Right now, I just wanted to take off my bra, pour myself a glass of wine, find a bite to eat and soak in a hot tub before I got down to the business of packing up my master bedroom. If I was lucky, the traffic home would be light, I thought to myself as I searched in the deep pockets of my bright blue smock to locate the keys to my aged but reliable blue Malibu. Finally wrapping my fingers around the cold metal, I smiled as I finally headed toward the parking lot. Wrapped up in my own thoughts, I barely registered the sound of a horn honking behind me. It was only when I heard a familiar, deep baritone voice hollering my name that I swiveled my head around to find the source of that shout.
“Truly! Truly Evans! Bambi, will you just wait up for a second?
Scanning the parking lot for the owner of that resonant voice, my breath caught in my chest as I spotted him. Of course, I’d have known who it was anywhere since only one man had ever called me Bambi.
And I’d just been thinking about him.
Catching sight of Pax Graham’s huge, gleaming black four-door Dodge Ram as he swung it into the parking space next to my seen-better-days Malibu, I felt my heart begin to pound. It hadn’t been too long since I’d seen the sturdy 6’4” black-haired Adonis currently climbing down from the truck next to me, but, right then, it felt like it had been forever. Such was the power of the masculine beauty of the man before me. With his strong square jaw, a nose that looked like it might have been broken a time or two in a fight, a set of mesmerizingly blue eyes that made a girl want to drown in them (right after she fucked him silly), Pax’s face was the stuff about which romance authors wrote. And when you added in his killer smile and headful of thick black hair that was going slightly gray at his temples, it was no lie to say that Paxton was a bona fide heartthrob. Nobody could blame me for staring at him dumbly, right?
“Bambi?” Pax asked, his blue eyes worried as he took a step toward me, his long legs closing the distance between us quickly. “You okay? You look a little done in,” his concerned voice murmured gently, his hand reaching up to tuck a strand of hair that had escaped my ponytail behind my ear. Dressed today in civilian clothing, his faded blue jeans molded to his muscular legs like a second skin while his untucked red Henley loosely hung around his lean hips.
I tilted my head back and blinked slowly, wordlessly taking in all the gorgeousness that was him. And trust me, there was a lot of it. I was only jarred out of my ogling when I heard him call me by the nickname he’d christened me with while he’d helped me get things in order after Yancy died. Pax claimed that my wide-eyed innocence and uncertainty in the aftermath of all that had transpired had reminded him of the beloved Disney character, Bambi. For obvious reasons, I was just exceedingly grateful that he wasn’t calling me Dumbo. “Hey, Pax. I’m fine,” I greeted him with a slight smile. “I’m just surprised to see you here. You don’t exactly strike me as the type that spends a lot of time shopping at the grocery store.”
One side of Pax’s wide mouth tilted upward in an amused half-smile. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Everybody has to eat, and I love to cook. Which I’d be happy to prove if you ever accept my invitation and come to dinner at my place instead of always choosing a restaurant in town when we go out. But you are right, I’m not here to shop today. I actually came by to check on you. There’s some things I’d like to get together and talk about with you if you have time.”
I shook my head as I sighed. “Pax, I already told you, you don’t have to keep doing this. You didn’t sign up for a lifetime commitment of checking up on me when Yancy died. You’ve more than done your duty by him and by me. You truly were a great friend to both him and me, but I’m going to be fine now. Honestly. You don’t need to keep going out of your way to check in with me.” I hated that he still felt obligated to check on me, and I’d told him more than once that he didn’t have to keep wasting his time. He was a good man, and I truly loved spending any time I could with him, but I certainly didn’t want to keep him from living his life.
“Spending time with a pretty lady like you is no hardship for me, Bambi,” he assured me softly. “I wouldn’t do something I didn’t want to do. Me spending time with you was never about my friendship with Yancy. I do what I do because I enjoy our time together. I enjoy you.”
My heart melted at that and the woman deep inside me did a little dance that this incredibly sexy man thought I was pretty. And evidently, worth the effort of bothering with.
