by Vivian Wood
And she had hoped he might feel the same.
Shelby shook her head roughly, angry with herself when she felt tears prick her eyes.
Maybe last night had just been about the sex for him after all. That would certainly explain the haste of his escape this morning.
But Wolfe was a good man; she knew that much, at least, after all the time that they’d spent together. He didn’t seem like the “hit it and quit it” type to her.
And he’d left his phone number on the note; so perhaps, just like he had after their first kiss, he was waiting for her to make the next move.
Empowered by her resolve, Shelby went back to the bedroom to find her cellphone so that she could call him right then and there, if only to find out what was going on inside that thick head of his.
But when she dialed his number, the damn thing went straight to voicemail.
At the time, she hadn’t been quite desperate enough to leave him a message, begging him to come back.
So she’d hung up with a huff, sending him a text that said, Hey, this is Shelby. Call me when you get this. so that he had her number now, too.
Satisfied, she’d ventured back into the living room, deciding to put Dolly on shuffle while she cooked herself some breakfast and waited for him to call.
That had been nearly two hours ago.
Now, music still playing, she sat moping on the couch as she stared unseeingly into the fire, the lyrics of “Just When I Needed You Most” hitting just a little too close to home for comfort, at the moment.
Wolfe still hadn’t called or texted her back, and she was about one more song verse away from chucking her phone into the fire, when she heard the distant rumble of a truck engine from outside.
Shelby instantly perked up, but she kept her emotions in check as she went to the door to look outside.
It can’t be him, can it?
But she didn’t know who else it could possibly be other than Wolfe, when she caught sight of the dark blue pickup making its way up the drive.
Shelby walked out onto the porch, leaving the cabin door open as she watched the truck pull up and park beside her car. Sure enough, Wolfe stepped out of the truck and slammed the door.
And when he turned to face her, and she saw his adorably sheepish expression and the bouquet of random-looking flowers that he was holding, Shelby just couldn’t help herself.
She ran the short distance that separated them, throwing her arms around his neck as she embraced him.
Wolfe caught her, making a little umf sound of surprise as her momentum hit him, but he didn’t seem to mind as he wrapped his arms tightly around her in return.
“You came back,” she said, her voice slightly muffled from the way she had her face pressed into his chest. She pulled back a little so that she could tilt her head back to look at him, a coy smile on her lips. “And you brought me flowers?”
Wolfe quirked an eyebrow at her.
“Who said they were for you?” he quipped, but the amusement in his eyes let her know that he was only teasing her.
Wolfe chuckled when she stuck her tongue out at him, taking a step back so that he could offer her the bouquet.
“Sorry,” he said, suddenly self-conscious as she took the unusual assortment of flowers. “The gas station was the only place that was open in town today, so, you know—I know they’re not much to look at, but…”
“I think they’re lovely,” she said, putting an end to his stammered explanation as she pressed the flowers to her nose and she inhaled deeply. She looked back up at him, smiling. “Thank you.”
Wolfe smiled back, until she punched him in the arm.
“Ow,” he said, rubbing his arm. “What the hell was that for?”
“That was for not answering your damn phone, or calling me back,” she said, cocking a hand on her hip as she narrowed her eyes at him.
Wolfe had the good graces to look apologetic.
“I’m sorry. My phone died shortly after calling the tow truck this morning, and I haven’t had a chance to charge it yet,” he explained, his eyes earnest.
Shelby sighed and rolled her eyes, unable to keep up her angry façade any longer.
She took a step toward him, bridging the space between them as she leaned up on her toes to kiss him.
Wolfe returned her kiss, his hand cupping the side of her face as he made a low humming sound of appreciation.
“What was that for?” he asked once she’d pulled away again, his voice soft as he looked into her eyes.
“That,” Shelby replied, her voice just as soft, “was for coming back.”
Wolfe smiled, his dark eyes practically smoldering.
