“You don’t look very ready, Mommy,” Kira observed helpfully. “You’d better focus.”
“That headband,” Hannah said over her shoulder, fleeing to her bedroom. “I need you to find it. You know how important it is to Aunt Josie.”
Hannah hated to admit it, but Harvey’s observation of the casual chaos that ruled her life wasn’t far off. It felt like she was in a constant state of panic trying to keep herself together, let alone managing Kira’s appearance, responsibilities, and belongings, and her own job at the school. She hoped Harvey and Josie understood. She was doing this by herself. Of course it would be easier if the father was in the picture.
That was the terminology they all used, whenever the issue came up. “The father.” Because there was no way Hannah was ever telling Harvey that Dominic was Kira’s mysterious father. She’d kept a lid on that for the last seven years. She’d never break down and tell her twin. It would cut too deeply.
So, since the father wasn’t in the picture, Hannah figured she got a pass. She was going to try her best, but her biggest priority was not to be in her underwear at her twin’s wedding. If they couldn’t come up with the headband, well, she was just going to cut her losses on the silly thing.
She shimmied into her dress, zipping it up expertly. Now, for her hair. Josie had mentioned something about Hannah getting a French twist done in a nearby hair salon, which Hannah had nodded at, pretending to seriously consider. Josie might’ve had hair salons in her beauty arsenal, but Hannah had internet videos to supplement her own skills. There was no way she was going to splash out a bunch of money on something that would only last an evening, especially if it was something she could learn to do.
Hannah was just putting the final touches on her makeup, perfecting the edge of her lipstick, when she heard a car pulling up outside. She checked the time on her phone. Nearly twenty minutes on the dot. She’d done well. And Harvey’s best man was punctual.
“Kira, did you find your headband?” Hannah asked, ripping a tissue out of the box to blot her lips with and crossing her fingers, hoping against hope that the thing would just turn up.
“No!”
“Answer the door, would you? Our ride’s here. I’ll look for it.”
The doorbell rang, and she heard the squeak of the new shoes on the tile in the front hall. Where was that headband? And was she a bad mother, sending her daughter to answer the door for a strange man in their house? If Harvey and Josie worked with him, though, and vouched for him enough to name him the best man for their wedding, Hannah didn’t have to worry, right?
Best to take a quick peek, though. She could just say hi. Introduce herself as the woman the best man was going to walk down the aisle with. Make it into a joke, defray any potential awkwardness. Get through this day, somehow.
“That’s cool that you’re the best man,” Kira chattered as Hannah approached the front hall. “Maybe not as cool as the flower girl. You don’t get to throw things, right?”
“You’re right. I don’t. I have to confess something—I’m kind of jealous. Think you could save me some flowers to throw?”
It was that voice that stopped Hannah in her tracks, right there in the middle of the hall. Dominic. She’d know his voice anywhere. And he was just here, in her house, talking to Kira as casually as he pleased. A person would have to be blind not to see the resemblance between father and daughter. And, seeing them together, Hannah was absolutely frozen. She didn’t know what to do.
She’d been completely blindsided—not only by Dominic actually being here, but also by the fact that she’d never knew before just how badly she’d wanted to see Dominic and Kira together.
Chapter 12
Dominic
Movement behind Hannah’s adorable daughter caught Dominic’s attention. He hadn’t meant to get distracted from the girl, who was in the middle of giving him a play-by-play depiction of exactly how she was going to toss the flowers on the carpet during her flower girl duties.
But Dominic had to chalk his careful attention to any and all small movements and visual anomalies to his Navy SEAL training. He was hyper-aware of everything in his surroundings at every moment. The day he retired from the Navy, he knew this kind of vigilance would be exhaustive. But as long as he was a SEAL, even if he was on leave, this was just par for the course.
No amount of training could’ve prepared Dominic for seeing Hannah standing there in the hallway, like a deer in headlights, staring at him.
