Free Dance With Me by Kristin Leigh Page B

break because everyone knew that summer vacation was approaching. She loved her students, each and every one of them, and always cried when the school year ended. But she was tense the entire day, due in part to her night with Major, and the children’s restlessness proved difficult.
    When the final bell rang, Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief. Finally. The rain was back, a soft drizzle that often signified no lightning was forthcoming. Rebecca was glad because that meant she could drive to the pier. And she desperately needed a good, cleansing walk in the rain after the previous night. Something to clear her head. It was out of the way, but an ocean side stroll in the rain would soothe her frayed nerves.
    The parking lot was empty when Rebecca arrived, due to the weather and the time of year. Late January was too cold for beachcombers to be out, despite how unseasonably warm it had been. Rebecca paid for parking and headed for the dock. The dark gray of old, faded wood stretched before her, gentle waves lapping at the beams and the slow pitter-patter of rain already hushing her riotous thoughts. Rebecca knew that with her past, the ocean and rain were two things that should scare her most. Instead they gave her a sense of direction and comfort.
    Rebecca stopped at the halfway point and leaned against the rail. She tilted her face to the sky and smiled. Sometimes, if she tried really hard, she could recall a few good memories.
    “You have to put your faith somewhere. Why not in God?” Mrs. Rousseau’s voice grated. It was the speech of someone who had smoked a pack a day—probably from birth.
    “If God was as good as you say, He would have saved me already.” Rebecca pressed the ice pack against her eye.
    A growling laugh. “Have you asked?”
    Rebecca closed her eyes. Mrs. Rousseau had been right. Sometimes you have to ask for what you want or need. While Rebecca wasn’t religious on the level of Bible-thumping, she did believe in…something. It wasn’t faith, though. It was knowledge. She’d been given irrefutable proof in a higher power long ago and had never questioned it.
    Rebecca watched as a Volkswagen slid off the road and into a ditch. Hard-driving rain pushed against her skin with bruising force. Hail bounced off her skull and the wind whipped at her hair and clothing. But she continued walking, her steps sure and steady despite the tempest.
    Rebecca shivered and straightened, turning those thoughts off. Thar be dragons. She continued strolling to the end of the dock, her thoughts meandering back to Major.
    “Most people are basically good.”
    How could someone like Major believe that? He’d seen things to rival the evil of her childhood. He should be as critical and guarded as she was. But Rebecca had watched as Major shed more than his clothes. His mask had fallen away sometime in the darkness and desire, revealing a shattered and worn man. And somewhere beneath all the shadows was a man who assumed most people were fundamentally decent. It was beautiful— he was beautiful—in a broken, dejected way. The way a landscape was beautiful after fall and winter had ravaged the life there. It was raw and stunning in its sheer ability to break the heart.
    Rebecca sighed as sadness soaked into her skin as surely as the frigid raindrops. Major was the first real man she’d known. The first man who’d given all of himself for the greater good. Even Dillan—ugh, especially Dillan—and the SEAL teams he worked with didn’t sacrifice themselves so fully. Major was everything she should hate, just like the rain. He was a Uniform, whether he wore it or not, and he answered to no one. But much like the gales that gave her peace, Rebecca couldn’t hate him. Major was her storm, the man she’d never allowed herself to long for. And she’d gotten one beautiful, perfect night with him to last her a lifetime.
    Rebecca sighed and choked back tears. She didn’t want to cry, but dammit, it was so unfair. Her life