“You said you had another three and a half months left of your service obligation.”
“I do. What I’m going to do is stay here for only the amount of time you’ll be here, saving up one and a half weeks of my vacation time to take at the end of the three months. That way I can see you sooner. Then again, you and the kids can see me anytime while I’m still stationed at Fort Hood.”
She folded her arms as he rested his arm around her shoulders. “So you get out of the army and then what? You don’t think I’m going to support you, do you?”
He knew she was teasing. He’d been working since he was thirteen. He couldn’t imagine not working at something. “I’ve never been to Yuma Town. Is there anything there that I could work at?”
She shook her head. “We haven’t seen each other in five years. One night at the movies isn’t going to make all the difference in the world.”
“We have the theme park, runs with the kids in the woods, visits to the ice cream shop, the zoo, the Renaissance fair, just all kinds of adventures. By then, I’ll have worn you down and you’ll realize what a great guy I am. Again.”
She laughed, then raised a brow. “No dinners out with just you?”
“Hell yeah.”
She smiled. “Okay. I thought you were just trying for father of the year.”
“About that.” Jack had to know if the kids were his. No way could he pretend they weren’t, if they were, and he wanted the kids and her in his life, support-wise, and every other way. Even, he realized, if they weren’t his. He couldn’t imagine not having a father figure in his life. They needed one too.
She looked away. “I wondered when you’d ask. Yes, I was married to a man named Jeffrey Brown, though that wasn’t his real name. He was prior military and I later learned during one of the engagements he was in, he tried to kill a fellow serviceman, Leyton Hill, who now lives in Yuma Town and is the field director working for the CSFD.”
Jack thought Dottie was going to talk to him about the kids, so he was surprised when she mentioned the loser of an ex-husband instead. He was glad to learn about him though too. “The CSFD?” He’d never heard of them before.
“The Cougar Special Forces Division. They deal with rogue cougars.”
“In Yuma Town?” He thought that the place was supposed to be safe for the kids and her.
“Yeah, but they don’t stay around there. They take off to other locations, wherever they’re needed to take down the rogues.”
Which gave Jack a great idea. Surely, if they had any openings, he could get on with them. He was prior service, like Leyton, and combat-trained.
“So what happened? Aunt Emily said your ex-husband was killed when he had threatened you.” He wished he’d been there for Dottie, though he couldn’t have gotten out of his service obligation for anything.
“Leyton killed him. Though his mate had a hand in it. Jeffrey had already injured another CSF agent named Travis, who also lives in Yuma Town. Well, he’d tried to kill Leyton too.” She let out her breath. “I know what you’re thinking—about the kids. Jeff and Trish are yours.”
Dottie couldn’t have hit him squarer in the jaw with the comment than she did. He thought they were. This confirmed it and he thought he’d be prepared for the truth. He wasn’t. He was glad to hear it, but afraid she wouldn’t want him in her life for good.
“They are,” he said, matter-of-factly. They looked just like him, except their hair was blonder than his was. Then again, his was just as light when he was that young. It had darkened the older he got. Dottie and her aunt were dark-haired like her father and his father.
“Yes. I didn’t plan to keep it a secret from you. As soon as I saw you at the airport, I wanted to tell you. I just couldn’t mention it in front of the kids. What if you’d fainted?”
He laughed. He loved her sense of humor. “I’m not the fainting type. Though if you told me we’d had sextuplets, then maybe. You know what this means, don’t you?”
“We’re not getting married. Not just so the kids will have a mother and father who live together. The kids never knew Jeffrey. He left when they were a year old. He said he was going on a job and I kept thinking he would return any day, but he never came back. I finally filed for divorce. I was going to lose the house, and my friend Dan Steinecker, the sheriff, my boss, and a good friend came out and talked with me. His dispatcher wanted to retire and I took her place. Initially, Jeffrey had wanted me to say the kids were his. It was a condition of the marriage. When I look back at the situation, I believe he used me and the kids as a cover for his illegal operations. Then he took off to do more of his illicit business and didn’t return until much later when Leyton had to take him out. I divorced him by default. He never responded when I filed for divorce. Dan hired a PI he knows to locate Jeffrey and serve him the papers. I was glad he wasn’t dead, and he had a chance to respond, though I was afraid of what he might say about the kids, custody rights, visitation rights, that sort of thing.”
“Great father figure.”
She cast Jack a dark look.
“Just saying.” Why hadn’t she contacted Jack? “Okay, so yeah, we need to get to know each other again. They’re my kids too. I’ve always been close to my dad. I want that for Trish and Jeff also.”
“You are still in the army.”
“For three and a half more months. Three,” he corrected.
“A lot can happen in that time. You could find someone else.”
Jack snorted. “I haven’t found anyone else in all the time we’ve been apart. All I’ve ever thought about is you. Anyone I’ve ever dated couldn’t hold a candle to you. The only real problem we had was my being in the army, and I couldn’t do anything about that.”
“Why don’t we see what happens after you get out, if you get out.”
