by J. M. Madden
It was one of those days that just needed to work correctly in order to get everything done.
“It’s usually Shannon that does this and I’m not going to lie, I’m worried about it,” he said, glancing at his friend. “I don’t want to see my kids hurt.”
Chad nodded. “I can imagine.”
John glanced at him thoughtfully. “When are you guys going to settle down long enough to have your own kids? I know Mercy is a phenomenal kid, but weren’t you planning on expanding the Lowell empire?”
Chad grimaced, his head shaking back and forth, the off-white cowboy hat brushing the ceiling. “Oh, if you had any idea how much my mom and dad have been nagging us, you wouldn’t even joke about it. That’s all we hear. Every single call. And I know it’s just how they are, but Lora is stressing about it. We both are.” He gave John a long look. “We’ve actually been trying, a lot, and nothing is happening.”
“No sex or no pregnancy?”
Chad snorted, rubbing a hand over his bristled chin. “We’ve finally got the sex part down, thank you very much. Pregnancy isn’t happening.”
“Have you been to see the doc?”
“No,” Chad admitted. “Lora thinks it has to be stress, but I think it’s more than that. And I think it might be me that’s faulty.”
John frowned at him. “Why do you think that?”
“I don’t know,” he murmured, rubbing his palms down his jeans-clad thighs. “Maybe it’s some side effect of one of my injuries or something.”
“I seriously doubt you being burned has anything to do with your swimmers hitting the finish line,” John said, smirking.
Chad laughed a little. “Knowing my luck, it is, though.”
“The only way you can know for sure is if you go to a spank bank and have them test a sample.”
“Would my regular doctor do that?”
John shrugged. “Not sure. I think it would be more of a fertility doc’s forté.”
“You might be right,” Chad murmured, looking out the window.
What was it with babies on the brain? First Shannon dropping the hot potato that she wanted another, and now Chad confessing they were having issues. He felt for his buddy, he really did, and now wasn’t the time to bring up what Shannon wanted.
The boys did great in the doctor’s office. They did indeed have to get a Hepatitis shot. Wyatt went first for the weighing and measuring, and he was a bruiser. Well above where he needed to be for his age. The doctor, a kind older woman, teased the boy and he was laughing and giggling as the nurse slipped in to give him the shot. Then his face clouded over and he squalled, immediately reaching for John. It had only been a tiny little needle, so it couldn’t have hurt that bad, but John felt his own eyes grow moist in shared hurt.
“Bite, Daddy, bite.”
“Oh, buddy,” John said, cuddling the tender-hearted little ball-buster.
Caden was concerned that something was wrong with his brother, so he didn’t even flinch when the needle slipped through his skin. He just reached for his brother when it was over. Chad handed him over to John and he cuddled both boys on his lap. “You guys okay? Mommy is going to be so proud that you did this like little men. Good job!”
The nurse handed over two tiny little bags of fruit snacks and the tears magically evaporated. Rather than let them go, John allowed Chad to push his chair out into the waiting room. He set the boys on the floor and took care of the bill, then guided them out of the doctor’s office and back to the truck. That hadn’t been too bad, he supposed, but it definitely wouldn’t have been as easy if Chad hadn’t been there.
Shannon normally brought the boys to the doctor herself, then told him about the visit later. He knew she didn’t want to bother him or interrupt his work, but this was a two-man job. Next time they had an appointment he would go with her.
They dropped the boys off at daycare, Chad volunteering to wade through the swirl of estrogen. John had told him about the previous day’s fiasco, and he’d laughed like a crazy man, but when he came out of the brightly painted building his eyes were wide.
“See what I mean?” John said brusquely.
Chad blinked and looked back at the building. “Let’s get out of here. Do those women not work? Or do they just hang around there, waiting for some hint of blood? It was like they’d never seen a man before.”