It shouldn’t have surprised him. He was the one who’d volunteered to come and get her—perhaps a little too eagerly. But Harvey was hungover and busy enough not to notice, so Dominic had leapt at the chance to try to catch up a little before the ceremony.
Hannah was just so damn beautiful that it was difficult to come to grips that he was seeing her—actually seeing her, standing within a couple of paces of him—and not some kind of idealized vision. The dream version of Hannah who had taken to haunting him, some nights. The Hannah he’d had for the span of a single night.
If possible, Hannah was even more gorgeous than the dream vision he’d preserved of her. Seven years and she’d fully become a woman, much more self-assured than the eighteen-year-old Hannah he’d been with. She’d grown into her body, supple curves perfectly filling out her formal dress. She absolutely glowed, even as she stared at him like he’d grown a pair of horns.
“Dom?” she squeaked out, and he realized that he’d been staring for far too long.
“Mom!” Kira bellowed. “My headband! We have to find it! We can’t leave without it, or I’ll be the worst flower girl in history!”
The surprisingly loud shouting—especially from such a small body—broke whatever spell that had suspended them in time.
“Help us!” Hannah barked at him, as brisk as any officer. “You’re looking for a headband with silk flowers on it. Pink. Move!”
An order. He could follow orders. Orders were easy.
“When’s the last time you saw it?” he asked, jogging into the living room, barely taking the time to absorb his surroundings.
The house was small, and the furnishings and belongings sort of jumbled together. Nothing was dirty, but everything was messy, papers and toys and discarded clothes covering nearly every surface.
“Kira?” Hannah called from somewhere in the back of the house. “Any ideas?”
“It was when we were trying on our dresses to make sure they fit,” Kira called back. “Remember? You were afraid your boobs were going to pop out of yours.”
Dominic guffawed out loud at that, especially at hearing Hannah’s squawk of indignation.
“Was that really necessary, Kira?” she grumbled, just loud enough for Dominic to hear. “Really?”
“When was the final fitting?” Dominic asked, lifting week-old newspapers from the couch. How could they find anything with all of this everywhere? He let the papers fall, eyes darting around, looking for anything pink. Nothing.
He moved into the kitchen, trying to tell himself he was helping, not snooping. The kitchen was in a little better order than the living room, which he thought was a room that probably functioned as a repository for the ephemera that gathered from a life on the go. The kitchen was spotless except for some empty water glasses that lined the countertop.
“Final fitting was…a week ago,” Hannah answered. “Where could that headband have gone in a week? We hung everything back up right after.”
Dominic wondered if Hannah would mind terribly if he put the empty glasses in the dishwasher. Would there be any reason they would be out in the first place? Would he intrude on some kind of order if he did? Headband, he reminded himself. Focus on the headband.
“Bottom of the closet, where the dress was hanging?” he called, barely resisting the urge to open the refrigerator. Stranger things had been stashed in stranger places, but opening the refrigerator really did feel like an invasion of privacy. He was just curious what Hannah fixed for Kira to eat. Just wanted to understand th
is life he was intruding on. Wanted to make sure Hannah was okay.
“I’m looking,” Kira called. “Nothing except stinky shoes.”
“Please don’t get your dress dirty,” Hannah asked, sounding harried. “If we don’t find it in the next sixty seconds, we’re leaving. The last thing we want to be is late to the wedding.”
“No,” Kira said, sounding distressed as Dominic walked down the hall toward what had to be the bedrooms. It was like he was getting to look through a small window at Hannah’s life. Her existence. He did feel like a stranger. Seven whole years she’d had to build this life. To amass these belongings.
To have a daughter.
“Don’t panic,” Dominic recommended. “It’ll turn up. Everything lost usually does.”
The irony of that statement wasn’t lost on him. He sort of felt like a lost belonging suddenly turning up. Life in Tucson had simply proceeded without him, like he didn’t even matter. It was more than a little disconcerting. If Dominic had never returned to his hometown, life would’ve just…gone on. Like he’d never been here in the first place.
