Free Welcome Home by Emily Mims Page A

hospital room and pushed open the heavy door.
All three beds were empty, and Tommy Joe sat in his ultra-light
wheelchair, staring out the window at the San Antonio skyline.
Christi stopped a minute and just drank in the sight of him finally
out of hospital clothes and dressed in his beloved Western shirt
and jeans. Always broad, his shoulders and chest were wider and
more muscular than ever, courtesy of the months of intense physical
therapy learning to move his entire body weight with his upper
half. His fire engine–red hair had grown out from the
high-and-tight he’d worn in the Army and was again curling a bit on
his neck and around the tips of his ears. His winter Stetson sat
beside his coat on the foot of the bed, and Christi wondered if
he’d been able to put on his tooled boots. She also wondered what
she would see on his face when he turned around to greet her.
    Would he be smiling and happy that he was
finally coming home? Would he be the outgoing and cheerful young
man she’d fallen in love with when she was seventeen years old? Or
was that smiling and happy young man gone for good?
    Christi cleared her throat, and Tommy
expertly turned the wheelchair to face her. His bright blue eyes
shone out of his too-pale, faintly freckled face. He had his boots
on, and he was smiling— really smiling,
Christi saw with relief as she moved forward and bent over to place
a warm, tender kiss on his lips.
    Tommy reached up and pulled her close,
crushing her lips against his as he gave her a hard, passionate,
promise-filled kiss, a kiss like the ones she had missed so much in
the last months. He cradled her head as his lips tasted and touched
and devoured hers with passionate thoroughness. Her insides curled
at the sensual onslaught, and Christi thought maybe Sergeant
Holbrook was wrong. Maybe Tommy’s frame of mind would be just fine
once she got him out of here.
    “Are you ready to go?” she asked softly,
smiling down at him.
    “Oh, hell yeah. I
can hardly wait to get home with you. Let’s get out of here.” Tommy
Joe let out a happy whoop and wheeled past her, snagging his hat
off the bed. Christi picked up the duffel that held what few
possessions he had with him in the hospital, and together they made
their way out to the old van.
    “Where’s my truck?” Tommy demanded. His happy
smile faded, and he stared daggers at the van.
    Christi tried to hide her irritation. “Back
in the shop. Brake job. So, chill.”
    “Where’d you get this old thing?” Tommy
asked, baffled. “And why?”
    “Used car lot in Marble Falls, and I got it
because we need two vehicles you can drive. My stick-shift Mustang
wasn’t gonna be one of them.”
    “Aw, Christi honey, you didn’t need to sell
your Mustang because of me,” Tommy said as she opened the car door.
“Besides, I’m not driving yet. Damn it!”
    “That will come,” Christi said lightly.
    She waited while Tommy swung himself up into
the van before she folded his wheelchair and stashed it in the
back. At first Tommy was plainly happy to be out of the hospital
and excited to be going home, chattering about this and that as
they hit the highway, but as the van ate up the miles he became
quieter and seemed lost in thought for a lot of the two-hour drive
back to his ranch a few miles outside of Verde, Texas. He was
especially quiet as they drove through the town, passing the
courthouse on the square and crossing the tall bridge suspended
high over the Verde River.
    “You want to stop at the café and give a
shout out to Rory and Lisa?” Christi asked. “Now that they’ve
kissed and made up, Rory hangs out at the café so much Lisa’s
threatening to put him to work. He’ll have to quit his career as a
lawman.”
    “Not today, thanks,” Tommy said. “I’ll see
them later.”
    Uh-oh, Christi thought. That wasn’t like
Tommy at all, not to want to see his best friend. Nevertheless, she
nodded and soon they were past the picturesque little town and
barreling down