Love Unexpected (Navy Love Series Book 2) (29 page)

“How were the fireworks?”

“Uh, they were, um good,” Tegan states unassured.

When the fuck were there fireworks last night?

“Good, I’m glad you two had a nice night.”

We sit and chat the rest of lunch. Mainly everyone asks more about Tegan’s childhood in Texas. I know most of it already thanks to my friendship with Tessa and some from what Tegan has told me, but I still soak up everything she has to say.

I’m mesmerized by her today. I think I always have been, but now I’m finally comfortable openly admitting it. She’s beautiful, sincere, and a genuinely good person who loves me.

Before I know it, lunch is over and it’s time for us to head to the airport. Dad was gracious enough to bring our suitcases, which we’d already packed up before we left their house the other night, with him so we could go straight to the airport.

We’re parting ways with Mom and Tanner here, it’s always been a thing with Mom; she doesn’t ever go to the airport when I leave. She gets too emotional.

I give Tanner a hug and threaten bodily harm if he doesn’t behave for our parents.

He moves over to hug Tegan and I watch their exchange. My younger brother has already called my woman hot. If his hands linger too long, I’ll put him in his place right now.

Fortunately for him, it’s a quick hug and goodbye.

Mom pulls me into a tight hug.

“I’m so proud of you, sweetie.” She lets go of my neck and smiles up at me. “You did a good thing this trip, I’m glad you went and made peace, now you can focus on more important things.” With that, she gives a slight nod in Tegan’s direction.

“Way ahead of you, Ma.” I lean down and whisper in her ear, “That perfect moment came last night.”

I pull back and wink at her jaw-dropped expression. It’s not every day I get to be the one who makes my mom speechless.

She quickly shakes off her shock and turns to Tegan.

“And you, my dear.” She and Tegan wrap their arms around each other. “I’m so glad you came out here, I just adore you.” She pulls away and holds Tegan at arm's length. “If my son knows what’s good for him, he’ll hold onto you for a long time.”

She gives me a stern look in warning.

“Ma, if I have anything to do with it, Tegan will be around for a long while.”

It’s meant as a reassurance to my mom, however, I feel Tegan’s head jerk to face me. I simply smile and keep my eyes trained on my mom. Tegan and I have plenty of time to discuss it later if she needs more than what I just gave her.

Plain and simple, though, I’ve got plans for the two of us together, for a good long time.

“Well, we should get going.” I glance down at my watch—four hours until our flight.

Mom hugs and kisses us both one last time and we load into the car with my dad and make the short drive to the airport. I’m sad to leave, but ready to get back to the daily grind of life.

We land in Norfolk at 11:00 PM. Even though Tegan napped most of the ride home, we’re both beyond ready to crash for the night. I’m still not ready to let her go home yet, though.

It doesn’t take much convincing, with her car being parked right outside my apartment anyway, so I’m able to talk her into staying.

She and I both have tomorrow off of work. I return on Tuesday while she’s off until Thursday. I know I can convince her to stay with me until then, and Saturday night is when we’re babysitting Parker and Madison.

Tonight is the night. In a matter of hours, I’ll be with Tegan and two little munchkins. As excited as I am to see those two, I’d really rather have some alone time with my woman tonight.

Since our trip, I can’t get enough of Tegan. I want to be around her all the time, and when I am around her, I want to be physically touching her. At this point, I don’t understand how I managed to steer clear of her for those three months. Going an hour without talking to her or touching her is pure hell.

She stayed at my apartment until early Thursday morning when she had to leave for her opening shift at the coffee house. I wasn’t happy not having her there with me Thursday night or last night, but tonight, we’ve already made arrangements to go home together. I picked her up from her apartment straight after work just to ensure a night together happened.

I haven’t had much time to spend with everyone since we came back from Michigan. Tonight is the first time I’ll see Hunter and Tess; Marshall met me for lunch on Wednesday so he was the first to get all of the details of the trip. Luckily for me, he already heard everything from Tegan when he stopped by and saw her on Tuesday after I left for work.

I’ve seen Jo in passing, but she hasn’t seemed in the mood for talking. Everyone at work, including J.C., has warned me of her foul mood. And although I’ve seen J.C. and hung out with him while at work, we haven’t discussed much other than safe, easy topics. Until one of them wants to confess that there’s way more going on between the two of them, no one can help them out of the situation they’re currently in.

All of us are simply stuck on the sidelines, unable to help, clueless as to what the real issues are with them.

Arriving at Tessa’s, I think I’m more excited than Tegan. She came over on Wednesday and spent some time with her sister and the babies. I, however, haven’t gotten to see them, other than the pictures she sent me that day.

We walk into the living room where Hunter has both of them in bouncy chairs, holding two bottles up and talking animatedly to them as they suck down the formula. The twins are captivated by their father’s antics.

Tessa comes in wearing a form-fitting pair of jeans and pea coat.

“Hey, y’all.” She hugs her sister and gives her a peck to the cheek. I’m somewhat surprised when I get the same treatment. “How was the trip, Reed?”

“It was a lot of fun.”

