A Great Beach Read! TENDER RETURN by Ginger Simpson

Tender Return
by Ginger Simpson
http://www.gingersimpson.com
http://mizging.blogspot.com
Publisher: Red Rose Publishing
Buy link: http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstore/product_info.php?cPath=23_45&products_id=520
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For reasons unknown to Meagan Murphy, her father won’t allow her to date anyone in uniform. Through her volunteer efforts at the USO, she meets Ryan Cullen and throws caution to the wind. Ryan only has a short time before his unit is shipped overseas, and they have to make the most of the time they have left together. Ryan deploys, but not before he puts a ring on her finger and asks her to wait. Will he return and win her hand from her father... or are all those nightly radio newscasts about casualties warning her to prepare for the worst?

Texas, March 1943

Meagan Murphy tapped her toe beneath the food-laden table despite the fact she‘d been hunched over it for hours, dishing out portions at the weekly USO dance. Preferring to find a partner and have a little fun, she methodically spooned mashed potatoes onto passing plates and eyed the jitterbugs on the floor.

"Can I have some gravy, please?" A deep voice drew her attention.

The eyes she looked into were darker than the sauce he requested, and his perfectly formed lips curved into a dimpled smile. She cleared her throat and picked up the ladle. "Say when."

"How about right after I polish off this chow."

"Excuse me?" She cocked a brow.

"You said, say when. I thought you were inviting me to dance." He winked.

There was something about him—different from the other GIs. She‘d found flirting a common occurrence here and ignored it, but this brazen specimen piqued her interest. Still, she didn‘t dare encourage him. "I meant tell me how much gravy you want on your potatoes." She drizzled juice over his plate.

"When!" He smiled then dabbed at a spot of gravy on the plate‘s edge. "About that dance…" He licked his finger clean.

The fellow behind him cast an impatient stare at her.

"You‘re holding up the line," she said, feeling her cheeks heat. She grew tired of the mingling food aromas.

"Tell me your name, and I‘ll move along."

"Meagan. Now scoot. You‘re going to get us both into trouble." She glanced across the room to where her father sat. She hated when he dropped in. His presence was such a damper on the evening. He forbade her to show anything more than polite attention to men in uniform.
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