Daddy Next Door - The Complete Series Box Set (A Single Dad Navy SEAL Romance)

by Claire Adams

  “Hey babe!” I said right away, trying to keep my relief out of my voice. Over the phone I could hear the sound of dozens of guys—shouting, laughing, and joking— even if I couldn’t make out any specifics of what they were saying. If they were anything like most guys, I thought, I probably wouldn’t want to know what they were talking and joking about.

  “Becky! I’m so glad I got you—I thought you might be at dinner.” I could barely hear Johnny’s voice over the yelling and laughing going on around him and I wondered where he was specifically; was he in a locker room somewhere, or on the bus? I shrugged it off. I couldn’t bring myself to mention the rude upperclassman girl or even what she had told me; it was still too raw, and I knew better than to try and touch on a serious topic like that when he was clearly among his friends and teammates.

  “Nah, I’m vegging out in the dorm,” I said, smiling to myself. I wished that he was talking to me in person; I wished I knew where he was, what he was doing, whether he had actually gotten my text or if he was just calling me because he wanted to call me.

  “I’ve been thinking about you all day,” Johnny said—I caught his words only barely. “I was hoping that if I got your voice mail, you didn’t have the stupid automatic version, and I could hear your voice.” I laughed in spite of myself.

  “You’re crazy—I wouldn’t miss a call from you for the world,” I told him.

  “I wish I could hear you better—these guys are a hot mess, you know?” I nodded, even though I knew he couldn’t see me. “I can’t wait to see you again, Becky.” Someone on the other end of the line—not Johnny—made some kind of joke about him being whipped and I rolled my eyes. I heard the meaty sound of someone being smacked; not in any way that would really hurt them, but enough to make them stop while still being playful. “As soon as I get back I’m going to find you right away. I’m not cut out for not seeing a beautiful woman for so long.” I felt myself smiling and remembered—suddenly—the question that had weighed on me earlier in the day.

  “Hey, speaking of that—when are you going to be back?” the sound of boys shouting and joking was getting louder.

  “Sorry, Becky; I’ve got to go. I couldn’t go another moment without hearing your voice, but we’re heading out somewhere now and I can’t be on my phone.” I sighed. He hadn’t been able to hear me over the noise on his end, that much was certain. I managed to get him to hear my goodbye, and then the call ended, the boop-boop-boop tone leaving me disappointed.

  Earlier in the day, I had thought that if I could just hear Johnny’s voice, or even get a text from him, some kind of contact, I would feel better. Of course, like with so many things, I had discovered that what I wanted wasn’t enough once I had it. I wished that he could have stayed on the phone with me a little longer. I wished that Johnny could have given me something more to cling to so I could be more confident that I had any idea at all about what there was between us. I wished that he’d called me while he was alone, so he wouldn’t have been distracted by his teammates.

  I decided that I needed to get some food in me. I still didn’t feel hungry, and the prospect of walking all the way to the dining hall and maybe running into the girl once more was more than enough to keep me in the room. I rummaged through the junk food scattered around the room and mined what I wanted: snack crackers, a packet of ramen, a few squares of chocolate for dessert. It wasn’t exactly a great or even nutritionally-sound dinner, but it filled my stomach and gave me something to think about for a few moments other than Johnny. I wished that I had been able to just enjoy the call Johnny had made and rejoice in the fact that he had been thinking of me enough to want to call me, in spite of hanging out with his teammates. It should have been a relief, but I couldn’t make myself relax, in spite of the call.

  Chapter Three

  The next morning, even though I barely slept the night before, I forced myself to get out of bed and to make my way to class. As I got up, got dressed, and made myself pack my books into my bag, I tried to think of something that I could hold onto to be grateful for. The fact that Johnny had called me at all, I decided to summon up at least a bit of happiness for. The fact that my class—while early—wasn’t painfully early, I could be relieved to know. I hadn’t had to wake up at 6am, the way I had done for high school. 7:30 in the morning was still early, but I knew there were classes that were already in progress as I was dragging myself around my dorm room, rubbing at my face and wishing that it wasn’t so gray and gloomy outside.

