by Caro Carson
They didn’t.
They made it all the way to the house without seeing India. When Aiden walked up the flagstone stairs, he noted that all the windows had been closed already. India had not left the house and started walking toward his place yet because...well, she could be doing anything in the house, really.
She wouldn’t have left without discussing it with him first.
What is there to discuss? You never changed the ground rules. The ship is in port. She is free to disembark.
What had she been doing before dinner? Had she put her few toiletries back into the only overnight bag she’d brought in from Tom’s truck? While he’d been cooking, she’d let Fabio out. Had she put her bag back in the truck at the same time?
He opened the patio door and let Fabio go bounding in. The girls followed, exclaiming about the still-strong smell of the polyurethane, adding noise and motion to the house—the only noise and motion there was. The house seemed empty.
Aiden’s stomach dropped.
“India!”
Too loud. Too desperate. Poppy and Olympia stared at him in sudden silence, their eyes big in their small faces. Fabio dropped his squeaky toy and waited, panting, tongue hanging out of his mouth.
“Why don’t you help Fabio decide which toy to bring back to our house? Test them all out, see which one he likes the best.” While I lose my mind, looking for the woman I kept too many secrets from.
He strode down the hall, barely master of himself, heading straight for the guest room. Their room.
She wasn’t there. The bed was as they’d left it, stripped bare. The sheets were in a small pile on the floor where he’d told her to leave them, because he could wash them and make the bed up after she was gone. They’d stolen those extra nine hours of happiness. He hadn’t wanted to waste a minute of it on laundry.
They’d made love on those sheets instead.
He’d let their bodies do the communicating, but he should have given her the words. He had never really told her he loved her, not one simple I love you. He’d only spun scenarios about how their love was going to hurt them in the long run, how much pain they’d feel when they were apart. She’s not dead, you idiot.
No, she wasn’t. But she wasn’t here.
Move out, soldier. Move further, move faster.
She wasn’t in the master bedroom or the master bathroom, but Aiden was grimly determined now. If India was gone, he would find her. She loved him. He loved her. There was no way he would let this vacation romance end, not like this. Surrender is not a Ranger word.
He’d already texted Helen and Tom yesterday morning, twice, asking for India’s number. India had his—he’d seen it on Helen’s list in the kitchen—but he had never gotten hers. There’d been no need. They’d been together every minute, day and night. He’d texted Helen and Tom again, asking if India was staying one night or two in San Antonio, and where.
Then she’d shown up on his doorstep, only to find out that he hadn’t trusted their love enough to share the best part of his life with her—nor his worst.
Aiden returned to the kitchen, where he could keep one eye on the girls and the incredible mess of dog toys that now lay in the living room floor, and took out his phone. Neither Helen nor Tom had answered him yet from yesterday.
He tried again. Do you know which hotel she was going to on Padre Island?
No answer. He didn’t know what time it was in Belgium. He didn’t know if Tom and Helen were even in Belgium, frankly. It didn’t matter. He and his daughters were about to drive to Padre Island.
His phone buzzed. It was Helen. Are you stalking my friend?
No, he typed impatiently. She invited me to join her, and I was too much of an idiot to say yes. My mistake. I need to fix this.
He and the girls would walk the beaches until they found India. Then he’d go down on one knee in the sand...
If they didn’t find her, then he’d be flying to NATO headquarters as soon as he could get Debra to come and stay with the girls. Readily will I fight on to complete the mission...
The mission had changed. He was no longer trying to extend a vacation romance. He was going to tell India that he loved her, full stop. That she was it; that he wanted her in every part of his life. And because she was the one for him, if he had to love her from across an ocean, then that was what he would do.
“Put the dog toys away now. We’re leaving in a minute.”
He’d swept the house. He only had to make sure the garage was locked, and then he’d go back to his own house and start packing his girls’ suitcases one more time. Quickly. Maybe they’d see Tom’s truck on the highway to Padre.
Aiden walked into the garage and came to an abrupt halt. There she was, the woman with the gray eyes, the beginning and the end at once. Sudden impact.
This time, he couldn’t screw it up.
* * *
“India.”
She looked up from the phone in her hand, still trying to catch her breath from reading Helen’s text.
I think my battalion S-3 is in love with you. He’s been asking me how to reach you since yesterday morning. He wants to go to San Antonio and Padre Island and everything. Do you want me to pass on your contact info?
Three words stood out: since yesterday morning.
Before India had come back, before she’d shown up on his doorstep, he’d decided to find her, knowing his girls would be with him. He’d planned on telling her everything. He’d planned on making their vacation romance a real part of his life. Hadn’t he?
“You’re still here,” he said.
“Yes, of course.” She sounded all breathy, about a hundred times more Marilyn Monroe than usual.
“You’re still here,” he repeated as he closed the distance between them in two strides and wrapped her in his arms. His next words were spoken against her lips. “You’re still here. There’s no of course about it. I’m lucky you’re here. I wasn’t honest with you for a week.”
