Lucy & the Lieutenant Read online

  The Virgin And The Veteran

  Dr. Lucy Monero feels like the oldest virgin on the planet. Still crushing on her longtime neighbor, she’s waited a lifetime for her first...and last. The man she’ll marry. And now he’s back—the star of her fantasies, ex-cowboy-turned-army-vet Brant Parker. The physician in her recognizes a wounded soul, but the woman in her burns for his touch. Lucy’s head is filled with visions of white lace and white picket fences.

  The last thing Brant needs is the walking, talking temptation that is Lucy. He may be out of his army fatigues but he still carries his demons. He’s a loner, not the marrying kind that the hometown sweetheart deserves. So why can’t he stop wanting her?

  She just about undid him with a single touch.

  “Lucy...stop.”

  She didn’t move her hand. “I can’t.”

  He couldn’t have moved away if he’d tried. She was pure temptation. And he wanted her.

  When he dipped his head, his intention clear, a tiny moan escaped her. It was the sweetest kiss he’d ever experienced, almost as though it possessed a kind of purity that had never been matched and never would.

  Brant suddenly felt as if he’d been sucker-punched. Because he’d known, deep down, that kissing Lucy would be incredible. Everything about her had been tempting him for months. Every look, every word, every touch had been drawing them toward this moment. His pulse galloped, knees grew weak, until he pulled back and looked into those honest eyes.

  What was he doing? Lucy was the hometown girl who wanted romance, marriage, the white picket fence. Brant didn’t do any of those things.

  Her eyes shimmered with a kind of longing that heated his blood even further. But he fought the urge to kiss her again, because he knew where it would lead. He’d want to make love to her forever...and that was the one thing he couldn’t give.

  CEDAR RIVER COWBOYS: Riding into town with romance on their minds!

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome back to Cedar River, South Dakota!

  Also welcome to my ninth book for Harlequin Special Edition, Lucy & the Lieutenant.

  I wanted to write a book about unrequited love. About that girl many of us have been...that girl who loves a boy from afar, never quite having the courage to let him know.

  Lucy Monero is a kind, hardworking small-town doctor. Without any family of her own, she cares deeply for her patients and her small group of friends. She also cares for Brant Parker. In fact, Lucy’s been in love with him since she was fifteen. But since the ex-soldier has always treated her like she’s invisible, Lucy knows she has to get any romantic ideas of Brant out of her system once and for all. Which is easier said than done since his elderly uncle is one of her patients.

  Brant has no intention of getting involved with Lucy Monero, despite his mother’s matchmaking efforts or the fact he runs into her at every turn! The pretty brunette invades his thoughts way too often. Since leaving the military, though, he’s not in the market for a serious relationship, especially not with someone as pure and hometown as Lucy. He’s seen too much, been through too much. But he quickly discovers that what he wants isn’t necessarily what he needs.

  I hope you enjoy Lucy & the Lieutenant and I’d like to invite you back to Cedar River very soon for my next book, Brooke and Tyler’s story!

  I adore hearing from readers and can be reached by email, Twitter and Facebook, or sign up for my newsletter via my website, helenlacey.com. Please visit anytime as I love talking about my pets, my horses and, of course, cowboys. I’ll also share news about upcoming books in my latest series for Special Edition, The Cedar River Cowboys!

  Warmest wishes,

  Helen Lacey

  Lucy & the Lieutenant

  Helen Lacey

  Helen Lacey grew up reading Black Beauty and Little House on the Prairie. These childhood classics inspired her to write her first book when she was seven, a story about a girl and her horse. She loves writing for Harlequin Special Edition, where she can create strong heroes with a soft heart and heroines with gumption who get their happily-ever-after. For more about Helen, visit her website, helenlacey.com.

  Books by Helen Lacey

  Harlequin Special Edition

  The Cedar River Cowboys

  Three Reasons to Wed

  The Prestons of Crystal Point

  The CEO’s Baby Surprise

  Claiming His Brother’s Baby

  Once Upon a Bride

  Date with Destiny

  His-and-Hers Family

  Marriage Under the Mistletoe

  Made for Marriage

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  For Robert...to the moon and back.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from From Good Guy to Groom by Tracy Madison

  Chapter One

  Brant Parker grabbed the T-shirt stuffed in the back pocket of his jeans and wiped his brow.

  It was cold out, but he’d been working for four hours straight without a break and it was quite warm inside the closed-up rooms of the Loose Moose Tavern. He’d spent the best part of three weeks stripping out the old timber framing and flooring that had gone through a fire eight months earlier.

  Most people said he was crazy for buying the place, like it had some kind of hoodoo attached to it. But he didn’t believe in hoodoo or bad luck, and he wasn’t swayed by anyone telling him what he should or shouldn’t do. The Loose Moose had been a part of Cedar River for over thirty years and he believed the old place deserved another chance.

  Maybe he did, too.

