SEAL's Baby (Navy SEAL Secret Baby Romance) (18 page)

  
An hour later, the sun was setting and fish guts and blood were
everywhere. Dylan put the last fish into the bucket and looked up at me. “We’re
finally done. Well, I cleaned all the fish.”

“You did,” I agreed.

“I think it’s only fair
that you clean me up now,” Dylan said.

“Oh … how do you propose
I do that?” I asked.

“We go upstairs to my
room and get in the shower,” Dylan said suggestively.

I smiled. “You really
need me for that?”

“Of course,” Dylan said
seriously. “You’ll need to scrape the blood off of me.”

“Eww,” I said and Dylan
laughed.

“It’s a good idea.”

“Maybe,” I nodded. “But I
think I have a better one. Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

  
I went off in the direction of the shallow brick steps that led
back up to the house. There were plants, shrubs, and flowers on either side of
the steps and there was also a tap that was connected to a long, blue hose. I
turned the water on, grabbed the hose, and walked back towards Dylan.

  
His back was to me and he didn’t see me coming. I waited till I
was close enough and aimed the water straight at him. He jumped up in shock as
the cold water hit his back. “Dear God,” he exclaimed.

“See?” I said. “Isn’t
this a much better idea?”

  
He shook his head at me and then descended into laugher as I kept
spraying him. He had to shield his face as I aimed the hose higher and he was
forced to stand there and brace himself against the water pressure.

“You’re enjoying this,
aren’t you?”

I smiled innocently.
“Only a normal amount.”

  
He stepped back and removed his shirt so that he was standing
there in only his soaked trousers. His stomach was flat and ridged with hard
muscles that formed a perfect six-pack. I had to try very hard not to stare. I
was so distracted by his chiseled perfection that I barely registered that he
was coming straight for me.

“Wait,” I screamed. “No!”

  
It was too late. He grabbed me and pulled me close to him, drenching
me with water while I struggled against him. The water was cold and I shivered
against him, staying close to try and steal as much body heat as I possibly
could.

“I cannot believe you just
did that,” I said.

“You’ve met your match,
Miller.”

  
I laughed surrendering to him and we both stood there under the
hoses manufactured shower. I saw lights turn on in the house and I realized how
dark it had gotten. The sun was close to setting and it was almost time for
dinner.

“I think we should go in
and start cooking,” Dylan suggested but he kept one arm wound tightly around
me.

  
“Hmm,” I nodded. “We should probably change out of these wet
clothes first. I’ll need to borrow something.”

“Or you could just hang
around naked in my room till your clothes dry?” Dylan suggested innocently.

I laughed. “Genius plan,”
I said. “But I think I’ll borrow some clothes anyhow.”

Dylan sighed. “If you
insist.”

  
We walked up to the house trying to squeeze as much water from our
clothes as possible so that we didn’t track anything into the house. Before we
reached the back door, it opened and Mrs. Thomas appeared at the threshold. She
was carrying two large, fluffy towels.

“I though you two might
need this,” she said as she handed them over.

I took it gratefully.
“Thanks, Mrs. Thomas,” I said. “Sorry about this.”

“Don’t be sorry dear,”
she said. “I’m sure Dylan was the one who started it.”

Dylan shook his head.
“Actually it was Lizzie who started it,” he said promptly.

“Don’t believe him.”

  
“I won’t,” Mrs. Thomas smiled and Dylan rolled his eyes and
groaned. “That’s what happens when you have the face of an angel: no one
believes you would start anything.”

  
I winked at him and followed him upstairs after he had set aside
his bucket of cleaned fish. It had been so long since I’d been in his room that
I’d expected there to be some difference there.
 
But it was like stepping into a time capsule. There wasn’t much that had
changed. His bed was still in the same position, his posters were still
fastened to the wall, and his stack of comic books was still shelved to the
left of his bed.

“Whoa,” I said as I
stepped inside.

“Mom kept it pretty much
the same,” Dylan explained. “After I left she said she couldn’t touch
anything.”

I smiled. “I would
probably be the same if I had kids.”

Dylan passed me a glance
and I turned away from him. “So … do you have clothes for me?”

  
“Umm … sure,” he said as he started rifling through his wardrobe.
“I have just the thing for you.” He pulled out a pair of elastic waisted black
shorts with a red waistband and an oversized shirt with Bob Marley’s face on
the front.

“Oh my God,” I breathed
as I came forward and ran my fingers through the shorts and shirt. “You still
have these?”

  
I had worn both things many times before when we had still been
together. They were my go to clothes of choice whenever I needed something to
change into and I didn’t have a spare set of clothes with me. They looked thin
and worn down, but they were soft as cotton and they smelled of my past.

“You never got rid of
them?” I asked.

“I couldn’t,” Dylan
admitted. “Too many memories.”

  
I lifted the shirt to my nose and breathed it in. “I’m glad you
did,” I said. We changed out of our wet clothes and into dry ones and then we
went downstairs to start cooking. Mrs. Thomas had already got a pot of pasta on
the boil so I started chopping vegetables and Dylan got to work with a quick
marinade for the fish. It was a cozy feeling and I realized how much I had
missed it.