Pax smiled. “But, truthfully, I’m not just here to check on you today. Like I mentioned before, there’s actually something kinda important I need to discuss with you,” he informed me seriously as his smile faded, his hooded gaze giving nothing away. “Would it be okay if I came by your place tonight?” he asked hopefully before he looked over his shoulder to peer into the back seat of his truck.
“I guess so,” I returned uncertainly, unsure what he could possible need to talk about. Yancy’s estate had been settled, and I’d returned all of his military gear to the Army. “Unless you just wanna talk here. I don’t want you to have to drive out of your way if you’d rather just discuss whatever it is here,” I offered quickly.
Pax shook his head quickly. “No. This isn’t the type of conversation I wanna have out in public where we can be overheard. It’s sort of a private issue.”
“Oh,” I returned weakly, my stomach beginning to churn as my anxiety ratcheted up another notch. I couldn’t help wondering what kind of private thing Pax could possibly have to discuss with me. Irrationally, I automatically feared it had something to do with Yancy, but that made no sense. Yancy was gone and had been for months. To my knowledge, there were no more dirty little secrets left to divulge about my marriage; I already was privy to them all. My spouse was dead, and as far as I knew, it was impossible for a corpse to continue cheating. So Pax had to want to talk about something else. What it was, I had no clue. “I can’t lie. You’re making me a little nervous here, Pax.”
Pax winced. “Shit. I’m sorry, Tru. Christ,” he muttered, lifting a hand to rub his whiskered jaw, the sound of those fine hairs abrading his palm seeming to echo in the prolonged silence between us. “I’m already making a fucking mess out of this,” he muttered under his breath.
“It’s okay,” I murmured softly, lifting my hand to touch his arm consolingly as I silently wondered what exactly ‘this’ was. “What time did you want to come over?”
“Are you still living in the duplex over on Abott Lane here on post?”
I nodded. “For a couple more weeks. Then I’ve gotta move.” Seeing his confused look, I shrugged and clarified, “Military only gives you six months after the soldier’s death to live on post. It’s okay, though. I’m ready to move on from the memories that place holds. I’m looking for something else now. I’ve got a realtor working on it and everything,” I shared as I saw something in Pax’s eyes that I couldn’t quite define. It almost seemed like relief. But why would Pax care where I lived or be relieved about anything related to me?
“Well, then, if it’s okay with you, I could just follow you over there,” he suggested hopefully, his sapphire eyes brightening as they focused on my face.
Glancing at my watch, I noted that it was getting later. Nodding, I lifted my head and shot him a small smile. “That’d be fine. I need to stop by the gas station and grab some sodas for the house. I ran out this morning, but there’s no way I’m going to fight the lines in there for them,” I remarked, jerking my thumb over my shoulder to indicate the busy commissary. “I should be able to get home in fifteen minutes or so. That okay?”
“That’s fine. I’ll meet you there,” Pax agreed with an endearingly eager acceptance as he reached for the silver handle mounted on his truck’s black door panel.
I nodded as I turned to open my own car’s door. “Don’t forget to park on the street so that I can get my car into the garage,” I reminded him quickly before he could close his truck door. Seeing him give me a thumbs-up signal, I climbed behind the wheel of my car and quickl
y started the engine.
Driving to the convenience store, I made quick work of purchasing my cold drinks and carrying them back to my ride. Seconds later, I was on my way again, and I wasn’t sure why, but the closer I got to my house, the more it seemed like I was suddenly standing on the edge of something monumental… and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to hurry home or just keep driving.
My deeply ingrained curiosity quickly won out over my hesitance as I made the right turn onto my home street. Seeing Pax’s big truck parked in front of my place had me pressing down harder on the accelerator, my entire focus centered on arriving more quickly and learning what had brought him into my neck of the woods tonight. Turning into my paved driveway a handful of seconds later, I pushed the button to raise my garage door as I peered in the rearview mirror, smiling as I watched Paxton swing his big body down from his vehicle before he turned to open the back door to the truck. I pulled my car into the garage just as Pax leaned into his backseat. And as I moved my gear shift into park and pressed the button to lower my garage door again, I realized my eyes must be as incredibly tired as the rest of my body.
