Free Reckless Hours: a Romantic Suspense novel (Heroes of Providence Book 3) by Lisa Mondello

yesterday—in a big way—when he met Tammie.
    It’s not like he hadn’t been with other women or met a pretty face before. He’d had his share of relationships, although given his career in the military, they didn’t last more than a few months. That was the challenge of moving around so much and being committed to a job he loved. The women he’d been attracted to were driven, just as he had always been. It was probably the reason why he’d been so drawn to Tammie.
    But living overseas and constantly going wheels up on a black op made it difficult to have any kind of lasting relationship. The idea of waiting her life away, not knowing where her man is or if he’s even coming home, hadn’t been too appealing to most of the women he’d been with.
    He couldn’t say he blamed them. Still, he was thirty-seven years old and still without a family of his own.
    Most of the time, that didn’t bother Dylan. He’d had a full life in the military. Whenever he thought of his life, he had no regrets. It was fulfilling in every way but one. Except the older he got the more he kept thinking about what came next. What else would complete him in the same way his life in the military had?
    Since he’d come home and seen how preoccupied Cash had been, Dylan had begun to wonder if he’d traded in the good part of life in place of something else. It hadn’t felt like that at all while he was living it. He hadn’t been ready for a family back then, couldn’t imagine fitting a wife and kids into his crazy schedule. Family had always been one of those “someday” things. But “someday” had kind of snuck up on him.
    He tried to shrug it off as he pulled the plug and watched the soapy water drain. Some of the women he’d dated in college had been married for years now. A few even had kids who were starting high school. Christ, high school ! If that didn’t make a man feel his years, he didn’t know what did.
    Dylan blew out a quick breath. “Damn, you’re getting on,” he muttered, and grabbed a paper towel to wipe the water that had gotten all over the counter. These last weeks since Cash had disappeared made him feel his years even more.
    Where had the time gone? It didn’t seem like fourteen years since he’d graduated college. Twelve years in the military seemed like a blink of an eye now. He could remember every soldier he’d ever worked with on a mission. He’d needed to. They’d had to depend on each other, whether they liked each other or not.
    But the women in his life, well, that was a bit blurry. Although it had never bothered Dylan before, it wasn’t sitting so well with him now. He was suddenly wondering just when he’d become the kind of shit guy to take a woman to bed and then forget about her.
    He could blame his fitful night of sleep on a lot of things. Worry over what had happened to Cash was on the top of the list. Being in different surroundings would have been a good excuse, but it made no sense, given his life in the military.
    And then there was Tammie Gardner. He still couldn’t believe she’d actually stayed at the mansion last night. The woman was crazy! It didn’t matter that she was practically a mirror image of Serena. She didn’t know those people. For all any of them knew, Serena Davco could be a serial killer. Anything could have happened.
    It wasn’t Dylan’s place to tell Tammie what she should and shouldn’t do. What little time he’d spent with the woman told him she probably wouldn’t appreciate him doing it. But it hadn’t kept him from worrying about her last night even though he’d only met her less than twenty-four hours ago.
    He shook his head as if to shake her memory from his mind and sat on the bed, pulling his boots in front of him to put them on. He slipped both his feet inside and began lacing the first boot.
    “Twilight zone,” he muttered as he worked. “Yeah, that’s what this place is. I could plead insanity, too. This town is a good enough excuse for