“You never lied to me.”
“I should have told you about my children. About Melissa. You walked into the situation blind, and that was inexcusable of me. That day at McDonald’s—I was so afraid of losing you—”
“You wanted those three nights.”
“I did.” But he bowed his head to rest his forehead against hers as if that had been a bad thing, to want as much time with her as he could have.
“I get it. I have six more nights before I fly back to Belgium. I came here to decide where I should spend them. I took one look at that bed and knew I would do anything to spend them with you.”
He exhaled, a breath of relief, and leaned back against the wall, pulling her with him.
She smiled gently. “You told me never to regret any hours spent being happy. I want another week of happiness. I understand that you wanted those three nights.”
“You understand.” But he said it like that was amazing, and then he kissed her, hard and sure, for one moment of happiness. “You’re letting me off easy again.”
India was still clinging to the phone in her hand. “Not really. I realized that I wanted six more nights with you just now, but I didn’t exactly run back across the bridge to tell you that, did I?”
He backed up just enough so that they could look at one another. He looked so grave, but he touched her face so tenderly. “Why didn’t you?”
“Six nights means six more days, too. And those days would include Poppy and Olympia.”
His hand stilled.
“Aiden, I want six more nights with a generous lover. But how generous are you, really, when you didn’t tell me about the very best part of your life?”
“The very best?” He asked that so cautiously, afraid to believe her words were true.
She squeezed him, pressing her hand and the phone into his waist for a little shake. “Those girls are
wonderful. You let me leave without telling me what mattered to you. You let me leave without knowing what I was missing. I know I’m the woman who said she didn’t date fathers, and I know I said I don’t do families, but you said you loved me, anyway. If you loved me, you’d have to share that side of yourself with me. You didn’t.”
“I should have—”
“So while I’ve been spending Christmas getting to know Poppy and Olympia and falling in love with them, I’ve also been growing more and more insecure. I had to admit to myself that you must not really love me. Not the way I was hoping you loved me. I stood in that spare bedroom just a little while ago, and I knew I could extend our vacation romance another six days, but only because I happened to have stumbled into the situation. Not because you told me you had two daughters.”
“I’m sorry. That was my mistake. Please believe me, I was going to fix it. I had a plan.”
“I know.” India glanced at her phone. Helen’s text messages were still bright on the screen.
Aiden was so very serious. “I was going to let the girls have their Christmas morning, and then I was going to pile them and their new toys in the truck and drive to Debra’s in San Antonio. I was going to leave the girls at my sister’s house while I found your bed and breakfast, and then I was going to tell you the truth, that I was one of those fathers you avoided. In my mind, I planned to break it all to you gently, somehow, in some way that wouldn’t be too much of a shock, and then I was going to ask if you’d like to meet my daughters. Instead, I opened my front door yesterday, and you were standing there, and... I am so sorry. That was not a good way for you to find out. I never meant to do that to you. I love you.”
“I know that, too.”
“You know—Did you say you knew I had a plan?”
India felt all the happiness welling up, threatening to make her laugh when she needed to speak. “Helen’s text beat you by about two minutes. I was just standing here in the garage reading that yesterday you’d been trying to get Helen to tell you where I was in San Antonio. You were going to share your girls with me. You were going to take a chance on this woman from Belgium who swore she wouldn’t date a father. I just showed up before you could. You weren’t quitting on me.”
It was huge, this realization that she was loved. This man loved her enough to share everything precious with her—and to risk having her say no, thank you, and walk away. He loved her enough to risk more pain, even though he had survived so much pain in his life already.
He loved her. Suddenly, she felt more like crying than laughing.
“Don’t cry, India. Everything will be okay.”
She threw her arms around him and let his hug soothe her. He felt warm and strong, and she buried her face in his throat, inhaling the scent of his skin.
After a moment, she pressed her lips against that skin. A kiss. A taste.
“Do you realize this is where we met?” she asked.
She felt his smile. “Yes.”
“Do you remember the last time we were in this garage together?”
“Like it was the day before yesterday.”
She laughed. “So you remember this? In the garage?” She tugged on his belt buckle, bringing them into intimate contact.
“As I recall, our positions were reversed.”
She knew he wanted her, which was just what she wanted for the rest of her life. “So, reverse them.”
Her back was against the wall in a heartbeat, Aiden leaning over her. “I have to warn you, that last time might have been a bit of a desperate farewell. I’m not going to ever touch you again as a farewell.”
“Good. I’m not leaving.”
Aiden braced one hand on the wall over her head. He ran his other hand down her body, from shoulder to waist, like he had the right. He looked very satisfied with everything he touched.
Her pulse heated up. “And I’m not going to say I can’t again.”
That brought his gaze right back to her face. His hand stilled, his palm warming the side of her breast through her shirt.
