Welcome to Forever

by Annie Rains

  Julie was looking at her again, her shoulders relaxed. “That’s terrible.”

  Kat rolled her lips together, hating this topic as much as the last. But at least this one had a happy ending. “Shelby is safe now, but she’s dealing with a lot emotionally. She’s lashed out at her teachers and some of the other students. I don’t like it, but I’ve had to ask her to stay after school several times already this year.”

  Julie nodded, urging Kat to continue.

  “Anyway, I overhead Shelby talking to one of the plants this week, just like Ben. The children are only supposed to say positive things, and she was, but I don’t think Shelby has had a lot of experience with being spoken to nicely.”

  “What was she saying?” Julie asked.

  “Actually, she wasn’t talking. She was singing a song her mother used to sing to her when she was alive.”

  Julie shuddered as she rubbed her hands along her arms. “I just got chills. That’s amazing.”

  “What we’re doing for these kids is going to make a difference.”

  “Yeah. Sounds like it.” Julie pulled another stick of gum from her purse and popped it into her mouth. “And you’re probably right.”

  Furrowing her brow, Kat glanced across the seat. Her sister never admitted that she was right about anything. “Right about what?”

  “You shouldn’t have sex with this guy, whoever he is. Definitely not. The way your eyes light up when you talk about him, you’d lose your heart fast. He can’t be your rebound guy.”

  “John died two years ago. I’m way past a rebound guy.”

  “But you’re still wearing his ring.” Julie gestured at Kat’s finger. “So you’re actually not past rebounding. And this guy sounds like he’s perfect for you. He’s into teaching kids and saving the world. Right up your alley. So I suggest you stay as far away from him as you possibly can.”

  Chewing her lower lip, Kat pulled into the Veterans’ Center parking lot, noticing Val’s car parked on the side. Val often baked goodies for the local veterans and dropped them off. It was the closest she got to representing the preacher’s daughter that everyone expected her to be.

  Kat parked and turned to her sister. “Micah, the school’s groundskeeper, is the one taking me to the Marine Corps ball.” Her voice was flat, hammered down by the truth of Julie’s words. Micah was the perfect guy for her.

  “The lawn guy is also the Marine? The hot guy from the bar?” Julie clarified, pushing her neck forward in disbelief.

  Panic rose in Kat’s chest. “Yep.”

  Julie snickered. “Sister, you are in deep trouble.”

  Micah stared at the woman standing across the store for a long second.

  “Earth to Mikie.” Lawson snapped a finger in front of him. “Who are you staring at anyway?” Lawson’s gaze followed his and stopped. “Oh. Kat and that other girl from Heroes.” A wide grin spread across his unshaven face. “The one you’re intent on telling me you’re not interested in. Even though you were more than happy to take her home that night.”

  Something protective rumbled through Micah and his jaw tightened. “I just dropped her off at her house. She’d had too much to drink.” And she’d been an adorable drunk. He jabbed a finger in Lawson’s shoulder. “And didn’t you end up taking Kat’s sister home that night?”

  Lawson nodded, a fond smile forming on his face. “I think she liked me. It’s hard to say because she was too busy fussing at the brunette that I also took home.” He frowned as his gaze slid toward Micah. “I’d like to tell you they were fighting over me, but”—he shook his head—”the cowboy hat has lost its mojo, man. And unless they’re actually clawing at each other and pulling each other’s clothes off, it’s not pleasant to watch two women fight.”

  Micah chuckled, returning his attention to Kat, who was still browsing through the dresses, no doubt looking for one to wear to the ball in a few weeks. His heart sped up just thinking about holding her close against him. He imagined whispering how beautiful she was in her ear and watching her skin flush with each compliment. He liked that about her. She had no idea how heart-stopping she was, and no idea what a turn-on her dedication to her job was.

  “I’m tired of looking. What do you think of this one?” Lawson held up a tiny white child’s dress with lace edges. “Think Sabrina will wear this one?”