“I tried to leave, but I just couldn’t,” he said, his lips twisting into a dry smile as he winked at her. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with me now, Shelby River.”
“Fine by me,” Shelby said, reaching up to wrap her arms back around his neck—flowers and all—as she kissed him again.
Wolfe made her squeal in surprise as he suddenly scooped her up in his arms, cradling her against his chest as he began to walk back toward the cabin. He chuckled at her flustered expression, but she quickly silenced him with another kiss.
Wolfe carried her into the cabin, the melody of “Hard Candy Christmas” filling the air as he kicked the door shut behind them.
The End
A Small Town SEALs Story
1
Ashleigh was lying down on the couch in the living room, half-watching an HGTV show about finding the perfect house while Walker finished up dinner in the kitchen. Her swollen feet were propped up on a stack of pillows. At eight months pregnant, she felt about ready to pop. She spent a lot of her day lying down in various positions with various stacks of pillows.
Walker, already protective of Ashleigh, had become even more so as her pregnancy progressed. He often insisted that she lie down and rest. Earlier in her pregnancy, she’d batted him aside easily. Ashleigh had a lot of energy. She didn’t like to just “sit back and rest,” as Walker suggested.
These days, however, she didn’t need much convincing. She was tired and swollen, and sometimes just moving from room to room felt like an enormous chore. She half-jokingly complained she’d have to catch her breath just to stand still.
Still, whatever he was cooking for dinner smelled amazing, and Ashleigh enjoyed watching Walker move around the kitchen. The sight of her tall, muscular husband wearing a too-small apron, with a wooden tasting spoon extending from his massive hands, always made her smile.
From time to time, she would raise her head to call out a suggestion, or he would come in to give her a taste of something he was cooking.
It was all shockingly domestic for a couple like them. She was a strip club waitress who’d had a Russian mob contract out on her life when Walker had met her. He was a former navy SEAL who had spent most of his adult life hiding from the demons constant battle had created. They had seen people die together, been hunted and had a torrid love affair.
Now they watched HGTV, cooked quiet meals, and discussed family gossip.
“Don’t forget to stir!” Ashleigh called out to him, yawning loudly. This baby was taking all of her energy.
Walker, who was surprisingly light on his feet despite being such a well-built man, appeared suddenly behind the couch; years of moving behind and through battle lines had trained him to be stealthy at all times. Ashleigh was startled by his sudden appearance.
“Jesus!” she said, “couldn’t you make a little more noise?”
Walker laughed and leaned over to kiss her forehead.
No matter how many times she complained about being as big as a house, pregnancy had only made Ashleigh more stunning. Her blue eyes sparkled, her hair was thick and glossy, her complexion glowed roses and cream. Plus, Walker never failed to notice, her boobs looked incredible.
Her curves, which had charmed him before from a stripper’s pole, were far more lush now. This far into her pregnancy, they couldn’t really do muc
h, but he hadn’t stopped noticing, or wanting.
“You don’t even know if I’m cooking something that needs stirring,” he said, smiling down at her. Then, he kissed her again, lingering this time.
“You’re stirring something all right,” Ashleigh murmured as she kissed him back.
Walker groaned. He could feel his pulse elevating as the kiss lengthened. Sex wasn’t an option anymore, but there were plenty of other things they could do...very enjoyable things. Walker could feel himself getting hard. Fuck the dinner. He wanted to play.
He slipped his hands under her blouse and caressed her lush breasts. Ashleigh threw her head back and moaned.
“Come over here so I can touch you,” she said, gesturing him over to her side of the couch.
Just then, a timer went off in the kitchen. Walker cursed.
“Can it wait?” Ashleigh asked, breathing heavily.
“Not really,” he said, unaccountably irritated at the oven timer for remembering to do its job, “but I’ll remember where we were, I promise.”
“Stirring the pot, that’s where you were!”
