“My name’s Marsha, by the way,” the Coast Guard woman says, smiling. “Would you two like something warm to drink? I’ve got cocoa here.”
“What do you think, sweetheart?” I ask Kota, leaning down. She nods vigorously.
“Yes, please!” she chirps, a dimpled grin on her sweet face.
Marsha gives us each a small styrofoam cup of hot cocoa, which we sip while the other Coast Guards bring Duncan over to the helicopter. He climbs in beside me while they get into the cockpit, and my heart surges with joy to be reunited with him. As soon as the door is shut, Duncan scoots up to me and puts an arm around my shoulders, holding me tight.
“Oh, you’re safe. Thank god,” I murmur, resting my forehead against his shoulder.
He kisses the top of my head softly. “Of course, I am. These guys reeled me back in to safety. Besides, I’ve dealt with much worse situations than that,” he says with a chuckle.
“I’ll bet you have,” Marsha says with a raised eyebrow as she takes out a first aid kit and pulls it onto her lap. “You’re well-known in the military world. When we got the call that there was a situation out here, we had no idea we would find a celebrity.”
“A celebrity?” I repeat incredulously.
Duncan shrugs. “I just do my job,” he says simply.
One of the male Coast Guard members turns around in his seat ahead of us with a broad grin on his face. He can’t be older than eighteen or nineteen with a baby face like that. He looks at Duncan almost adoringly. “No, sir. You’re a legend. We used to talk about your missions in the barracks,” he says, almost blushing.
“See?” Marsha says, laughing. “The boys and I are a little starstruck.”
Duncan smiles graciously. “Well, I’m flattered, but today you all are the heroes for getting us out of there,” he tells them. The young man in the front seat looks like he might just faint from such high praise. It’s kind of adorable.
“I had no idea you were so famous,” I whisper in Duncan’s ear. He grins and shrugs it off again, like it’s nothing. It hits me how excited I am to have him in my life with no barriers, no obstacles left between us. Jake is gone, Duncan knows all about Dakota, and now I’m learning more about what heroic life he’s been leading in the four years we were apart.
Now there are only a few loose ends I need to tie up between us.
While Marsha is using the first aid kit to inspect Dakota for injuries— she does have a few cuts and light bruises, nothing serious— I decide that I’m done waiting for the right opportunity. I know what needs to be done, and I don’t want to waste any more time. Four years is certainly long enough. So I take Duncan by the hand and lean in close to tell him my truth.
“I’m sure you know this already, but I’m going to say it anyway,” I begin, my voice barely above a whisper. “I love you, Duncan. I never stopped loving you. And I never will. I’m sorry I let four years go by without telling you that. I should have known back then that you were the one. I was stupid. I was selfish. I’m sorry.”
He kisses me on the cheek. “Don’t apologize, Crystal. You were only doing what you thought was best for me and for Dakota. You’re an amazing mother. You are the woman of my dreams, and you always have been. I love you, too. More than anything in this world— well, except for maybe our daughter. As for those four years in between, I intend to make up for them by loving you extra hard for the rest of our lives. I promise you that. It’ll be like no time at all has passed,” he murmurs back, his low voice sending a delightful vibration down my spine.
With that settled, there’s only one more thing to do. I look at Duncan and then at Dakota. He follows my drift and nods, his smile only getting broader. He squeezes my hand, helping to calm my nerves as my heart starts pounding. It’s time to tell Dakota the truth. I don’t want to waste another second of her life not knowing.
“Dakota, sweetheart,” I begin softly. She looks up at Duncan and me, green eyes wide and innocent. Marsha seems to catch on that this is a big moment. She stops inspecting Kota, whose small cuts have already been cleaned up and bandaged.
“Go to your mommy, you’re all done,” Marsha tells her sweetly.
I reach out and grab my daughter, hoisting her up into my lap to face us— her parents. Marsha turns away, presumably to give us some privacy. She’s just old and wise enough to sense that we need a moment, and I’m grateful for that. Meanwhile, Kota stares up at me, waiting.
“What is it, Mommy?” she asks expectantly.
Duncan and I exchange looks of anticipation. “I have something important to tell you,” I start off, stroking her soft face. “Something big. You ready?”
Kota grins, looking positively excited for the surprise.
“Duncan here… well, he’s more than just an amazing man. He’s more than just a hero,” I tell her. “Kota, this is your daddy.”
I watch the look on her face go from anticipation to shock to confusion and then, finally, to pure delight. She lets out a joyous giggle and reaches out to touch Duncan’s jaw covered in five o’clock shadow, almost as though she has to touch him to believe he’s real. Duncan leans forward to make it easier for her to reach, and he does the same to her, resting his massive palm against her soft cheek.
“Daddy,” she mumbles, their identical green eyes locking in an intense. I feel tears burning in my own eyes to see them this way. The love is already there, I can feel it.
“My beautiful daughter,” Duncan says softly. “I cannot wait to get to know you.”
“You going to stay with Mommy and me?” she asks almost reverently.