  An image of Lawson’s three-year-old niece came to mind. “She’d look adorable in anything,” Micah said, grinning at the boyish nature his friend took on when he talked about the little girl.

  “And if she takes after her mother, she’ll continue with that trend, and you and I will be kicking some teenaged ass in a few years.”

  Micah raised a brow and returned his attention to Kat, who was now holding up a long, black dress with rhinestones accenting the collar. She’d look gorgeous in it. His gaze caught on the low-cut front. If she wore that, he’d be too busy drooling to speak that night.

  “You want to go over there and say something, or should we continue being the creepy stalkers across the store?”

  “I’m not stalking her.” Micah pretended to look through the dresses some more. “What’s this dress for again?”

  “Sabrina’s christening. My sister elected me to stand beside her for the event.”

  “Probably because of the hat,” Micah joked, knocking his hand down on the cowboy hat’s rim.

  Lawson readjusted it, and then his eyebrows rose. “Hats aren’t allowed in church, man. It’s because I am the favorite uncle.” A large grin spread across his face.

  “Aren’t you the only uncle?” Micah laughed as his friend’s smile faltered.

  Lawson’s gaze lifted back to the women. “Don’t look now, but you’ve been spotted.”

  Micah whipped around and looked at Kat, who was still in the women’s dress section, oblivious to his presence. A low growl of frustration emerged as he glanced back. “Very funny. I better go over and say hello before I end up strangling you.”

  “Right. And I better say hello to Jewels,” Lawson said.

  “Julie,” Micah corrected. “Her name is Julie.”

  “Right.” Lawson walked ahead of him, taking the lead.

  Micah prepared himself for when Kat turned around, knowing that her beauty and those expressive eyes of hers would make him feel like a hormonal teenager again. He’d never enjoyed being a teenager. He preferred to operate according to his head, not what was inside his boxer shorts. He shoved his hands into his pockets, and then she turned around, taking him by surprise. She really did get prettier every time he saw her, in contrast to his ex-wife, who’d only lost attractiveness with time because of her bad attitude.

  Kat smiled as he approached, and that’s when he knew the whole, indisputable truth. It wasn’t his head or what was inside his boxers that he needed to worry about. His heart was in deep trouble.

  —

  “Don’t look now,” Julie said, standing in Seaside’s finest dress shop, “but your boyfriend is here. And he’s walking straight toward us.”

  “Boyfriend?” Kat turned and her heart skidded to a stop. “Micah.” She hurriedly placed the dress back on the rack and forced a smile, willing her breath to slow down. He was just a guy—an incredibly gorgeous guy, who just so happened to be another Marine. Some luck falling for two uniformed men in one lifetime.

  Falling? Had she really just thought that she was falling for him? Because that wasn’t allowed. They may be going to the USMC ball together, but she absolutely was not going to give her heart to him. Nuh-uh. They weren’t even really dating.

  “Hi,” he said in that deep voice that gave her immediate hot flashes.

  He’d gotten to her faster than she’d expected. Opening her mouth to speak, she prayed comprehensible words would come out. He was just a man. “What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice shrill. Just a man, she reminded herself—a heart-stoppingly gorgeous man with dark chocolate eyes that did funny things to her knees. Not only that, he was good with kids and a devo
ted father.

  Micah grinned. “Dress shopping. You?”

  “Me, too. But, um, why are you dress shopping?” she asked.

  He gestured to his friend standing beside him. She recognized him from the bar the other night, and offered a friendly smile.

  “It’s for my niece, actually,” Lawson said, holding up a child-sized white dress. “She’s getting christened on Sunday.” Then he gestured toward the dress that Kat had been looking at. “Looks like you’re buying a dress, too.” He drove an elbow into Micah’s side. “What do you think? Think it’ll look good on your date?”

  Micah cleared his throat and, if Kat wasn’t mistaken, he looked a little embarrassed. “Of course.”

  Kat looked back at the rack, taking a moment to regain her composure. Every time she saw him, he was way better looking than she’d remembered. How was that even fair? “Yeah? I’m not sure.” She ran her hand over the silky fabric.

