’d expected. He never let me go. The teachers couldn’t release me because my mother wasn’t there and my older brother had left for his freshman year in college. Isaac called his grandmother, and she came down to the school. They walked me home. Isaac never left. He was my rock.”
    Zehava swiped a hand against her cheek and blew out a breath. “What’s funny, is everyone thought we were dating by the end of that year. We weren’t, or maybe we were? Isaac came over for dinner with my mother, kept me studying even when I didn’t care. When I started working at the store after school, so did he. We have history, Shannon. He was—he is —my family. Family doesn’t run away when one is angry, they let them be angry.”
    “That’s kind of beautiful.” Shannon sniffed once. “Okay, maybe I like him. A little. But I still think he needs to apologize.”
    “As it happens, I agree with you.” The warm, masculine baritone washed over her, and Zehava spun. Isaac leaned on the doorjamb to the art room. She hadn’t even heard him come in.
    “Well, then….” Shannon blinked and dusted her hands. “I think I’ll go.” She grabbed her purse and gave Zehava a quick hug. “I’m flying to Boston late tomorrow afternoon to get ready for my show. I left you Liam’s