“All I know is what I see, Hunt, and Meredith thinks the world of you. Damned if I know why, but she does.”
Hunter wondered the same. “I’ve known her for years.”
“What’d you do? Let the woman of your dreams get away?”
“Something like that.” Hunter cleared his throat. “I’m... sorry. I’ve been—”
Lee waved him off. “Later. You can explain why you’re a dumbass when we’re home.” He pulled a cell phone out of his front shirt pocket and tapped the screen. ”Here. I’ve got her number. It’s five o’clock on the East Coast. Call her.” His green eyes were smiling when he shoved his wide shoulders around the drapes and gave Hunter some privacy.
Hunter pressed the phone to his ear. Meredith would be thrilled. Mentally calculating travel time and distance, she could be in his arms inside twenty hours or so—if the hospital discharged him as quickly as he hoped they would.
When the phone kept ringing, he ran his fingers over his head, wishing he were with her. Single mothers had it tough. She was probably on her way home from work right now. With Courtney. What did the little tyke look like? Hunter wanted to know everything. About Meredith’s apartment. What kind of car she drove. Her favorite food. Everything.
She used to dunk Oreos in milk when she was a kid. Did she still? Had she taught Courtney to do that? Did they sit together giggling until their cookies disintegrated into soggy mush? That was when Hunter first knew he loved her, sitting at her mother’s kitchen table. Meredith had the most adorable turned-up nose when it had soggy chocolate crumbles on the end of it.
But the phone kept ringing. He disconnected the call and let his hand drop to his lap.
Maybe next time.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Summoning all the patience she could muster, Meredith met Eddy and Courtney at the dock, her arms crossed over her chest and her toes tapping. “I thought we agreed no sailboat ride?”
Eddy cocked his head. “We did?”
“You’re doing what you’ve always done, Eddy. You’re not listening to me.” Her hands dropped to her hips. “When I set boundaries, you sidestep them as if you never heard me.”
His brows slanted. “If I remember correctly, you said you don’t like being out on the water. You didn’t say anything about not taking Court for a quick jaunt.”
Darn. He had her there.
Eddy lifted Courtney off the sailboat and set him on his feet. “There you go, Tiger. Be careful. Don’t fall. You’re still a landlubber, Mate. You haven’t got your sea legs yet.”
Meredith crouched to catch him, but instead of running to her for a hug, Courtney took off for the porch with a squeal. “Aye, aye, Cap’n. I gonna win!”
“Not if I get there first!” Eddy called after him.
Meredith ran a hand through her wind tossed locks as she straightened. Had she heard right? Eddy was not only Daddy now, but Captain too?
Abruptly, she was in his arms. Before she could growl a warning, he’d covered her mouth with his. Mumbling for him to stop, she pushed him away, but he held on tight. When pushing didn’t work, she dug her nails into his chest until he broke the kiss. “I said no.”
“Ouch.” He pulled back, rubbing his chest. “Nipple pinching, huh? That’s new.”
Typical. He twisted whatever she did or said. That would be the day she did anything remotely intimate with him. “Don’t kiss me again. The only reason I’m here is for Courtney. You and me are over. Understood?”
“I win!” her happy boy crowed from the porch, his wind-reddened face wide with glee. Courtney did look as if he’d had the time of his life.
Eddy waved at him. “That young man of yours is intelligent, Meredith. We had fun out there on the water. I wish you’d come with us to smell the open sea and feel the bite in the wind and—” He sucked in a deep breath and thumped a hand to his chest. “God, I had no idea how much it meant to share this old boat with my son. This place. Look around. It’ll all be his someday.”
An unexpected dose of guilt for not trusting Eddy caught in her throat.
“But you are right. That kiss was out of line and I apologize. I guess I was overcome by the moment.” He said all the right words.
She almost wanted to forgive him. “Behave yourself. We have a little boy to think of and he doesn’t need to see displays like that. It’ll confuse him.”
Totally disregarding her warning, he grabbed her hand, but Meredith bit back her protest. She hated encouraging the illusion that they were together, but Courtney was frowning. He looked concerned, the last thing she wanted.