It almost hurt his feelings, but he knew that probably had more to do with seeing that Hannah had very obviously moved on without him than anything else. It wasn’t like Tucson was a living, breathing being. It was just a city. And life had to go on.
He poked his head into the hall bathroom and unplugged a curling iron that had been left on, wondering if it would be too forward of him to mention it to Hannah. He just wanted her to be safe. He couldn’t help the surge of protectiveness at the clutter of products crowding the countertops.
A pink, flower-covered headband nearly hidden by all the mess caught his attention, then.
“I’ve got the headband!” he hollered, wondering, when he caught his own reflection in the mirror, why his grin was so wide. It was just a silly headband. But at Hannah and Kira’s matching whoops of triumph, he realized that it was something tangible he’d been able to do for them. A small way to help out.
“Come on, let’s run for it,” Hannah said, dashing by with Kira’s hand in hers. “Josie would kill Harvey if we’re late.”
Outside, Dominic was looking forward to sitting next to Hannah again, even if it was only in the rental car. It would be as physically close as he’d been to her in the last seven years, and forgave himself a little for his weirdness. But without much of a fuss, Hannah climbed into the backseat with Kira.
“You can sit up front,” Dominic said with a small, awkward laugh. “I know it’s been a while, but I don’t bite.”
“Gotta get this headband on without destroying the curls we worked so hard for,” Hannah said, focused completely on Kira. “Definitely didn’t get this hair from your mom, did you?”
“From my dad,” Kira confirmed, holding still as Hannah pinned the headband into place.
“Is he already at the venue?” Dominic asked as casually as he could manage.
“No,” Hannah said, her tone short, busying herself with arranging Kira’s curls to artfully conceal the pins.
“Couldn’t get the time off?” he guessed.
“Not in the picture,” she replied. Her tone was curt, and she briefly met Dominic’s eyes in the rearview mirror. The message was clear—discussion on Kira’s father was over. “Eyes on the road, please. Precious cargo back here.”
“Of course. Definitely. Sorry.”
What Dominic was really and truly sorry for was the terrible shot of glee he felt at that statement. It was awful, and it made him feel like a shitty human being. But Kira’s father not being in the picture meant that Hannah wasn’t married herself, didn’t it? That he might actually have a chance at reconnecting with her.
It didn’t matter that somebody else’s daughter was part of the equation. Motherhood fit Hannah in a way Dominic had trouble explaining. It looked good on her, like it was meant to be. It sucked that the father wasn’t around. Kids should have their fathers. Good fathers only, though. Maybe it didn’t have to suck so bad.
God. What was he, some kind of vulture? Dominic struggled to get his thoughts back on track. The current loop in his mind wasn’t helping anything.
“I have to say you both look really nice,” he said. “I’m glad we found the headband. Really screams ‘flower girl’ to me. Kira, everyone’s going to know immediately what you’re there for.”
“To throw the flowers,” Kira said.
“That’s right.”
“I’m glad you found it,” Hannah said. “Seriously. We were tearing the house apart looking for it. I swear it’s usually not that messy in there.”
“No judgment.” He risked another glance in the rearview mirror, but Hannah was looking out the window, watching the city pass by. “So, tell me what I’ve missed since I’ve been gone.”
Hannah’s mouth twisted, amused. That was a really nice shade of lipstick on her. “You mean besides the obvious?”
Kira was the obvious part of this equation, humming tunelessly along to talk radio, kicking the back of his seat with a rhythmic dedication. Dominic decided to steer well clear of that line of questioning.
“I mean that everything looks different,” he said. “I don’t even recognize Tucson anymore.”
“Well, I’m sure Tucson doesn’t recognize you,” Hannah said. “Everything’s changed, hasn’t it?”
He hoped it hadn’t. Not everything. Hoped it with all his heart, even as Hannah launched into a literal description of parts of Tucson that had changed in the past seven years. Dominic just wished there would be some familiar landmarks he could latch on to. Some way to remind Hannah that, even now, even after all this time, he still had feelings for her.
