The SEAL's Stolen Child

by Laura Marie Altom

  “Nice touch.”

  “How about you grabbing butter?” He winked. “I assume you know where that is?”

  Had they still been sixteen, she’d have stuck out her tongue. As they’d both moved considerably past that stage, she merely slipped from her stool to do as he’d asked.

  In the pass off, their hands brushed and sadly, the warm rush of awareness from his lightest touch was strong as ever. Had things been different between them, the night could’ve taken an entirely different turn—one she instinctively knew would fill her with deep satisfaction.

  They ate in silence, and at the meal’s end, restored Juanita’s kitchen to its usual pristine state.

  “Still feel up to talking strategy?”

  “Sure.” Eve dried her hands on a dishcloth.

  He stood only a few feet from her, leaning against the granite counter, arms folded, legs crossed at the ankles. His posture told her he’d shut down. But why? Before their meal, the mood had been lighthearted. Now she got the impression his being there was a chore.

  “Everything okay?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Why?”

  She shrugged. “You seem different.”

  Sighing, he uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, bracing his hands on the center island. “Look, I guess for a few minutes there, the two of us felt good. Almost like we did back when we were a couple, but our lives are different now, and the last thing either of us needs is a complication like romance. It was no good for us back then and now…” He shook his head. “I’m stupid for even bringing it up.”

  “No, I feel the same,” Eve somehow managed to choke out past the knot in her throat. But did she? She wasn’t sure how she felt about anything anymore—least of all Garrett.

  “Good.” He sharply exhaled. “Now that that’s out in the open, let’s get back to our search. The newspaper thing was a bust, so now what? Got anything?”

  What Eve had was a headful of confusion. A chest aching with yet another loss. But then it wasn’t as if Garrett had ever been truly hers to begin with, so she needed to once and for all get over him. “Part of me is so exhausted, I wonder if we’re just beating our heads against a wall? Realistically, what are our odds of finding him?”

  “Forget the odds. Let’s focus on the mission at hand.” Garrett pulled her into a hug, which only compounded Eve’s problems. Just because she didn’t want to be attracted to him—shouldn’t be attracted to him—didn’t mean her body had gotten the memo.

  “You’re right. I’m just so tired.”

  Taking her hand and giving her an encouraging squeeze, he said, “Get a good night’s rest and we’ll regroup tomorrow. I’ve got a few Christmas gifts to pick up in the morning, but in the afternoon, let’s get back to your dad’s files. Sound okay?”

  She nodded. “Thanks for dinner—” she waved her hands and added “—for everything. I’m not usually this wishy-washy.”

  “Give yourself a break. You just lost your father. You’ve been thrown into a new role as head of a huge company. The holidays are barreling toward us, and I don’t know about you, but I have yet to buy a single present. You and I…” He blasted her with his grin. “Well, you and I had a nice but kind of surprising time that threw us both off our games.”

  “That’s one way of putting it.” Eve’s grimace said it all. The emotional roller coaster she’d been on since Garrett had been thrust back into her life was anything but a game. Even if it were, she was definitely losing.

  * * *

  “YOU’RE HOME EARLY.”

  Garrett shut the front door to find his mom seated on the floor, surrounded by wrapping paper, boxes and bows.

  “Mind handing me the tape?” She nodded toward the coffee table, which was a good five feet from her base of operations. “Somehow it keeps escaping.”

  He handed it to her, then sidestepped her projects to collapse onto his dad’s recliner.

  “Before I forget, your friend Deacon called. When you get a chance, he’d like an update on your search.”

  Garrett laughed. “That makes two of us.”

  “Uh-oh.” She filled out the gift tag on a rectangular red box. “I take it you and Eve didn’t come up with any brilliant new ideas for finding your son?”

  “We keep hitting dead end after dead end.” What he had no intention of hashing over with his mother was just how good being with Eve was starting to feel. Cooking for her had felt so natural. Their teasing banter tasted better than any food ever had. He found himself craving her company, but how in his right mind could he want to be around a woman who would inevitably only bring him more pain? “At this point, Hal’s files are our only possible lead. But there’s about five thousand of them, so our progress has been slow.”

  “You’ll get there,” his mom assured him.

  The house phone rang.

  “Mind getting that?” Dina was stuck under his uncle Todd’s sweater box.

  On the phone, Grandma Fern was feeling chatty, so after a good ten minutes relaying to her his activities of the past few days—leaving out certain intimate details—Garrett passed off the phone to his mom.

  Upstairs, seated on the foot of his bed, he hit the speed dial for Deacon’s number on his cell. “Hey, man,” he said when his friend answered on the third ring. “How’s it going?”

  “Hectic.” Deacon chuckled. “Ellie’s got a nasty case of holiday fever, plus my mom, real dad, stepsisters and Tom’s folks will all be here for Christmas. I train like a dog all day, then come home to clean, wrap presents and bake cookies all night.”

  “Sorry to hear about the extra work, but sounds like you’ve finally got a handle on the whole family thing.”

