A Hero to Come Home To Read Online Free PDF Page A

shriek, How could you possibly know that? You never met him!
    But it was true. Jeff had loved her. He’d always encouraged her to live life. He would be appalled if she grieved it away over him instead. Her head knew that.
    Her heart was just having trouble with it.
    Therese’s laugh broke halfway. “I don’t know. Paul was the jealous type. He didn’t want me even looking at another guy.”
    “But that was because he was there. Now…” It took a little extra breath to finish the sentence. “He’s not.”
    A few miles passed in silence before Therese spoke again. “What about you guys? What if one of us…”
    After her voice trailed off, Fia finished the question from her middle-row seat. “Falls in love and gets another chance at happily ever after?”
    Therese swallowed, then nodded. “Would it affect us ? We became friends because we’d all lost our husbands. Would a new man in one of our lives change that? Would we want to share you with him?”
    “Would he want to share you with us?” Ilena asked. “What guy would want his new girlfriend spending time with a group that’s tied at its very heart to her husband’s death?”
    Shifting uncomfortably, Carly stared out the window. She had other friends—a few from college, teachers she worked with, a neighbor or two—but the margarita club, especially these six, were her best friends.
    She wanted to say a relationship could never negatively affect their friendship, but truth was, she wasn’t sure. She’d had other best friends before Jeff died—they all had—other Army wives, and they’d grown apart after. They’d shown her love and sorrow and sympathy, but they’d also felt a tiny bit of relief that it was her door the dress-uniformed officers had knocked at to make the casualty notification, that it was her husband who’d died and not theirs. And they’d felt guilty for feeling relieved.
    She knew, because she’d been through it herself.
    She forced a smile as her gaze slid from woman to woman. “I’ll love you guys no matter what. If one of you falls in love, gets married and lives the perfect life with Prince Charming, I’ll envy you. I’ll probably hate you at least once a week. But I’ll always be there for you.”
    The others smiled, too, sadly, then silence fell again. The conversation hadn’t really answered any questions. It was easy to say it was okay to fall in love, even easier to promise their friendship would never end. But in the end, it was actions that counted.
    The closer they got to Tallgrass, the more regret built in Carly. Though their times together were frequent—dinner every Tuesday, excursions every couple months, impromptu gatherings for shopping or a movie or no reason at all—she couldn’t ignore the fact that she was going home to an empty house. All of them were except Therese, who would pick up her resentful stepchildren from the neighbor who was watching them. They would eat their dinners alone, watch TV or read or clean house alone, and they would go to bed alone.
    Were they meant to spend the rest of their lives that way? Dear God, she hoped not.
    By the time the Suburban pulled into her driveway, Carly was pretty much in a funk. She squeezed out from the third seat, exchanged good-byes with the others, promising to share any good pictures she’d gotten, and headed toward the house as if she didn’t dread going inside.
    It was a great starter house, the real estate agent had told them when they’d come to Tallgrass. “That means ‘fixer-upper,’” Carly had whispered to Jeff, and he’d grinned. “You know me. I love my tools.”
    “But you never actually use them.”
    But the house was close to the fort, and the mortgage payments allowed plenty of money left over for all those repairs. Jeff had actually done some of them himself. Not many, but enough to crow over.
    She climbed the steps he’d leveled and inserted the key in the dead bolt he’d installed. A lamp burned in the living room, a