Redeeming Justice Read Online Free PDF Page A

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     throat and idle hands needed. After a couple of good slugs of the icy treat, she put
     her glass down and tried to pull her wayward thoughts back in line. She was here to
     check off an item of closure on her to-do list, not get all moony-eyed and giggly
     over a hot guy.
    “Thanks again for agreeing to see me, Alex.” Crap. Could she sound any lamer? She
     was a teacher, goddammit! Nothing scared her, not a gym full of teenage testosterone
     or a Latin Hercules. Get your act together , she chided silently. Stop acting like a twit.
    The devilish twinkle in his eyes wrecked her brain when he smiled. “It’s been a long
     time coming, wouldn’t you say?”
    Did he just ask if she took a long time coming? Wait. No, that’s not at all what he
     said. Oh my God. She was losing it. Meghan sat back in the chair and crossed her legs
     earning her bare limbs an appreciative glance from the man who was scattering her
     thoughts.
    And then the dynamic shifted. The reminder of how they knew each other and the long
     years between their initial contact and this beautiful sunny day settled around them.
     Meghan could feel the anguish rolling off him the minute he remembered. She didn’t
     feel the torment quite like she used to. But then again, she hadn’t been there that
     day when a bomb-carrying civilian had killed so many and sent others, Alex included,
     to the hospital. That’s why she was here. Time to put things in perspective and finally
     leave the past where it belonged. The past.
    She hadn’t planned what to say preferring to let the moment unfold as it was meant
     to. All she hoped to bring was the authenticity of her feelings.
    “Your letter saved me, y’know. Really. It did,” she added when she saw his jaw clench
     and the twinkle disappear from his eyes. “David’s parents were distraught and I didn’t
     know what to do to ease their suffering. You see, he was an only child. Not only was
     he not coming home but the family they prayed he’d have waiting for him would never
     be. I think that was the hardest part for them. They already treated me like a daughter.
     Knowing all their hopes and dreams were crushed tore me up.”
    “What about you?” he asked somberly. “What about your hopes and dreams? Losing the
     man you were going to marry must have been devastating.”
    She saw vulnerability and something else she couldn’t identify flash across his expression.
     How could she explain that all was not how it seemed? Should she even tell him that
     part? Lifting her shoulders in an awkward half-shrug, she sighed, watching the clouds
     drift slowly by overhead.
    “I was so young and despite the engagement, we hadn’t started planning a future together.
     David proposed on the spur of the moment while he was home on a leave. Who knows how
     the future would have unfolded if things were different.”
    She hoped her voice didn’t give too much away. Even after all these years she struggled
     to keep the spirit of David’s memory intact. Honoring his sacrifice was more important
     than her feelings. There would be no closure for her on that score.
    “I still have it—the first letter you sent.” He seemed shocked to hear that from her.
     Didn’t he know how important the words he shared with her were?
    “That makes you uncomfortable. I’m sorry,” she added quietly.
    It was his turn to down a healthy guzzle of lemonade. When he was finished and set
     his glass down he looked at her. “Writing those letters was damn hard. I can’t imagine
     why you’d keep something like that.”
    By force of habit, Meghan reached for the tiny crescent moon dangling from the chain
     around her neck. Absently sliding it on the chain as her thoughts reached into the
     past, she remembered that autumn day, months after David’s military funeral, when
     a big white envelope arrived postmarked from Germany with the letter his commanding
     officer had personally written.
    She wasn’t surprised to learn of