SEAL's Baby (Navy SEAL Secret Baby Romance) (15 page)

“What is that supposed to
mean?” Dylan asked. “I called mom and dad once a week after I left Bastrop.”

  
“Sure at the beginning,” Tyler nodded. “And then you called them
once a month, and then it was even less than that, until it became one random
letter every couple of months. You never even bothered to visit when you did
get leave. You came home once five years ago and that was as far as your effort
extended.”

I felt my blood boil but
I kept my anger in check as I stared down Tyler. “You don’t understand.”

“Explain it to me then,”
Tyler said, throwing my own words back in my face. “Treat me like I’m stupid.”

  
I shook my head. “You don’t get it. You think I was off travelling
the world and having the time of my life. Are you delusional enough to believe
that there’s anything remotely thrilling about war?”

“It may not be
thrilling,” Tyler shot back. “But at least you were doing something noble,
something honorable.”

  
“Maybe,” I conceded. “But that doesn’t take away anything else. You’re
still out there in hostile territories, scared out of your mind hoping that
you’re not going to run into anyone because you might have to kill or be
killed. People talk about glory, they talk about heroes but they’re just words
and they don’t mean a thing to me.”

“You should never have
enlisted,” Tyler said staring at me. “You were not cut out for the Navy.”

  
“That’s what this is really about, isn’t it, Ty?” I asked. “You’re
jealous because according to you I got to get out there and live the dream
while you got stuck in Bastrop looking after our parents. You think I stole
your life? That’s why you’re so damn mad at me.”

  
Tyler shook his head. “You’re the one who doesn’t get it, Dylan,
and there’s no point trying to explain it to you. Jason’s coming back so let’s
just try and get through this meal without jumping down each other’s throats all
right?”

“Fine,” I snapped.

  
Jason looked between the two of us as he sat down and I knew he
was hoping that whatever we had needed to discuss had been discussed and put to
bed. “So, boys,” he said suggestively. “Do you have any questions?”

“No,” I said. “Tyler can
have the land in California, I’m fine with that.”

“And you’ll take the ones
in Bastrop?”

“That’s right,” I nodded.

“Fantastic,” Jason said.
“That will make the rest of this easy.”

  
Tyler and I drove home in silence, but there was a nagging in the
back of my mind and I couldn’t seem to put it to rest. I glanced at Tyler; his
eyes were fixed on the road in front of us, but I could tell his mind was on
other things too.

“I should have called mom
and dad more often,” I said. “I know that I didn’t stay in touch as much as I
should have.”

Tyler was quiet for so
long that I thought he was just going to ignore me. “They understood,” he said
at last. “Better than I did, at least.”

  
“It’s just that … I was dealing with things … I had to wrap my
head around this new reality and hearing their voices … it made me want to pack
my bags and come right back home,” I admitted. “I wanted to quit a thousand
times in those first few months of training and I knew as long as this town had
a hold on me, I wouldn’t be able to see it through.”

“I guess … that makes
sense,” Tyler said.

“You were right, though,”
I said. “I wasn’t fair to them, or to Lizzie.”

I saw Tyler glance at me.
“You’ve been spending time with her again.”

“Yes,” I nodded.

“Is that wise?” Tyler
asked. “You are going back in three weeks.”

“She knows the
situation,” I replied. “I made sure she did, and I think we both know that
three more weeks is all we have.”

“And she’s ok with that?”

I nodded.

“Are you?” Tyler asked.

“I have no choice but to
be ok with it,” I answered.

“I think that was what
surprised me the most about your decision to enlist,” Tyler said after a
moment.

“What?”

  
“Lizzie,” Tyler replied. “The two of you were joined at the hip
since you were twelve or thirteen. You were together for so long that I never
imagined you’d make the decision to leave her behind.”

“It’s not as though I
could take her with me.”

“No,” Tyler agreed. “But
I thought you’d fight harder to keep the relationship going.”

I bristled at his words.
“You don’t know that I didn’t try.”

“You’re right, I don’t,”
Tyler said. “Did you?”

“I ... it’s complicated.”

“It always is,” Tyler
said smugly.

  
I ignored him and shook the frustration off. If I was being
honest, the person I was frustrated with the most was myself. I was the one who
had made stupid decisions; I was the one who had let every important
relationship in my life slide downhill. My parents were my parents and I knew
that they’d be there for me at the end of the day. But it was naïve and selfish
to assume Lizzie would put her life on hold and wait for me.

“I still can’t quite
believe she married Paul Kapke,” I said, thinking out loud.

“Well she did.”

“What happened?”

“I already told you,”
Tyler said impatiently.

I rolled my eyes at him.
“Forgive me if I need a little more detail,” I said. “I just … she’s important
to me, ok? I’m curious about her life.”

“Then maybe you should
ask her.”

“I’m asking you.”

  
Tyler sighed. “Listen … I don’t know much ok? I know what I heard
from around town. I heard about the wedding and then a few months later …”

“What?”

“I ran into Paul at a bar
in town,” Tyler said.

“Yeah?”

“He was completely drunk
and talking his ass off to the bartender and a couple of guys sitting next to
him.”

“What was he saying?”

