The Marine's Family Mission

by Victoria Pade

  “My legs are fine,” she joked, letting them fall from where they’d wrapped around his massive thighs at some point.

  “And the rest of you?” he asked, flexing inside her again. “I mean it feels very, very—very—fine to me, but—”

  “The rest of me feels pretty fine, too,” she assured, tightening her inner muscles around him.

  He kissed her once more, this one as alluring and tempting as if he was starting all over again.

  Which, to her surprise, Emmy was more than willing to have happen.

  Except that just then the sound of Kit waking up came through the baby monitor on the nightstand.

  A guttural complaint rolled from Declan’s throat and he reluctantly ended that kiss. “Is it that time already?”

  “Oh...sadly...”

  “Yeah,” Declan agreed with emphatic disappointment. Then he said, “I told you that last night Kit woke up, took his bottle and went right back to sleep.”

  “The new formula,” Emmy said as the explanation.

  “So how about if I take tonight, too—while you rest up—and we hope it goes like last night did so I can come back?”

  Though shocked at how she was already ready for more of him—and thrilled to know he felt the same way about her—she played it cool with a simple “Okay.”

  “I’ll wake you up if you fall asleep,” he warned.

  “Okay,” she repeated, unable to keep from smiling.

  Kit was making fussier and fussier sounds, and with a groan of his own, Declan slipped out of her at the same moment he gave her a parting kiss. Then he left the room.

  Emmy did close her eyes when he was gone, but there was no way she was going to sleep.

  Because while she was sticking to her determination not to think beyond that moment, the fact that she could have more of Declan, more of what they’d just had—at least for the rest of the night—filled her with anticipation.

  Anticipation and a warm contentment even though she warned herself all over again that this was only for tonight.

  Chapter Nine

  The weather couldn’t have been better for the midafternoon wedding—seventy-five degrees and not a cloud in the Montana sky.

  It seemed to Declan that most of Northbridge attended. Plus there were guests from Denver and farther afield, including all twenty-two of the Camdens.

  As he stood under the large tent where the reception was set up with food on a buffet, tables and chairs surrounding the dance floor, and a band playing live music against the backdrop of a spectacular sunset, he marveled a little at what he was seeing.

  Never, in his wildest dreams, would he have imagined bearing witness to Northbridge celebrating Madisons rather than gossiping about them. And it was happening even after word had to have spread that they were now openly acknowledged as biologically Camdens.

  But there it was right before his eyes—his sister dancing with their newfound cousin Beau Camden, her groom dancing with Jani Camden, even Conor dancing with GiGi, all without a single sideways glance from anyone.

  “You look tired—are you okay?” Liam asked when he strolled over to Declan just then.

  “I’m fine,” Declan assured, trying to keep from grinning at the thought of why he didn’t seem rested. He’d made love to Emmy until nearly five o’clock this morning and since Trinity was an early riser, very little sleep had been had.

  “Did the baby keep you up crying again last night?” his twin persisted.

  Declan lost a little of the battle against the grin. “Nah, the new formula has been great. It’s been two nights in a row that he just gets up for a bottle and goes back to sleep—that’s a world better than hours walking him around.”

  “But your sleep still gets interrupted. You know I didn’t get to know Evie and Grady were mine until they were four years old so I wasn’t around for the baby stuff with them. But I can’t say I’m sorry that I missed all those sleep interruptions. You’re sure you feel all right, though? Your leg isn’t giving you trouble and keeping you up nights?”

  “The leg is fine, too. If it wasn’t, I’d be sitting instead of standing, wouldn’t I?”

  “I just want to make sure you aren’t hiding something that Conor should know about.”

  While the three of them had been dressing for the wedding, Conor had offered to talk to Declan’s doctor about a referral letter that would begin the process of his medical evaluation. The wheels were about to be set into motion for his return to duty.

  But what Declan was actually hiding he wasn’t going to reveal so he said, “There’s nothing to know. Except that you guys have to stop worrying about me—I could run circles around the both of you.”

  “You could give it a try...” his brother countered with a challenge in his own voice, the way things had always been between the highly competitive brothers. Then Liam said, “What do you think about the Camdens inviting us for a weekend after Kinsey’s honeymoon so we can all get to know each other?”

  “What do you think about it?” Declan volleyed the question back at him rather than admit he didn’t have an answer.

  Mere days ago he would have railed against the whole idea and ranted against the Camdens.

  But now?

  Now Emmy had pointed out things that, he had to admit, seemed true about them. They really did seem like nice enough, down-to-earth people. And yes, they weren’t any more responsible or guilty for what had happened in the past than he or Liam or Conor or Kinsey were. And Emmy was also right that they were handling this bizarre situation with grace and dignity and a minimal amount of embarrassment to any of them—he had to give them credit for that.

  Plus he wanted his sister to have the extended family she’d always craved—after all she’d done to care for their parents during their final illnesses when none of her brothers had been able to lend a hand, they owed it to her. And he didn’t want to be the one to throw a wrench into those works for her sake now that the Camdens were giving her the recognition she wanted.