Shrugging out of his grip, she hurried to her son. “Did you see me waving at you?”
“Ah-huh. I did.” He wrapped his arms around her neck. “Did you see me flying?”
“You mean sailing, son,” Eddy corrected.
“And I want a boat!”
“And you shall have one.” Eddy reached around them to open the front door.
“You don’t need a boat,” Meredith scolded, lifting Courtney into her arms. She nuzzled his neck to distract him. “You already have a new trike. Don’t you want—?”
“Yes, I do, Mama,” he argued, crossing his arms over his chest, his lips pinched into a pout and his brows furrowed. “I want a big boat. A really big one. Just like Daddy’s.”
Eddy lifted a salacious brow. “Well, I do have a big one.”
And that was the last straw. No three-year-old needed to deal with sexual innuendo.
“We’re done here,” she declared, her Irish up. She set Courtney on his feet. “Get your jacket and Bear. It’s time to go home.”
“Oh, come on,” Eddy groused. “Can’t an ex-husband tease his ex-wife?”
“No. You can’t. And you’re not to jerk Courtney around either. He’s your son, not some conquest to step over on your way to me. Stop manipulating him.”
Courtney let out a bleat. “Daddy says I kin have one, Mama. He says I kin have anything I want.”
“Sweetheart, we’ll talk about that boat when we get home, okay?”
His bottom lip stuck out. “No. I staying.”
Meredith took a deep breath and stopped arguing with a three-year-old. “Okay then. You stay here. It’s too bad you don’t have any pajamas or your blanket, though.”
He blinked. “I kin stay?”
“Sure. I’m not going to fight with you, honey. If you want to stay here—”
He ran into her arms. “No, Mama. I going home with you.”
She slanted a small smile of satisfaction in Eddy’s direction as she picked her son up again. He might own the world, but she knew what made her little boy tick.
Eddy shook his head as he opened his front door, his eyes on the floor, and there it was again—the tender look that made her want to believe him. “You’re right,” he said, his voice subdued. “I’ve behaved badly. Like I said, I’m not good with kids, but don’t leave, Meredith. Give me another chance. I can be better. I know I can.”
Gritting her teeth, she set Courtney down. “Maybe another time. I think we’ve had enough visiting for one day. Go get Bear, Courtney. We’re leaving.”
He hunched over and whined, “But I don’t wanna go.”
“I know, but we need to. Get Bear or he stays here.”
That did it. Courtney took off to find his best friend.
“I am sorry,” Eddy insisted. “Listen. I can’t help it if you’re irresistible. Don’t punish my son for what I did.”
“You’re not sorry.” She faced him, whispering so Courtney wouldn’t hear. “I don’t care what I said, you knew I didn’t want him out on the water. You fill his head with ideas a three-year-old doesn’t have a clue about. A boat, Eddy? Really? You told him he needs a boat, and where does that high-and-mighty notion leave me? Suddenly, you’re the hero, and I’m the witch who gets to tell him no—is that what you’re teaching him? You show up with the world at your fingertips while all I’ve got to offer him is tuna casserole?”
With his
palms splayed open, Eddy stuttered, “I... I didn’t mean it like that. Honest. I—”
“What did you think you were doing, then?” she hissed. “He’s three! He believes everything you tell him. Don’t toy with that little boy’s heart like you did mine, because right now, he thinks you’re his hero. I don’t.”
“Bear’s lost, Mama,” Courtney mumbled behind her.
“I’m... I’m sorry,” Eddy said. “Honest, Meredith. I was only trying to make up for being an ass.”
“Then stop being one.” She whirled away from Eddy and crouched down to Courtney’s level, changing her tone and countenance. “Where’s Bear?”
A tear tracked out of her little boy’s eye. Manfully, he glanced at Eddy as he wiped it away. His lip quivered. “He lost, Mama.”
“Oh, now stop fussing.” She pulled him to her. “We’ll find him. Did he go sailing with you?”
“Uh-uh,” Courtney said sadly as he shook his head. “I not want Bear to get wet.”
“Good thinking, Son.” Eddy crouched beside them, contrition deep in his eyes. “I’ll bet that rascal took off on his own adventure while we were sailing. Shall I help you find him?”
