SEAL's Baby (Navy SEAL Secret Baby Romance) (39 page)

“Okay, Kyle, so here’s the deal. I’m going
to set you up with therapy at our clinic three days a week to begin with.
You’ll have speech and physical therapy, for sure. You seem to be swallowing
okay, but we’ll keep an eye on that. I know this is all scary and frustrating,
but you’re young and otherwise healthy, and if you give it a 100%, you should
be back to business as usual very soon.”

He smiled and instead of trying to speak,
he gave me a little nod. He never took his eyes off of my face, and it was both
unnerving and kind of sexy.

What
the hell is wrong with me? The poor guy just had brain surgery and I’m over
here thinking about how sexy he is. I’m officially losing my mind.

CHAPTER
THREE

KYLE

My big, silent father slipped my foot
through my jeans and helped me pull them up. Even if I was able to talk like a normal
person, I wouldn’t be able to put into words how humiliating this is. When they
were up enough for me to grab them, he lifted me under my arms and held onto me
while I finished pulling them up and buttoning them. To be twenty-seven and
have to get dressed under the watchful eye of your father is a special kind of
torture. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful as hell that he’s here. If not for
him, Sarah would be the one doing all of this and that would really just be way
too much to take.

“Thank you,” I said. It sounded more like
“Ank u,” but he got the point. He sat me down in the wheelchair and ruffled my
hair like he did when I was twelve – careful not to touch the bald spot where
the staples still were. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and shuddered.
That therapist that came to see me was so
pretty… God, I hope her ugly, male co-worker was going to be the one I worked
with and not her.

“I wasn’t able to get another day off…” My
dad felt guilty about going back to work. The week he’d taken off while I was
sick was the most time he’d gone without working for as long as I could
remember. Working was how he recharged his soul, I think – at least, since my
mother abandoned all of us when I was only a year old. Somehow, Dad managed to
care for a baby and a toddler and we all survived.

Mom showed back up with two new kids when
I was about eight and Sarah was ten. My father didn’t say much, he never did,
but he let us see her. Sarah told her off. She was always wise for her years,
and she told our mother that day that anyone can make a baby. Just because she
made babies, that didn’t make her a mother. She’d stormed out of the house
after that and gone to look for my dad. I stayed for a while because I felt
guilty, but the woman felt like a stranger to me and the next time she wanted
to see us, Sarah and I both refused.

“It’s okay, Dad,” or as he probably heard
it, “I okay.”

He handed me my ball cap and I gratefully
put it on. Covering up the staples on my head at least makes me feel more
human. “Kyle!” Dad and I looked at each other, and his lips curled up on the
edges. Sarah was here to take me to therapy – that would be fun. Mostly, I just
felt sorry for the people who worked in the clinic.

“In here,” Dad called out to her. She
looked frantic when she came in.

“Kimber is sick.” Kimber was my
five-year-old niece. She was one of those kids that manage to completely melt
your heart every time she smiles. They hadn’t let me see her since I got home
and I really missed her.

“What’s wrong?” Dad asked.

“It’s just the flu, I think, but I had to
keep her home from school. Mrs. Brown from next door is watching her now, but
she can’t stay. I called Michael, but he’s out at the jobsite and he’s
stretched really thin without you…”

“It’s okay,” I told her. I said it really
slowly and it almost sounded natural.

While I was busy being proud of myself she
said, “Greg is taking you.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry, Kyle, but he’s been really
sweet. He was at your bedside every day. He’s been doing whatever he can to
help. He loves you… Tell him, Dad.”

My poor dad once again looked like he
didn’t want to get involved. Instead of singing Greg’s praises to me he said,
“I can call off work.”
Shit!
I knew
he didn’t want to do that. It was bad enough he had me living here and had to
do every fucking thing for me. He needed work for his own peace of mind.

“No,” I forced out.