  I stopped at the dining hall on my way towards the class buildings and swiped my card; the menu board proclaimed that the special attraction for the morning was a “smoothie bar,” which manifested itself as a table with about a dozen blenders, a few extra carafes, and piles and piles of various fruit, juices, and mix-ins like protein powder and spirulina. I wondered to myself how much of my own personal food dollars had gone into the scheme. But it was as good an idea as any, considering that I had to get to class and didn’t have time for anything more substantial. I loaded up a carafe with broken up pieces of banana, a handful of strawberries, some blueberries, a scoop of whey protein, some peaches, a dollop of yogurt, coconut shreds, and apple juice and let it blitz while I snagged another cup for some coffee.

  When I sampled my finished smoothie, I decided that it tasted a little weird, but not bad; certainly I’d probably made worse ones in my life. Some of the other students were loading their carafes with greens, which gave me a shudder, or with weird fruits just to see what odd combinations they could come up with—papaya-pineapple-strawberry-grape, or cherry-blueberry with chocolate protein powder. I left them to their concoctions and gathered up my liquid breakfast, heading for the door.

  I was halfway across the campus, starting to finally feel good about being awake, when something—someone—grabbed me from behind. I gasped, nearly spilling both of my drinks all over the place and immediately squirming to break free of whoever had had the brilliant idea of grabbing a girl who was just trying to get to class. “Hey, Becky—don’t spill!” I heard Johnny’s voice in my ear and I very nearly ended up spilling my drinks a second time, startled at the sound of him. His grip on my waist loosened just slightly and I turned to face him, feeling a mixture of shock, startlement, and relieved delight. If someone was going to come up and grab me from behind, at least it could be someone I was into.

  “Oh my god, you’re back!” I was grinning like an idiot and I knew it; but I couldn’t care what I looked like as I carefully threw my arms around Johnny, trying not to dump my breakfast all over him. Johnny hugged me tightly, and I felt my body heating up in spite of the early hour and in spite of how horribly I had slept the night before. I buried my face against Johnny’s neck and breathed in the smell of his cologne, beyond happy to see him.

  Johnny disentangled my arms from around him and looked around quickly. I started to say that I had to get to class—that I wasn’t in the DH because I couldn’t spend the time to actually eat breakfast there. But before I could protest or even tell him the issue, he led me off of the walkway and towards one of the smaller classroom buildings, pulling me around the corner away from the sight of anyone trying to get to class, away from all of the windows. He pressed me against the brick wall, his hands snagging my to go cups away, setting them aside somewhere I couldn’t see. I kissed him back, for a moment forgetting completely about everything that I was thinking about—about class, about how little I liked waking up so early, about how hopeless it was to even go to class when I knew I wouldn’t take in more than half of what the professor was saying. I kissed him back, my heart pounding in my chest, my body warming up more and more.

  I shivered and moaned softly against Johnny’s lips as I felt his hands beginning to slip up underneath my tee shirt, his fingers cold against my skin. He teased my breasts through my shirt and I arched into his touch, forgetting everything that the nasty girl from the dining hall had said about him, forgetting about Claire White, forgetting about everything but how good it
felt to kiss Johnny, to feel his body pressed against mine. “God,” Johnny murmured against my lips, his hands wandering all over me underneath my shirt until I felt my pussy starting to get wet, “I wish I could just rip off all your clothes right now and screw you right up against this wall.” I could feel the hard ridge of his quickly-hardening cock straining at his jeans, digging into my hip, as Johnny pressed up against me, kissing me more and more hungrily. He pulled back with a shudder, taking a shaking breath. “You have no idea how much I missed you,” he told me, smiling sweetly.

  “Probably about as much as I missed you—though in fairness to me, I didn’t have a game to occupy my thoughts.” Johnny laughed, kissing me on the lips again lightly, giving my breasts one last lingering caress through the fabric of my bra before he backed off slightly.