  None of that wiped away the years and years of misery he’d endured, so he had mixed emotions. But since he realized those mixed emotions might unduly color things for him, he was inclined to go with Emmy’s opinions and observations. And maybe give the Camdens a chance.

  As if his twin had read his mind, Liam said, “Maybe we should go to Denver. The whole lot of them did come all the way here for this, for Kinsey. I guess that says something. And we are related to them. I keep thinking about Mom...what she’d want us to do...”

  “Yeah, there’s that, too,” Declan conceded.

  “So maybe we need to just let it play out, get to know them, go from there...”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  Their conversation was cut short by Trinity leaving the dance floor, where she’d been doing her own version of a dance with some of the other children. The three-year-old didn’t say a word—she merely joined them to slip her hand into Declan’s and lean against his thigh.

  It was yet another sign that he was making headway with her. The feel of that tiny hand in his, of her leaning against him, gave him a quiet, warm contentment. The same kind of contentment, the same kind of secret satisfaction he found when Kit responded to him now, the infant smiling when he spotted Declan or when Declan made faces and noises at him.

  “You doin’ okay, Trin?” he asked her.

  “Uh-huh,” she answered wearily.

  “Do you think maybe it’s time for Miss Mona to take you and Kit home?”

  “Miss Mona’s dancin’.”

  “When she’s finished dancing?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Can I pick you up so you can rest until then?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Declan bent over and scooped up the three-year-old to hold on his hip. She laid her head on his shoulder. Which also felt damn good to him.


  “She looks just like Topher, doesn’t she?” Liam observed sadly then, gazing at the little girl.

  “Yeah,” Declan agreed, knowing it was true even without being able to see her. It stabbed him every time he noticed it.

  Trinity snuggled into the crook of his neck.

  “So Topher’s single sister-in-law inherited everything?” Liam said vaguely and somewhat under his breath, nodding at Trinity to make it clear what he was talking about.

  “She did.”

  “That’s a big deal... I don’t know if I could have done it without Dani. But Topher’s sister-in-law is on board for it?”

  “I haven’t seen her skip a beat,” Declan said, feeling some pride in her that he knew he had no claim to.

  “And she knows what she’s doing with them? I mean, I was really bad at the parenting thing. It doesn’t come naturally for me.”

  “Yeah, me neither,” Declan admitted. Then, with a nod of his own in Trinity’s direction, he added, “This is new for me. Nice, but new.”

  “But Topher’s sister-in-law?” Liam reiterated.

  “She’s great at it,” Declan said, remembering back to when he’d had doubts about whether he could trust Emmy with Topher’s kids, whether she would be too erratic to raise them.

  Now that seemed ridiculous to him. He’d seen that no matter how tired Emmy was, no matter how stressed-out she was—even when she was dealing with deep emotional issues from the school explosion—when it came to Trinity and Kit, she was endlessly patient. She was loving and caring. She was always thoughtful of not only what was best for them, but what would offer some fun for them, too. And though being called a mama-bear last night had ticked her off, he saw that streak in her as a big plus for Trinity and Kit.

  All of which should have made him feel better about leaving them.

  Yet today—ever since Conor’s offer of the referral letter to get him back where he thought he belonged—he’d been dreading leaving Emmy alone with them. Hell, just leaving her...

  The music ended and the babysitter came over to Declan before Declan could go to her.

  “I think we’ve had enough wedding,” Miss Mona announced. “Time to go home.”

  “I’ll help you get them to the car,” Declan said, leaving Liam behind to follow the babysitter to Kit, who was being held by a grandmotherly woman at one of the tables.

  “You comin’ home, too, Decan?” Trinity asked as he put her in her car seat.

  “Not yet. Emmy and I have to stay awhile longer. Miss Mona will get you to bed tonight, okay?”

  “Okay,” the worn-out three-year-old agreed. “Bu’ I need yogurt.”

  Declan laughed. “Hear that, Miss Mona? Trinity needs yogurt before she goes to bed.”

  “I think we can do that,” the older woman said, finishing up with the baby carrier on the other side of the car.

  With that settled, Declan kissed the top of Trinity’s head and said, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “W’ul have maple syrup in our oa’meal, okay?” she whispered as if it was their secret.

  Declan liked having that small thing between them that was all their own, and he winked at her. “We will,” he whispered back.

  Then he closed the car door, said goodbye to Miss Mona and stood there while she drove away before he turned and headed back to the wedding.

  The time it had taken to send off the babysitter and the kids was the longest Emmy had been out of his sight since before the wedding when she’d been with his sister to photograph the dressing of the bride. As he trekked around the farmhouse and up the hill where the reception was going strong, his first order of business was to get a visual on her again.

  She’d managed to outfit herself both for the fanciness of the wedding and for work. She had on a sexy-librarian high-necked navy blue lace blouse that gave him peeks at her arms and shoulders before a solid blue underlay blocked those parts he’d gotten to see and explore and revel in last night.

