Free A Man of Honor by Miranda Liasson Page A

hard this must be for him, a strong warrior who thought he was infallible, dealing with his leg injury and God only knew what else.
    Yet they’d been close once, not so long ago. He’d confided things about his past to her that he said he’d never told anyone, stories about his abusive father and his difficult childhood. She was not going to sweep this under the rug if there was a chance she could help him.
    “Preston, I didn’t mean to invade your privacy, but it’s not a crime to see a psychiatrist.”
    He squeezed his eyes shut as though she’d delivered a blow. His jaw was tight, set in stone. “I didn’t ask your permission, and I don’t need your approval.”
    His words stung. “I had no idea. Or I never would have—” To her embarrassment, she felt the sting of tears, but she blinked them back. It was just the emotional morning, the constant ache she felt being with him but not ever able to get through. Damn these stupid wedding weeks anyway. Damn their ridiculous deception. Damn her stupid heart for still wanting him so badly.
    He sighed heavily. “I’m sorry. I was out of line. You didn’t know.”
    “If you ever need to talk—”
    “Please start driving.”
    He was staring straight ahead. “Okay. I’ll drive. But we’ve known each other for a long time. You don’t have to shut me out. You might be surprised at how well I listen. Maybe you need someone to listen.”
    The car was silent, except for the blowing fan. At that moment, she would have done anything to help him for the sheer reason that he was in pain. But she had no idea how to get through to him. So she put the car in gear and drove away.

Chapter Seven
    Preston would have rather swallowed a box of nails than get into the car with Cat. First he’d had to deal with the bad news about his leg. He’d endured two doctors poking and prodding, discussing and planning. The PT was helping, they’d said, although there was no avoiding another surgery if he ever had hope of functioning semi-normally.
    Unfortunately, despite all his hours of intensive therapy, he was nowhere near rehabbed enough to even schedule the surgery. A disappointment he didn’t want to hear. The word “normal” had never sounded so wonderful or so unreachable.
    Then he endured an hour and a half session with a shrink, who’d asked him every personal question under the sun. He’d rather suffer a bleeding wound. That had been painful enough, but all of it paled in comparison to Cat seeing him like this. He felt as defenseless and weak as a baby. He hadn’t wanted anyone to know about the psychiatrist. Why her of all people?
    He’d snapped at her, and she hadn’t deserved that. She’d done nothing but be on his side, and he’d done nothing since last fall but hurt her. They were driving along in silence when her stomach rumbled loudly. “That’s loud enough to wake a baby,” he finally said.
    “We’ll be home in an hour,” she said in a detached, neutral voice. He couldn’t stand to have her feel hurt. None of this was her fault.
    In their youth, they’d never really been friends. Derrick was his best friend growing up, and she’d been off-limits as his sister. Not to mention she deserved better than the likes of Preston, who pretended in front of the Kingstons everything was normal despite his home life being something out of a horror movie. Yet, despite a thousand reasons not to get involved with her, there had always been something indefinable between them.
    They’d only begun to explore it last fall, before his deployment. Maybe it had been the relief he’d felt at her engagement falling through, but he’d been able to talk to her about anything and everything, unlike any other woman he’d met.
    Too bad he’d had to shut the best thing in his life down. He’d had no choice. It wouldn’t be fair to drag her into this mess with him. He didn’t dare encourage her now, but he couldn’t stand to be cruel to her again, either.
    “Listen, Cat.