Healing A Hero (The Camerons of Tide’s Way #4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

weeks.”
    “If we’re meant to be together, then she’ll still be interested come Christmas when I get back to the States to stay for a while.” Suddenly, Philip realized just how much he looked forward to Christmas and how far away it seemed.
    “So! You admit there’s something there. I knew it.” Jake snapped Philip with his dish towel.
    Philip laughed, and then sobered again. “Sometimes it feels like I’ve known her for months. Maybe years. I even seem to know what she’s thinking before she says it sometimes. And like there’s this place for her in my heart I didn’t know was hers until she came and sat down beside me the day of Gran’s funeral. But it’s too soon to know if it’s the real deal. She’s cute and sexy and interested, and it’s flattering, but what if I’m mistaking lust for love? What if it’s just like Holly all over again?”
    Jake hung the dishtowel over the oven door handle and turned back to Philip. “Elena isn’t Holly. And you’ve known her for years. She’d never two-time you the way Holly did.”
    “Maybe having a family is just a fairy tale. There might not be any happy-ever-after for me. Not with Holly, for sure. Maybe not with Elena, either. Maybe not with anyone.”
    “So two weeks from now when you head out again, you’re just going to kiss her goodbye and say nothing? Have a good life and all that?” Jake opened the fridge and grabbed two beers.
    “We’ll stay in touch. There is email on the ship, you know.”
    Jake screwed the tops off the beers and handed a bottle to Philip. “Well, I don’t think I’ve seen you looking this happy or this relaxed in years, so here’s to you and Elena. I hope this fairy tale comes true.”
    Philip tapped the neck of his bottle against Jake’s and took a sip. “Me too.”

Chapter 7
    February 2015
    Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
    WHEN PHILIP arrived a few minutes early for his PT appointment, Elena was on the far side of the room, chatting with an officer dressed in a uniform with an impressive array of ribbons. She tipped her head to one side and smiled up at the man, laughed at something he said, and then reached up to put a hand on his shoulder. The man bent closer.
    For a moment it looked like the stranger was going to kiss Elena. A bolt of unexpected jealousy raged through Philip. Then the man turned and walked away. Elena watched him until he was out of sight.
    Maybe she was just into men in uniform. That would explain the change in her career direction from helping people like her mom to spending her days with sailors and Marines.
    Philip forced himself to look away. You’re over her, jarhead. What does it matter if she flirts with any man in a uniform? Get a grip and get your head screwed on straight.
    “You’re early, Gunny.” Elena appeared beside him. “Lose the jacket and just leave your T-shirt on. Then wait for me over there.” She pointed to a padded therapy bench under the window on the far side of the room. “I’ll be right with you.”
    He followed her instructions and settled onto the bench. Three sessions into whatever time he was going to spend with her, he’d thought he was doing a good job of just being another patient. But witnessing the easy intimacy between Elena and the black-haired Marine churned uneasily in his gut. He closed his eyes and willed his mind somewhere else.
    When she slapped a file down on the little wheeled table beside the workout bench, he jerked in alarm.
    “Are you still experiencing range of motion problems with your shoulder?” Her tone was a cross between a drill sergeant and a disappointed mother.
    “Some,” he admitted as his pulse continued to race.
    “But somehow you didn’t think to mention it?”
    She slid her fingers over the soft fabric of his T-shirt and explored the contour of his shoulder. Then she cupped his elbow with her other hand and moved the elbow in a circle.
    Pain shot through Philip’s back. He gritted his teeth and said nothing. It was