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leaving town.
    “Jarhead? So I was right,” Sam said, mostly to herself. “I thought he had a soldier look about him….”
    Olive’s pride was evident when she said, “Nearly ten years of ‘soldiering,’ I’ll have you know.”
    “What happened to his eye?”
    “One of his men stepped on a land mine, and Bryce put himself between it and the other guys.”
    Sam gasped again as the image of a fiery explosion flashed in her mind. “Oh, my. How awful for him.”
    “He saved nearly twenty men, but all he remembers is the one he couldn’t save.” Shaking her head, Olive sighed. “Shrapnel carved up his face but good and left him blind in that eye.”
    “Poor guy. I feel so bad for him.”
    “Me, too. But don’t make the mistake of letting Bryce hear you say that. He firmly disapproves of self-pity.”
    Sam pictured the strong, manly face with its open, honest smile…and the ragged scar that crossed from his eyebrow to his cheek. “How long ago did it happen?”
    “Just over a year, now. I’ve never had the heart to ask if it’s the reason he didn’t re-enlist—or if Debbie had something to do with it.”
    “Debbie?”
    Nodding, Olive handed Sam a clipboard and a pen. “I’ll read what’s on the bill of lading, you count how many of these ornaments we have on the shelves.” Then, “Debbie was his fiancée. It nearly broke his heart when she called things off.”
    “It’s a good thing I didn’t pry, then.”
    “Knowing Bryce, he would have danced all around the question, even if you had. Most of what I know about the ‘wounded in battle’ part of his life, I learned by telephone from the doctors at the Walter Reed in D.C.”
    So he was the strong silent type, was he? Well, nothing wrong with that, especially compared to Joey’s never-ending whiny need to be the center of attention.
    “So what’s it like growing up in a houseful of kids?” Olive wanted to know. “I just had the one brother, myself.”
    “Never a dull moment. Never a quiet one, either.”
    “I imagine it was tough, finding any privacy.”
    “Oh, once in a while the boys plucked my nerves,” she admitted, “but mostly it was a wonderful, loving experience.”
    Sam told Olive about Bill, who’d been more a best friend than a brother, and how just one year in Iraq had changed him in every conceivable way. And during the next two hours, as the women unpacked shipments, logged merchandise into the computer, and gave each article its own price tag, Sam had told Olive about the rest of her brothers, her parents, and her grandparents.
    “You know what?” Olive asked. “I believe it’s our good fortune that Dan Brooks has a giant dollar sign where his heart oughta be. Everybody in town knows what a skinflint that boy can be, but I’d stake my reputation he hired his nephew for no reason other than it would save him money. So his loss is Rudolph’s gain.”
    Sam grinned. “Think he’s the type to admit he’s wrong when his nephew messes up?” That sure would solve the problem of where she’d work if Olive was wrong and Bryce really did intend to sell the place.
    “No question in my mind he’ll come to you, hat in hand, if the boy messes up.” Olive gave Sam a playful elbow to the ribs. “But he’ll sing every sad song ever written to convince you to work for next to nothing.” Bending at the waist, she leaned both palms on her knees and laughed, long and hard. “I just got a picture of him getting his first look at you. Oh my,” she added, fingers fanning her face. “Then he’ll have two reasons to be sorry!”
    Straightening, Olive winced and patted her growling tummy. “Gotta quit skippin’ breakfast.” And in the next blink, she was smiling again. “Hopefully by the time that pinchpenny Brooks realizes he passed over the prettiest girl in North Pole for that li’l whippersnapper, my hard-headed nephew will have fallen baseball cap over loafers in love with you.”
    Love ? Sam repeated mentally. She’d