Heart of a Soldier. Belle Calhoune
came with the knowledge that she would never be Dylan’s vision of what a partner should be. She was too flawed, too imperfect. He’d traveled all this way to see in person the woman he’d connected with during some of the darkest hours of his life. Never in a million years would Dylan be expecting a woman in a wheelchair. After all he’d been through in Afghanistan, she couldn’t deliver him yet another blow. She just couldn’t handle it.
As soon as she saw Dylan’s truck zoom off into the distance, she picked up her cell phone and dialed the number of Cassidy Blake’s art gallery. After a few rings, she heard her best friend’s chirpy voice on the other end.
“Hi, Holly. What’s up?”
“Cassidy. I need you to come to the ranch as quick as you can get here.” She felt out of breath after she finished.
“What is it? Are you okay?” Cassidy asked. Holly could hear the concern in her voice.
“It’s not an emergency. I just need my best friend,” she explained, trying to convey the urgency without causing Cassidy panic.
“Let me close up the gallery. I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” Cassidy promised, quickly ending the phone call.
For the next twenty minutes Holly fretted over her situation, wondering how she was going to tell Cassidy she’d impersonated her when Dylan had arrived at the ranch. Hopefully her best friend would understand the impossible position she was in. As soon as Holly heard the crunch of tires in the driveway, she made her way toward the door, opening it and greeting Cassidy as she quickly walked up the front steps.
As usual, her best friend radiated an effortless, breezy look. With her strawberry-blond hair, green eyes and wholesome good looks, she’d always been a showstopper. Even in her simple T-shirt and flouncy skirt, she looked amazing.
Holly couldn’t be happier about Cassidy’s engagement to her older brother, Tate. They’d all been through a lot together, most notably the terrible accident that had left Holly without the use of her legs. For many years Cassidy had stayed away from West Falls, torn apart by guilt and shame since she had been behind the wheel at the time of the accident. Last summer Cassidy had returned home to help her ailing mother, and in the process, she and Tate had fallen in love all over again.
“You scared me with that phone call. What’s going on?” Cassidy asked as she stepped over the threshold. She held out Dylan’s letter to Holly. “You must have dropped this. I found it next to the mailbox.”
Holly pushed the door closed and wheeled around so she could face Cassidy. She reached for the letter, stuffing it down into her skirt pocket. She took a deep breath.
“Do you remember me telling you about Dylan? The soldier I write to?”
“Of course. He’s stationed in Afghanistan, right?”
Holly nodded. “Yes, he was. But he’s stateside now. He arrived in West Falls today.”
“That’s amazing!” Cassidy squealed. “I can’t wait to meet him.”
Holly stared blankly at her best friend. In her opinion there was absolutely nothing to celebrate, although Cassidy had no way of knowing it.
Cassidy frowned, her eyes filled with concern. “What’s the matter? You look as if someone died. I thought you’d be celebrating instead of moping around the house.”
Holly looked down, too overcome with shame to look Cassidy in the eye. “Cass, I messed up. I didn’t tell him about my being a paraplegic.”
Cassidy’s eyes bulged, and she shook her head in disbelief. After a few seconds she said, “Tell me everything.”
Holly quickly got Cassidy up to speed on Dylan’s unexpected visit and her pretense about being Cassidy.
“But how could you pretend to be me? We don’t look anything alike. I thought you two sent pictures back and forth,” Cassidy asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.
“I kept meaning to send a photo, but I never did. It was difficult to send him a picture without having told him I’m a paraplegic.” Holly let out a bitter laugh. “Of course, when he showed up here he wasn’t expecting to see his pen pal confined to a wheelchair, since I conveniently left that part out.”
Cassidy looked agitated. She bit her lip and ran her fingers through her long hair. “What are you going to do?”
Holly was wringing her hands. She looked up at Cassidy, squashing down the spark of jealousy she felt as she gazed at her beautiful and able-bodied friend. Cassidy’s calves were shapely, while hers lacked any muscle tone whatsoever. What she wouldn’t give to be able to walk into a room under her own steam instead of always making an entrance by way of her wheelchair. She let out a deep sigh. What was the point of comparing herself to her best friend? She chided herself. Feeling envy wasn’t going to change a thing. It wouldn’t make her something she wasn’t or somebody she could never be.
“I need you to pretend to be me, Cass. Just long enough so you can end things with him and send him on his way. He’ll never know that you’re not me.” The words tumbled out of Holly’s mouth at a rapid speed. Intuition told her that it was only a matter of time before Dylan came back to the ranch. He’d had a look of determination and purpose in his eyes. She needed to fix things quickly. Cassidy frowned. “Holly. You can’t be serious. Why in the world would you want me to pretend to be you?”
Tears pricked her eyes. “I need you to do this for me, Cass. Seriously. I want Dylan to leave West Falls and go back home to Oklahoma. This is the only way!” She was starting to feel desperate, as if the walls were closing in on her.
Cassidy frowned. “Tricking him isn’t the answer. Why can’t you just tell him the truth?”
Heat seared her cheeks. “Because I can’t face him. I never told him I’m in a wheelchair, that I’m paralyzed from the waist down. How do you think he’s going to feel after coming all this way to see me?”
“You’re the bravest person I know. Find your words and tell him the truth. If he’s as wonderful as you say he is, he’ll understand.”
“This is different. Dylan is... He’s everything. Smart. Brave. Gorgeous.”
Cassidy’s brow was furrowed. “And you’re all those things, Holly.”
Holly shook her head. “No, I’m not, Cass. You don’t understand. He’s a soldier. The world he lives in is a very physical world. He breaks in wild horses, rides mountain bikes, does marathons. He protects America from harm. He’s a hero.”
“And you’re pretty heroic, too. You’ve lived through a horrific accident that cost you the use of your legs. You’ve devoted your life to getting the message out about irresponsible teen driving. You’re a woman of faith, Holly. All those things make you an amazing woman.”
Although she loved Cassidy like a sister, she didn’t want to hear any of this at the moment. It didn’t matter how many times people told her she was brave and wonderful. She didn’t feel either of those things. Not at the moment. Not when Dylan was most likely on his way back to the ranch to meet up with her. There was no way she could look him in the eye and admit her lies. She needed to get herself straightened out before he showed up.
“Please, Cassidy. I need you to be me when Dylan comes back,” she begged in a panicked voice. “You owe me.”
The ominous words hung in the air between them. Cassidy’s face lost all of its color, and her mouth tightened in a firm line. As soon as the words had tumbled out of her mouth, Holly had deeply regretted them. Cassidy had just come back into her life after an eight-year absence. In the past six months they’d rebuilt a friendship that had been ruined in the aftermath of the accident that had left Holly paralyzed. Cassidy had been at the wheel at the time, and she’d fled West Falls rather than face the town’s censure. It had taken a lot of hard work and prayer to get things back to where they once were with their friendship.
Now, due to overwhelming