SEAL's Baby (Navy SEAL Secret Baby Romance) (5 page)

  
Sometimes I liked to sit by the surf and watch people walk by—mothers
with young children, bachelors with their dogs, and older couples getting in
some early morning cardio. It felt so normal and yet, it was so far removed
from my life that it also felt alien to me. I was back at the base within two
hours and I grabbed some breakfast at the commissary. I had just bitten into my
sausage and bacon sandwich when I remembered the call I had received the
previous night.

  
I pulled my phone out and scrolled through the missed calls. The
number was unknown but I dialed it in anyway and waited for the line to
connect. A few seconds later, a throaty voice that sounded vaguely familiar
answered.

“Hello?”
“Hello,” I replied. “This is Dylan.”

“Dylan!” the voice cried.
“You didn’t pick up last night?”

“Aunt Brenda?” I asked
beginning to place the voice.

  
“Of course it’s Aunt Brenda,” she exclaimed. “Who else would it
be?” I could think of a few people but I bit my tongue, wondering why on earth
she had called me.

“Did Tyler speak to you?”
she asked almost tearfully and I started to get a little nervous.

“Talk to me about what?”
I asked cautiously.

“Oh dear,” Brenda said
going quiet.

“Aunt Brenda,” I said.
“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, Dylan dear … I don’t
know how to tell you this … but it’s about your father …”

“What about him? Is he
ok?” I asked as the panic started to rise.

“I … I’m so sorry Dylan;
your father passed away yesterday morning.”

  
I sat there, staring down at my bacon and sausage sandwich trying
to make sense of what Aunt Brenda had just told me. “What?” I asked stupidly.

“Your father, Dylan …” Brenda
tried again. “He died last morning.”

“I … that can’t be,” I
said slowly. “Dad’s fine; I spoke to him last week.”

There was a pause on the
other line. “I know,” Brenda said slowly. “None of us expected it, Dylan. It
was a complete shock…”

“Where’s mom?” I demanded
suddenly as the realization hit home.

“She’s here, in the
house.”

“Can you put her on the
phone?” I asked.

  
I couldn’t seem to feel the grief. All I could feel was anger. I
wondered why Tyler hadn’t called me himself. Why was I hearing about dad’s
death from Aunt Brenda, of all people?

“I’m sorry Dylan,” Brenda
replied. “Your mother … she’s not doing so well. She’s locked in her room and
she won’t come out.”

“How long has she been in
there?”

“Since it happened.”

“Tell her it’s Dylan,” I
said with confidence. “Tell her that I want to speak to her.”

  
Brenda sounded uncertain, but she didn’t argue with me. I heard a
shuffling and a few moments later I heard a distinctive knock. “Louisa,” I
heard her say. “Louisa, Dylan’s on the phone. He wants to speak to you.” I
could hear her answer back but I couldn’t make out the words.

“I’m sorry, Dylan,”
Brenda said a moment later. “She’s just not up for talking to anyone.”

“Ok,” I said trying to
calm myself down. “Ok.”

“The funeral will be held
the day after tomorrow,” Brenda continued. “I know your mother wants you to be
there.”

“Where’s Tyler?” I asked
abruptly.

“He’s busy, preparing for
the funeral.”

“All right,” I said.
“Thanks, Aunt Brenda.”

  
I hung up before she could reply and then I dialed Tyler’s number.
He didn’t answer the first time, so I hung up and called him again. Finally, on
the third try, he picked up. I could tell from his voice that he was annoyed.

“Tyler?” I said.

“I assume Aunt Brenda
told you.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you
tell me?” I demanded. “Our father dies and you can’t pick up the Goddamn phone
to inform your brother?”

  
“Fuck you, Dylan,” Tyler shot back. “I’m handling everything down
here, all right? Aunt Brenda’s not exactly competent and mom’s a complete mess.
She won’t even come out of her room, which means I have to do everything. And
to be honest, I really don’t have time for you and your complaints—”

  
“All right, all right,” I said quickly, wanting to diffuse the
situation. “I get it, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Give me a break, ok? I
just found out that dad …” I stopped short, realizing what I was saying as I
was saying it. I could feel the emotion rise, but I forced it down.

“I … I’m sorry I didn’t
call you myself,” Tyler replied, his tone softening considerably. “I probably
should have, it’s just … I didn’t want to.”

“It’s ok,” I said soberly.
“Doesn’t matter, I know now.”

  
It was the strangest feeling in the world and it didn’t feel real
to me. I felt as though I had just lost my bearings, yet I was still expected
to continue as though everything was normal. Dad, my dad, was dead, and that
didn’t make sense, not in the slightest. He was the strongest man I knew: tall,
wiry, and tough as nails. He was the reason that I had joined the Navy in the
first place.

  
I remembered when Tyler and I were still boys; we would sneak into
mom and dad’s room and take out the uniform that dad had hung up in their
wardrobe. It was crisp and clean, always well pressed and always impressive. We
would fight over who would get to wear it when we got older. Tyler always won
because he claimed that since he was older, he would get taller faster than I
would and he would be able to fit into the uniform sooner.

  
He had been wrong about that in the end. I was the one who had
ended up taller and I was the one who had ended up in the Navy like dad. I
never did get to try on his uniform though; I got my mine and somehow that
meant more to me. It was nice to have accomplished something on your own; it
was nice to have something that was completely yours.