“Good, good. Bug said she had a good time.” The smile on her face tells me that Tegan told her a lot more than just that she had a good time. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tessa also knew that I told Tegan I love her.

Oh well, they’ll all find out sooner rather than later.

“Oh, I forgot to mention it earlier; we had planned to drop Sawyer off with my dad,” Hunter says in-between wiping the access formula from each of the twins chins. “He’s not feeling well and asked if you two could handle her too? If you aren’t comfortable I can call Marsh—”

“No. He’s gotten plenty of time with all three of these cuties while I was away, we’ll be just fine.”

After we chat a few more minutes, Tegan takes over for Hunter so he and Tess can leave.

“Sawyer!” Tessa yells down the hall, “We’re about to leave!”

She comes running down the hall and straight into Hunter’s arms.

“Bye, Daddy!”

“You make sure you listen to your aunt and Reed tonight, you hear me, young lady?”

“I will!” she exaggerates and moves over to hug Tessa. “Lub you, Mommy.”

“Love you too, princess. Now, go finish your movie, Daddy and I will be back soon.”

“Okay!”

Tessa watches her daughter skip back down the hall then gives both twins a kiss on their heads.

“Alright, we’ll be back in a couple hours. Just going to dinner and a movie. Call us if you need anything.”

“We will, Tess. Go, have a good time, we’ll see you in a bit,” Tegan says as she watches the twins while they finish their bottles.

Tegan

This is what I hope to be the first of many babysitting adventures for myself and Charlie.

He’s been a huge help so far. I didn’t know how reliable he’d be, but he helped bathe the twins, washed bottles after they finished eating, ordered pizza, and ensured that Sawyer ate and changed Parker’s diaper.

How many men
volunteer
to change a baby’s diaper?

I’ve seen Charlie with Sawyer many times, but watching how attentive he is in this element with not only a five-year-old little girl, but also two six-week-old babies, I have no doubt he will make an excellent father someday.

He’s mentioned before that he’s not sure he’d want kids, but that would be a shame for him to not experience it.

The twins are amazing, but I’m biased.

They’re six weeks old and they’re starting to get their own unique personalities now. Parker is mellow: he’s content to lay on the floor and entertains himself. Madison is the exact opposite: she loves attention already and doesn’t last long when she’s left to entertain herself.

Unfortunately, they still do sleep quite a bit. So after one jam-packed hour since Tess and Hunter’s departure, they are both ready for bed. Each have been fed, bathed and changed into pajamas.

Sawyer is sitting on the floor quietly playing on a tablet, while I’m in the rocker with Madison and Charlie is on the ottoman with a sleepy Parker in his arms.

Picking up one of the many children’s books from the shelf beside me, I read through it and effectively put both of the twins to sleep.

Charlie and I both continue rocking and cuddling our respective kid a few extra minutes. He’s the first to get up and place Parker in his crib. Instead of sitting back down or even leaving the room, he squats down and picks up the now snoozing Sawyer and exits the room.

After a couple minutes he reappears in the doorway. Leaning against the frame, he stares at me and the sleeping Madison.

“What?” I whisper after a minute of his scrutiny.

He shrugs his shoulder, brushing off my question.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

He slowly shakes his head back and forth.

“Just realized something.” He pushes off the door and sits back down on the ottoman, only this time he’s facing me where before I saw his back.

“And what’s that?”

“That I want this.” He lifts his chin toward me and Madison.

“What?”

“You in this element. I want you as my wife and the mother of my kids, Tegan.”

My eyes bug out.

“Don’t freak out just yet. I’m not asking for it now, but know that it’s coming. I wasn’t lying when I told my mom I want you around for a long time. What I didn’t say is I want you around for as long as humanly possible.”

He wants this? With me?

It’s exactly what I want. I love Charlie, and even though we had a rough road to get to this point, I wouldn’t change anything about it.

I look down at Madison as I say the words, “I want that too.”

He leans down to see my face. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” I get up and walk over to the crib. Placing one last kiss to my niece’s head, I lay her down and we leave the room.

I check on Sawyer, who is sound asleep in her bed, then we both make our way to the living room.

“What brought that on?”

“Seeing you with the twins, knowing how much I love you, it fits. I never thought I’d want kids, but with you, I do. I want it all. Kids, a minivan, soccer games, whatever—sign me up. As long as I got you by my side, I’m in.”

I take a seat on the couch beside where he has already sat down and he pulls me into his side.

“I need to talk to you about something,” he says quietly.

I nod for him to continue, unsure of where this strange conversation is going.

“I hate not having you in bed with me every night. So please, can we move in together?”

Letting out a small laugh, I shake my head, unable to believe how this night has evolved.

“We can move into your place for the time being until we find something we both like. My lease ended a few months ago so I’m on a month-to-month payment option now.”

I think it over briefly. This move makes sense, Tessa paid her half of the rent for six months up front when she moved out, and that ends next month. And beyond the finances of it, I hate living alone.

Plus, nine times out of ten if I’m at home, Charlie is with me. Or I’m at his apartment.

We’ve pretty much been living together for the last month or so anyway. It’s time to get all of our stuff into one household.