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“Usually,” he mocked her with her own choice of words

Rather than aze, she stared at the front of his shirt, re the feel of those broad ain

“Why did you have to coer and frustration all ether “Why didn’t you leave the next day like you said you would? Why did you have to stay?”

His fingers loosened their grip on her arm but didn’t release her entirely “I knohat I toldif it wasn’t soain Maybe I wanted to see for myself that you were happily married You’re not”

“Every h patches” There was no way she was going to adh patch, that divorce seemed inevitable

“I’ve seen the way he treats you, Natalie He’s no good for you”

“And you’re better, I suppose” Pushed by a surge of bravado, she aze

“You’re da a kiss across her lips

“Don’t” She drew back “I can’t do this again, Beau You broke h The worst of it was, I never understood why”

“Maybe I didn’t kno to tell you,” he said

“You can tell ed him

He shook his head “Even now it’s not that easy to talk about Iraq You can’t i what I had to do I learned not toso many of them die And the people I had to kill as a sniper—Lord, so many, and not all of them soldiers I didn’t even try to keep count By the tiood-bye was gone The man who’d replaced him was soht was all right You deserved a whole ain”

She gazed up at hi the lines of shadow below his eyes Such kind eyes And they’d seen so“So that’s why you didn’t write?” Her voice was a whisper of emotion

“I wanted to But I didn’t knohat to say It was easier to disappear and hope you’d forget me”

“I never forgot you” Her hand slid up his cheek as he bent to brush her mouth with his