Meredith closed her eyes. How could he do this, twist her inside out until she didn’t know what to believe?
Eddy pulled Courtney out of her hands and settled him high on his shoulder. “Come on, Court, let’s find Bear. Then let’s take your mother for a ride and to dinner, so she’ll forgive us for frightening her, shall we?”
“Home,” Meredith reminded him tersely, her toes tapping.
“Yes!” Courtney said excitedly. “And buy me a boat!”
“Probably not,” Eddy dodged a direct answer. “Big boats are for big boys like me. Trikes are for little guys like you. How about if we settle for a nice dinner tonight? That’ll make your mother happy.”
“Home, Eddy.” God, he was infuriating.
Up they went to the top level. But the higher they went, the more Meredith’s instincts prickled. Eddy had Courtney all to himself again. She could barely hear their father/son banter until they stood at the third level banister when Eddy stopped to look down. Over the edge. With Courtney tilted forward. “Hey, pretty lady. Am I forgiven?”
“Not if you drop my son,” she bit out. “You’re scaring him, Eddy. Hold onto him.”
Eddy glanced over his shoulder. “Courtney Welch isn’t afraid of anything, are you?”
The little boy who wanted to please his father shook his head and breathed his first lie. “No, I not ‘fraid.”
Finally! Eddy reached one arm over his head and clamped onto the boy. “You’re shaking. You okay back there?” Courtney’s head bobbed even as Eddy tugged him into the safety of his arms. “It’s all right, he muttered. “I’d never let you fall, big guy.”
“C-Courtney Flynn,” Meredith corrected weakly, so damned thankful her son was no longer in danger of tumbling over that banister.
Eddy tossed her another wink, nodding. “You’re right. I should’ve known better.”
You think! Meredith nearly collapsed with relief when they stepped away from that damned banister. Why did Eddy play these games? Or was he? She couldn’t decide. One minute he seemed sincere, but the next he acted oblivious to his son’s safety. Didn’t he understand how little boys thought and worried? That had to be it. Fatherhood was an unknown frontier for this high roller, and he had a lot of catching up to do.
In seconds, naughty Bear was back on ground level with everyone else. Meredith scooped her son into her arms, still shaken at what could have happened. Didn’t it figure? Eddy wrapped his arms around the family he’d deserted, his chin in the crook of her neck. “You’re shaking. I’m sorry I scared you again,” he murmured. “I can’t seem to get anything right.”
She swallowed hard and endured the embrace. It was obvious he had no clue what to do with children. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “You’ll learn, just… don’t ever take chances, okay? He’s small and he doesn’t know better and it’s our job to protect him.” And I’d die before I let anything happen to him.
Eddy nodded against her hair but kept his hands where they belonged and not on her ass. “I suppose you want to leave now,” he said sadly.
Meredith wasn’t that cruel. Eddy seemed earnestly trying to get this fatherhood thing figured out. She couldn’t blame him for making mistakes when she’d blundered through enough of her own as a new mother. Kids didn’t come with instructions. She’d had time to grow into motherhood. Eddy might need the same consideration.
She swallowed her overly protective edge and decided to end the day on a positive note. “How about a long ride and dinner on our way home?”
He eased back, looking down at her. “I truly am sorry.”
“Let’s just go.” She needed to put this day behind her. “Where are you taking us?”
“McGinley’s,” Eddy replied as he retrieved her jacket from the front room.
Of course. The trendiest nightclub restaurant on the bay. Why choose some place reasonable where a child might actually fit in?
“Wait. I need my backpack.” She’d stashed it beside her jacket on the leather recliner. “I’ll get it.”
Eddy shook his head. “You women and your purses. What’s in it? A gun?”
What an odd question. Her lashes hit the floor as she tugged the backpack over one arm. Did he already know she’d brought her conceal carry at the last moment—just because? “A change of clothes for Courtney, remember? He needs his jacket, too.”
“Already taken care of.” Eddy grunted as he corralled Courtney’s arms into the correct sleeves. “Come on then. You want to be home by eight, and home, you shall be.”