  “I thought about you the whole time,” he said, reaching out and tweaking at the ponytail I’d put my hair into. “Especially on the bus home, when half the team was snoring—you’re a lot more fun to sleep with.” I rolled my eyes.

  “I certainly hope you’re not sleeping with your teammates the way you slept with me—that would make things pretty complicated on the team.”

  “That would bring a new meaning to ‘male bonding,’” Johnny countered. “God, it’s good to see you. I thought I’d be happy just hearing your voice but it only made it worse. I almost called you late last night, just to hear you again.” I was grinning, blushing, unable to help myself—I was so happy Johnny was back, so happy he’d immediately come to look for me, that he had kept enough information about me in mind to know I’d be going to class.

  “Shit! I just remembered—I’m going to be late for class!” Johnny laughed, leaning in and kissing me on the forehead.

  “Let me walk you there,” he suggested. I nodded; maybe if I was late but showed up on Johnny’s arm, it wouldn’t be so bad—certainly he seemed to be able to get away with anything. “I meant to ask you,” he said, pulling me free of the wall and leading me back towards the walkway. “What have you got going on tonight? Any plans?” I grinned, rolling my eyes at him.

  “Oh yeah,” I said. “Real hot date. I was planning on sitting in my dorm room all night, waiting for you to call me, hoping you would.” Johnny grinned, draping his arm around my shoulder and holding me close as we walked towards the Marchman building.

  “Well, since we don’t have a game tonight, and I’d rather spend time with you than any of the guys at my frat…” Johnny gave me a playful nudge. “Would you let me take you out? I promise I won’t keep you out late unless you absolutely want me to.” My heart leaped in my chest and I could barely contain my excitement; Johnny might not be serious about me—and of course I couldn’t expect him to be so soon—but at least he wanted to see me again. At least he had made an effort to get up early and chase me down on my way to class, and at least he wanted to take me out on a real date. That was something; a much bigger deal than just inviting me to his frat’s party.

  “I do not even care how late we’re out,” I said, shaking my head. “It’d be worth it to be all sleep-deprived tomorrow morning.” Johnny grinned and pulled me close against him as we made our way down the walkway. As he walked with me towards my first class of the day, I felt myself finally starting to relax for the first time since the girl from the dining hall had dropped the bomb on me about Claire White; in fact, I felt even more relaxed than I had even the morning after Johnny and I had slept together for the first time. Nothing could bring me down from how good I felt just to be with him and to know that he wanted to take me out, that he wanted to spend more time with me and that he had missed me.

  I felt like I was walking on air, joking and laughing with Johnny as we went along. He told me about the game—and I somehow managed to cover for the fact that I knew absolutely nothing at all about hockey. I grinned and reacted with surprise and as much enthusiasm as I could muster even as I struggled to puzzle through the different terms he used, and tried to piece together anything more than a basic understanding of the fact that our team had won. When he told me about a brawl, I shuddered and listened to the gory details, the timeout someone had been forced to take, the foul shot. I told myself that I was going to make sure to look up as much as I could about hockey when I got back to the dorm later in the day, so I could at least pretend like I could follow what he was saying.

  I was barely looking around, so only noticed completely by chance that the girl from the dining hall was in front of the Marchman building, smoking a cigarette before her class, as Johnny and I approached. She must have caught sight of us before I had noticed her there—the look she gave me was so disgusted, so bitter, that I almost laughed at her to her face. But I told myself that I had been raised better than that; I would be classy, even if she was an asshole. I simply turned my attention back onto Johnny and laughed as he finished up telling me a story about a prank the team had pulled on the coach during their rest stop the night before. It felt good to ignore her, and especially good to know that there was nothing she could say to me in front of Johnny. I thought to myself that it absolutely served her right to see me looking so happy with the guy I was rapidly developing feelings for. I wanted her to absolutely know that none of her stupid tricks was going to get in the way of my happiness.

