The Marine's Red Hot Homecoming (14 page)

He kissed her pouting lips, coaxing her with the best weapon in his arsenal against getting caught up in mushy pillow talk.

“You know you do.” He teased her nipple into a taut point. “Stay a little longer.” He wanted to lose himself in her and avoid all personal bullshit exploration that included discussing his mixed up feelings about the future.

She sighed and released his dog tags. “I want a lot of things. This thing between us can’t just be about sex. This isn’t all about fun and games. I need more than that from you.”

“I’ll give you everything you deserve. I promise.”

“I’m afraid to believe you.”

“Don’t be,” he said, then moved his hips to position his cock between her thighs. Right now he’d promise to hitchhike to the moon and back for her if only to bury himself to the hilt in her sweet, welcoming sex. “Trust me.” He meant to keep his promise. He just didn’t know how. He didn’t know what the hell to do about the way she turned his brain to mush and fucked up his ability to think straight.

“I do,” she said.

Caleb pushed between her folds and slowly moved inside her. This was where he yearned to be all the time. With Hannah. Making love morning, noon, and night. Feeling the heat of her drawing him deeper and deeper.

He stroked, binding her to him with his body, unable to articulate the emotion taking root in his heart. Only able to show her that he could be the man she deserved now. Where that would lead, he didn’t know. Because he couldn’t examine the future without questioning everything that had driven him to leave Sweetbriar Springs. He’d been sure that the only way to make his mark in the world, and fuck his father royally for screwing around, had been to stick with the Marine Corps. The Marines had given him a way to channel his anger into something positive and showed him that what he did mattered. If he couldn’t get her to change her mindset about being with a military man, could he turn his back on Marines? Was he no different than his father when it came right down to it? Would returning to serve a fourth tour of duty be like abandoning his family just as his father had abandoned him?

Chapter Twelve

Hannah had expected Caleb to spend more time with her after the night that they had made love. But between his ongoing business concerns and her days being monopolized by overseeing her boutique’s restoration and running her business from her makeshift office at his mountain house, they had barely had a moment to speak other than during their dinner and bedtime rituals.

Afterward, they each went to their own rooms. Alone. An awkward tension permeated their polite
goodnights
and
see you in the morning.
Almost as if he regretted what had happened between them. Now the weekend loomed. Mother’s Day was around the corner and she’d long ago planned to take Jason to see Caleb’s parents. Though she had no regrets about her decision. She might have chosen to do something different had she known Caleb would be along for the ride. Still, despite her misgivings, she thought he needed to see his father in a new light if only to prove to him that the reasons he’d used to stay in the military no longer existed.

She tucked in her blouse, then smoothed her hands down the sides of her pencil skirt. No matter. The day would either prove to him that the past no longer had any bearing on his future. Or not. Much depended upon what happened between Caleb and Steven.

A nerve jumped behind her sternum. Part of her wanted to back out. But that wouldn’t be fair to Jason or his grandparents. She grabbed her cell phone from the counter, checked her messages and her heart sank low. No babysitter today. The stomach bug that had been flying around Sweetbriar Springs had claimed another victim. Plus, she had a huge breakfast meeting with the mayor in an hour.

“Shoot.” She texted her sitter back and assured Lori Catherine to take it easy and get better soon.

Hurrying out of her bathroom, Hannah ran straight into him. “Sorry,” she said, her pulse accelerating more from his close proximity than from the five billion thoughts racing through her brain about coordinating the logistics of childcare and attending a meeting at the same time. “Got to get Jason ready to roll.”

“Don’t you have a meeting this morning?”

“Yes. But I have to bring him with me.” Hannah stepped out of his steadying arms and turned to move to Jason’s room. “Lori C’s sick. My parents are in New York City with Michael, so I can’t call them. I’ve got to get him dressed, load diaper bag with toys and food, double check my iPad to make sure his favorite cartoons are saved in my video file.” She ticked off her mental to-do list, increasing her pace.

“Whoa. Slow down.” He joined her at the door. “There’s no reason for you to take him with you.”

“Sure there is,” she said. “No childcare means I’m a package deal today. It’s not like I haven’t done this before.”

Caleb put his arm across the door to halt her progress. “Leave Jason with me. I’ve got this.”

“But you have stuff to do, too.”

“I’m the boss. I’ll telecommute.”

She hesitated. “He can be a handful.” And that was an understatement on a good day. Jason liked running outside, playing in the dirt, and climbing anything and everything he found. In many ways he was his father’s son. Busy, easily bored into rebellion, and charmingly sweet when he got caught.

“Heck, I’ve dodged enemy fire. I doubt he’ll give me near as much trouble.”

“You’d be surprised.” Her cell phone buzzed and she looked down. “Crap. The mayor moved the meeting up by half an hour.”

“Go,” Caleb ordered. “I’ve got you covered.”

Indecision and a certain measure of mother knows best warred with the knowledge that she wouldn’t be able to give the mayor her undivided attention. Not if she had to keep one eye out for Jason throughout the entire meeting. Plus, Caleb needed to learn how to be father without her always by his side. Up until now, he’d had it fairly easy. Maybe too easy.

But if he discovered how difficult being in charge of a little boy could be, would he reconsider his commitment to her? To them as a family? “I might be gone all day,” she said. Still unsure if she was ready to test that theory today.

“Don’t worry. I’m not like my dad. I won’t abandon ship if the going gets tough.”

“Really? What do you call rushing off to do a third tour of duty after you fought with your father?”

A muscle jumped in his jaw. “I don’t think making the ultimate sacrifice for my country is the same as dear old dad using work as an excuse not to be with us. Not to mention, my father had other women in his life besides my mother. You think I’m like that, then you’re mistaken.”