Hunter couldn’t get out of Brazil fast enough. He’d tried to call Meredith before he boarded the flight home, all without avail. Sitting in comfortable first class didn’t alleviate the growing sense that something was wrong. Neither did the long, direct flight into Dulles International Airport, northern Virginia. He doffed his seat belt as soon he could and paced the jetliner.
Lee fell asleep before lift-off. Alex took the window seat and perused one of several newspapers he’d picked up in the airport. “You’re wearing a hole in the carpet.”
Hunter growled to himself and sat. “Guess you’re right.”
“Mother’s still checking into Roger Teach.” Alex thumbed another page, then shook the folds out of his paper.
“And?”
“Whoever he is, he’s a slippery one. It’s as if he didn’t exist before he took over Brinkman EX seven months ago.”
“How is that possible? Everyone leaves a paper trail. Bank accounts. Birth certificates.”
“You’d think so.” Alex seemed absorbed in whatever article he’d come across.
“Are you telling me he might be CIA? Mob? A foreign spy?”
“I’m telling you he’s in for a surprise if he thinks he’s smarter than Mother.”
Hunter replayed Masters’ threat. I’m finding that damned bitch today if it’s the last thing I do. Teach wants her, dead or alive. Dead works for me.
“He wants Meredith dead, Boss. Her son too.”
“So you said,” Alex murmured, “which is why I sent Maverick and Taylor over to her place this morning. Don’t worry. They’ll take care of her until you land.”
Maverick Carson and Taylor Armstrong were two of the best agents on The TEAM. Hunter trusted them. Meredith would be safe.
Lightning flashed off in the distance. Rain pelted the windows. Hunter stared past Alex out the window, hating the confinement of an all-night flight from Caracas. He needed to be on the ground. Now.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Eddy could be charming when he set his mind to it.
“My usual,” he ordered the maître d’ when they’d arrived at McGinley’s. A waiter escorted them through the crowded restaurant into a private dining room at the back of the restaurant. Overlooking the Chesapeake, the elegant room came complete with soft lighting, a la
vish fresh flower centerpiece, and a staff of two waiters. Another stood waiting off to the side with a carafe of ice water.
Safe in her arms, Courtney dodged the strange gentlemen dressed in crisply ironed white shirts and pressed black slacks. His best buddy, Bear, stayed tucked under his chin for protection from all things adult.
The table had already been set with Irish crystal and silverware, but the booster seat in one of the chairs caught her eye. Eddy must have phoned ahead. That was unusually thoughtful. Maybe there was hope for him after all.
“Come to me,” he commanded Courtney, his arms outstretched to take the boy from Meredith. Courtney hesitated for less than a second. Okay, that was another surprise—her son transferring eagerly into his father’s arms when he’d been shy the day before. Meredith gulped. Between all the gifts and Eddy’s fatherly attention, she was losing ground fast.
Eddy turned his attention to her, a twinkle in his gray eyes as he held a chair for her. “May I seat you?”
“Yes. Thank you.” She took her place next to Courtney. “This is very nice. I can only imagine how much this is costing you.”
His brow lifted in a devilish arch. “Actually, they let me eat here for free whenever I choose. I own McGinley’s.”
Wow. She so didn’t realize what it meant to be wined and dined by a billionaire. Oh, wait, yes, she did. Jed McCormack was a billionaire, only one would never know it to look at him. He was so—normal.
Eddy settled at the other side of Courtney. “I’ll just bet you’re a macaroni and cheese connoisseur.”
Courtney pursed his lips. “I not a con-a-sour. They’re scary and they eat people.”
Meredith couldn’t contain a giggle. “Not a dinosaur, Courtney. A connoisseur. That’s someone who likes to eat good food.”
“Like mac-n-cheese,” Eddy added.
“Oh, yeah! I like mac-n-cheese.” Courtney’s eyes brightened as he clapped. “And I like pisghetti and hotdogs and hangebergers and noodles...” He took a big breath, “and oh, yeah. Popsicles!”
Meredith interlocked her fingers under her chin, her elbows on the table. Her son did like to eat.
Hunter (In the Company of Snipers Book 14) Page 31