  
“He was talking about his wife,” Tyler said. “At first I didn’t
know who he was talking about and then I remembered he had married Lizzie. He
was talking about how spoilt and selfish she was, he was talking about how …”
The silence hung in the air.

“How promiscuous she could
be,” Tyler finished reluctantly.

“Lizzie?” I asked in
outraged incredulity. “Promiscuous?”

  
“He was lying,” Tyler went on. “Anyone who knows Lizzie knows that
she’s the typical good girl. He was drunk and they’d probably had a fight that
night.

“What did you say?”

“What did I say?” Tyler
repeated.

“Yeah, didn’t you say
anything?”

  
“For God’s sake, Dylan, what the fuck was I supposed to do?” Tyler
demanded. “I didn’t know him, I barely knew Lizzie anymore. I didn’t know
anything about their marriage and I had no right to get involved.”

  
I swallowed my retort and tried to calm down by breathing. “I
know,” I said trying to keep my tone even so that Tyler would keep talking.
“What happened after that?”

  
“It kept happening,” Tyler said. “He kept getting drunk, going off
to clubs and bars alone at night, and shooting his mouth off about Lizzie. He
told people she was cheating on him, that she entertained men at night, he told
them she charged for sex. He told them all sorts of awful things about her.”

“None of which were
true,” I said heatedly.

“Of course not,” Tyler
agreed. “But people like gossip in small towns and we’re no exception.”

“Lizzie must have hated
that,” I said mostly to myself.

“She retreated into her
shell,” Tyler said. “She became a ghost. I barely saw her around town anymore.”

  
I was angry. I was angry with Tyler even though I knew he didn’t
deserve it. I was angry with Paul because he completely deserved it. But mostly
I was mad because I had left Lizzie here, I had left her in this town all alone
and Paul had taken advantage of that. And yet, he still wasn’t the one that I
was most angry with.

The person I was most
angry with was myself.

Chapter Sixteen

Elizabeth

  
I stared at my reflection in the mirror, casting a critical eye
over my features. I had never spent this much time in a bathroom trying to
figure out if I had too much makeup on or too little. I splashed water on my
face until it was clean again and then I took out my eyeliner pencil.

  
I circled by eyes minimally and took a step back. It had the
desired effect. My eyes looked large and prominent; the black of the liner made
the blue of my eyes seem just a tad bit brighter. I took out my nude gloss and
ran it over my lips, and then I pinched my cheeks and stared at myself again. I
sighed, knowing that I would never be a hundred percent satisfied with myself.

  
I was contemplating what I should do with my hair when Heather
walked in. She looked at me with interest as she slipped beside me to re-do her
own lipstick.

“You’ve been here a long
time,” she observed.

“Have I?” I tried to act
like I hadn’t noticed.

“Joni mentioned that you
were pulling at your face when she came in here ten minutes ago.”

I groaned in frustration.
“Geez … you bitches like to talk don’t you?”

Heather laughed. “So
who’s the guy?”

“What guy?” I asked pointlessly.

  
“Oh come on, Elizabeth,” Heather went on. “There is no other
reason for you to be in here so long. Don’t worry about it, hon; we’ve all been
there.”

I threw my lip-gloss back
into my tiny makeup kit and sighed. “This is not the kind of girl I am.”

“What kind of girl is
that?”

  
“This,” I said pointing to my reflection in the mirror. “I mean
I’m not the kind of girl who skulks around in bathrooms worrying about how good
or not good she looks.”

“Every girl is that kind
of girl,” Heather said giving me a knowing look. “Especially when there’s a
special boy waiting for you.”

I looked back at my
reflection. “I hate my freckles,” I said running my fingers along the bridge of
my nose.

“Don’t,” Heather said as
she glanced at me. “They give your face some character.”

“Without which I would
have none?” I asked in shock.

“God,” Heather groaned.
“You are so hard to compliment.”

“Was that a compliment?”

  
“Whatever,” Heather replied. “Apart from your slightly bitchy
attitude, you look hot.” She finished applying her makeup and then she headed
back outside towards the bar. “Although I would lose the ponytail.”

  
I followed her advice and took down my hair. “Fuck it,” I said to
my reflection as I turned my back on it and headed out to the bar. I washed it
down and tended to the two costumers sitting front and center, all the while
trying not to keep glancing at the time. It was no use however; every time I
had a moment to spare, my eyes would dart to the clock on the wall on my phone
on the counter. It was half past nine and Dylan was already late.

“Hi there, doll,” an all
too familiar voice said to my right.

“Paul,” I sighed. “What
are you doing here again?”

“What do you think?” he
asked sarcastically. “I’m here to drink … but I’ll admit seeing you in a
bonus.”

“What do you want?” I
demanded. “I’ll send it to your table.”

“Actually I think I’ll
sit by the bar.”

  
I groaned audibly as Paul sat down directly in front of me. “The
usual please,” he said with that slick grin that I used to believe was sincere.

“You love this don’t
you?” I demanded.

“Love what?” he asked in
a good imitation of innocence.

  
“You love coming here and pissing me off,” I said. “Because you
know that it isolates me. You know that as long as you’re around, I can’t move
on with my life … not really anyway.”

“Now, that’s just not
true,” he said as though he had wounded him.

“No?” I asked. “Then what
is?”

“I miss you Beth-Beth.”