Free A Reason to Love by Alexis Morgan Page B

his way. “One more thing, Spence. If I catch you ripping down the street that fast again, I’ll personally nail your ass to the wall for it. Are we clear on that?”
    Again, some things never changed. Spence had enjoyed the same kind of friendly adversarial relationship with Gage’s predecessor. “Perfectly, sir.”
    Gage waited for him to pull out onto the street before following, which forced Spence to keep to a more sedate pace. When he reached the next intersection, Gage drove up next to him in the right turn lane. He waved one last time and then drove off.
    Just for grins, Spence gunned his engine and tore across the intersection but immediately reined it back in. He could see Gage shaking his head and laughed. Having had his fun for the day, Spence headed for Gary’s Drive-In to pick up burgers, fries, and two of Gary’s amazing shakes. Probably not the easiest meal to carry on his motorcycle, but the shakes should ride all right in his saddlebags. He could prop them up with his clothes for the short distance back to Melanie’s house.
    If not, oh well. He needed to do laundry anyway.
    •   •   •
    Dinner in hand, Spence knocked on Melanie’s front door. As he waited for her to answer, he spotted an empty beer bottle sitting on the porch railing. There was no telling how long it had been there, but it definitely looked out of place. He tucked the two shakes he’d bought into the crook of his arm and held the bag of food with the same hand. Then he picked up the beer bottle and held it out so it was the first thing Melanie saw when she opened the door.
    Her eyes went right to it. “Come on in.”
    As he walked past her into the house, the flash of worried guilt in her expression told him he was right. The only question was which one of his friends had come calling. On second thought, he knew, because Nick and Callie had no doubt left town on their honeymoon.
    “So, what did Leif want?”
    Melanie glanced back over her shoulder. “He wanted to know how long I’d known you weren’t—”
    She cut herself off midsentence, but he knew what she’d been about to say. “I think the word you’re looking for is ‘dead,’ Mel. What did you tell him?”
    “I told him the truth. That I ran into you at the cemetery. That I thought another member of the squad the three of you served in had come for the wedding. That I was as shocked as everyone else was to find out you were back.”
    He followed her the rest of the way to the kitchen and divvied up the food. “He didn’t give you any grief, did he? Because this is between me, him, and Nick. I won’t have him hassling you.”
    She sat down and reached for her burger. “No, it wasn’t like that at all. When I didn’t show up at the reception, they eventually figured out that I had gone after you. Leif wanted to make sure you were all right. That’s pretty much the sum total of our discussion except that he asked me to tell you that he’d like to talk. You know, whenever you’re ready.”
    Yeah, like that was going to happen anytime soon. What did Leif think they had to talk about? The depth of their treachery burned straight through him. The selfish bastards had no right to be living in his house with his dog and his woman.
    As the ranting and raving inside his head wound down, he realized he’d tuned out while Melanie was trying to tell him something. The only reason he noticed now was that there was an increasing note of urgency in her voice that hadn’t been there only seconds before.
    “Spence, I said put that down and stand still while I get the paper towels!”
    What the fuck was she talking about? Before he could ask, she was back and trying to take something away from him. “Give me the cup.”
    He had to actually look down to see what she was talking about. Holy hell, he’d crushed the Styrofoam cup that had held his shake. Right now what little that was left of it was oozing through his fingers to join the rest on the table and