  
We were all seated around the center island in the kitchen, each
involved in our own tasks. Even the silence was comforting because there was a
homely trust that lay there between us. I noticed that Mrs. Thomas kept shooting
glances between Dylan and I.

“How have you been, Mrs.
Thomas?” I asked cautiously wondering if I should be asking the question in the
first place.

  
She looked up and her eyes were a little clearer than they had
been a few days ago. Still, I could see the sadness in her eyes and I knew that
it was probably a permanent change.

“I’m doing better,” she
admitted. “But I don’t think I’ll ever be back to normal, as they say.”

“No,” I nodded. “I can’t
imagine you would be.”

  
“It’s strange, you know,” she went on, her voice dimming a little
under the weight of her memories. “I’ve been with him for so long that it’s
like … it’s like I’m missing a limb. The strange this is … he was away a lot in
the first decade of our marriage because of all the deployments. So sometimes I
wake up and it feels like he just away and he’ll be back in a few weeks with
new stories from all these far off places.”

  
I could see it in her eyes. She probably hated his deployments,
she was probably terrified that he wouldn’t come back from one of them, but she
still preferred that alternative to the reality she was living now.

 
 
“It
can’t have been easy, being married to someone in the Navy,” I said.

  
I could feel Dylan’s eyes on my face but I didn’t look his way. I
kept my eyes focused on his mother, trying to decipher the different layers of
sadness in her eyes. For some reason it affected me on a different level. Her
sadness felt personal to me, as though I was as touched by it the same way that
she was.

  
“Oh it wasn’t,” Mrs. Thomas sighed. “It was very hard … especially
early on in our marriage. We even separated once because of it.”

“What?” Dylan asked
looking up at her in surprise.

“It was a long time ago,”
she said. “Before either one of you boys were born.”

“Still, you never told
me.”

  
“Because it wasn’t important. We worked through it and I realized
that despite everything, I loved your father and he loved me. We knew we had
problems but I think we both decided that it was worth it anyway.” She paused
for a moment. “Still, it never stopped being hard. Every time he left on a
deployment, I was terrified he wouldn’t come back. And every time he was home,
I was terrified he would be called back for another mission.”

  
I saw it all as though I had lived through it too. I felt her
pain. I felt the same worry and fear. She was describing her life but it felt
as though she could just as easily have been describing mine.

Chapter Nineteen

Dylan

  
“You both did well today,” mom said as she nibbled delicately on
the fish in her plate. She barely ate anymore. She just picked at her food and
moved it around the plate in a show of eating.

“How about another piece,
Mrs. Thomas?” Lizzie asked, extending the plate out to her.

“No thank you dear,” she
said. “I’m full already.”

  
It was a lie and we all knew it. She had already lost a lot of
weight since dad’s funeral and she threatened to lose more the way she was
going. Tyler shot me a worried glance and I returned it with equal fervor. I
noticed how closely Lizzie was watching mom tonight and I knew she understood
how badly my mother was bogged down in grief. But it was more than that.

  
I could tell from the way Lizzie was watching my mother that she
was considering what her life might have been like if we had stayed together
and she had been the wife of a Navy SEAL. I knew I was imagining it but I
couldn’t quite find the details of our life together. It was more like a hazy
dream where I couldn’t pick out the intricacies.

“Did you boys talk to
Jason?” mom asked once we had finished our meal.

“I spoke to him this
morning,” Tyler replied. “He’s writing up the final deeds.”

“I hope you boys didn’t
bicker over things,” mom said in her soft tone.

  
“Of course not mom,” Tyler’s voice was gentle and I knew he would
never let on about the disagreements we had. It had always been the unspoken
agreement between us. We would never upset mom with our constant back and forth
fighting.

  
“Good,” mom replied and she genuinely looked relieved. She turned
to Lizzie and smiled. “My boys have been such a comfort to me. I don’t know how
I would have gotten through this without them.”

Lizzie smiled. “They need
you as much as you need them.”

“It’s nice to think so.”

“No, Lizzie’s right,” I
nodded.

  
Mom smiled again and her eyes fell back on Lizzie. “It’s so nice
to have you over again dear; it’s been so long, too long really.”

 
 
“It
has,” Lizzie nodded but I noticed a cloud of doubt pass over her eyes as though
she were unsure if she should be there at all.

  
I didn’t want her thinking about things too much; I didn’t want
her doubting or questioning the time she was spending with me. I rose from the
table and excused myself and that signaled to everyone else to do the same.

“You and Lizzie did so
much today,” mom said as we moved into the kitchen. “Tyler and I will do the
dishes.”

  
I didn’t protest too hard; all I wanted was to be able to spend some
time with Lizzie alone. I moved back and cornered her as she entered the
kitchen with the remaining dishes. “Let’s go for a walk,” I suggested.

“Ok,” she nodded easily
and we said goodbye to Tyler and mom and made our way out of the house.

  
It was a lovely night. The stars were visible and the moon was on
full display. We moved out of the driveway and down the dusty path that led to
the cemetery. I hadn’t made a conscious decision to go there but it felt right
to be walking there with Lizzie. I hadn’t been to the cemetery since the
funeral and I was glad I had her with her.

  
Slowly I slipped my hand into hers and she gave me a small,
distracted smile. “Can I ask you a kind of personal question?” I asked.