  “I do, man, and it’s great.” Garrett could practically see the size of his friend’s smile over the phone. Deacon, Ellie and Pia made a great trio. Too bad their mutual friend Tom had had to die in order for that to happen.

  “While I’ve got you—” Garrett reached for the photo of him and Eve taken after a particularly exciting football win against their rival town of Philmoore. The years had been kind to her. She was just as beautiful now as she’d been all those years ago. “Remember that talk we had about how around the holidays is the only time I think about what might’ve been between me and Eve had our son lived?”

  “Yeah…”

  “Well, Christmas is almost here and our son is alive and the more I’m with Eve, the more I—”

  “You sleep with her?”

  Garrett rubbed his hand over his whisker-stubbled jaw.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “It’s been days now, but I can’t get her out of my head. This woman crucified me. Besides, even if by some bizarre twist of fate we did hook up again, then what? She’s the uppity CEO of Daddy’s big business and I’m a SEAL with no desire to leave Virginia Beach.”

  In the background, Garrett heard Pia laugh. There was no better sound on earth than a child’s laughter. Every day since learning his son was alive, Garrett had hoped for great happiness for his little boy.

  “This may not be what you want to hear,” Deacon said, “but it’s high time I give you a dose of your own medicine.”

  Groaning, Garrett said, “I don’t even remember what it was—and I’m not sure I want to know.”

  “Basically, you read me the riot act about getting to know Pia and being a great dad.”

  “What’d I say about Ell?” More than anything, Garrett wanted his old friend to reassure
him. Tell him that once Garrett got back to base, the feel of Eve’s lips against his would become at best, a hazy memory.

  “Been a while,” Deacon said with Pia giggling into the phone, “but best I can remember, you advised me to try us working everything out together.”

  For Deacon that advice had turned into relationship gold.

  Problem was that when it came to Garrett and Eve, there wasn’t even anything to work out. There was as of yet no son, and there sure as hell was no official them.

  * * *

  “BUT THERE IS always a Barnesworth Christmas party.” Wearing her hair in what had now become her customary bun, Juanita chased Eve up the stairs to her room. It’d broken Eve’s heart when Juanita admitted she no longer wore her wigs because she no longer had Hal around to tease her about them.

  “Trust me, I think everyone who’s usually invited will understand. Daddy’s barely been in his grave a month.” Two days had passed, during which she and Garrett had sifted through more than three hundred of her father’s files apiece with still no leads bringing them closer to finding their son.

  “But Miss Eve, party make you feel better. You see.”

  Having reached her room, Eve leaned against the doorjamb. “Please, Juanita, if you want to have a party so bad, then host one for your own family. Use the whole house. Have them stay over if you’d like. We sure have enough empty rooms.”

  “Oh, no,” the housekeeper said with a firm shake of her head. “Mr. Hal would never agree.”

  “But he’s not here and I am. You have my full blessing to hold the biggest, craziest, most wonderful holiday party you can imagine, only under one condition—leave me out of it.”

  Tears shone in Juanita’s brown eyes. “Miss, no. We couldn’t have party without you.”

  Eve took Juanita’s hands, giving them a squeeze. “Sure you could—and you will. Just take whatever you need for food out of the household budget and while you’re at it, pick up a few crazy-expensive electronic gadgets for those adorable great-nieces and nephews.”

  “What about you?” Concern shone in her eyes. “You can’t just sit up here and be all by yourself for the holidays.”

  Eve hugged her dear friend. “I’ll be fine.”

  “What about Mr. Garrett? You be with him for Christmas?”

  Loving this dear woman all the more for her bungled English, it crushed Eve to realize for all practical purposes, Juanita was her only remaining family.

  What about your son?

  Eve wasn’t sure whether the thought of him lost and alone somewhere hurt worse than the hope that he was well-adjusted and happy and an integral part of a loving family. The part of her wanting him to need her turned nauseous with guilt. On the other hand, if he’d already formed a rich life without her, she was once again on her own—the crushing weight of that thought made it hard to breathe.

  “Mr. Garrett make for Christmas merry.” Juanita winked. “He big muscles. Muy caliente!”

  Very hot. Yep. That about summed up Garrett…

  Cheeks flaming, Eve stopped just short of fanning herself from the memory of his bare skin pressed to hers.

  Chapter Nine

  “Thanks for coming with me.” Tuesday afternoon, Eve and Darcie had been Christmas shopping for the past three hours in Coral Ridge’s busiest shopping district. Fairview Plaza had been built around a landscaped lake and featured gift shops, restaurants and pricey boutiques. Even though the day was gorgeous with the temperature in the low seventies, a local high-school choir dressed in Victorian-period costume belted out carols. Behind them, ducks squawked over bread crusts being tossed by shrieking toddlers. Reminders of the season were all around them in ten-foot Christmas trees, each decked out with hundreds of colorful balls, draped boughs of lit greenery and of course, Santa’s village complete with mechanical reindeer. “I’ve got a million things to do piled up at the office, but with the big day looming, I couldn’t put this off any longer.”