  Brant dropped the piece of timber in his hands, stretched his back and groaned. It had been a long day and he wanted nothing more than to soak under a hot shower and to relax in front of some mindless TV show for an hour or two. But first he had to go to the veterans home to visit his uncle, as he did every Tuesday and Friday.

  Uncle Joe was his father’s oldest brother and a Vietnam veteran who’d lost a leg in the war. He also had a heart condition and suffered from the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. He lived in full-time care at the home adjacent to the small community hospital. Brant cared deeply for his uncle. The older man knew him. Got him. Understood the demons he carried.

  He headed upstairs to the small apartment and took a shower, then dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. It was snowing lightly, a regular occurrence in South Dakota in winter, but quite unusual for mid-November. He shouldered into his lined jacket, pulled on woolen socks and heavy boots, and grabbed his truck keys. The home was a ten-minute drive in good weather from the main street in town and since snow was now falling in earnest, he knew the roads would be slippery. Brant took his time and arrived about fifteen minutes later. It was late afternoon and the parking lot was empty, so he
scored a spot easily and got out of the truck.

  The wind howled through his ears and he pulled the jacket collar around his neck. It promised to be a long and chilly winter ahead. But he didn’t mind. It sure beat the relentless, unforgiving heat of a desert summer like the last one he’d endured in Afghanistan. The light blanket of snow made him feel as though he was home. And he was. For good this time. No more tours. No more military. He was a civilian and could lead a normal life. He could get up each morning and face a new day. And he could forget everything else.

  Brant headed for the front doors and shook off his jacket before he crossed the threshold. When he entered the building, heat blasted through him immediately. The foyer was empty and the reception desk had a sign and a bell instructing to ring for attendance. He ignored both and began walking down the wide corridor.

  “Hi, Brant.”

  The sound of his name stopped Brant in his tracks and he turned. A woman emerged from a door to his left and he recognized her immediately. Lucy Monero. He cringed inwardly. He wasn’t in the mood for the pretty brunette with the lovely curves and dancing green eyes, and tried to stay as indifferent as possible. “Good afternoon, Dr. Monero.”

  “Please,” she said just a little too breathlessly. “Call me Lucy.”

  He wouldn’t. Keeping it formal meant keeping her at a distance. Just as he liked it.

  Instead he made a kind of half-grunting sound and shrugged loosely. “Have you seen my uncle this afternoon?”

  “Just left him about ten minutes ago,” she said, smiling. “He said he’s feeling good today. The nurses left food on the tray, so perhaps see if you can get him to eat something.”

  “Sure.”

  She didn’t move. Didn’t pass. She simply stood there and looked at him. Examined him, he thought. In a way that stirred his blood. It had been too long since anything or anyone had stirred him. But Lucy Monero managed it with barely a glance.

  And he was pretty sure she knew it.

  “So, how’s the shoulder?” she asked, tossing her hair in a way that always made him flinch.

  A trace of her apple-scented shampoo clung to the air and he swallowed hard. “Fine.”

  He’d dislocated his shoulder eight weeks earlier when he’d fallen off his motorbike. She’d been one of the doctors on duty at the hospital that night. But he’d made a point of ensuring she didn’t attend him. He hadn’t wanted her poking and prodding at him, or standing so close he’d be forced to inhale the scent of her perfume.

  “Glad to hear it. I was talking to your mother the other day and she said you plan to reopen the tavern in the next few months?”

  His mother had made her opinion about Lucy Monero clear on numerous occasions. She was Lucy’s number-one fan and didn’t mind telling him so. But he wasn’t interested in a date, a relationship or settling down. Not with anyone. Including the pretty doctor in front of him. Her dark brows and green eyes were a striking combination and no doubt a legacy from her Italian heritage. She wore scrubs with a white coat over them, and he figured she’d just come from the emergency room at the hospital where she worked. But he knew she was also filling in at the veterans home a couple of times a week while one of the other doctors was on leave. Uncle Joe thought the world of her, too. And even his older brother, Grady, had extolled her virtues after she’d attended to his youngest daughter when the child had been taken to the ER a couple of months ago with a high fever.

  Brant did his best to ignore her eyes, her hair and the curves he knew were hidden beneath the regulation blue scrubs. “That’s the plan.”

  She smiled a little, as though she was amused by his terse response, as though she had some great secret only she was privy to. It irritated him no end.

  “I’m pleased your shoulder is okay.”

  He wished she’d stop talking. “Sure, whatever.”

  Her eyes sparkled. “Well, see you soon, Brant.”

  She said his name on a sigh. Or at least, that’s how it sounded. There was a husky softness to her voice that was impossible to ignore. And it always made him tense. It made him wonder how her voice would sound if she was whispering, if she was bent close and speaking words only he could hear.

  Brant quickly pulled himself out of the haze his mind was in and nodded vaguely, walking away, well aware that she was watching him.