Either that or my eyes had to be playing tricks on me.
Or maybe I was seeing things!
Because there was no way Pax could be carrying an occupied baby seat toward my house.
Was there?
Chapter Three
Pax
“Don’t chicken out. Don’t chicken out. Do. Not. Chicken. OUT,” I mumbled under my breath as I gripped my steering wheel with sweaty hands, my fingers cramping as my white-knuckled grip tightened. Shifting my gaze from the street to the rearview mirror, I checked on a peacefully sleeping Liberty for the twelfth time in ten minutes while I tried to get my racing heartbeat to slow the hell down. Thankfully, God was smiling on me and the baby was on her best behavior today. She hadn’t even made a sound when I’d gotten out of the truck earlier to flag Tru down and tell her we needed to talk.
Now, I sat parked outside the home Truly had shared with one of my best friends, nervous and jittery, waiting for her to show up so that I could turn her whole world upside down.
A-fucking-gain.
Jesus Christ! I felt like I was going to choke on the guilt clogging my throat. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt Tru, but I was afraid her pain was unavoidable. No matter how I did things, she was gonna be hurt. Because telling Tru about Liberty’s existence was going to be hard enough, but actually informing her that she’d been named as the baby’s other guardian?
Yeah, that part was gonna suck big, fat, hairy balls.
Dammit, this whole sordid mess was just a clusterfuck of epic proportions.
But I could do this. For Liberty, I had to do this. There wasn’t any other choice.
But that didn’t mean I liked it. So help me God, when I saw Yancy in the afterlife, I was gonna kick his sorry ass into a thundercloud for screwing with so many people’s lives! Sure, it was unlikely we’d be in the same place since I seriously doubted that the celestial powers that be welcomed serial adulterers into the Kingdom of Heaven, but on the off chance he made the cut, I planned on pushing that fucker right out the Pearly Gates.
Leaning my head back against the headrest, I refocused my thoughts and tried to come up with a good way to tell Tru about Liberty. Unfortunately, I kept coming up blank. The fact was, this news about Yancy and Melissa’s baby was a time bomb poised to blow up in my face. I just hoped I survived the blast.
Shaking my head, I sighed. She might initially take the news badly, yeah. What woman wouldn’t? But at her core, Tru was a kind, forgiving woman; she would come around.
Eventually.
She had to. God knows, I certainly couldn’t raise this kid alone, I thought silently as I took another look over my shoulder into the back seat. Watching as the infant pursed her tiny pink lips in sleep, I felt my heart warm in my chest. Sweet Jesus, this kid already had me wrapped around her wee little finger. So saying I couldn’t bring her up alone wasn’t exactly true.
I could do it if I had to.
I just didn’t want to. I wanted to do it with Truly.
I wanted to do everything with Truly.
After seeing her beautiful face again this evening when I hadn’t seen her in several days, I’d only re-confirmed what I already knew.
I had it bad for the petite blonde bombshell.
I wanted a life with her and Liberty. I wanted to create a loving family together. I wanted to spend my days making Liberty smile and my nights making Tru moan.
Now, I had to make Truly’s gorgeous ass want the same kind of life with me and Liberty. Convincing her that her future was with me and the slumbering child in my backseat was my number one priority, and I wouldn’t stop until I had her under my roof with my ring on her finger and my baby in her belly. We had a good start on our family with Liberty, but she needed a houseful of brothers to help me keep her safe.
First, however, we needed Tru to see how much we needed her, and that whether she knew it or not, she needed us, too.
That meant she needed to know the truth. The whole truth. She deserved nothing less from me.