“I’ll be sending support money home to you for you and the kids.”
“For the kids, if you want. It’s not necessary. I make enough on my own to support them.”
He wasn’t going to repeat that the kids were his too, and he had a financial obligation to help support them. More than that? He wanted to do all the things he had done with his father with his own kids. And Dottie too, if she wanted to go with them. As a family. He’d never considered he’d end up with a readymade family. It would take some adjusting for everyone. He suspected the only one who wouldn’t have to adjust to the notion was Aunt Emily.
“I need to go to bed. The kids will be up early, and I don’t want to impose on my aunt to have to take care of them first thing in the morning.”
He rose from the swing and took Dottie’s hand and pulled her into his arms. “I want this to be the beginning for us.”
“You. Are. Leaving. Again. For three more months.”
“I’ll be back. In the meantime, I want to keep in touch, emails, Skype, phone calls. And you and the kids can visit me. I want you to know I’m not out of your lives, and before you know it, I’ll be back.”
“Without a job.”
He smiled. “I won’t move in so you can support me.”
“I’m not leaving Yuma Town and I’m not leaving my job as a police dispatcher. I love it there.”
“No problem at all.” Though he wondered what kind of reception he’d get in Yuma since he hadn’t ever supported his own kids. Even though he hadn’t known about them. He imagined they were a tight-knit community since they were mostly cougar shifters.
He kissed her then, just like he had in the past, full of passion and loving. She responded just as heartily as if she was ready to renew this business between them, despite sounding like she didn’t think it would work out. He guessed she’d been so disappointed with relationships in the past, she couldn’t see that with him she might have a real future. He wished he didn’t have to return to his army job for any length of time at all.
Dottie threw herself into the kiss with enthusiasm, as if she and Jack had never been apart. She realized then, just how much she’d missed Jack. How much t
his felt right between them. It was as if all the years they’d been apart just melted away, and he was the same person she knew before the marriage, the divorce, and the kids.
She wanted this. She hadn’t been sure of it when she’d first seen him. When he first kissed her sweetly in front of her kids. Their kids. This passion that always exploded between them—this was what she was missing in her life.
She wrapped her arms around him and listened to his heart beating as rapidly as hers, breathed in his spicy scent that was all his, and wished he was free to come home with her, right this very minute. For now, she wouldn’t let him go and was just enjoying the feel of his hard, hot body pressed against her, the way he kept his arms tightly around her as if he was experiencing the same thing.
“I’ve missed this with you,” she told him honestly.
“Hell, I didn’t realize just how much I truly missed you until I saw you at the airport and wanted to kiss you like this. Before that, it was just a case of remembering how good it was between us until Hellion got involved.”
“Thanks for making sure that someone was keeping an eye on him until he went to jail.”
“Yeah, he certainly deserved it.”
She let out her breath on a heady sigh. “I guess we’d better call it a night so we can get up early to go to the theme park.”
He kissed her forehead. “Okay, sounds good.” He gave her another kiss on the mouth, and then he left, and she wished he could have stayed.
She was so glad her aunt had been the master manipulator and had gotten them back together, helping her to share with him about his kids—though she had been unsure how he would react.
She couldn’t wait to see how things went at the theme park tomorrow. She hoped if the kids grew cranky, Jack could deal with it in a good way. Not all men could handle being around kids when children were at their worst. And Jack hadn’t had any experience with any of this, good or bad.
When Jack went home that night, he was full of hope that things would work out between him and Dottie, and that this wasn’t all some crazy notion he had that the kids would love him and she would too. It was one thing to pay child support, another to really raise a family. And to marry the woman he’d fallen hard for so long ago.
His mother, father, and sister were sitting in the living room, waiting for him to come home. He knew it all had to do with him and Dottie, though he didn’t really want to discuss this with the family right this minute.
His sister spoke first. “Okay, so did she tell you they were your kids?”
“You knew? Let me get a beer.” He couldn’t believe his sister had known all along and had never told him.
His mom was sitting on the edge of her seat, anxious for the news. His dad was just smiling at him like he was amused that Jack had come home to learn he had a family. His sister appeared eager to clear the air. Just how much had she known? Had everyone else also?
Beer in hand, Jack sat on one of the chairs. “Okay, so, yes, Trish and Jeff are my kids.”
His mother burst into tears.
3
“Did you tell him?” Aunt Emily asked Dottie as she came in for the night, ready to go to bed.
“Yeah. He would have known. Like you knew, right?” Dottie hadn’t thought anyone had. She had guessed wrong.
“Yeah. I’m glad you let him in on the truth. He needed to know.”
Dottie told her what they had talked about.
“Then there’s hope the two of you will get together for good in three months.”
“Three months is still a long time.”
“Dottie Susan May Hamilton, you wait it out. No seeing other guys. The kids are Jack’s. Give him a chance to be part of the family. It’s nearly been five years. Give him three more months. It won’t kill you.”
Dottie rarely heard her aunt’s voice raised in annoyance. “Okay, okay.” She was anyway; she was just afraid to be let down.