Ashleigh grinned as he walked back to the kitchen and, with a pointed glance at her, stirred something in a frying pan. She giggled, then yawned again. Pregnancy was hard work, even when it didn’t look like it. She turned her attention back to the TV.
“No!” she yelled at the couple on screen, who were debating decorating choices for a house they wanted to purchase. “Don’t pick that paint color! What is wrong with you? Your house is going to look like a giant lima bean!”
Walked laughed at her from the kitchen. Lots of times, watching Ashleigh was more entertaining than the actual entertainment.
He turned his attention back to the stove. He’d gotten pretty good at cooking during the past few months,along with doing a lot of household chores he’d never paid much attention to, like cleaning baseboards, organizing the mail, or emptying the lint trap on the dryer.
Walker smiled, remembering how Ashleigh’s face had scrunched up as she had showed him how to do the last chore.
“What do you mean, you’ve never done this before?” she’d asked as she’d pulled out the trap from its slot in the dryer to show him.
“I literally never knew that thing existed until just now,” Walker had replied, “Much less that it had to be emptied. I wonder if all dryers have these, or just ours?”
Ashleigh had just rolled her eyes at him. She was no longer surprised about the huge gap between his deadly competence as a SEAL and his daily life. Walker could break a man’s neck, run a ranch, but he was still baffled by things in the “non-bachelor sphere,” as he called it.
For his part, Walker had really begun to appreciate the thousand small things Ashleigh had done to keep their lives running smoothly every day. One morning, after having spent almost an hour cleaning out the entire refrigerator, he had called Marilee up just to thank her for being a mother.
Marilee had laughed over the phone.
“Yeah, Walker, a lot of men get reaaal appreciative of their wives during that first pregnancy! Just don’t forget it after the baby is born, okay honey?” she had said.
Judging that the steaks had seared long enough, Walker shut off the stove and began to plate the food, taking special care that it looked appealing. After all, he’d spent so damn long on the dinner that he wanted to make sure it looked good, to boot!
“Dinner!” he called out.
Ashleigh got up and heavily lumbered over to the dining room table. Walker stepped over from the kitchen to pull out her chair - a gentlemanly gesture he’d done for her a hundred times, but that still made her heart squeeze happily. She smiled gratefully at him as she eased into the chair, then arranged a pillow behind her back.
Walker went to the kitchen and returned with two plates piled high with food. He set Ash’s plate before her and sat down at the table next to her.
“Ooh, steak!” Ashleigh cried out, excitedly examining the contents of the plate. Her nose wrinkled, though, at the sight of a large pile of healthy, steamed vegetables sitting next to the beautiful ribeye steak.
“Are there any baked potatoes in the kitchen, maybe?” she asked hopefully, thinking of how nice it would be to eat one, or maybe five, baked potatoes, running with butter, sour cream, bacon, and chives.
Walker grinned at her. “I’m under orders to feed you and that little alien inside of you plenty of fresh, nutritious food.”
Ashleigh rolled her eyes at him, but laughed, too.
“Potatoes are nutritious,” she defended.
“Not the way you like them, with all that sour cream and butter and cheese…” he said.
“Stop, you’re making me hungrier! Well, the alien and I say thank you, and we hope you bought extra steak,” she replied lightly.
Ashleigh inhaled the first few bites of her steak. Walker’s joke was corny, but he was right about her eating for two. She hadn’t been entirely joking about him making extra steak, either!
“The steak is so good,” she moaned. “And,” she added diplomatically as she speared some asparagus in vinaigrette sauce, “the vegetables are also very nice.”
“I’m happy you both like it all, honey,” Walker replied with a wink.
“I still can’t believe you can cook this well after only a month or two,” Ashleigh said, examining the perfect sear on the steaks with a critical eye.
“It’s not that hard,” Walker said seriously, “I just find good recipes and follow the instructions.”