Catching sight of her decade-old vehicle slowly approaching from down the street, I eyed her car critically when it reached her driveway and mentally added finding Tru a more suitable ride to my growing list of things to do. There was no way I’d trust that rusted hunk of metal to continue transporting my girls around town once they both belonged to me. I’d look into getting her a minivan. Or maybe one of those SUV crossovers that chicks were going so crazy over lately. Something safe and reliable. My girls needed something secure and dependable for those times when I couldn’t drive them around myself.
Smiling as I noted Truly’s weak wave in my direction, I took a deep breath and prayed that the woman I wanted to see in both my home and my bed was strong enough to handle the amount of drama I was about to bring to her doorstep.
I quickly yanked my keys from the ignition and pocketed them before getting out of the truck. It only took a couple of minutes for me to undo the latches on the baby seat and carefully shift Liberty out of hers car seat and into my grip. I grimaced as the muggy heat of the setting sun enveloped us both as soon as I straightened, holding the baby against my chest. I guess that was what I got for being stationed at a base in Texas during August. Texas heat was nothing to sneeze at, that was for sure.
I gave myself a mental high five when I extracted the sleeping infant without waking her, a task that looked much easier than it was when I watched it done on television. I couldn’t really complain, though. During the short time I’d had Liberty, she’d been a good baby, sleeping and eating just like the doctor said she should. Things could definitely be a lot worse, I thought as I carefully trudged up the short cement pathway that led to Truly’s house, holding one hand securely against Liberty’s back and the other curled around her tiny head. Shouldering the baby’s diaper bag before I kicked the truck door shut with my foot, I reached the porch steps at the same moment that the front door opened. As Truly’s face appeared through the screened storm door, I could see her eyes widening as she focused on the baby I held curled against my body, her astute gaze both curious and shocked. Hell, I knew the cute-as-hell bundle of joy would be enough to draw anyone’s eye, but seeing a hulking, tattooed man holding that particular load in his arms? Let’s just say I could understand the surprise shining in her expressive peepers. For a brief, fleeting moment, I kinda wished I’d worn my protective gear for this mission. There was no doubt things were about to get dicey for me.
Forcing what I hoped was a reassuring smile to my lips as I straightened my shoulders, I nodded a greeting at Truly as she pushed open the door quickly. “Hey, Truly,” I murmured as I stepped across her threshold, “Sorry to spring our visit on you like this. I probably should have called you first instead of ambushing you at work.”
Her head tilted to the side as she waved a hand in the air. “Don’t worry about that, Pax. You know you’re alway
s welcome. I had a feeling you had something important to tell me, but I gotta say, I never expected this,” she whispered, surprise obvious in her voice as she looked down at Liberty with soft eyes. “She’s a doll baby,” Truly breathed, lifting a hand to lightly run her fingertips against the soft peach fuzz on top of the baby’s eyes. Lifting her gaze to meet mine, she smiled. “Y’all get in here out of that heat. Tell me, whose baby this is exactly?”
Swallowing hard, I froze in place. I had to wonder if she was aware that by asking that question, she was poised to unleash Pandora’s box on her life.
“Pax?” she prompted when she’d closed the front door behind us. “Whose child is this? Yours?”
“That’s a harder question to answer than you realize, Tru,” I offered lamely as I shifted Libby in my arms as the baby opened her startlingly blue eyes.
I heard Truly’s shocked gasp at the same moment Liberty opened her mouth to cry. Quickly sliding the infant’s pacifier between the baby’s parted lips to quell the oncoming wail, I grimaced as I shot a look at Truly. The color had leached from her face as her eyes remained glued to Liberty’s face. “No,” I heard her mumble. “That can’t be,” she whispered, finally turning her confused eyes toward me. “How is it possible that baby has Yancy’s eyes?”
“Bambi, let’s go sit down,” I suggested, lifting my chin toward the room I knew served as her den. It had been designed to be a dining room, but since it had been just Truly and Yancy living here, they’d made it into a secondary living area.
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Saving Liberty (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 3