bright sunshine made her squint after the dimness of the barn’s interior. She shaded her eyes with one hand as she crossed to her truck and yanked open the door. After depositing the equipment inside, she slid behind the wheel.
“Thanks a lot, Lizzie. I thought I told you to honk if you saw anyone coming.”
Tapping her lips with her pencil, Lizzie frowned at her book. “I didn’t see anyone.”
Jennifer took a few deep breaths before inserting her key in the ignition. “Dr. Cutter is just going to have to get one of his other students to come do these films.”
“Didn’t you volunteer to do them?” Lizzie scowled as she wrote in her notebook.
“I did, but good grades are only worth so much aggravation.”
“Oh, he was there.” Lizzie turned the page and copied a set of numbers on her paper.
“I could care less about Avery Barnes,” Jennifer stated firmly, hoping to convince herself as much as her sister.
“You were drooling over him last winter when the army had Dakota at your clinic.”
“I don’t recall drooling over anyone.”
“You went out with him last winter and every other word out of your mouth was Avery this and Avery that and Avery is so charming.”
Jennifer still wasn’t certain how she could have been so mistaken about him. Her first impression had been that Avery was devoted to his friends and to helping care for injured animals. Both were qualities she greatly admired. She had sensed something special in him. She had begun to see a future with him.
A future, as it turns out, based on foolish daydreams with no basis in reality.
“He’s charming all right. He’s also as shallow as a petri dish. We saw each other for a few months, but then I learned how superficial and self-centered he really is.”
“Why? Because he stopped asking you out?”
Her sister’s comment hit a little too close to home. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”
Rolling her eyes, Lizzie said, “Whatever. If we don’t get going, I’ll be late for my chess club.”
Jennifer started the engine and checked her rearview mirror as she pulled away from the stable, but she wasn’t granted another glimpse of the unbearable Avery Barnes.
Which was just as well, she decided as she headed toward the checkpoint at the east entrance of the post. If she never had to see him again, it would be too soon.
Chapter Two
A s Avery listened to the sound of Jennifer’s truck driving away, he tried to ignore the ache in the back of his throat. He rubbed his hands on the sides of his jeans and hoped the fact that she still took his breath away had gone unnoticed. Acting like a jerk wasn’t usually so hard.
He hadn’t expected to see her again after the painful brush off he’d given her. Certainly not here in his company’s stable. The harshness of his behavior after their breakup pricked what little conscience he had left, but he tried to ignore that, too.
He thought he’d put his feelings for her behind him. Now, standing here with the lingering scent of her perfume filling him with warmth, he knew he hadn’t. It had been a long time since a woman had affected his equilibrium the way Jennifer Grant did.
It wasn’t that she was such a knockout in the looks department. She wasn’t overly tall, but she had a trim figure and a self-assured way of tossing her blond hair back with a flip of her hand that made a man sit up and take notice. Her nose had a little bump in the middle that the women in his circles would have had smoothed out by a plastic surgeon before they finished high school.
Jennifer’s appeal wasn’t in her deep blue eyes or in her looks. It was how she looked at others. Her kindness and her compassion lit her from the inside like a candle in the darkness. She was unlike anyone he had ever met. The only trouble with Jennifer was that she never knew when to quit.
His first reaction when he saw her today in Dakota’s stall had been a surge of happiness. He was thankful her back had been turned and he’d had time to school his features into a smirk he knew would annoy her.
What he should have done was keep walking and let her leave without speaking to her. Even now he wasn’t sure why he’d felt compelled to engage her in conversation. He knew she wouldn’t have anything nice to say to him. Perhaps he had been hoping for a tongue lashing from her. Maybe he even had it coming.
Dakota thrust his head out the stall door and whinnied after Jennifer. Avery reached up to scratch the horse behind his ear. “Sorry I ran her off, big boy. I know you like her.”
Dakota had gone through a rough time after his fracture the previous autumn. For a while, it had looked like the horse wouldn’t survive. Jennifer had been one of the people involved in his care, and his recovery was due in part to the hours she spent helping take care of him.
Avery remembered Dakota’s stay at the Large Animal Clinic with more fondness than the circumstances warranted. It had been Jennifer’s company, her upbeat attitude and her bossy but kind nature that had helped everyone from the mounted color guard cope during those difficult days.
It was only later that Avery had realized what a danger she posed to his peace of mind. She was far too likable—and good. Definitely not what he looked for in the women he dated.
He patted Dakota’s neck. “If she wasn’t so cute when she gets mad I might have been able to stop egging her on. Did you see the way that fire leaps in those deep blue eyes?” Giving himself a mental shake for discussing Jennifer with a horse, Avery walked on toward the equipment room.
Lee came out of the door with two long-handled pitchforks and handed one to Avery. It was their turn to muck out the stalls before the rest of the unit returned from exercising the horses.
“Why do you razz Jennifer like that?” Lee asked as he pushed a wheelbarrow toward the first empty stall.
Avery wasn’t in the habit of sharing his feelings or explaining his actions. He shrugged. “She can take it.”
“And dish it out, but you seem to take a special delight in ruffling her feathers. What did she ever do to you?”
“Nothing.”
“I seem to remember that the two of you had a thing going for a while. What happened?”
“We went out a couple of times. It didn’t work.” Avery began pitching the straw from the first stall into the wheelbarrow.
Lee stopped and grinned at him. “She dumped you.”
“Get real. Women don’t dump me.”
Only one had. After that, he never gave another woman the chance. He was always the first to call it quits in a relationship.
“Jennifer didn’t fall for your smooth-talking ways, did she? That must have bruised your ego.”
“My ego is unscathed, thank you. It just so happens the woman can’t leave well enough alone.”
“What does that mean?”
“She wanted me to go to church with her.”
Lee resumed his work. “I go to church. It wouldn’t hurt you to give it a try.”
“Believing that someone or something is in charge of my life doesn’t do it for me. Anyway, she didn’t stop there. After I turned her down and expressed my views on the subject, she made a point of telling all the women at the clinic to steer clear of me.”
“So that’s what the big ears and long nose comment was about?”
“She thinks she knows what’s best for everyone.” She thought she knew what was best for him.
“I