  The blouse was tucked into navy blue slacks that caressed her rear end almost as fondly as he had and allowed her to crouch and kneel and bend to whatever height gave her the best vantage point for her picture.

  Curling her hair and pinning those curls to her crown also contributed to her festive, feminine look. It struck him when he finally found her in the crowd that if this was the first time he’d ever set eyes on her, he would have rushed to introduce himself.

  But as it was he knew she was working, so he merely returned to the tent, ordered himself a beer from the bartender and then settled against one of the tent’s support poles to watch her.

  And to wonder why it was that the minute he connected even just that much with her, a feeling of calm came over him that wasn’t like anything he’d ever experienced.

  Which was all the more strange when he kept thinking about Conor’s offer to take that first step to get him back to duty. And a reluctance he couldn’t explain to accept it...

  What the hell was that?

  For the last seven months returning to duty was what had driven him. Through pain, through grief, through guilt, that goal had been his single focus—his need to get back to his unit, to his job, to what he was all about, to where he belonged. To the only place he’d ever felt as if he belonged. And here it was, within his grasp, and the thought wasn’t sitting so well.

  Instead the thought that was sitting well was that when this wedding ended and he got to take Emmy home, he’d have her to himself again. Maybe they could have another night like last night. And then another and another and another...

  Until he had to leave, which—until talking to Conor this morning—had seemed to be in the far-off distance.

  But now it was much closer.

  And as hard as he searched inside himself, he couldn’t find anything that made him glad about the idea of leaving.

  He drank some of his beer, watched the dancing couples again—the bride with her groom now, Conor with his wife, Maicy, Liam with his fiancée, Dani.

  And for some reason Liam’s words came to mind—what his twin had said at the rehearsal dinner about things changing for him.

  Things had definitely changed for Declan’s brothers. Only months ago they’d both been where he’d thought he was—bent on being career military for years to come.

  But in what seemed like the blink of an eye, here they were now, both of them so wrapped up in the women in their lives that they didn’t even seem to know there was anything or anyone else outside them.

  And here he was more concerned with spotting Emmy through the crowd than rebooting his own military career.

  But things had needed to change for his brothers.

  Conor had become dissatisfied with being an emergency and trauma doctor and had had to resign from the navy to retrain in another medical specialty.

  And things had had to change for Liam when he’d discovered that he was a father of twin four-year-olds who’d just lost their mother and stepfather.

  But nothing needed to change for Declan.

  He’d come here to make sure Topher’s kids were taken care of. Now he knew they were, and things were finally beginning to fall into place again.

  It just didn’t feel as if they were falling into the right place.

  Because nowhere in him could he find a sense that going back was right for him now.

  He looked at the beer in his hand.

  It was only his second, he wasn’t drunk, so where had that thought come from?

  Then he looked out at Emmy again and it began to creep into his head that maybe she was the cause. That feelings for her that he hadn’t seen coming were rearranging everything about his priorities.

  That even though there wasn’t a need for it the way there had been for his brothers, somehow things might have changed for him, too.

  In Northbridge of all place
s...

  You came for Topher’s kids. Just for Topher’s kids, he reminded himself.

  But the kids were a part of this, too, he realized.

  Now he’d walked miles with Kit to get him to sleep. He’d given him more bottles than he could count. Changed enough diapers to be an expert. And when he picked Kit up the baby nestled into his arms, against his chest, as if that was where he was supposed to be, where he felt safe and secure.

  Now Declan understood things Trinity said that didn’t sound like words. Now it was no surprise to look up from his morning workout and find her by his side, trying to copy what he was doing. Now he made her breakfast that she would eat and she let him read her bedtime stories and put her down for the night. Now she slipped that tiny hand of hers into his and cuddled up to him.

  And it did something to him...something so powerful that the idea of saying goodbye to those kids, the thought of not being around to see them grow up, gave him a kind of clenching pain that was harder to deal with than any of the physical injuries he’d suffered.

  Now there was something more to wanting to make sure Topher’s kids were okay than what he’d started out with.

  And it wasn’t coming from the guilt he’d arrived in Northbridge with.

  But it had come from being in Northbridge.

  First and foremost because Northbridge was where he’d found Emmy again.

  Talking to her about his belief that he was responsible for his friend’s death had led to her showing him a different perspective.

  And from that perspective had come memories of Topher in Northbridge, memories of where and when and how he and Topher and Liam had come to their decisions to join the military. Memories of their discussions of the risks, their acceptances of them. Memories that had led him to admit that Topher would never have held him responsible.

  Northbridge and Emmy...

  Emmy, who he’d believed was moody and temperamental.

  But now he thought differently about that, too.

  He understood her behavior much better now that he knew the causes. And since agreeing to accept his help here she’d been on an even keel with him. Even when the ramifications of the school explosion reared its ugly head for her, there hadn’t been any signs of her running hot and cold in anything but their physical relationship, where a little uncertainty was natural.