A Proposal for the Officer

by Christy Jeffries

  Cooper agreed, and when he wrapped his arms around his stepson, he practically lifted the twelve-year-old off his feet. Molly hung back, shifting from her left foot to her right. The Markham family hadn’t been big in the demonstrative affection department and Molly never seemed to know what to do when she saw parents openly displaying their love for their kids. Sure, she was technically related to them, but she and Maxine weren’t the kind of sisters who got blubbery and emotional whenever they saw each other. As children, they’d been physically close by default. It was difficult not to be when six kids shared two rooms. But all that togetherness only made the Markham siblings anxious to spring out on their own as soon as they hit adulthood.

  Being military brats, it wasn’t like they’d had a childhood home to go back to, so their visits were few and far between and the distance became more and more natural. Not that Molly was complaining. There were plenty of things she wasn’t ready to discuss with her family just yet, anyway.

  “Did you guys have fun?” Maxine asked.

  “So much fun,” Hunter replied. “I got to see Kaleb Chatterson a bunch and we went kayaking and biking and saw a movie and everything. It was a blast.”

  “Kaleb Chatterson, huh?” her sister asked Hunter, but Molly knew the question was really directed at her. Luckily, Hunter launched into a dialogue about some video game something or other and Molly took the opportunity to excuse herself and go to the restroom.

  She’d been careful about monitoring her blood sugar more often while she’d been babysitting her nephew, administering her doses of insulin prior to every meal. At the theater, she’d calculated the amount of carbs in her popcorn, but then mindlessly shoved a handful of M&Ms in her mouth when Hunter had passed her the box during the movie.

  Molly had been mentally kicking herself for the mistake the whole drive here and had even been pushing her rented four-cylinder Toyota to mach speeds to make it back to Sugar Falls just in case she had another episode. She heard the machine beep and let out a sigh of relief at the number. It was a little high, but she was still within the normal range. Knowing that she’d be eating soon, she gave herself another dose.

  When she stepped out of the restroom, the scent of garlic and whatever else her brother-in-law was cooking reached her. The kitchen was huge and opened up to a sprawling living room. Cooper somehow managed to look incredibly manly while he bustled around with mixing bowls and pans as Maxine pulled out one of the counter stools next to hers and waved Molly over.

  “How was the babymoon?” Molly quickly asked her sister, hoping that if she could keep them talking, she could avoid answering questions about herself. At least, it had worked well enough when Hunter occupied Kaleb with plenty of inquiries throughout breakfast. Mmm. Breakfast. Her stomach rumbled. That had been quite a few hours ago and the popcorn she’d inhaled at the movies wasn’t holding her over. She was starving.

  “I said, how long is your leave?” Maxine asked, and Molly realized she’d totally tuned her sister out.

  The truth was Molly didn’t know how long she was staying. Her commanding officer had told her to take some time off and to think about things before making any big decisions about her career. Assuming the Bureau of Personnel told her she would still have one, which was doubtful. “Oh. Maybe a couple of weeks? You know how the military is when it comes to that sort of thing.”

  “In that case, I’m glad Cooper is making all your favorite foods for dinner tonight. Baked macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, garlic bread and coffee cake with brown sugar crumble.”

  Uh-oh. Carbs, carbs and more carbs. Molly couldn’t eat any of that. At least, she didn’t think she could. Did sweet potato casserole count as a vegetable?

  “Were you planning to serve any salad with that?” Molly asked, then immediately regretted it when her sister squinted at her suspiciously.

  “Not unless your diet has done a complete one-eighty from the last time I’ve seen you, Moll Doll.”

  Actually, Molly’s entire life had just done a complete one-eighty, along with a few barrel rolls, a pitchback and quite possibly an upcoming defensive spiral. But she wasn’t about to admit that. “Nah, I think I just ate too much popcorn and my stomach has been a little sensitive lately.”

  She caught her sister giving a pointed look to Cooper.