“I’m sorry, Kyle,” Sarah said again. I
rolled my eyes at her. I know it’s not her fault, but the last person I wanted
to spend my day with was Greg.

“Anybody home?” Speaking of…he just let
himself in my father’s front door like maybe he still belongs here.

“We’re in here, Greg,” my traitor sister
told him. She kissed my forehead and whispered, “Be good.” Then, I watched as
she gave my father a peck and even stopped in the doorway and kissed Greg on
the cheek.
What is it with this guy and
the women in my life?

“Hey, buddy! You look great!”
Fuck you
. I said it in my head, but
hopefully the look on my face conveyed the sentiment. “Mr. Cloud,” he said,
giving my dad a chin tilt. Dad was like me – he knew how to hold a grudge. He
kept his dark eyes on Greg’s face until Greg finally had to turn away.
Thanks, Dad.

“I’ll see you tonight, Kyle. I left lunch
in the microwave, and I’ll pick something up for dinner when I get off.” I can
make it around the house in my wheelchair pretty well so that was my saving
grace in the afternoons – they let me actually stay home alone like a grown-up.

“Thanks, Dad.”

Once he was gone, I was left alone with
Greg. “So, are you ready?”

I nodded, and he started to grab the
handles of the chair. I used my arms and rolled myself through the bedroom door
and across the living room. He rushed up ahead of me and opened the front door.
I wheeled out and down the sidewalk towards his car. When I got there,
unfortunately, there was nothing else I could do but wait and let him help me.
He opened the door, put his arms under mine, and helped me get to my feet.
Then, he pivoted me so that I could lower down into the seat of his new
Mustang. Sarah must have given him lessons. If I weren’t still pissed at him,
I’d be impressed.

Thankfully, he didn’t try to talk to me on
the way to the clinic. He helped me out again when we got there and because we
had to cross a busy street, I had to let him push me. He rolled me in and took
it upon himself to tell the girl at the desk my name. I guess that was a good
thing since she probably wouldn’t understand me, but once again, it still
pissed me off.

While we waited, I looked around the
lobby. Most of the people there were elderly. There was one kid who was maybe
fourteen there with his parents. He was in a wheelchair and he had some kind of
tube coming out of his stomach and attached to an IV pole on the back of the
chair. I averted my eyes when he saw me looking.

That’s when the door opened and Amber
stepped out. Today, she was wearing a pair of green scrubs and the color made
her green eyes pop. Her dark hair looked soft and shiny laying down across her
shoulders. I wanted to run my fingers through it. She saw me, smiled, and then
her smile faltered when she looked next to me at Greg. I looked at him and he
was grinning.
Of course.

“Hi, Kyle,” she said. “Are you ready?”

I nodded and felt Greg jump up and grab
hold of the chair. Amber gave him a look of…
annoyance,
maybe
? Maybe I just wanted her to be annoyed with him. It made me happy. “I
can take him back, Greg, thank you.”

Greg?
How does she know his name?
I felt her propel me through the
door and into a big room that looked like a gym. She parked me at a table and
then she came around front where I could see her.
Damn, she’s pretty
. She reached down and brought up a wipe-off
board with those magnetic alphabet letters that everyone spells things on their
refrigerators with when they’re kids. “We’re going to start with some sounds,”
she said. I had to tear my eyes away from her green ones and force myself to
focus on the board. This wasn’t going to be easy.

*******

Amber led me through sounds and she even
touched my throat a few times to feel my vocal cords as I tried hard to
enunciate them. Part of me felt like an idiot and hated that a woman like her
was seeing me like this and the other part felt lucky as hell that I’d get to
spend three days a week with her. She smiled a lot and she was encouraging –
and even in a shapeless pair of scrubs it was easy for me to see how cute and
curvy she was. When we finished with that, we moved on to bigger things. She used
a children’s book and had me reading passages of it out loud. Things like,
There’s a Wocket in my Pocket
. Just when
I thought things couldn’t get any more humiliating, I did in fact have a
“wocket” in the front of my pants. Thank God for the table.