John laughed, he couldn’t help it. Chad hadn’t been especially sympathetic when he’d told him about the earlier incident. “You’re just so handsome...Do you want to go to the airport with me to pick up Shannon?”
“Yeah, I can go with you,” Chad agreed, “since Duncan shifted that meeting.”
So, they both headed out to the Denver Airport. They got there about a half hour before her plane landed, but it gave them time to find seats at the baggage carousel. John glanced at the watch on his wrist, estimating times for her to walk out and find them. The woman had only been gone a week but it felt like so much longer. Anticipation hummed through him at the thought of seeing her beautiful, shining face.
Then his phone buzzed with a text. On my way out with a friend. Don’t scare him.
What the fuck was she talking about?
The crowd in front of them surged with offloading passengers and the alarm rang, announcing that the baggage carousel would be starting. Where the fuck was his wife?
Shannon smiled at Logan. “It’s so much easier to just let them pass. They’re in a hurry to get somewhere, so just let them.”
They retrieved his crutches and bag, and she slung her own bag up over her shoulder. He scowled as she maneuvered up the ramp ahead of him, but there was no way he could get himself and the bag up the ramp. He had to accept her aid. At the top she waited for him, taking the few seconds to check her messages.
He reached out to take the bag and rather than fighting, she let him take it. At least she would be nearby if he stumbled or fell. The baggage claim wasn’t very far away, either.
Her heart began to pound as they navigated the flow of traffic heading to retrieve their bags. It had been a long, stressful week, and she was more than ready to see her grumpy husband. Then she looked over against the wall, and he was there, looking incredibly handsome and strong in his leather jacket and black T-shirt. His shoulders were more broad than the wheelchair, but tapered to a strong, lean waist. There was a scowl on his dark bearded face, but as soon as he saw her his expression lightened and a sexy smile curved his lips. She motioned for Logan to follow her, then jogged across the tile to kiss her husband.
Grinning, he pulled her down into his lap, his mouth settling over hers. Shannon felt the tension from the week ease out of her as she sank into John’s strength, and his hungry kiss. The thrill that she felt from his touch was as energizing today as it had been when they’d first gotten together, and she cherished that.
“I missed you,” she breathed against his neck, hugging him tight.
He drew back enough to look into her eyes. “I don’t like business trips.”
She laughed and slipped off his lap, moving to hug the man standing beside them. “Hi, Chad. You let him drag you along, huh?”
Chad laughed, his blue eyes twinkling. He tipped his cream-colored hat back on his head. “He’s just so cute, Shannon, with those big dark eyes. He needed a battle buddy today taking the kids to the doctor, so I volunteered.”
“Fuck you, asshole,” John growled, swinging around. “You were just bored. I could have done it.”
Chad laughed and made a face. “Maybe.”
“John,” she admonished. “Language.”
Scowling, he looked at Chad. “Fudge you, asshole.”
Shannon shook her head, laughing at the banter. The two of them always had each other’s backs, so she shouldn’t have been surprised to see them together. She glanced over her shoulder. Logan had hung back, moving his bad side to the wall, but he watched the men, seeming a little shocked. She held out a hand and tried to remember if she had told him her husband was disabled. No,
she didn’t think she had. She barely even thought about John being bound to a wheelchair anymore. It was just part of him.
Chad had more visible issues, but he didn’t try to hide them anymore. The tendons in his damaged left hand had contracted to the point of almost making a fist, and though they’d faded, the scars on the side of his neck were still visible.
“Logan Vance, this is my husband John Palmer and our good friend Chad Lowell, two of the partners from the Lost and Found Investigative Service.”
John reached out a gloved hand. “Were you hitting on my wife, Mr. Vance? Do I need to kick your ass?”
Logan blinked, obviously aggravated. “No, sir. Your wife was just being kind and helping me out with my bag. I didn’t hit on her, I swear.”
“John,” Shannon breathed. “Stop. You’re embarrassing the guy.”