  “I saw that!” Molly said.

  “Saw what?”

  “That face you made right now at your husband. What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It’s just that my stomach was sensitive a few months ago,” Maxine said, then gave her an encouraging smile. “Back when I was in my first trimester.”

  Molly gasped. “I’m not pregnant.”

  “Don’t get mad at me for asking. All I know is that you and Trevor called off the wedding and you never said why, and now you’re on some sort of extended leave, and I just figured...” Maxine let her voice trail off.

  “I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have called off my wedding if I was expecting a child.”

  “Some people do.” Maxine shrugged her shoulders. “So then, why did you guys break up?”

  The question threw Molly for a loop. This wasn’t the kind of thing her family normally talked about. In fact, when Beau, Maxine’s first husband, died in a car crash ten years ago, Molly had no idea that her sister’s marriage had been on the rocks until she overheard Kylie and their other friend, Mia, whispering in the restroom at the funeral home.

  Molly looked at Cooper, who had his back to them and was chopping lettuce, presumably for an unplanned salad. No doubt, he was attentively listening to their discussion—he was a cop, after all. Fortunately, though, he was polite enough to pretend otherwise.

  There were other things she wasn’t ready to divulge, but her breakup was the least of her worries. “He was cheating on me.”

  “With someone else?”

  Molly glanced at her brother-in-law, who was holding himself perfectly still. She hoped he was better than his wife when it came to interrogations. “Of course with someone else. That’s usually how cheating works.”

  “Sorry. You’re right. Did you confront him?”

  “I didn’t really have to. He was there when I walked in and...they were...in the middle of...um, a very romantic meal.”

  “How do you know it was romantic?”

  “Because they were feeding each other directly from Chinese takeout containers.”

  “But didn’t he try to explain or anything?”

  “They also weren’t wearing any clothes at the time.” Molly shrugged. “What was there to explain?”

  Cooper made a choking sound, but instead of being shocked into minding her own business, Maxine only studied her.

  “What?”

  “You don’t sound very heartbroken.”

  Crap. Her sister would never buy the excuse that Molly was in Sugar Falls recovering from a failed relationship if she couldn’t squeeze out some sort of emotion. But the truth was, she’d hardly given Trevor that much thought lately. In fact, she initially went on her non-honeymoon thinking she would sort some things out and mourn the breakup. However, all she ended up mourning was her formerly healthy, active, career-filled life. Having only gotten her formal diagnosis a few days before she’d caught Trevor, the broken engagement was just a temporary diversion from facing everything else going on in her life. By the end of the vacation, she’d wound up feeling more like she’d just dodged a bullet.

  “You know me.” Molly lifted her hands up in a careless gesture. “I like to keep my head down and focus on the mission.”

  “Is the mission to distract yourself with a new guy?” Maxine smirked, then shifted toward the front of her seat when Molly tilted her head to the side. “I know it’s none of my business but the word on the street is that you and Kaleb Chatterson were looking pretty chummy on Friday afternoon in Duncan’s parking lot.”


  Molly felt hollow. Her mouth moved, but no words came out.

  “Small town,” Maxine explained. “And Elaine Marconi said she ran into you guys at the Cowgirl Up Café this morning, which only confirmed all the gossip.”

  This was it. Molly could come clean and tell her sister about the diabetes and how Kaleb had helped her when she’d needed some insulin the other day and that everything was fine and under control. That’s what a normal, courageous person would do. And Molly had always considered herself extremely courageous, if only relatively normal.

  Which was why she was surprised when the only explanation she gave was a nervous chuckle.

  “I knew it!” Maxine pointed an accusing finger at her. “You and Kaleb Chatterson are a thing. I can’t wait to tell Kylie that it’s true. Frankly, as far as a rebound relationship goes, you could do a lot worse.”