  
“How did it happen?” I asked reluctantly. I wanted to know
everything and yet I didn’t. It was as though hearing the details would make it
real somehow and I wasn’t sure if I wanted it to be real just yet.

“It was a stroke,” Tyler
replied, his voice dulled to a whisper and I knew it was painful for him to
talk about it.

“A stroke?” I repeated.
“Is that what the doctor said?”

“Apparently his heart was
only working fifty percent,” Tyler went on.

“
Fifty
percent?” I exclaimed. “How on earth did that slip through
the cracks?”

  
“You know dad,” Tyler said tiredly. “After he retired from the
Navy, he basically retired from his checkups too. If he ever got sick, he self-medicated
and then he’d get better. No one ever knew that his heart had gotten so weak.”

“Didn’t he get tired
easily?” I asked trying to keep the note of accusation from my tone. “Wasn’t it
hard for him to do chores around the house?

“Of course,” Tyler
replied. “But I just assumed it was because he was ageing. “And he did too.”

“You should have
checked,” I said before I could stop myself.

  
There was a beat of silence on the other end. “Or maybe, Dylan,
you should move back home and take care of everything and I’ll just gripe and
complain and judge everything you do and say: how does that sound?”

“It was a pretty big thing
to miss, Tyler,” I retorted, unable to back down from this. “His heart was
working only fifty percent.

  
“Dad was sixty-three-years-old,” Tyler shot back. “And he’d served
for twenty-five years; he was entitled to be tired. His whole life was tiring.
I never thought there was another reason why he was so … exhausted all the
time.”

  
I gritted my teeth to keep from saying something I would regret
later. Tyler and I hadn’t always had a difficult relationship. As boys, we had
gotten along pretty great. Then adolescence kicked in and the five-year age gap
between us became more obvious. We drifted in those years, and when I enlisted
and moved away, there was no opportunity to bridge the distance that had been
created.

“Are you coming for the
funeral?” Tyler asked abruptly.

“I’ll have to speak to my
captain and ask for leave,” I replied.

“Is that a yes or a no?”
Tyler asked and again, I had to bite back the annoyance.

“My next deployment is in
three months,” I replied. “It shouldn’t be a problem to get leave.”

“You’re being deployed
again?” Tyler asked after a moment.

“Yes.”

“Where to?”

“I think it’s going to be
Japan this time.”

“Is this the first time
you’ve been there?” Tyler asked, his tone changed slightly and I couldn’t quite
place it.

“I’ve been before,” I
replied. “This will be the second time.”

“I guess I’ll see you
soon then,” Tyler said stiffly. “If you get leave.”

“I’ll get leave,” I said
with confidence.

  
Tyler hung up without a goodbye but I clutched on to the phone as
though he were still there. The silence was suddenly unbearable. It left room
for every terrible thought to sneak into my consciousness and start causing
havoc. I wished more than anything that I had been there. I wasn’t delusional
enough to believe that my being there would have made a difference, but I
simply wanted a little more time with my dad.

  
It was strange to think that a part of the reason I had joined the
Navy was to be closer to Dad. In the end it was the thing that had kept me away
from my family all these years. I slipped my phone back into my pocket and
headed for the offices where the captain would be. It was time for me to go
home.

Chapter Six

Elizabeth

“Hi, Maddie,” I waved as
I spotted her at our usual booth nestled by the window.

  
Saturday morning breakfasts had become a tradition for us. We
always occupied the same booth, and more often than not, we ordered the same
breakfast too. I slipped into the seat opposite Maddie and she gave me a bright
smile.

“I’m so glad the
weekend’s here,” Maddie said with a sigh.

“Me too,” I agreed. “Have
you ordered yet?”

“Yup,” Maddie nodded.
“The usual, and I asked for some fresh orange juice for the table.”

“Sounds great,” I said
and leaned back in my seat.

“What’s wrong?” Maddie
asked immediately.

  
That was the thing about being best friends since kindergarten;
you just knew things about one another. It was like a sixth sense. “Paul came
into the bar again last night,” I said tiredly.

“You’re kidding me?”
Maddie said with outrage. “He really needs to get a life.”

I rested my face against
my hand and shook my head. “It was worse than usual.”

Maddie raised her
eyebrows. “Worse how?”

“He got into a fight with
one of the other customers.”

“No way,” Maddie said
leaning in. “What started the fight?”

  
I scrunched my face up with distaste. “There was this guy at the
bar that I started talking to. I guess Paul saw us talking and got jealous. He
came over in a huff and basically told Josh to stay away from me.”

Maddie’s eyebrows rose
even higher. “Now men are getting in fights over you; that’s impressive.”

“Don’t make jokes,” I
said. “It was so damn embarrassing.”

“What happened?”

“A bunch of the guys
broke it up and then Josh stormed out,” I said without much detail. “Then I
stormed out because I couldn’t stand looking at Paul anymore.”

“Was he cute?”

“Paul?” I asked
incredulously.

Maddie rolled her eyes at
me. “The other guy … Josh?”

“Oh right. He was …
cute.”

Maddie smiled. “Was he
asking you out?”

I hesitated. “He might
have been …”

“
Fucking Paul,” Maddie exclaimed. “He ruined it, didn’t he?”

  
“Completely,” I nodded. “It’s so unfair. I divorced him because I
wanted to be free of him, but I see him more now than when we were married.”

“Did you see Josh again
after that?”

  
“Of course not,” I said. “And I doubt I will. He’s going to get
the hell out of this town as fast as he can and honestly, I don’t blame him.”