Read Hero by Night for Free Online

didn’t catch her name, but she looked ready and willing to keep him up most of the night. I just hope her cousin isn’t the type to defend her misplaced honor when Chad moves on.”
    â€œNo,” Lena said. “He’s not.”
    Katie’s brow furrowed. “You know her cousin?”
    â€œChad is not with Amber. He planned to use the apartment too. He had his own key,” Lena explained. “And, well, we ran into each other.”
    â€œOh my God, Lena, I am so sorry,” Katie said. “I should have known he’d make a copy and ignore the stupid signal even though he was the one to create it. Did he . . . did he frighten you?”
    Yes, but I drew a gun on him would only lead to more questions.
    â€œA little, but he was . . . a perfect gentleman.”
    Katie snorted. “Chad?”
    â€œNothing happened,” Lena assured her. “He made sure I felt safe, insisted that I stay, and then he left.”
    â€œOK. Good.” Katie stared at her, long and hard, as if trying to determine if she was telling the truth. “That’s good.”
    Lena picked up Hero’s bowl, hoping the conversation would end there. “How much further to the falls?”
    â€œAnother mile,” Georgia said. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”
    Lena nodded and started moving up the trail. “Did you and Eric pick a date yet?”
    â€œLet’s just say I’m close to convincing him that he wants a Valentine’s Day wedding. But he’s worried I’ll need more time. And he might be right. I want a fancy dress, the kind that needs to be ordered months in advance.”
    â€œLena, did you have a big wedding?” Katie asked. “With the traditional dress?”
    â€œNo.” Lena focused on the dirt path. “My ex and I were married at city hall near West Point. He was a few years ahead of me and graduating.”
    â€œHe was in the army too?” Katie said.
    â€œHe’s an engineer. I met Malcolm at a West Point football game. He came down from his tiny liberal arts college, and, well, I think the allure of someone not tied to the military drew me in. Five months later, my dad met him and hated him, so I figured it was true love. We got married in a quick ceremony at town hall when he graduated, the year before my junior year.”
    â€œAnd it wasn’t true love?” Georgia asked.
    â€œIt was,” Lena admitted. “I loved him so much.”
    But love doesn’t always last , she thought. If she wanted to rebuild her life on solid ground, she needed to concentrate on things that lasted, not the ones destined for failure.
    â€œBut he couldn’t handle your PTSD,” Georgia said, slowing the pace. “Could he?”
    â€œNo, I guess not,” she said. “He kept expecting it would get better. But for those first six months home, I stepped further and further away from the life he’d imagined for us.”
    Hero brushed against her leg and her hand touched his golden fur. Side by side with her dog, she searched for the words, wanting to explain to these women who’d welcomed her into their lives how her day-­to-­day existence had crumbled that first year back.
    â€œMalcolm had built a life in Portland,” she continued. “He had friends. But they were so far removed from my reality while I was deployed. It was like there was a barrier dividing me from them. I felt numb. Sometimes it was as if I could see how his life would go on without me. And I felt horrible for thinking those thoughts because I’d survived a war when others hadn’t . . .”
    â€œDepressing, isn’t it?” Georgia murmured.
    â€œYes,” Lena said. “Eventually I found a way to move on. I started therapy and I got Hero. But months had passed by then. And Malcolm, he hadn’t planned on waiting that long.”
    â€œHe’s a jerk,” Katie said