  As we reached my classroom, Johnny gave me another quick kiss, and I glanced into the open door of the room; the professor was already there, calling the class to order. Johnny peeked his head in and called out a greeting to the professor, taking responsibility for me being late. “I had to waylay her for a few minutes,” he said. “You know—missing each other and all. I hope you’ll forgive Becky for my sake.” Everyone whispered amongst themselves as I quickly went into the room and sat down, pulling the stuff out of my bag. Johnny gave me a last, quick glance and a grin before he ducked out of the classroom, disappearing down the hall.

  Chapter Four

  Johnny and I spent the rest of the day exchanging texts, flirting with each other and arranging the details of our night out. I did have class the next day, but I couldn’t bring myself to worry too much about being exhausted for my classes; in the very worst case scenario, I was sure I could manage to send my professor an email claiming to be sick, maybe go to the campus clinic and work up a fever. Although Johnny told me to go ahead and eat dinner at the dining hall—since after all I was going to be paying for it whether I ate or not—he didn’t give me many details about where we were going, apart from the fact that I should wear really comfortable shoes. As cute as you looked in those heels they will not be a good idea where we’re going, he told me in a text, with a little emoji with its tongue sticking out added.

  Instead of actually eating in the dining hall, I grabbed a to go box and filled it with stuff that I could easily eat with my hands in my room. I told Georgia about the date when we met up for lunch, and she was excited for me—glad that I hadn’t broached the topic of the girl who had committed suicide, and pleased that Johnny had made it a priority to find me to ask me out. “Girl, you need to face that he’s actually, really into you,” she had said.

  I decided that since Johnny hadn’t told me anything other than to wear comfortable shoes, we were going to be doing a good bit of walking; to me, that meant that there was no way in hell I was going to wear the kind of outfit that Gigi had talked me into for the frat party the week before. I went with a comfortable, long skirt that came just past my knees, a pair of sneakers, and a shirt that buttoned up the back, thinking that that would cover any eventuality; I could be comfortable and still look nice.

  I dashed into the shower as soon as I finished eating, washing my hair and shaving my legs, and put on a little bit of makeup—not enough for it to be noticeable, but just enough to highlight my features. While I’ve never been super vain, I have known since I was about sixteen that I’m cute enough on my own. I was practically vibrating by the time I was done, ready for Johnny to call me to let me know he was in the pick-up circle next to the dorm; I paced back and
forth across the living room common area, wishing that Georgia was there just so that I could have someone to vent to about how impatient I felt.

  Finally, my phone rang, and I leaped towards my purse on the coffee table to grab it. It was Johnny. “Right outside your dorm, baby,” he said, and I could hear the grin in his voice. I told him I’d be right down and once more didn’t even bother with the elevator; it was all well and good for when I was moving my stuff into the building, but like most of the machines on campus it was more than a little slow, and the last thing I wanted was to chance being trapped in it when all I wanted was to get to Johnny.

  I stepped out of the dorm and walked quickly to the loop, looking around. I spotted a couple of cars, but no one was in them; they were courting a ticket from the campus cops, leaving their vehicles there for longer than maybe an hour. I nearly jumped when I heard a loud, larger-than-life horn honk, and spun around to take in the sight of a huge, red pickup truck, the source of the horn. It was tricked out, with fancy rims, and so high off the ground that I wondered if anyone could get into it without a ladder. I spotted Johnny seated behind the wheel, waving at me, and shook my head, laughing; if I didn’t know better, I would have thought the truck was compensating for something—but I did know better.

  I hurried over and heard the door on the driver’s side open as I got closer to the huge vehicle. Johnny leaped out of the cab, coming around to give me a fast, hungry kiss. “Perfect,” he told me, looking me up and down. “Good choice of shoes, and you still look just—way too hot to be real.” Johnny kissed me again and helped me up into the passenger side, giving me his shoulder to boost myself with as I put my foot up on the step and giving me a little shove to assist.