“Are you going to tell the kids?”
“I think we need to wait—“
“Okay, listen. Let’s say you don’t get together. He’s going to support the kids. He’ll want to see them. He’s their father. So you need to tell them. Even if it doesn’t work out between you. It’s not his fault that he didn’t know he had a couple of kids. He knows now. It’s time you told everyone the truth.”
That was not going to be easy. “I agree. I will. Night, Aunt Emily.” Dottie had thought she was going to come home to see her aunt and her aunt would enjoy seeing the kids and that was it. She’d never expected all of this to happen.
As soon as she was ready for bed and pulled her covers over her shoulder, her phone rang. Instinctively, she knew it had to be Jack, unless someone in Yuma Town needed to get hold of her about something. She doubted it. She checked the caller ID. Jack. Now what? “Hello?”
“Well, I walked into an interrogation room when I arrived home.”
She smiled. Poor Jack. “So your family knew about the kids too?”
“They suspected. My sister said she knew for sure. Anyway, my mother burst into tears, hit me, hugged me, and wants to see the kids as soon as you’re okay with it.”
Dottie sighed. “This was just supposed to be a vacation.”
“Can they see the kids?”
“Of course. My aunt will be delighted. I’m not sure how the kids are going to take all of this. Would your family be interested in going to the theme park with us? Or the Renaissance fair?”
“I’ll check with them.” Jack paused. “Can I come over?”
“Now?” She couldn’t believe he’d want to see her again tonight. “You just left.”
“How can we make the connection if we don’t…make the connection?”
Knowing just what he had in mind, she smiled. “You always were insatiable.” And she loved him for it.
“Unlock your window. I’ll be right there.”
“No way. Come to the front door. You’re liable to get shot otherwise. Aunt Emily’s taken up shooting, just in case that Hellion guy ever showed his face around here.”
“Tell her I’ll be right there.”
“She’s gone to bed. She’ll recognize your car’s engine anyway. You can’t stay the night though.”
“That’s fine. I just need to talk with you some more. See you in a few.”
Immediately someone knocked on the front door. Had to be Jack. She threw on her underclothes, jeans, and a shirt, and hurried into the hall before he woke her aunt. Seeing Aunt Emily coming out of her room, Dottie quickly said, “I’ve got it.”
Her aunt just smiled, then slipped back into her room, and shut the door.
Dottie opened the front door to see a smiling Jack. “You’ve been parked out front all of this time?” Unable to hide her surprise, Dottie let Jack into the house.
“Yeah. Well, not all of this time. I hoped we could talk. My family wants to see the kids.”
“You said that already.”
“I wanted to see you.”
She grabbed his hand and led him back to the bedroom. “Do you have condoms that work better than the last time?”
He chuckled. “Fresh new pack I just picked up at the store on the way over here. I didn’t want you to think I had this planned all along.”
“I always loved how prepared you were for anything.”
“Frankly, not for the fact I was to learn I have a set of twins.”
“I hope it’s not too much of a shock.”
“No. I’m ready to be a father.”
“What about us?”
“Why do you think I’m over here now?”
Dottie couldn’t believe she was going to make love to Jack. Not that she hadn’t thought of it, maybe later…a couple of days later. Maybe. From the time they had first met so many years ago, she’d wanted this with him. She thought at the time it was because she wanted to feel attractive to another man—after her boyfriend dumped her to join the navy—like she had been attracted to Jack. She thought it would be a quick letdown and
then she’d get it out of her system. One day had led to three months of days and nights, and she realized she hadn’t ever gotten him out of her system.
It felt right to be with him like this again. Seeing her Aunt Emily. The kids meeting their father and having fun with him. She wouldn’t be doing this with him now if she didn’t feel they could work something out between them and have a real future.
She closed her bedroom door and she realized how white and frilly her room was when she visited her aunt—the white lace curtains and sheers, the bed covered in white eyelet, the white lace bed skirt, even the hand-painted furniture was covered in pastel flowers in pinks and lilacs. Jack didn’t seem to care anything about the décor. Only about her as they began to kiss.
He removed her shirt, then kissed her cheeks, her lips, her forehead. Heat pooled in her belly as she worked to unfasten his belt. He kissed her mouth again, his hand sliding up the nape of her neck, and she gave into his rousing kiss. He lit her fire when no man had ever come close to making her feel so out of control, so needy, so willing to take this all the way.
He yanked off his jeans and fished something out of his pocket.
“Thought you’d get lucky,” she whispered against his lips, pulling him in for another kiss, glad he was prepared.
His blue eyes were darkened with lust, his breathing raspy as he pulled off her jeans and tossed them aside. “Brand new,” he reminded her, before he unfastened her bra and pulled it off, then ran his hands over her breasts in a loving caress. “Amazing.” Then he pressed kisses all over her breasts, licking the nipples, suckling one, then the other.
When he made her feel this good, she didn’t think she could last three months without his kisses. Without his loving touch.