Duncan smiles and nods slowly. “Yes. Of course, I am.”
“Yay!” Kota exclaims, bounding over to plop down in her father’s lap as though she’s been doing it for years. Like no time has passed at all. Like he’s been here all along.
Duncan hugs her close, grinning at me over her head. It’s the most beautiful sight I have ever laid eyes on, and I can’t believe my luck. Our family is whole again.
Duncan
Six months later, driving up the clay driveway to our house never felt so good.
The drive up to our cozy little two-story place is so idyllic that I still can’t believe it’s all real. The road is bumpy and rocky, but I have the windows down, because on either side of me, the sights, sounds, and smells of nature are overwhelmingly beautiful. Crystal and I still love our hometown, but after everything that happened, we decided it was time to get away from the coast for a while.
That’s what brought us to this quaint little slice of paradise outside Asheville, in the western part of the state.
I bring my car to a stop and climb out, breathing in the fresh, clean air. I’ve been all over the world, and I can say with confidence that the air around here is some of the freshest and cleanest that God’s green earth has to offer. I look up at the tall trees that surround our house without fear that a hurricane is going to sweep through and start knocking them down.
On the contrary, I can take my time to appreciate the sounds of the various birds that make their home around here: titmouses, finches, cardinals, even crows are starting to sound like home, even though we’ve only been here a short time, in the grand scheme of things.
The last frost of winter was a few weeks ago, and while the air is still crisp and chilly, the sun is beating down on us, and it’s bringing out everything good about springtime in North Carolina.
And that’s a lot of good.
Crystal has adapted to life up here very well in a very short time. As I step out of my car to look at the circular clearing that serves as a yard, I see rows upon rows of the garden that she got started in such a short amount of time. The very first thing she did when we decided to move to the western part of the state was to research what all goes into gardening, planning one out, and getting all the equipment for it. I swear, she had her hands in the dirt before we even finished unpacking the boxes.
I make my way over to the soft soil, divided from the rest of the y
ard space by cute little wooden fencing no taller than my ankles. There are little dots of green all over the place— the seeds have just sprouted, since she planted everything right after the last frost. I put my hands on my hips and chuckle proudly at everything she’s done. All the plants are labeled, meaning I know exactly what to look forward to from the fruits of her work: cucumbers, spinach, kale, turnips, and carrots are getting started in this particular patch of the garden. Closer to the house, she has a full spice rack’s worth of herbs starting, and on the opposite side of the property from where I’m standing, she has a handful of fruiting vegetables starting.
In this part of the country, all you have to do to get something to grow is drop a seed somewhere. The soil is so rich and fertile that it’ll give you everything you want and even more, and Crystal has proven to have a green thumb...so far. She insists that I dial back on showering her with praise until we actually have a salad or two on the dinner table.
That isn’t the only perk to living up hear. Going mushroom hunting in the trails winding around our house is the easiest thing in the world, and it gives us a great way to get Dakota out of the house. She’ll be a wild child, we can tell, and I’m more than happy to encourage that by letting her explore this wild, beautiful neck of the woods as much as she wants.
I’m entranced by the beauty of Crystal’s work when I hear the screen door open, and I turn to see her stepping out onto the porch with a warm smile on her face. She’s wearing a very comfy outfit— one of my oversized t-shirts and a pair of black sweatpants, neither of which hide the beautiful bump on her stomach.
She’s pregnant again, and I couldn’t be prouder.
“Now that’s a sight that’ll never stop being beautiful,” I say to her as I approach the porch and wrap my hands around her hips, bringing her smiling face in for a kiss. She smells like the spices she cooks with, the smells that are soon going to get into the wood of the house and stick with us forever. I couldn’t ask for a better home-smell.
“I was about to say the same thing,” she says as we break the kiss. She lets her hands wander down from my broad, muscular shoulders to my biceps, and the smile on her lips is just as delectable as the one I saw on her face the night before I left for the Navy.
“How’s our youngest daughter?” I ask, rubbing her stomach.
“Busy, today,” she laughs, putting her hand over mine and squeezing it. I can’t help but kiss her again, first on the lips, then over to her right cheek and down the side of her neck until she feels the tickle of my stubbly face and squirms away, giggling.
“The garden looks amazing.”
“It hasn’t even really started yet,” she brushes the compliment off as usual, striding over to the edge of the porch to peer out at everything with a critical eye. “We’ll be living off mushrooms for a while until I actually see some results, but the motion camera you set up outside the property keeps getting triggered by deer, so don’t be surprised if some uninvited guests help themselves. I might need to look into getting some chicken wire to keep it all safe.”
“Consider it done,” I say, jabbing a thumb back at our truck. “I’ve got to head out again later today to pick up some more chicken feed, since the first place I tried was out. I just wanted to stop in for lunch first. And because going a full three hours without seeing you is completely unacceptable,” I add with a grin, and she blushes.
Despite getting everything settled here, I’m still a SEAL, which means I haven’t just been sticking around this entire time. A lot has happened in six months.