Logan’s face had flushed, the scars going pale against the floridness of the rest of his skin. John continued to glower, even as he shook Logan’s hand. “Welcome to Colorado, then.”
Chad stretched out a hand as well. “Chad Lowell. You have family out here, Mr. Vance?”
Logan shook his head. “Not anymore, I don’t think. There’s a chance, I suppose. My father’s family was from here, but he said all the family was gone by the time he moved east. I just want to see our old house and the neighborhood where we lived.”
Shannon looked at John, widening her eyes, trying to convey that there was more to the story. Her brilliant husband seemed to understand. “Do you know where it is? We can do a quick search at the office.”
Logan’s face shifted into a frown. “No, thank you. I’ve taken up enough of your time.”
John shrugged, negligently. “You haven’t taken up any of my time. Why don’t you come with us to the office? A few keystrokes and I should be able to tell you all you need to know about your family. I’ll be helping a fellow veteran out.”
Logan looked at his feet, then around the milling people of the airport. Shannon had a feeling he didn’t want to try to make his way through the mass alone. He would do it if he had to, but she could see the struggle in his face.
“Have you rented a car yet?” she asked him.
He shook his head. “I planned on seeing what kind of shuttles were running.”
“Then consider us your shuttle, for now,” she laughed. “You can get a taxi when you leave the office, if you want.”
His eyes slid over John’s chair before, with a sigh, he nodded. “Okay. Let me grab my other bag.”
They walked over and retrieved their bags, the last ones on the belt. Chad took them both, motioning for Shannon and Logan to follow John through the throng. As usual, her husband plowed through people like he was in a race, glaring at those that took too long to move. A wheeled baggage cart drifted over, rubbing the wheels of his chair. The woman pushing the cart was talking to her companion and didn’t even see it happen.
“Hey, Oblivious,” John snapped. “Watch what the fuck you’re doing.”
The woman’s attention jerked around, and she corrected her cart. “I am so sorry,” she gasped, her face going pale.
Shannon followed along in her husband’s wake, keeping pace with Logan on his crutches. She leaned over conspiratorially. “John suffers from a particular form of wheelchair rage. He has no problem giving people a piece of his mind. Usually with the F-word involved.”
Logan smirked, the first humorous response she’d seen from him. “I think we can all appreciate the F word.”
She snorted. “Yeah, I know. Believe me, I’ve heard the arguments.”
The blue and white handicapped placard hung from the rearview mirror and she gave John an appreciative look. He didn’t dig it out of the glovebox very often. Normally he parked out in no man’s land in parking lots, leaving himself just enough room for the driver’s side lift to work. A couple of times the practice had backfired when someone had parked beside him, not leaving him enough room to maneuver or get in the vehicle.
As she watched Logan struggle on his crutches, she was very glad that John had forsaken his vanity for the day and parked closer to the elevators.
Logan watched as John rolled onto the platform and snapped himself in, then locked his wheels. “I’ve never seen anything like that,” he murmured.
She smiled. “It is pretty cool. You ought to see the all-terrain chair he got for Christmas.”
Logan’s eyes widened a little, and he looked like he was going to ask her more, but she waved him to the truck. “Chad will put your bags in the back and you’ll have to work it out with Chad who rides shotgun.”
“Logan can have it,” Chad said, slamming the tailgate. “I’ll ride in back with Shannon.”
“I don’t need the front,” Logan protested, scowling.
“You’ll appreciate the room to stretch your legs. Go ahead,” Chad said, swinging up into the back.
With no other option, Logan climbed into the front passenger side seat, settling his crutches beside him. He wrapped the seatbelt around himself and snapped in, and John reversed out of the space, hands working the controls on the wheel perfectly. They were quiet until they were in the bright Colorado sunshine and heading toward the Denver skyscrapers in the distance.
“So, where are you from, Logan?” John asked him.
“Virginia, now. My dad moved away from Denver about twenty years ago.”
