by J. M. Madden
“That would explain why you’ve been so tired,” he said, worried.
Shannon nodded. “Yes. I might have Marigold drive me home. Can you pick up the kids on the way home?”
“Absolutely. Why don’t you let me take you home?”
“Because Logan is going to be done with his paperwork in a bit and you need to find him something to do.”
Yeah, she was probably right. He could use another set of eyes on the McClain case anyway. “Are you sure babe?”
Shannon leaned in and started to kiss him, but veered away to land on his cheek. “Just in case, I don’t want to infect you.”
John grinned and wiggled his brows. “We’ve been a lot closer than a kiss recently, and I feel fine.”
She gave him a smile. “I know, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“Okay, babe. I’ll hold down the fort. And I’ll bring the minions home with me. Text me if you need anything else.”
Shannon stared down at the stick cradled in her hands, nausea making her stomach boil.
Even though it wasn’t the first pee of the day, the hormone coursing through her body was strong enough to register. She was pregnant. What the fucking hell... After the mixup with the email and John thinking she wanted another baby and stressing about it, fate deemed that she needed another baby. Snorting, she set the test to the side, cradling her head in her hands. Carmella nudged at her with her wet nose, and Shannon opened her arms to the dog, ruffling her ears. “Just what you want too, huh, another creature taking attention away from you.”
Carmella flopped on the floor in front of her. Shannon sat on the floor near the bed. Marigold had been more than happy to drive her home, and happy as well to stop at the drugstore for ‘medicine’. As soon as John had mentioned mothering chicks, the fear that she was pregnant had refused to leave her mind. And the symptoms lined up, but she’d bought a pregnancy test to confirm. Actually, she’d bought two, one for mid-afternoon pee and one for morning pee just to confirm.
She didn’t think she needed to run the morning test, though. It was obvious she was pregnant. The only thing she needed to do was count back a few days to the conception.
When she’d gotten pregnant with the boys, her body had begun to change immediately. She’d known within days that she was going to be a mother. And it was the same this time. It had to have been the welcome-home sex last week.
John was going to kill her.
Shit. Chad and Lora were going to feel even more under the gun. Maybe they should keep the pregnancy under wraps. Shannon was still deciding what to do when John pulled into the driveway a few hours later.
As soon as he rolled inside, there was a melee with the kids, but his dark eyes scanned her.
“I’m okay,” she promised.
“Why don’t you go back to bed?”
She shook her head. “I want to see my boys.”
After an easy dinner, they played and laughed with the kids until they put them to bed. Shannon was very aware of John watching her, probably for signs of sickness she could be transmitting to the kids.
“Come on, Sex-on-wheels, we need to talk.”
John followed her into the bedroom. When she turned to talk, he was grinning at her. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
Shannon laughed. “How did you know?”
John shook his head, rolling close. Reaching out a hand, he tugged her to settle across his lap. Shannon wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and leaned into his chest. “You got pretty sick with the boys at first, then it petered off. Remember?”
She nodded against him. “I really did think I’d picked up a bug, at first. It seemed plausible, just coming in from the convention and stuff. But I had Marigold stop by the drugstore and I picked up a couple of tests. It confirmed that I’m very definitely pregnant. That plus sign popped up almost immediately.”
John chuckled, the sound so precious beneath her ear. “I have good swimmers, huh?”
“Very,” she agreed. “What are the chances we talk about this and decide against it and it happens? We jinxed ourselves.”
“Apparently,” he sighed, and there was a somber note in the sound.
“Chad and Lora,” she said, guessing what he was thinking about.
“Yeah,” he said. “Maybe we can keep this under wraps for just a bit?”
She leaned up to look in his eyes. “I had kind of decided that as well. She’s not in a good place right now.”
“It’s not our place to interfere, but we can try not to hurt them unnecessarily.”
“Agreed. So it will be our little secret for now.”
“Yes,” he said, leaning in for a kiss.
Shannon loved John with her entire being, and she loved that they shared one mind and one heart. Chad and Lora were their friends, and they wouldn’t hurt them for anything.
“So, let’s curl up in bed and dream about what this baby will be.”
Shannon laughed and slid off his lap. “Sounds perfect to me.”
Epilogue
One Month Later
Logan kept waiting for the pain, but it never came. Well, there was everyday, bone-creaking pain, of course, but it wasn’t the soul-eating emotional kind that made him want to eat a bullet.
He still worried about Lisa and Ashley. The fact that Lisa had looked for him at Walter Reed gave him hope that at some point she might be able to talk to him. Ashley had texted him a few times, just silly memes and things to make him chuckle. He’d sent her one serious picture of his team posed in front of the barracks about a month before the bombing. It was a good pic because everyone was actually smiling and looking at the camera, and Trent looked like he always did, happy and open, his arm slung around Logan’s shoulders. Ashley had responded with a heart and a crying icon, as well as a thank you.
Logan was okay with waiting for Lisa to contact him. He knew she would eventually. Until then, he’d keep his head down and focused.