Immediately after shit hit the fan in Kitty Hawk and we got to safety, I had to report back to my superiors. It would be an understatement to say they were surprised to hear about everything that went down in that storm. The Coast Guard seaman had been right when he said this one was big— it made national news, and on TV, Crystal and I were able to see just how lucky we’d been. We got hit by some of the worst the storm had to throw at us, and a lot of people weren’t nearly so lucky. The damage was in the millions, and the relief effort was monumental.
My commanding officers gave me leave to aid with the relief effort, semi-officially. I stayed around for a month, digging out everything in my hometown that survived. It was a great, albeit awkward, way to reconnect with all the locals I knew and grew up with alongside Crystal. I made a lot of fast friends, though, and all the while, Crystal was at my side, volunteering.
I was absolved of anything I had to do to keep us alive. The testimony from Molly and Davey Neptune helped with that tremendously— they both pulled through, and last I heard, they were moving to Santa Fe to enjoy the rest of their retirement as far away from the possibility of hurricanes as humanly possible.
And I hear New Mexico is nice this time of year, so I’ve been thinking about planning a road trip out west with Crystal after we get settled here. That’s a surprise, though.
Jake’s death was ruled a boating accident, and our fight was considered self-defence on my part. It’s impossible for me not to have mixed feelings about everything. Crystal does too. Both of us grew up knowing Jake as a close friend, and we always thought that’s all he ever would be.
If he could just let friendship be a friendship and not see women as objects he can take if he puts enough time into them, he might still be alive today. But he chose a different path. Neither of us know when he started going down that road to ruin, but he chose it.
Crystal and I have had the conversation several times, late at night when we stare up at the starry sky and get thoughtful. Can we even say we miss the man he was before he started twisting his idea of Crystal in his head? Can we know where he went wrong? Does saying we miss that part of him come too close to absolving him of the twisted mentality he kept hidden for so long?
Those aren’t fun questions to deal with, and we’re still dealing with them. But what we do know is that we’re safe now, and we will be from here on out.
“Daddy!”
I turn to see Kota racing around from the back yard, where the porch I built houses a bunch of potted plants that Kota has taken a liking to tending. For a child, she has amazing patience. That, or she just really likes playing with the bugs that get drawn to the plants. Either way, her hands haven’t been clean for a solid hour ever since we moved here.
I scoop her up into my arms as soon as she bolts up the steps of the porch, and I swing her around as she giggles before I hug her tight and set her back down.
“Hey sweetie, find anything good today?”
“I found eight morels!” she says proudly. Mushroom hunting has become another fun hobby of hers.
“And one fun little blue mushroom that leaks this weird, violet stuff that is really good at staining clothes,” Crystal says with a half-annoyed laugh, tugging at Dakota’s violet-stained dress. Kota just beams proudly, nodding affirmatively.
“Think we’ll have to use the guide book to identify that one, it sounds new,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck.
I’m still not used to her calling me Dad, but I’ve got to say, it’s a good feeling. Ever since I saw the two of them, I’ve felt bonded to them, and that bond has only grown stronger with each passing day. Now, it’s like I’ve been in Kota’s life from the very start, and she loves me with every ounce of her little heart.
And I love her so much that it hurts.
“Why don’t you go get the field guide, and we’ll all look at it together, okay?” Crystal asks Kota, who nods excitedly and races inside. We smile at each other once she’s gone, and then, Crystal’s face falls just a bit.
“So,” she goes on, “have you heard back from your people?”
“Yeah,” I say, “I’m shipping out again next week. But it’ll only be for two weeks, then I’m back again for a few more months.”
She smiles at that, beautiful face glowing.
“Good,” she says, wrapping her arms around my abs, “I’ll make sure to have something special for you when you get back.”
I grin and kis
s her, and I want so badly to tell her all the things I have in store for her over the next year. My assignments are going to get more sporadic in the near future.
The huge engagement ring on Crystal’s finger is a sign that I’ve got some big plans for us.
This is my family. This is the most important assignment, both in my heart and my soul. And I couldn’t walk away for it for anything, even if I wanted to.
I protect my girls.
And with them at my side, every day is a new, wonderful adventure.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed <3 If you have a moment, please leave a review. Other readers are dying to know what you thought.
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~Alexis Abbott
Next from Alexis Abbott
Description
Corruption. Murder. Cash.
Just another night in Las Vegas.
When Hadley walks into the casino with a pile of chips, a smirk on her beautiful lips, and a swivel to those perfectly curved hips, I start questioning if I’ve been playing my hand all wrong. She almost walks out with a cool million. One woman, able to swindle the whole mafia. She’s too cool for this world. I can’t let her walk out of my life anymore than my boss will let the money leave the casino.
A night of wild passion awakens me to what I’ve been missing in my life.
For the last ten years, I’ve been living under the Mafia’s thumb, pulling the trigger towards the bums and con artists who think they can take my boss’ cash. Smart enough to catch a cheat, and ruthless enough to bloody some knuckles, my way to being a made man is almost certain.
Sweetheart for the SEAL Page 15