“I love you, Aiden Nord, and I believe you love me. But I said I can’t because I was a little confused by all the love flying around your house. You and your sister, you and your children. I think you even love Fabio a little bit. And you and your Melissa.”
His hand stopped. “India, it’s really okay—”
She put two fingers over his lips. “Where I come from, the max amount of love is two. Me, Mom. No pets, even. So when I walked into your house, I thought your life was already overflowing. You didn’t need me.”
“I need you.”
“I need you, too. I need you to help me learn how to handle so much love. I think if I start with you, the rest will come naturally.” She lifted her fingertips from his lips and let her hand drift down the front of his shirt. She slipped her hand between them and settled her palm against the denim that couldn’t hide the hard heat of him. “It’s a lot to handle, but I’m willing to try.”
He narrowed his eyes at her, and she bit her lip to keep herself from laughing.
“Are you speaking in double entendre?” he asked.
“It’s one of my better languages now.”
“I have to use plain English.” His hand moved then, the warmth leaving her breast to cup her cheek. “I love you, India Woods. You’re it. This is no vacation romance. We can date and court and text and video conference and fly across the Atlantic, and we might as well do all of it, because you’re the only woman I’m going to love.”
“I love you, too, so you should marry me—oh,” India said, at the exact same time Aiden said, “So you should marry me—yes.”
Epilogue
“I’m going to send you a new penny.”
Olympia bounced with excitement at India’s promise. Aiden dodged a swinging pigtail and looked around his daughter’s head to keep an eye on India’s face on the video app.
“The army is sending me on a trip to Norway next week. They have their own pennies in that country. I’ll get you one, and a penny for Poppy, too.”
Aiden tilted the phone down a bit to make sure Poppy was in the frame, too. His daughter smiled at India’s image. “Pop-ee-pen.”
“Oh, shucks, I couldn’t understand that,” India said. “Could you take your fingers out of your mouth and say it again, pretty please, so I can hear it?”
Poppy did. “A Poppy penny.”
Aiden winked at India. Very smooth way to get her to take her fingers out of her mouth.
“Poppy penny,” India said with a smile. “That’s fun to say. Lots of letter P. Daddy can show you where Norway is on the map.”
“In a minute.” Aiden lifted Olympia off his lap and stood with the phone in his hand for a little semiadult conversation. “Do you speak Norwegian now?”
“No.” India sighed. “But I guess I’ll learn.”
“You’re amazing, baby. You don’t even realize that the average person doesn’t say, ‘Oh, well, going to this foreign country, guess I’m going to pick up another language this week.’”
The satellite connection was nice and smooth this time, so her shoulder shrug was smooth, too—a painfully clear, painfully beautiful reminder of how smoothly she moved in real life.
“You never know which language will come in handy on a trip,” she said.
“I’m sure at least one will.” Aiden left it at that, but he was certain that she wasn’t being assigned to a diplomat’s entourage for a Norwegian conference just to pick up a new language. She’d actually be listening to the leaders from one of the countries that spoke a less friendly language than Norwegian.
He admired the hell out of her abilities. He worried like hell about what really went on during these trips. He wished like hell he could personally keep her safe, but she was across an ocean.
For now.
She’d
had to fly back to Brussels on New Year’s Day. Aiden had made it until the end of February on phone calls and texts and letters, on all the things he’d once said would not sustain a vacation romance—but this was not a vacation romance. This was it.
India was it—so at the end of February, he’d flown with the girls to Connecticut, left them with his parents, and flown across the Atlantic to Belgium for four days of bliss.
In April, the army had sent India to Washington, DC, for an international event of some kind at the Pentagon. Since she’d already crossed Europe and the Atlantic, she’d tacked on a long weekend to fly the remaining 1500 miles from DC to Austin. Aiden had met her at the airport with two girls and three bouquets. You told me I should marry you. I wondered if you’d like to do that today?
Tom and Helen had met them at the courthouse, stood as their witnesses, and then taken their little flower girls back to Fabio’s house for the night. India had flown back to Belgium forty-eight hours later with Aiden’s ring on her finger. Copies of their marriage certificate were sent on their way to their respective commands. As a legally married couple, they could start the process to request joint domicile.
Roughly four out of five military couples were stationed together. With India’s unique skill set, they weren’t likely to be one of those lucky couples, but it would be much easier to spend time together if they were stationed on the same continent. If Aiden could get an assignment in Germany, he’d be able to see his wife in Belgium much more frequently.
India, however, wanted to live in the States. Her language skills would probably never allow her to be stationed in Texas, but the Pentagon was another matter. If she could be stationed permanently in Washington, DC, they’d be able to fly to see each other at least once a month. They had to wait and see if either option would be approved.
Aiden tried to be a patient man. He wasn’t quitting, no matter how long it took for them to live on the same side of an ocean.
“By the way, I never told you who I ran into when I was at the Pentagon last month,” India said. “A classmate of yours from West Point. Do you remember Pamela Grant?”