Snowbound - Harlequin.com

JANICE KAY JOHNSON 245
twitchy, and it was all he could do just to sit here under
Liz’s penetrating stare.
“Some are over there on another tour. One’s in a VA
hospital. A couple of the guys live on the East Coast.
Humes lives in Houston.”
“What about friends from before the war?”
Of course, he couldn’t talk to them, either. Felt completely
remote from them as if they were distant
acquaintances. Most hadn’t understood why he had
joined the National Guard in the first place, and had
been aghast at the idea of him giving up so much to ship
out.
“Lizzie…” He hadn’t called her that in a long time.
“I can’t go back.”
Just as quietly, her tone terrifyingly gentle, she said,
“Yes, you can. All the way? No. You won’t be the same.
Nobody expects you to be. But to the point where you
can connect with people who love you? Sure you can.
You’ve just…chosen not to.”
He couldn’t sit for another second. The chair scraped
on the tile floor as he shoved back from the table. “I
don’t…choose…” His voice was strangled.
His sister tilted her head back so that her implacable,
yet also kind—even pitying—gaze never left his, even
when he backed away. “It’s like living with a disease.
Or being an addict. The what you can’t change. The
how you deal with it…that you can. You’re the diabetic
who won’t go to the doctor, won’t check his blood sugar
level, even though he feels lousy. John, you need help.
Counseling. Somebody who will understand.”
“She wanted me to talk to her.” He felt as if he was