After a few books, she announced that was
it for today. “I’m not going to walk?” I waited and hoped she understood me.
She did.
 

“Not today,” she told me with an
empathetic look. “We’re going to give you another week and see how much of your
strength comes back before we start pushing you too hard. We’ll work on speech
this week.” I nodded and looked forward to the day when I got to lean on her
body as she helped me walk. She stood up and went around behind my chair. After
taking the brakes off, she pushed me over to the door of the lobby. “You have
it from here?” she came around in front of me and asked.

I nodded again. “Thanks.”

She smiled. “You’re welcome. I’ll see you
on Wednesday.” She pushed the door open and held it while I went through. I got
a whiff of her perfume as I rolled by…
damn
she smells good enough to eat
. I could see Greg’s face, and his eyes were
on my therapist. I’ll be damned if he was going to have this one. I used my
arms to do a little wheelie in the chair and then I spun it around so I would
be facing her. She was gone.

“Nice, man,” I heard Greg say. “You want
to get some lunch?”

CHAPTER
FOUR

AMBER

Dylan was loading his tack in the beaten
up and rusted trailer as I drove into the driveway. He hadn’t mentioned leaving
again so soon, but that was nothing new. Dylan did what he wanted when and with
whom he wanted.

“Where are you going?” I asked as I walked
by on my way to the house. I honestly didn’t care. I spent most of my time
wishing that he would find his soulmate on the road and never come back. But as
long as we were together, I thought I should at least try and be civil.

He looked out at me from the back of the
trailer. I remember when there was nothing or no one that I’d rather look at. I
used to think he was so handsome. Nowadays, I was usually so disgusted with him
that it was hard to see beyond that. He smiled and for a fraction of a second,
I almost remembered. Then he opened his mouth.

“Headed up to South Carolina… You
shouldn’t wear that color.”

I looked down at my green scrubs. I knew
better than to engage him, but sometimes he caught me off guard. “Why not?”

He ran his hazel eyes over me and said,
“It’s too bright, I think. It calls attention to those thunder thighs…or maybe
you’re just putting on weight again.” With a disgusted sigh, I continued
towards the house. I could hear him calling after me, “Aw, come on, baby, don’t
be like that. If I didn’t tell you, who would?” I slammed the screen door as I
went inside and nearly tripped over a pair of his boots. I picked them up and
threw them across the living room that was littered with his dirty dishes and
clothes.
Fucker!

By the time Dylan came inside, I’d had a
long soak in the tub and straightened up the house. I was just about to put
dinner on when I felt him step up behind me. He wrapped his arms around me and
rested his hands on my waist. “I’m sorry, baby,” he whispered into my ear. “You
know sometimes I just don’t think before I say stupid things.” I twisted out of
his grasp.

“It’s fine, Dylan. Do you want biscuits
for dinner?”

“I ain’t gonna be here for dinner, baby. I
need to get on the road.”

I was facing away from him, thank God. I’m
sure a look of relief washed over my face. At least, I wouldn’t have to pretend
to be sleeping tonight to get out of having sex. I heard him open the
refrigerator and turned around just as he was popping the top on a Coors Light.
He took a long swig and then held it out towards me. “You want one?”

“No.” I went back over to the stove and
started putting the bacon I was frying in the pan.

Suddenly, I felt him slap my ass and the
next brilliant comment out of his mouth was, “You might want to take it easy on
the pork, baby.” I faced the stove until I heard him leave the room.

He left about a half an hour later,
telling me he’d be back sometime late in the week. I said my prayer once again
that he’d meet Miss Right at the rodeo, and then I sat in front of the
television and ate the entire plate of bacon and two huge biscuits. I was so
stuffed and miserable that I could hardly move afterwards, but it gave me a
sick kind of pleasure knowing I’d somehow defied him.