Her heart ached for him. She couldn’t fathom what his childhood had been like when hers had been stellar in comparison. Of course he’d choose the Marines over putting up with his father’s shit. She, however, was a different matter. “Point taken.”

“So what’ll it be?” he asked. “Me doing what a dad’s supposed to do, or you being super mom and pretending you can do it all on your own when you don’t have to anymore?”

She glanced inside Jason’s room. He still lay sleeping in his toddler bed. Then she looked back at Caleb and read the challenge in his eyes. Insisting on bringing him with her bordered on slightly insane at this point. If she didn’t take him up on his offer, she’d only send the message that she didn’t need him at all. And she did. In more ways than she dared to admit.

“All right, Marine,” she said. “You’ve made your point. I’m out of here.”

She turned on her heel and walked to her office. Behind her she heard Jason’s first signs of waking up and him calling for her. But she tucked down the instinct to go to him first. Within minutes, his first outraged screams reached her ears while she loaded her briefcase with her paperwork for the meeting.

Her heart constricted. Every maternal fiber in her body shouted for her to go to her little boy and comfort him, knowing she could easily soothe him. But she pushed the urge aside despite her own tears pricking behind her eyes.

“Hey Hannah?” Caleb called from the bedroom. “You got any extra advice for me before you go?”

There was an edge of desperation in his voice. Hannah bit her lip. Right about now Jason would be ripping off his diaper in an attempt to run butt naked around his room, quite possibly even create a lovely artistic piece of writing with his urine on the carpet if given half a chance. “Follow your gut,” she called before opening the front door and restraining her impulse to come to Caleb’s aid.

Because the only way Caleb could become the father Jason truly deserved, and the man she’d always rely on, was if she allowed her big, strong billionaire Marine to discover how to comfort and discipline his son on his own.

###

Two hours after Hannah had left Caleb with Jason, he nearly called in reinforcements. He’d had to end his conference call with the factory manager in Raleigh early because Jason had climbed out of his playpen and found a stack of files on the floor next to his desk. Before he’d hung up, the damage had been done.

Who knew sixteen month old boys moved so fast? Caleb lifted him and straddled him on one hip, surveying the scene. Current file status was half the folders ripped and the other half a trail of papers from his desk to the office door. “All right little buddy. Let’s get you a snack before Daddy makes his next phone call.”

“Want ice cream.”

“No dice.” He snuggled his son’s warm body closer, unable to stay mad despite his earlier frustration. “You’re getting pre-approved Mom rations.”

He carried him to the kitchen, popped him into his toddler seat, and fastened the belt extra secure—just in case. Then he went to the fridge to pull out one of the snacks Hannah had prepared the night before. Organic wedges of cheese, grape halves, and gluten free crackers.

He plated it all, then brought it to him. “Yum. Your favorite.”

Jason upended the plate. “Ice cream.”

“Sorry, but ice cream’s a treat.”

Caleb picked up the stuff that had landed on the floor, counted himself under the five second rule, and served it up again. “Eat this, then we’ll watch Snap the Turtle.”

The plate upended again. Frustration returned double time. Suddenly dodging enemy fire looked a helluva lot more appealing than hanging out with a petulant toddler. His cell phone vibrated, and he quickly checked it while bending to retrieve Jason’s discarded snack. Corporate headquarters. Problems with a plant in Atlanta. Damn.

He texted back an order, and promised to follow through in the afternoon. During Jason’s nap. He’d told her Hannah he could handle this job. No way was he going to let her down.

He had to hold down the fort until two o’clock. Then Jason would go to sleep for an hour and Caleb would use the time to catch up on his business demands.

But first he had to get some food into his son’s belly. “You want ice cream? Sure thing, kid.” The shit had dairy in it. Chocolate was made from a bean so it was like giving Jason a bit of protein, too. Hell. He was in charge, so he’d damn well feed him something that would appease the little guy.

One bowl of ice cream wasn’t going to hurt him. He shot his boy a conspiratorial glance, before returning to the fridge to grab the carton out of the freezer. He scooped in a generous bowl, and brought it to him. “You want ice cream, you’ve got it.” He’d clear out the evidence later. While he was at it, he’d nab some of his secret cookie stash for Jason, too. Hannah coddled their boy too much with her namby pamby diet. His son was a man’s man. Real men ate ice cream and cookies whenever they liked.

Jason killed the bowl and woofed down four cookies. After wiping the crumbs from his son’s face, Caleb hefted him out of the seat and watched him toddle to the living room shouting, “Snap the Turtle. Snap the Turtle.”

“You got it buddy.”

Two hours later, and after watching about four billion cartoons, Caleb surveyed yet another mess. The stinky, gross kind. As he mopped up the contents of Jason’s stomach, Caleb recalled Hannah mentioning something about colic and lactose intolerance.

Now he understood why she had been so diligent about Jason’s diet.

Chocolate ice cream and cookies were a lot better going down than cleaning up the remains after the fact. Though he seemed a lot calmer now that he had upchucked his forbidden snack along with the chips and dip Caleb had given him for lunch.

He figured that calm would shoot right out the window as soon as he gave Jason a much needed bath. Briefly, he wondered if he had been this difficult when he had been a tike. No matter. Hannah never held Jason’s mercurial moods against him, nor did she fault her guy for his typical little boy behavior. She calmly went about creating a loving environment for their son.

At least she looked calm on the surface, but Caleb bet there were days when even her limits had been frayed.

He lifted him, then carried him to the bathroom where, as he had predicted, the ritual of bathing him pretty much ended any hope he had of contacting his corporate office and taking care of business. After dressing his son in a set of clean clothes, Caleb contacted the family attorney and asked Everest to ride shotgun during the telecom, telling the lawyer he had more pressing matters to attend to the rest of the afternoon.