  And knowing there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about.

  * * *

  Lucy let out a long sigh once Brant Parker disappeared around the corner of the ward. His tight-shouldered gait was one she would recognize anywhere—at the hospital, along the street, in her dreams.

  He’d been in them for years. Since she’d been a starry-eyed, twelve-year-old mooning over the then-fifteen-year-old Brant. She’d lived next door to the Parker ranch. The ranch he’d left when he was eighteen to join the military. She’d left Cedar River for college just a couple of years later and put the boy she’d pined over as a teen out of her thoughts. Until she’d returned to her hometown to take a position at the small county hospital. She’d seen him again and the old attraction had resurfaced. He had been back from another tour of the Middle East and they’d bumped into each other at the O’Sullivan pub. Of course he hadn’t recognized her. The last time they’d crossed paths she had been a chubby, self-conscious teenager with glasses. He’d seemed surprised to see her, but had said little. That had been more than two years earlier. Now he was back for good. Just as she was. He had left the military after twelve years of service and bought the old Loose Moose Tavern.

  He could have done anything after high school—maybe law or economics—as he was supersmart and was always at the top of his class. One of those gifted people who never had to try hard to make good grades. He spoke a couple of languages and had been some kind of covert translator in the military. Lucy didn’t know much about it, but what she did she’d learned from his mother, Colleen. The other woman regularly visited Joe Parker and also volunteered at the hospital where Lucy specialized in emergency medicine.

  She’d known the Parkers since she was a child. Back then her parents had owned the small ranch next door. When she was fourteen her dad had died unexpectedly from a stroke, and then within a year her mother had sold the place and moved into town. A few years later her mother was killed in an accident. By then Lucy was ready for college, which would be followed by medical school, and had left town. The house her mother had bought in town was now hers and it was conveniently located just a few streets from the hospital. She was back in Cedar River to give back to the town she loved.

  And maybe find her own happiness along the way.

  Because Lucy wanted to get married and have a family. And soon. She was twenty-seven years old and had never had a serious romantic relationship. She’d never been in love. The truth be told, she’d never really been kissed.

  And she was the only twenty-seven-year-old virgin she knew.

  In high school she had been a geek to the core and had mostly been ignored by the boys in her grade. She hadn’t even managed to get a date for prom. And by the time she was in college, her dreams about dating quickly disappeared. Three weeks into college and her roommate was assaulted so badly Lucy spent two days with the other girl at the hospital. It was enough to make her wary about getting involved with anyone on campus. She made a few friends who were much like herself—focused kids who studied hard and avoided parties and dating. By the time she started medical school the pattern of her life had been set. She was quiet and studious and determined to become a good doctor. Nothing else mattered. Though she’d gotten more comfortable over time in social situations, she was known as a girl who didn’t date and, after a while, the invitations stopped.

  One year quickly slipped into another and by the time she’d finished her residency she’d stopped fretting about being the oldest virgin on the planet. Not that she was hanging on to it
as though it was a prize...she’d just never met anyone she liked enough to share that kind of intimacy with. Of course her closest friends, Ash, Brooke and Kayla, thought it amusing and teased her often about her refusal to settle for just anyone. She wanted special. She wanted a love that would last a lifetime.

  She wanted...

  Brant Parker.

  Which was plain old, outright, what-are-you-thinking-girl stupid, and she knew it deep within her bones. Brant never looked at her in that way. Most of the time he acted as though he barely even saw her. When they were kids he’d tolerated her because they were neighbors, and in high school he had been three years ahead and hadn’t wasted his time acknowledging her in the corridors. By the time she was in college he was long gone from Cedar River.

  Her cell beeped and quickly cut through her thoughts. It was Kayla reminding her that she’d agreed to meet her and Ash and Brooke at the O’Sullivan pub for a drink and catch-up that evening. It had become something of a Friday-night ritual since she’d returned to town. Kayla had been a friend since junior high and worked as curator of the small Cedar River historical museum and art gallery, and Ash was a cop with the local police department. Brooke, who was Brant’s cousin, was pure cowgirl and owned a small horse ranch just out of town.

  All four women were good friends and she thoroughly enjoyed their company...most of the time. But she wasn’t really in the mood for drinks and conversation tonight. She’d had a long morning in the emergency room and had been at the veterans home for the past few hours. She was tired and wanted nothing more than to go home, strip off and soak in the tub for a leisurely hour or so. But since her friend wouldn’t take no for an answer, she agreed to meet them at the pub at six, which gave her an hour to get home, feed the cat, shower and change, and then head back into town.

  Lucy ended the call and walked toward the nurses’ station. She handed in her charts to the one nurse on duty and signed out. She had another two weeks at the home before her contract was up and then she’d return full-time to the hospital. But she’d enjoyed her time working with the veterans. And with Joe Parker in particular. He was a natural storyteller and entertained everyone with his charm and easy-going manner.