“He was a child when he left,” Shannon said, leaning forward to rest her hand on John’s hard shoulder. “So I was giving him some highlights on the flight out.”
John flashed the man a grin. “If you can imagine doing it, it’s probably here.”
Logan smiled slightly. “That’s what Shannon said. I don’t know how much of anything I’ll be doing.”
John shrugged. “Well, we’ll figure out some family details and you can decide. What branch of the service were you in?”
“Army,” Logan said, sliding a look sideways. “Almost six years.”
John scowled, and sighed heavily. “Well, Army’s better than nothing, I suppose.”
Then he winked, and Logan barked out a laugh. Shannon had heard it before. John had an ability to find veterans anywhere and if they weren’t Marines, they tended to be teased unmercifully. They usually took it with good grace, though.
“Army wasn’t my first choice either. I had planned to go to college first.” Logan admitted, “but my dad had been in the Army and he... well...”
“You had something to prove. Where were you stationed?”
Logan stared at him for a moment, as if John had said something that maybe needed to be corrected, but he let it go. “Fort Benning. Intelligence services.”
John nodded once. “Been there many times. Beautiful area.”
“It is. I won’t miss the heat, though.”
“I don’t know,” Chad murmured. “You should hang out in Texas for a minute.”
Logan laughed a little, shaking his head. “Nope. I’ve been there. Felt like I ate a plateful of dust by the time I got where I was going. And I’ve never had a worse sunburn...”
Chad laughed. “Yeah, she’ll get you. Although, I think Afghanistan was worse in a way. Or maybe it just seemed that way at the time.”
“Afghanistan was worse than any place else on earth,” Logan said slowly, turning to look out the window.
The three of them shared a glance and Shannon was a little surprised Logan had been there. He was younger, so she would have expected him to be more familiar with Iraq. But, what did she know? If he’d been in Intelligence it was hard to tell what he’d done or where he’d been. The look on his face, though, and the tone of his voice told her there was more to the story, but the mood in the truck had changed. She needed to lighten it up.
“So tell me about my boys. How did they do?” John gave her a serious look in the rearview mirror and her heart dropped. “What?”
“I never knew what you had to deal with when you took them in on your own. I’ll go with you next time, and every ti
me you think you need me.”
Shannon blinked, taken aback. Then tears filled her eyes. “Thank you, John. I love you.”
“I love you too, babe. They did get a shot, and that about broke me. Wyatt cried, little badass that he is. Caden seemed more concerned that Wyatt was crying than why and he never even flinched.”
Yes, those were her boys. And her amazing husband had stepped up and been there for them. Though she hadn’t planned the trip or the emergency spring snowstorm, maybe it had been good for him to see what she dealt with every day.
“Everything else was good, though?” she persisted.
“Yes, Mama, everything is good. Wyatt is off the charts for his age and Caden is building. She didn’t see anything to be concerned about.”
“Good,” she sighed. That really eased her mind. She loved her boys and it was hard not being there for them when they needed her.
They moved on to other subjects as they drove to the office, but Shannon didn’t mind. As she took in the Denver skyline and the silhouette of the mountains to the west, she was just happy to be home. There was still snow on the ground right now, but the days were getting longer. Eventually flowers would start adding color to the rocky landscape.
The men fell into military chatter about bases and forts they’d each been to, and she watched Logan surreptitiously. His mood and the way he moved had been very...insulated, dark when she’d first seen him. Or maybe it was his aura that had been dark. She couldn’t explain it. Now though, he seemed a little... lighter? Maybe? At the airport she’d gotten the impression that he wanted nothing to do with the people around him, like they couldn’t understand what he was going through so he wouldn’t bother trying to connect with them. But maybe he could connect with John and Chad, and the others at LNF.
That snow storm in Toronto made a little more sense now. She was supposed to be at O’Hare today to connect with Logan. Leaning back against the seat, she smiled, her gaze, as always, drawn back to her husband.