  Molly made a noncommittal sound through her tense lips. Cooper had abandoned the lettuce on the cutting board and had his hands linked behind his neck—either to use his forearms to cover his ears or to brace for impact.

  “I mean, it is only a rebound thing, right?” Maxine asked.

  Molly’s stomach felt like the empty hull of a bombed-out cargo plane, but she chalked it up to hunger. If this was what it took to get her family off her back, then who was she to throw them off her misguided course?

  Chapter Five

  Kaleb was sprawled out on his sister’s sectional, stretching out his back and trying to overcome the lingering soreness from that jarring ATV ride this afternoon. His cell phone vibrated in his pocket and he had to wait until his twin nieces created a suitable distraction in their high chairs so that he could pull the thing out and check it without getting another lecture from his dad about today’s technology-dependent society.

  He didn’t recognize the number on his screen, but when he opened the message, he couldn’t help the smile that floated to his face. It could only be from one person.

  We have a Code Sister in effect. I repeat. A Code Sister.

  He typed back a response. What in the world is a Code Sister?

  A few dots appeared on his screen, only to vanish just as quickly. Damn. What had Molly been about to say? Did Maxine find out about her diabetes? He typed another question mark and pressed Send. His toes twitched inside his sneakers and his palms itched. He didn’t take his eyes off the screen as he sat up straighter. The only time Kaleb got frustrated with technology was when the person on the other end took too long to respond.

  But Kylie’s loud exclamation of “Oh my gosh!” drew his attention away. “Maxine just texted me and asked if I knew you were dating her sister, Molly.”

  Kaleb blinked three times. “Dating?”

  “Which one is Molly?” Bobby Chatterson, Sr. asked nobody in particular. “Was she at the wedding?”

  Kaleb didn’t even hear the answer because his pulse was pounding too loudly in his ears. Was this what Molly had meant by a Code Sister? That both of their sisters thought they were dating? Each other?

  His phone vibrated again as Molly’s response appeared. Pretty please just go along with it. I’ll owe you.

  Something tugged at the corners of his mouth. He doubted Captain Markham used the phrase pretty please very often.

  “Is it true?” Kylie finally asked him.

  “Is what true?”

  “Don’t try to use the stall tactics on me.” Kylie walked over to the couch, one hand firmly planted on her hip, the other waving her electronic tattletale device at his face. “My husband’s a psychologist, so I know all those mind tricks.”

  “If by dating, you mean hanging out—” Kaleb hated the fact that he’d just used air quotes “—then yes, Molly Markham and I have spent some time together.”

  That wasn’t exactly a lie. He was pretending to be on vacation, anyway, what difference did a pretend girlfriend make at this point? Wait. Was their fake relationship at the girlfriend/boyfriend stage? Molly really should’ve clarified that. Kaleb desperately avoided those types of conversations with women in his real life. He didn’t do commitments, and he certainly didn’t discuss them. Usually, when a woman he was dating starting dropping hints about getting more serious, he had Angela email them on his behalf. So then how did one bring that up with a lady who wasn’t even programmed into his contact list? He quickly remedied that by typing in her name under the information screen.

  “Is it serious?” his mom asked. Lacey Chatterson’s soft eyes grew round and hopeful, her fingers clasped together in front of her in a semiprayerful state.

  “Mom!” Kaleb rolled his eyes. “We met for the first time on Friday.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything,” his dad said, bringing a bowl of chips to the coffee table. Great, his family was now cornering him on the living room sofa. “Kylie and Drew only knew each other for all of five hours before they got married.”

  “Dad!” His sister followed with a bowl of salsa. Man, they were really settling in for this interrogation. “Drew and I had special circumstances.”

  It was no secret that his baby sister and her straitlaced husband had gotten drunk in Reno and accidentally ended up at a wedding chapel. But Kaleb didn’t believe in accidents. He liked having a plan and sticking to it. Unfortunately, with his family hovering around him, he couldn’t exactly text Molly back and ask her what the damn plan was.