The job that John had given him was as in-depth and nuanced as anything he’d ever worked on before, and as soon as he was done with it there was more work waiting. They hadn’t been lying when they’d said they had as much work as they wanted. More times than he could count, he’d gone out to the reception area and Shannon or Marigold was guiding a weeping woman through the door to Duncan’s office, or a worried couple, or angry men, all looking for an answer to their problems. They didn’t take all of the cases simply because they didn’t have the manpower. Somehow, Duncan weeded through the cases that needed them the most.
Logan had worked with Marines before and hadn’t been impressed. Duncan Wilde and the group that he’d created put them all to shame.
Logan looked around his office. It wasn’t his exclusively, but he shared it with two graveyard shift guys, and they weren’t here right now, obviously. Marigold had bought him a plant to go on the corner of his desk. It had broad green leaves and trailing arms, but she promised that it was very hardy. He enjoyed looking at the plant, and watering it, and he couldn’t decide why for a long time. Then it occurred to him. It was something he needed to take care of. And it was something else to anchor him into the world. That plant on this desk meant commitment and people depending upon him.
Then his grandparents had gotten him an Investigator Logan Vance brass nameplate for his desk. It would be a while before he was certified to be an investigator in the state of Colorado, but he appreciated their enthusiasm for his job.
The Showalters had become a very important part of his life. They had lunch at least once a week, and he and Marigold had been to the house twice, once for a birthday party for two of the great-grand children with close birthdays and a second time because Karen, his active duty aunt, came home for a visit. It was a little crazy, but she looked familiar to Logan, and they realized they had been on several of the same forts at the same time, so there was a very real possibility that they had seen each other before. The thought that he had been so close to legitimate family and hadn’t known it
bedeviled him. She was a fascinating woman and viewed her time in the service very differently than he had. Karen had been in combat and had led men into danger many times, and had lost men as well, but viewed the losses with pride.
“Those men served exactly as they meant to serve, and they all knew that their lives could be snuffed out in combat. There’s no need for you to feel guilty for their loss. You were doing your job, as were they. No regrets.”
Yeah, that was the sticking point, though. He had regrets. Thanks to the LNF job he was now working with a counselor and getting all those regrets out in the open. It was painful and harrowing, but somehow cleansing, as well. And he knew it would be a process.
Logan glanced out the window. Spring was coming to Colorado, and he was the happiest he’d been in a very long time.
“Hey, babe. Here’s that info you needed on the McClain wrap-up.”
Logan looked up at Marigold. The woman wore a pair of black pants, short heels and a red blouse that went really well with her dark hair. It was curled slightly and hung over one shoulder. Those squarish black glasses were high on her nose, and she looked damn cute. And damn intelligent. Yes, he was in the slot for investigator, but she could totally do the job herself.
Marigold seemed content to help Shannon for now. In the fall she would start her undergrad psychiatry classes and things would change.
“I’m going to miss you when you start classes,” Logan told her, already worried about the loss.
Marigold made a face. “I know. I’m going to miss everyone here and I’m going to have a serious case of FOMO.”
Logan snorted, shaking his head. “I don’t think you’ll miss anything too big. If you do, we’ll whisper about it in bed.”
Giggling, she came further into the office to lean on his desk. “In my room. I didn’t realize how much Grandma could hear from your room until she asked me about one of the cases. She was hoping for something juicy, I think.”
“I think she has ‘fear of missing out’. Although if you tell her that she’ll think it’s a disease or something.”
For a moment, he thought about offering to find a more private place together, which shocked him. He’d lived with his ex, but this felt very different. Occasionally, they hung at his place, but hers was more homey and settled. They both preferred it.
Logan shook his head, getting back to the conversation. “That woman... I have a feeling she ran circles around her husband.”
“Or maybe he’d just been with her long enough to know how to keep her busy.”
“They did have a bunch of kids,” he suggested.
Marigold grinned. “That’s her fault for rubbing his junk when she went to Bingo. And that’s probably one of the tamer things she can tell us.”
They both laughed, and she leaned down to drop a quick kiss to his lips. When she would have drawn away, he caught her hand, looking into her eyes. She seemed to sense his introspection, because she paused and cocked her head. “What’s up, babe?”
For a moment, he couldn’t say anything, just held her stare, the emotion almost smothering him. Yes, he’d been engaged before, but he didn’t remember feeling anything like this with his former fiancée. Amber had been fine to talk to, but he didn’t remember the rush of emotion that seeing Marigold brought. His entire life before his Alive day—the day he survived the bombing—was a bit of a haze. The past month had brought a clarity he hadn’t had in his life ever before, and this woman was a very big part of it.
“I love you,” he told her abruptly.
Her eyes widened, then filled with luminous, glittering tears. “Seriously? You do this now, at work when I have makeup on?”
Logan shrugged, pushing to his feet. He needed to be upright to do this. Reaching out, he cupped her face in his hands, swiping the tears away with his thumbs. “It just seemed like the right time. And you will look beautiful, makeup or not. I prefer not, actually.”
She laughed a little. “Well, of course you do. That usually means we’re in bed if I have no makeup on.”
