Soldier on Her Doorstep Read Online Free PDF Page B

only seen him once—the six weeks he’d spent at home on leave.
    But when she read the words he had so lovingly penned for her it made her feel as if they’d never spent any time apart at all. As if he was in the room, his warm body tucked behind her on the sofa, whispering the words in her ear.
    They’d been best friends, her and William. Friends before they’d become lovers.
    They were friends first—that was what they’d always said to one another. Friends because they would do anything for one another, comfort one another and support one another through anything. Friends because they didn’t want to hold one another back or stop the other from doing what they wanted.
    And as his friend she had a strange feeling that he wouldn’t be nearly as upset about the tiny flare of attraction she had briefly—very briefly—felt for the man staying upstairs as most deceased husbands would. He was so different from William, but Alex reminded her in so many ways of him. Made her pine for her husband all over again.
    William had always said to her, every time he’d left to go back offshore, that if anything ever happened to him she was to move on and be happy. That she wasn’t to grieve and stay in a black hole of sadness.
    It wasn’t that she wanted to move on. Not yet. Not at all. She just didn’t want to feel guilty for being mildly attractedto another man. A flicker of attraction, nothing more, but still something she had wanted to chastise herself for at the time.
    With Alex upstairs, she didn’t want to feel unfaithful to William. Because she had felt a stirring within herself. She couldn’t lie. There was no denying it. He had made a tiny beat pound inside her chest.
    He was a troubled soldier. She was a widow.
    But it didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate that he was an attractive man.
    Was it right that she’d asked him to stay the night? She hoped so. From his lack of response earlier, it was obvious he didn’t have anywhere else to go.
    And she’d never turn a friend of William’s away.

CHAPTER THREE
    L ISA watched through the window as Lilly tripped along the lakefront, looking over her shoulder every few steps to check that Alex was following. The child had dragged him outside as soon as they’d finished breakfast, and he’d been forced to accompany her. She wasn’t talking to him, but her expressions said a million words. Boston trotted along behind, his nose tipped to sniff the air.
    Lisa moved away to put her coffee mug in the sink, and stopped for a heartbeat to look out the other, larger kitchen window. The water twinkled at her, comforted her. Then a tree, waving, caught her eye. Made her glance at the little cottage only just visible.
    She tried not to smile.
    That was it!
    She had always believed in destiny, and as the cottage peeked back at her an idea hit her.
    It was the perfect solution.
    It would give Alex time to fish, and she could get to know the man who had seen her husband gulp his last breath and try to help him.
    She looked at the cottage again. When they’d first moved here they’d talked about doing all sorts of things to it. Turning it into guest accommodation…making it into a studio for her to write in. But in the end having strangers to stay for a bit of extra money had worried her more than anything, and the lastthing she’d want would be to work on her recipe books away from the kitchen.
    The last time William was home they’d had a poke around out there. Dumped some old boxes and wiped some cobwebs away. Then they’d decided it would be for Lilly—as a playhouse while she was young, and as a teenage retreat for when she was older.
    They had called it a cottage, but it wasn’t really worthy of the name. Maybe a cabin was more fitting? There was one large room that doubled as the living and sleeping quarters, plus an old bathroom and a measly kitchenette.
    Alex