  Kaleb’s company had developed some of the best role-playing games on the market, but those usually involved alternate universes with alien pirates and zombie dragons. Normally, he was good at games as long as he knew the rules. Unfortunately, someone had suddenly thrown him into the role of boyfriend—and unlike the online versions he’d created, this one might actually affect real lives.

  “I’m sending Maxine a text inviting her family for dinner on Wednesday,” Kylie said as she typed furiously on her phone.

  “Wait.” Kaleb held up his palm. “I think everyone is getting way too ahead of themselves here.”

  “Too late.” His sister grinned and held up her display screen. “Maxine already accepted.”

  “Don’t you think that’s going to be awkward?” Kaleb had been looking down at his own phone so long he had to push his glasses back into place.

  “Trust me.” Kylie reached out and squeezed his left shoulder. “It’s much better to get all this relationship stuff out in the open.”

  “Listen to your sister, son.” His dad squeezed his other shoulder. “She of all people knows what she’s talking about.”

  “Dad!” Kylie gripped the left one tighter, thereby pulling him away from their father. Bobby Chatterson yanked back.

  “This is what I mean by awkward.” Kaleb dislodged himself from their not-so-reassuring grips and stood up. “Our family always gets so competitive and loud and chaotic and you guys are going to end up scaring her away.”

  His sister’s inspecting scan moved from his messy hair down to his feet and back up again. “The only thing that’s going to scare Molly away is that outfit.”

  “What’s wrong with my clothes?” Kaleb asked, holding out the hem of his T-shirt so he could see what design was on it. He loved his collection of quirky T-shirts.

  “Nothing, if you’re a fifteen-year-old boy,” Kylie replied.

  “No fifteen-year-old boy of mine would wear sneakers that cost as much as those.” His dad pointed to Kaleb’s custom-made designer shoes. “Are those supposed to be suede?”

  “Perhaps you have something a little more impressive?” his mom asked. “What do you normally wear to meetings?”

  “I normally wear this to meetings.” Kaleb crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I don’t exactly have a suit-and-tie kind of job.”

  Actually, he did have a couple of well-tailored suits back at his penthouse. In Seattle. Where he wasn’t on vacation. Yet, even if he had access to all the best clothes in the world, he still
wouldn’t wear them. It was one thing to pretend to be dating a woman he’d barely met. It was another to pretend to be something he wasn’t.

  Which brought him back to why he didn’t do relationships in the first place. People, especially the pretty female variety, always wanted to believe that he was some sort of superstar—some sort of megapowerful billionaire who was in the market for a trophy wife. In reality, all he wanted was a simple life where he could be left alone to concentrate on his work. Unfortunately, the women who tended to throw themselves at him weren’t interested in the boring, geeky version of Kaleb Chatterson. In the end, they ended up wasting their time when they found out he wasn’t going to change.

  His phone finally vibrated again.

  “Is that her?” His sister jumped up from the couch, trying to read the display. He put his hand on her forehead, holding her at a distance the way he’d done when they were kids and she’d wanted one of his collector’s edition action figures for her Barbie Dreamhouse.

  He had to read the screen quickly because Kylie’s kicking range had apparently gotten longer since she was seven years old. It also seemed as though all the splits and cheerleading jumps from her college years had perfected her toe points.

  Don’t worry about dinner happening on Wednesday. I’ll try and tell my sister everything by then.

  He’d barely gotten the phone safely tucked into his pocket when he wrapped Kylie into a fierce bear hug. She pinched his ribs before finally hugging him back.

  “We’re only nosy because we care about you,” she mumbled into his shoulder.

  “That explains the nosy part, but not the embarrassing part,” Kaleb replied, patting her on the head.

  “Embarrassing? I promise to be on my best behavior.” Kylie stepped out of his arms, her right hand raised as if she were swearing an oath. “But I can’t speak for Dad or the rest of our siblings.”