“Yeah,” he grinned, shrugging. Then, seeing the vulnerable expression in her eyes, he kissed her, noticing that she hadn’t said it back. But she would.
Logan licked and teased at her mouth, his tongue tangling with hers. They’d been together long enough that he knew what she loved, and he did his best to give it to her every time. When he drew back, her irises were blown wide around the pupil, showing him how aroused she was.
“It’s okay if you’re not in the same place I am. I’ve just had a lot of change this month, and a large part of it wouldn’t have happened without you. I was engaged before, but I feel like that was a near miss. I’m glad she didn’t have the stomach to stay with me, because now I have you.”
“Logan,” she said softly. “I’m sorry she hurt you but I’m glad she didn’t stay as well. I would have hated to have to gotten blood on the sheets fighting her for you.”
He gave her a sardonic look. “I think you would have been okay with that actually.”
She grinned, tipping her head. “Okay, yeah, maybe. When you told me what she did I wanted to hang her up by her tits.”
Logan pulled back to look down at her. “You know, I think Grandma Marshall might be a bad influence on you.”
Giggling, she pulled him in for another kiss. “Oh, I don’t know. She told me three weeks ago that we would fall in love.”
His heart stilled. “And did we?”
She gave him an affronted face. “Well, yeah. You’re not the only one in love, stupid. I have you beat. I knew when you walked in the door of the office that we were going to be together. Something inside me clicked when I saw you. I think my heart stopped, then restarted. Maybe that’s what it was. And I wanted to tell you sooner, but I didn’t want to hold you if you didn’t want to be held. Know what I mean?”
He nodded. “I definitely want to be held. I didn’t at first, I’ll give you that, but I definitely do now.”
Grinning, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “I love you, Logan William Vance.”
“I love you too, Marigold...” he hesitated. “What is your middle name?”
She grinned at him and shook her head. “I don’t think I know you well enough to tell you my middle name.”
“What?” He pulled back, looking down into her beautiful eyes. “Seriously?”
Laughing, she gave him a sharp nod. “Maybe if you agree to the tattoo, I’ll tell you...”
Logan laughed so hard tears came to his eyes. “I’m not getting ‘gone to market’ on my foot.”
“I think it would look fabulous,” she said, expression pert.
He fucking loved the hell out of her, and if it would make her happy, he would probably do it. “Kiss me woman.”
She did as she was told, happily. And when he let her up for air, knowing she was susceptible, he told her, “Let’s move in together.”
“Okay. Right now? I think we need to go home and move you in immediately.”
“We can do it tonight,” he chuckled. “And I’ll make it worth your wait.”
“You’d better,” she warned, drawing back when his phone rang. He didn’t want to be interrupted, but it was Shannon. He picked up the receiver. “Yes, ma’am.”
“You have a woman on line three by the name of Rebecca. Are you in?”
“Yes,” Logan said quickly. He’d been trying to get a hold of this woman for a week. He gave Marigold an apologetic look, but she was already waving as she left, blowing him a kiss. Logan’s throat was tight with emotion as he answered the call.
Marigold damn near skipped down the hallway, but that would be difficult in heels. Her insides felt effervescent. As soon as she got to her desk, Shannon looked up and grinned. “Something has changed...You’re floating.”
Marigold glanced around, but they were alone. John’s door was shut and Duncan was out of the office. And it was late enough on a Friday that most everyone else was gone. “Logan just told me he loved me,” she whispe
red, tears filling her eyes.
“Oh, Marigold,” Shannon whispered, drawing her into a hug. “Congratulations. That’s huge for him.”
Marigold nodded. “I know. I’ve loved him for weeks, now.”
“I know you have,” Shannon murmured, straightening some of Marigold’s hair. “But you waited for him to tell you, and that was exactly the right thing to do.”
She nodded, wiping away tears. “He asked me to move in with him.”
Shannon laughed. “Well, you pretty much were, already.”
“Yeah...”
She hoped he didn’t mean he wanted to leave Nancy’s house. That would kind of break her heart. No, she knew he loved being there as much as she did.
Tears flooded her eyes again as she thought about how much he had changed recently. Coming to Colorado had been the best thing for him, she had no doubt. And the series of little incidents that added up to him being in her line of sight that day... she would be forever thankful to Shannon for latching onto him.
“What’s with all the waterworks?” John said, rolling into the reception area.
Marigold wiped her face and turned away.
“Logan and Marigold are officially together and in love,” Shannon told him softly.
John snorted. “Not like we didn’t see that coming a mile away.”
“John,” Shannon hissed.
Marigold was surprised when John rolled into her line of sight and reached for her hand. Shocked, she let him take it.
“Your dad would have been so happy for you to be with a man like Logan.”
Marigold blinked, wondering if he was assuming her dad would have liked him, or...
“Derek talked about what he wanted for his child, and he always said he wanted a man to love her as much as he did your mother.”
Marigold gasped at the mention of her father’s name and dropped into her chair. “What?” Tears flooded her eyes and rolled down her cheeks, unnoticed.