Chapter 13
Hannah
She was babbling. She knew she was. Hannah recognized it for what it was—anxiety, pure and simple. Only, there was nothing pure or simple about it. Dominic was back, in the flesh. She couldn’t believe her eyes, couldn’t believe that he was close enough to touch, if she just reached out and pressed the palm of her hand on his shoulder.
She could do it. It would be easy to explain away, that she was reaching down to adjust her shoe and lost her balance a little. That she just wanted to make sure Dominic was, in fact, real. He wouldn’t be able to blame her. He’d been gone for seven years, then just shown back up in Tucson, in her house, talking to her daughter. His daughter.
Their daughter.
Hannah bit her lip before she could stop herself, then checked her reflection in her phone camera to make sure she hadn’t smeared her lipstick. She didn’t know what she could do. Because anyone who was looking for it would be able to see Dominic in Kira. It had always been obvious to Hannah, but as long as she kept the identity of the father of her child at arm’s length, not even Harvey had been able to figure it out.
She just hoped no one would see Dominic and Kira together today and do the math. Was it wrong to hope, too, that Dominic wouldn’t pay as much attention to Kira as he did? That he would be a little more awkward with the entire situation? How was he so good at rolling with the punches?
Hannah knew that Dominic had to be trying to gauge Kira’s age. Ascertain who the father was, where he was, and why. That, to everyone else—and to Harvey in particular—it simply looked like Hannah had got pregnant by the first guy who came along after Dominic had left for the Navy.
Dominic was the only person besides Hannah herself who knew the true significance of the timing. She wished she could reassure him that she hadn’t just thrown herself at the first guy who’d come along after he was gone, but how could she tell the man she hadn’t seen in seven years that he’d been her first lover and her last? That the amazing child he was already good with actually belonged to him?
Hannah didn’t see a graceful way to do it. She didn’t see any way out of this.
“God, listen to me run my mouth,” she said, laughing as her brain finally caught up with her words.
She’d been all but giving a dissertation on the pros and cons amon
g all the fast food chains that had sprung up around parts of town that used to be mostly populated by mom and pop shops and eateries. The fast food was consistent and cheap. But the mom and pop shops offered culture and history. It was a ridiculous line of boring small talk, even if it did somewhat fulfill Dominic’s request that she fill him in on what he’d missed in his seven-year absence from the city. From her life.
“I didn’t mind,” Dominic said. “Not at all. Though, you didn’t cover the biggest change of all.”
Was he really going to bring Kira back into this? Hannah thought she’d done a good enough job of steering him away from the subject, but Dominic apparently hadn’t taken the hint.
“Dom…”
He didn’t let her continue. “How Harvey found someone who’d put up with his shi—, I mean, crap. Stuff.”
Hannah laughed. Actually laughed, like they were teenagers again and she and Dominic were in the middle of roasting her twin, just like old times. Could seven long, hard years drop away just like that?
“Aunt Josie’s pretty amazing, isn’t she, Kira?” Hannah asked, smiling at her daughter. “She always tells Uncle Harvey what to do, doesn’t she?”
Kira wrinkled her nose, considering this. “It’s like Aunt Josie is the mom, and Uncle Harvey is the kid.”
Even Dominic had to laugh at that one, the rich sound filling the car. God, she’d missed him—had missed this. Just letting herself go and laughing about old times. She hardly got the chance to reminisce with Harvey about their childhood, particularly since Dominic had been such an integral part of it. Dominic wasn’t a subject Hannah ever broached with her twin. She was too afraid of revealing the secrets she so desperately wanted to hide.
“That’s a pretty telling relationship, then,” Dominic said. “Makes a lot of sense why they work.”
His Baby Secret - A Second Chance SEAL Romance (Once a SEAL, Always a SEAL Book 1) Page 7