Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

14 DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT
ing the signs of someone hurting, and Magdalena Cruz’s
whole posture screamed pain. He thought of a million
more questions for her as he quickly put on her spare
tire—what medication was she on? What kind of
physical therapy had her doctors at Walter Reed
ordered? Was she experiencing any phantom pain?—but
he knew she wouldn’t answer any of them so he kept
his mouth shut.
Questions would only piss her off. Not that that
would be any big change—Maggie Cruz had been angry
with him for nearly two decades. Well, not him specifically,
he supposed. Anybody with the surname Dalton
would find himself on the receiving end of her wrath.
Knowing her animosity wasn’t something she
reserved just for him didn’t temper the sting of it.
“Your mom know you’re coming?” Tightening the lugs
on the spare, he repeated the question he’d asked earlier.
She hesitated for just a heartbeat. “No. I wanted to
surprise her.”
“You’ll do that, all right.” He pictured Viviana’s
reaction when she woke up and found her daughter
home. She would be stunned first, then joyful, he knew,
and would smother Maggie with kisses and concern.
He didn’t know a mother in town more proud of her
offspring than Viviana Cruz was of First Lieutenant
Magdalena Cruz.
As well she should be.
The whole town was proud of her, first for doing her
duty as an Army nurse in Afghanistan when her reserve
unit was called up, then for the act of heroism that had
cost her so dearly.