  “I am. I’m sure you’d look great in a heap of rags,” he said.

  Nervous laughter tumbled off her lips, as clumsy as the rest of her body seemed to be when he was around. “I’ll take that into consideration,” she said.

  “Great pickup line, man,” Lawson teased. “I’m sure you’d look great in rags, as well, miss,” he told Julie, who responded with a cool look of disinterest.

  Kat took the black dress back off the rack. “I guess this’ll do. I’m tired of looking.”

  “Not a shopper?” Micah asked.

  She dared to look at him again. “Not usually.” Usually she had too much work to do to be out shopping on a Saturday afternoon.

  “So do you ladies have plans tonight?” Lawson asked them.

  Kat watched the two men exchange a look. “Yes,” she said at the same time that Julie answered, “No.” They looked at each other.

  “Your plans were canceled, remember?” Julie said, one brow arching slightly—the little matchmaker. She was just as bad as Val.

  “Right.” Kat nodded slowly, laughing nervously under her breath. “I guess I forgot about that.” She looked back at Micah. “Looks like I don’t have plans tonight, after all.”

  “The thing is, there’s a garden exhibit later.” Micah shoved his hands in the pockets of his perfectly fitted jeans. “I helped create the designs for it. There’ll be miles of a garden that I’d bet gives Eden a run for its money…I’d be honored if you came with us. Both of you.”

  Kat wanted to say yes so badly that the only acceptable answer was no. It was on the tip of her lips, ready to leap off, when her sister’s answer came first.

  “I wish I could, but I have a, um, thing, I just remembered.” Julie shrugged, her gaze skittering toward Lawson. “But Kat would love to go. Wouldn’t you, sis?” Her thin elbow plowed into Kat’s side, the same way that Lawson’s had done to Micah a few minutes earlier.

  After rubbing the spot and slicing her gaze at her matchmaker sister, Kat nodded slowly. She didn’t have one viable excuse not to go. “Yes. Of course.”

  Chapter 10

  After spending the rest of the day shopping with Julie, Kat made her way to the garden exhibit that Micah had invited her to—alone. Her loving sister had successfully forced her to come here tonight, which was probably a bad idea, and then gone home to attend to her “other plans.” Knowing Julie, those plans included lying on the couch and watching sappy black-and-white movies on the TV.

  Parking, Kat looked out into the gravel parking lot and spotted Micah walking toward her. Also alone. He reached her door before she could move and pulled it open.

  “You came,” he said in that deep baritone voice that she thought literally made the ground beneath her shake as she stepped out of her car.

  “Of course I did. I have to see what kind of competition is trying to sweep you away from caring for the school’s lawn, right?” As if that were even part of the reason she was here. “Where’s Ben?” she asked, reminding them both that she was also his son’s principal. Being his boss and his son’s principal were two very good reasons not to be having hot flashes right now.

  “I may have designed the gardens, but the layout wasn’t my doing. It’s not exactly wheelchair-friendly here, so Ben is with my aunt and uncle tonight. They live next door to us.”

  “Oh. I didn’t realize you had family nearby,” she said, wishing he wasn’t standing so close. At his current distance, the temptation to reach out and touch his muscled chest, which was currently pushing against the limits of his T-shirt, was nearly unbearable. He wore a leather jacket over his T-shirt, but it was unzipped, like an open door inviting her in.

  “My dad, too. He’s the commanding officer of Camp Leon.”

  “Commanding officer? Wow.” She wondered if John had known him. What if Micah’s father had been the one to send him to war? The thought sent a shiver over her body. She was supposed to be moving on—focusing on the present and not the past. And she was. Presently, she was falling in lust, hard and quick, with a hot guy that she’d kissed once. It had been a couple weeks, but she still remembered the way his lips had felt against hers. He’d had new growth of hair along his face that could only be felt and not seen.

  She shivered again as the memory of their kiss replayed in her mind.

  “You’re cold,” he said.

  “No, I’m fine.”

  “Here.” He removed his leather jacket and held it up against her. “The wind off the ocean makes for chilly nights.”

