No Man Left Behind: A Veteran Inspired Charity Anthology by Elizabeth Knox (black authors fiction TXT) 📕

man on a dating app,” Ava says, cocking a brow. Well, if Gladys found someone . . . I can too. Gladys is a girl that graduated a year before us. She’s super nice and we were decent friends before she graduated.

“Really?” As much as I want to try, I’m still a bit nervous about it.

“Yeah. She talks about him on social media all the time and about how they met. Take a chance, Sienna. You never know what’ll happen and you deserve someone who treasures you. Now, I hate to cut this short but I have to get going.”

“Okay, thanks for being such a great friend,” I tell her as we end the call.

Maybe she’s right. I sigh as I look up a few of the different apps and download them. It can’t hurt giving different options a try. I’m sure I’ll delete the additional ones after I try them out for a bit.

I sign up, putting my job as government and hardly putting anything down for interests or in my profile. I don’t know these guys and I’m really not looking for some sort of stalker. Even though I’m giving this a try, I’m not going to expect anything to happen. Plus military is my life which means I have no hobbies.

After all, this might be a lost cause and if that’s the case I might end up comparing them to Hawke and that wouldn’t be fair. But, I should try and get over him. I mean look at what he did to me when I told him about joining the military. He acted like a typical douchebag. God, why am I even still hung up on him?

It’s time for me to move on and just as the thought pops in my head, my notifications go off for one of the new apps. Furrowing my brows, I see it’s a message notification. Already?

From: Texasguy80

Hi

I bite my lip and decide to take a leap. After all, we only get one life.

Chapter Seven

Sienna

Present Day . . .

My pride. Everything that happened all those years ago hurt my pride. I was in my prime and couldn’t hold down a man. I’m even ashamed to say that I jumped at four proposals and married them, but of course they were all the same. They were no good, lying, cheaters. It really screwed with my head because I obviously can’t ever trust myself to choose the right type of man, or maybe it’s just bad luck. I don’t know.

Bug barks at me as my mom calls me down for dinner. Shaking my head as I get out of bed and head downstairs, I realize dating is the least of my concerns right now, living is. I skim my hand along the railing, looking at pictures from my rodeo days and a brilliant idea pops into my mind. I know what I’m going to do with my life—I’m getting back into barrel racing.

The aroma of the dumplings hits me as I hit the bottom of the stairs, so much so I can practically taste them. I know I’m drooling and with good reason. My mom makes the best dumplings but as I walk into the dining room my eyes land on Bear Franklin sitting at the dinner table and suddenly the dumplings aren’t the only reason I’m drooling anymore.

Holy fuck he’s gotten hot over the years. Time has really worked for him.

Bear smirks in my direction as I take a seat.

“You look good,” he says with a wink as a sly smile tugs at the corner of his lips. It’s obvious he’s gotten cocky over the years.

“Thanks,” I reply as warmth spreads over my cheeks. Holy shit. I’m blushing! What the hell? I don’t think I’ve ever blushed because of a man before.

“Chance and Bear work for me,” Dad says from where he stands, coming in the back door.

“Chance saw me,” I inform him as he starts walking through the kitchen and passes the sink. From where I sit, I can see part of the kitchen and even back yard.

“Hands first,” Mom chastises him as he passes the sink. She’s always kept a firm house and washing our hands before we eat has always been a staple in our household.

“Yes, ma’am.” He grins and turns on the water, lathers his hands up with the lavender soap my mom’s been obsessed with for years, and proceeds to wash his hands in the sink.

Mystic rubbing up against Bear’s leg causes me to divert my eyes, and he reaches down to scratch her ears. She hates everyone, so that’s weird. I don’t even think the cat likes me most of the time, and when she does it’s probably because I’m the one filling her bowl. And I only do that when she pushes the bowl over, spilling what’s left in it all over the floor, she does that because she can see the bottom of her bowl. Jerk. She should know by now she’s not going to starve.

“What will you do now that you’re home?” Bear asks, his voice husky and silky all at the same time.

“I don’t know. Kind of wrapping my head around not having a schedule. I think I’d like to help with the horses, maybe get back into barrel racing.” I look at my dad. I’m almost panicking, I’ve always had a schedule, I know from sunup until sundown what I’m supposed to do but that’s gone. Oh God, I have to pick out my own clothes. See, panic. I take a few deep breaths to calm myself.

“We could use the help. We’re doing a huge cattle drive with some of the other neighboring ranches to move some herds to the other side of the mountain. Could use some help on that,” Dad tells me as he takes a seat, ready to dig into the deliciousness Mom made for us.

“I’d love to.” As soon as the words slip past my lips fear rushes through me. Now I’m scared, I