Ashleigh shook her head. Walker seemed to be good at just about everything he touched. He could fight groups of huge men, track down mobsters, repair plumbing, build a fire in the woods in five minutes, and build furniture - all equally well. His incredible competence was one of the things she loved about him, but it was annoying, at times, too. After all, she’d been cooking for years and still didn’t make steak this good!
They ate and talked, easy in each other’s company, and traded information about the family.
Everyone was busy these days, and happy, too. Sawyer and Remy were raising their boy, Shiloh, and their baby girl, Harper. Colt and Rose were raising Emmy, who, despite her princess curls and sweet manner, had very definite ideas and could be a real handful. And they’d received an engagement announcement that very day from Shelby and Wolfe.
“Shelby texted me a photo of her ring,” Ashleigh said, fingering her own engagement ring, which was hanging on a chain around her neck, now that her fingers had swollen too much to wear it. “It’s yellow gold, and has a huge emerald in the center, and diamonds all around. It’s gorgeous!”
Walker laughed. “Sounds like she picked it out, then. Smart girl.”
“Yep,” Ashleigh agreed, “or she told Wolfe exactly what she wanted.”
“Smart guy. He’ll do okay as a husband,” Walker replied with a grin.
The phone interrupted their conversation. They both sighed. Ashleigh moved to answer it, but Walker motioned her to sit down.
“I’ll get it, honey, you just keep eating,” he said. “It’s probably just a telemarketer anyway,” he added, as he walked over to the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey man, it’s Sawyer.”
“Hey bro! Were you raised in a barn? Don’t you know any better than to call during dinner? I thought you were a telemarketer or some kind of politician,” Walker joked.
He looked over at Ashleigh, who was happily spearing the last bits of her steak, and, he noticed, beginning to eye his. He thought about the extra steak he’d cooked and held back, knowing she’d been doubly hungry lately.
Ashleigh looked up from the food and met his eyes.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“It’s Sawyer,” he mouthed, before turning his attention back to the phone. Sawyer was saying something.
“Sorry, bro, I missed that last part. I’m watching Ashleigh destroy a steak dinner right now. I think she’s about to make the moves on my portions if I don’t get off
this phone, so you better be quick about it.”
Ashleigh, hearing the crack at her, stuck out her tongue. Walker grinned back at her.
Unusually, Sawyer didn’t laugh at the repartée. Walker’s brow furrowed. That wasn’t like him.
“Walker, Arlo just had a heart attack,” Sawyer choked out. “They’re taking him to the hospital right now.”
Walker was stunned. He stared dumbly at the wall for a few seconds. Sawyer’s voice came through the telephone insistently, but it sounded very far away.
“Walker? Are you there?”
Walker shook his head and forced his mind to focus.
“Sorry, Sawyer, yeah, I’m here. Okay. Okay. Did y’all already call the ambulance?
“Yeah, he’s on his way now. Marilee and I are headed over now.”
“Okay, we’ll meet you at the hospital, then,” Walker said.
“Okay, we’re headed that way. See you soon,” Sawyer replied.
Walker hung up the phone and relayed the news to Ashleigh. She speared the last bits of her steak, snatched up her purse and phone, and, moving faster than she had in months, they headed out to the car.
“Did Sawyer say how bad the attack was?” she asked.
“No,” Walker replied, “he didn’t say anything. I don’t think he knows anything. He said they were putting him in the ambulance just now. God knows if he’ll even make it to the emergency room before…” he trailed off.
Ashleigh didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just sat very still and prayed that the Roman luck would hold out.
Walker was quiet during the rest of the drive, but at some point, he reached for his wife’s hand, and he didn’t let it go until they had reached the hospital.
2
Colt had gotten into his car and floored it all the way to the hospital after getting a call from Sawyer about Arlo’s heart attack. SEAL training had included a course on specialized driving; how to maneuver around checkpoints and roadblocks, how to escape cars that were chasing you, how to keep a car on the road if the driver had been shot or lost consciousness - that sort of thing.