  “Juanita’s going to flip over her purse.” Darcie sidestepped a duck who’d strayed from the flock. “Is that lady following us?”

  “Who?” Eve peered over her shoulder, but Darcie stage-whispered for her not to look.

  “That obviously dyed-redhead in the black shirtdress with the oversize vintage Chanel purse I would sell a kidney for. I swear she’s been behind us through the last three stores and now out here, too.”

  Eve couldn’t resist poking fun at her friend. “You been watching too much Law & Order again?”

  “Is such a thing even possible?” Darcie glanced around for the mystery woman, but she was gone—just like Eve figured she would be. “Anyway, back to Juanita’s purse, she’s gonna love it.”

  “Hope so. She’s been so kind…” Eyes tearing, Eve forced a deep breath. No more crying. “She deserves something extra special.”

  “That designer masterpiece certainly fits the bill. Now, you’ve covered most everyone at work and Juanita’s extended family. Only person left—besides me—” Darcie winked “—is Garrett.”

  “Really? You think I should get him something?”

  “You weren’t planning on it?”

  “No.” They’d reached Eve’s gold Jag and she popped the trunk. Matt had given her the car. She secretly thought it ostentatious, but it was paid for and got her from home to work just fine. “You think I should?”

  “Will you see him Christmas Day?” Once Darcie added her few bags, they shut the trunk and climbed into the car.

  “I don’t think so.”

  “But you might?” Darcie had flipped down the sun visor and dabbed translucent powder to her glowing chin and forehead. At five she was meeting Chad from Accounting for drinks. As this was already their fourth date, Eve gathered it was going well.

  “Oh, my God, does it matter?”

  “You don’t have to get snippy.” After adding lipstick, Darcie asked, “What are you doing for Christmas?”

  “Juanita’s having a party at the house, so I’ll probably load a plate with whatever delicious creations she makes, then hide out in my room, watching movies.”

  Darcie winced. “No bueno. How about coming to Miami with me? Mom says a megahottie moved into the condo down the hall from hers. Bet he’s got equally hot friends.”

  Eve pulled from the shopping center’s lot onto the main road. “Thanks, but I’m not really feeling up for much more than a nap. And I thought you were all hot and bothered about Chad?”

  “I am, but a girl should keep her options open.” Darcie spritzed herself with perfume. “As for spending Christmas with me and Leo and Mom, promise you’ll at least think about it.”

  * * *

  “HAVE YOU GIVEN ANY THOUGHT to inviting Eve here for the holiday?” Dina rolled out a pie crust, then lifted it to fit onto a plate.

  “No.” Truthfully, though Garrett knew he had to spend time with her to try finding their son, the last thing he wanted was the rest of his leave being haunted by her company. Because every second he was with her only served as a reminder of how much she’d once meant.

  “If you won’t, I will. Poor girl. Eve has her housekeeper, but aside from Juanita, now that her father’s gone, Eve’s an orphan.”

  “Okay, first—she’s not a girl, but a woman. And second, with all due respect, Mom, please stay out of this. It doesn’t concern you.”

  “This girl—woman—is the mother of my grandchild, so you’d better believe this concerns me.” She slammed the same wooden rolling pin she
’d been using since Garrett had been a child onto the counter. “Greatly.”

  Seated at the kitchen table, Garrett ran his hands over his face. Somehow, a mission to Somalia sounded a damned sight better than dealing with the mess he had going here at home.

  “Your father and I never fought more than when you told us Eve was pregnant. I wanted to bring that poor child here, where she’d be looked after properly.” She took a shuddering breath. “Your father told me to leave it alone. You had scholarship prospects for football and with all her family money, we knew wherever Hal had whisked her off to, she’d be fine.”

  “You keep referring to her as a girl, but, Mom—”

  “Back then, that’s all she was. A scared girl all of sixteen who had to have felt abandoned. I saw you hurting and knew she was probably feeling the same. And then when we heard the baby had died…” She silently cried and he went to her, curving his arm around her sagging shoulders. “Y-your dad felt the whole matter was behind us, but I knew this would leave you and Eve scarred for life. And me, too. I love babies and make no mistake yours would have been—may still be—loved.”

  “I know. You also have to know I’m fine.” How easily the lies seemed to come. Lies to his mother about him being over the whole thing. Lies to himself about how much he still cared for Eve. But caring didn’t equate to second chances or a renewed sense of trust. Caring didn’t make his heart any less vulnerable to pain. He might’ve advised Deacon to run full speed ahead into his relationship with Ellie, but Garrett preferred keeping a safe distance from the woman who’d taught him that love was best left alone.

  * * *

  THAT NIGHT, GARRETT AND EVE had been at their continuing search through Hal’s files for about an hour in her quiet office when his conscience got the better of him. “So look, Mom wants you to come for Christmas.”

  She didn’t even put down her latest file. “And you?”

  “What do you mean?”