Page 11 of His Wounded Heart

“Ice cream, frozen juice in bag three. Carrots in bag two.”

She nails every item as it comes down the conveyor belt. She could own the store before she turns sixteen at this rate.

“Got your bread,” Dennis says. “It’s even wheat bread,” he says proudly. Is it organic? No.

“Thanks, Dennis,” I sigh. “Just put it in the bag on top of the eggs.” I point to my cart.

“Should I start bagging again?” he asks.

I nod. We are done anyway. I drop off my cart and take my groceries, then follow Bella and her mom to their vehicle.

“Are you coming with us?” Bella asks.

“Just thought I would help your mom put her groceries into her car.”

“She doesn’t need help. She does it all the time. Don’t you, Mama?”

Trenda stops at an older model SUV and pulls open the back hatch. She turns and looks at me.

“Bella’s right, I can do this myself.” She looks flustered.

“I don’t doubt it. But I owe you one, so let me help.”

“What do you owe me for?” She frowns.

“You stopped me from going off in the store. I really didn’t want to do that, and you stopped me, so I’m grateful.”

“I don’t think you would have.” She smiles up at me, and it blows me away. She isn’t pretty, she’s a freakin’ knock-out. “I always regret it when I speak in anger. What’s more, you wouldn’t have fixed the situation. Sadly, that was the A-Team for the morning shift.”

“Are you shitting me?”

“Uh-hmm.” Bella loudly clears her throat.

I look down at her, then look back up at her beautiful mother.

“You told her your name.” She shrugs with a mischievous grin.

I reach for my wallet and take out my cash. I only have twenties and the five-dollar bill the clerk has given me.

“You can just give me the five dollars, and then you get to swear four more times, cause you’ll have an account with me. That’s what Uncle Drake and a lot of his friends do. Not Uncle Mason. He doesn’t swear as much.”

“Sweet Pea, we don’t know how often we’ll be seeing the commander, so let’s give him a free pass. How about that?”

I squeeze the back of my neck. “So, you know who I am?”

She turns to her daughter. “Bella, get into your car seat. You’ve got some screen time on my iPad while I talk to Mr. Clark, okay?”

“Yippee!” The girl shoots into the backseat and buckles herself in.

Trenda gives me an apologetic look.

“I didn’t want Bella to hear what I’m about to say. She’s the biggest gossip in Jasper Creek. I’m sorry, Mr. Clark. I didn’t mean to call you commander, it’s just that you came off all commanderish in the store and I knew that was your title in the Navy, so out it popped. Don’t think that Drake, Mason, Aiden, or anybody else just popped out with the info. Mr. Faulks owns the cabin that you’re staying in. When he did the normal background check on you and saw you were Navy, he asked me if you were somebody he could trust.” Trenda sighs.

I squeeze my neck even harder. Nosy landlords and gossip are not what I need.

She must have seen my expression.

“I called Drake to find out if I should give you a reference, and he explained you had recently retired as a Commander of the SEALs, and he would trust you with his life. All I told Bernie Faulks is that I verified you had retired from the Navy and you were extremely trustworthy. I figured since you hadn’t used anyone as a reference, that you wanted to keep things low key, so I asked Mr. Faulks not to talk about you. Trust me, he understands that. He’ll respect your privacy. He kind of lives off the grid himself, except for his business ventures and being a landlord. I promise not to tell anyone as well.”