  Slipping her arms into the cozy confines of his jacket, she took a deep breath, catching the faint smell of cologne. She closed her eyes, loving the deep rustic scent, then snapped them back open, hoping Micah hadn’t noticed.

  The corners of his mouth lifted as he watched her.

  “Salt air,” she said, hoping that explained the giddy grin on her face.

  He nodded and started walking. “Wait till you get in the gardens.” His eyes gleamed as he looked at her.

  “Can’t wait.” She followed him through a gate, where suddenly she was overwhelmed by an explosion of color, too vibrant for the end of September. “It’s incredible,” she said, as they continued walking through intense shades of green. And she was in awe of the fact that Micah had helped to create it. “I’ve never seen most of these plants before. Are they exotic?”

  He laughed, seeming to enjoy her complete naïveté when it came to all things green. “Not really. Most of the plants you’re seeing are native to North Carolina.”

  She looked around, gaining a new appreciation for the plants and flowers around her. Most days she was so busy, she didn’t stop to take in what was happening right outside her window.

  “These are roses, by the way,” he said, gesturing toward the rust-colored flower blooming beside him. A playful glint lit his soft brown eyes as he watched her.

  She dug her elbow into his side. “I know that, Mr. Smart-ass.”

  Leaning into her, he said, “I just wanted to hear you laugh again. I like the sound.”

  Her face straightened. “No one’s ever complimented my laugh before.”

  “Then maybe you don’t laugh often enough.”

  When he looked at her, her knees went weak. “Um, gardening is a rare interest for a kid. What got you curious?” She cleared her throat and redirected her attention. After all, this was Seaside. Anyone could spot her here with Micah and get the wrong idea. Or the right idea because, as much as she wanted to persuade herself otherwise, she was here as a woman, not a boss or a principal.

  “I was kind of a bully back in the day. I could never live up to my dad’s image of what I should be, so I acted out. The kids in the Friendship Club have nothing on the trouble I caused.” A wicked grin spread, carving out deep dimples in his chiseled cheeks. “Dad dropped me off at my aunt Clara’s one afternoon, and she found me cursing the world and every plant in her backyard.”

  Kat laughed softly, leaning in closer to him as a soft breeze rustled through the bushes.

  “That’s when she taught me how to make thing
s grow. It’d felt like magic back then.”

  “Not anymore?” she asked.

  “With plants, yeah. Anything green. I just wish I had the same touch with Ben. Sometimes I see him struggling and I feel so helpless.” He motioned toward one of the benches that lined the paths and they sat.

  She felt immediately warmer with his body shielding the wind. “I don’t think growing up is supposed to be easy. That’s why kids have parents to help them through it, and I know you do that for Ben.”

  “Yeah, well I try, but Ben only has one parent at the moment.” His lips compressed into a hard line.

  “Where’s Ben’s mom?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t prying too much.

  Looking down at his hands in his lap, he blew out a long breath. “In Afghanistan right about now. She volunteered for another deployment. Sometimes I think she loves those soldiers more than she does her own son.”

  “I doubt that’s true.”

  He looked at her. “Would you leave that boy on purpose? I wouldn’t. Jessica grew up in foster care. She never had that sense of family. I guess that’s part of the reason why.” He sighed heavily. “It’s hard on Ben. It doesn’t help, either, that he’s different from the other kids.”

  “Sounds tough.” Unable to help herself, she reached over and squeezed his hand gently, urging him on.

  “I’m not trying to be a downer. Never discuss your ex on a date. Isn’t that the number-one rule in the book of dating?”

  Kat sucked in a breath at the mention of the d-word, pulling her hand back to her own lap.

  “Not that this is a date,” he corrected.

  “Right. It’s not.” She hadn’t woken this morning expecting that she’d be spending her night walking around with Micah through the most magical gardens she’d ever seen. Dates were planned. This wasn’t.

  He held her gaze for a long, pulse-igniting beat. “It just feels like one,” he said, his voice low, meant only for her.