Possession: A Little Harmless Military Romance (7 page)

He smiled. "Does your brother know about the baby?"

"Couldn't help it," Zoe said as she handed Sam her tea over the counter. "She was talking to him and started gagging."

"I’m assuming you reserved the throwing up on men for your husband?”

There was a beat of silence, then Fiona asked, "She threw up on you?"

She felt her face heat. "First of all, you’re my ex-husband. And you wouldn't listen to me, and then the fact that you decided to just show up…"

"I wouldn't have just shown up if I had known."

"You would have known if you had picked up your phone the last few weeks."

"Are you sure you two are divorced?" Zoe asked.

"I signed the papers, so I know it's true."

Deke said nothing but got the oddest look in his eyes while he stared at Sam. She had to resist the urge to fidget.

"So, you're here working at PACOM? I work over at Tripler,” Zoe said. “Do you know where you're looking for a place to live?"

It took him a second to answer Zoe. He tore his gaze from Sam, and she could finally breathe again.

"Not sure yet. I reported in last night, but I will probably head on down today to meet my supervisor in person."

Which wasn’t an answer.

Zoe nodded. "That isn't too bad of a drive from here. You just get right on H-3 and drive down. Wouldn’t be hard to live over here."

Sam shot Zoe a warning look. She smiled at Sam.

"Do you mind if I use the shower?" he asked.

"No, go ahead."

He walked toward her room but paused by her chair.

"Eat." He softened the order with a kiss on the top of her head.

Once he shut the door, Zoe sighed. "Oh man, oh man. Okay, if you don't want him, I want him. I call dibs on him before Fiona."

Sam sighed. "It isn't a matter of wanting him. That is never a problem. The problem is getting along during the other times."

"If I were you, I would figure out a way. Damn, he is so sweet I want to eat him up." Zoe made smacking noises with her mouth.

"Wait, he will get on your nerves. At some point, he will start barking orders like you're an E-1 who just got in. That was never fun. Think of the way my brother acts."

Zoe's dreamy look dissolved. "Your brother is opinionated."

"And Deke is, too. You just aren't seeing it."

"Does he have a brother?" Fiona asked.

"Two. Jacob and Jonah. Jonah is sort of a black sheep of the family."

"Yeah, what does he do?" Zoe asked.

"Since the family is Navy, being a Marine is bad. They give him crap about it."

Zoe closed her eyes. "Okay, wait, does he look like Deke?"

"Yeah, a little. He has brown eyes, though, like milk chocolate."

"Oh, God. Now, put the two of them together..."

"Ew, I see Jonah as a brother. That is just...ew, no."

Zoe laughed and opened her eyes. "I will happily keep that fantasy to myself."

"What are you going to do, Sam?" Fiona asked.

"Not sure. I think for the most part, I will just play it by ear."

"Wait. You are Samantha Walters, right? The woman who always has a plan? You didn't body snatch her, did you?" Zoe asked.

She smiled and shrugged. "I really don't have a choice, do I?"

"What do you mean by that?" Fiona asked.

"I didn't really plan on getting pregnant."

"No. But there is a bit to that in my way of thinking."

She glanced at Fiona. The most flighty of the three of them, Fiona always seemed to know things before they would happen.

"Well, maybe somewhere in your self-conscious, you wanted to get pregnant. Don't even think of telling us that you didn't want him back here with you."

She sighed. "There was always a part of me that wanted him back with me. Wanted him here, to be married again. I just didn't want it to be like this."

“Is Mitchell still mad at you?" Fiona asked.

"No. Well, sort of. This is not going to go over well."

"What do you mean?"

"Mitch didn't want me to tell him. Which I completely disagreed with, of course. But he thought that maybe Deke could be left out of the picture."

"That doesn't sound like your brother," Zoe said.

Sam and Fiona looked at their friend. Zoe didn't usually worry about defending Mitchell.

"No, don't read anything into it,” Zoe continued. “Mitch irritates me on some level I cannot even explain right now. But, that being said, he is a pretty decent guy."

"He always thought that Deke and I should never see each other again. I can't say that I disagreed with that at the time."

"And like a big brother, he wants to protect you," Fiona said. She had a soft heart for brothers since she had lost her own only two years earlier in Iraq.

"So, I have to figure out a way to tell my brother that my ex is here to live. But maybe I don't have to tell him any time soon."

As soon as she said the words, the front doorbell rang.

Sam looked at the door. "No. Karma doesn’t hate me this much."

Zoe shook her head. "You knew he was going to get worse with you pregnant."

"Today is a Friday."

"And you should have expected him to be off. He doesn’t go out to clubs when he has to work the next day," Zoe said. "You better figure out a way to tell your brother that your ex is here and naked in your bathroom."

Chapter Eight

Deke was shaving when his phone rang. Mal's face popped up to the sound of the
Jersey Shore
theme song.

"Hey, Chief. Recovered from the trip?"

He shaved the last bit of cream off his face. "A bit. Could probably do with a few hours of sleep, though."

"You'll get used to it, and guys your age need extra rebound time.”

“Fuck off.”

“Are you going into Honolulu today?”

“Might. Not sure. I figured today I would go meet the O-6 I’ll be working for. Let him know I have to find a place to live.”

“So, you aren’t in Honolulu right now?”

He rolled his eyes as he used a towel to scrub the rest of his face free of any traces of shaving cream.

 “No.” Mal was pussyfooting around the issue.

“Did your lady-love kick you out?"

"Now why would she kick out the father of her child?"

There was a beat of silence.

"Father of her child?"

"Yeah. All those phone calls were because she was trying to tell me."

"Holy shit."

He heard a mumbled voice in the background, and he knew Kade was there. Deke rolled his eyes again. Kade and Mal were getting to be like little old ladies.

"Sam's pregnant."

"That's what I said."

"No, I'm telling Kade. So, it happened at Kade's wedding. Holy shit."

"You already said that."

He couldn’t tell from his response what Mal was thinking. Deke didn’t know why it mattered so much, but it did. The friendship the three of them had forged through the last few years, and especially after the mission where they lost Forrester, had made these two men like brothers to him.

"What are you going to do?" Mal asked.

"I don't know. We haven't discussed much. Apparently the pregnancy isn't going that well. Sam can't seem to keep any food down and has lost a bunch of weight. So I didn’t push her last night."

"You're going to have to talk to her about that."

"I know. I was fucking tired last night and needed time to think."

And he had thought. Now he was pretty sure the plan he had in place before he flew over here would work. It was just that he had to hope that it would work for their sake and the sake of the baby.

He heard voices in the other room. The three women were talking, and there was a man’s voice. One he unfortunately recognized.

“Listen, I have to let you go. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”

Before Mal could respond, he clicked off the phone. The pounding on the door started. “Open up, dickhead.”

“Do not call him a dickhead, you dickhead,” Sam said.

Deke rolled his shoulders and opened the door. Mitchell stood in the doorway, anger rolling off him in waves. Sam slipped in between them, but Deke didn’t let her talk. He grabbed her and put her behind him. Mitchell wouldn’t intentionally hurt her, but he had a wicked temper—especially where Deke was concerned.

“You bastard,” he said as he lifted his fist. Being a Seal, he reacted instinctively. He blocked the punch and delivered one of his own. He hit Mitchell square on the nose. The crack of bone filled the room and blood spurted.

“Fucking hell!”

Mitchell stumbled back, and Sam screamed.

“Shit, sorry,” Deke said.

“What do you think you were doing?” Mitchell yelled.

“I was defending myself, you asshole. Don’t you know better than to try and hit a damn Seal?”

Zoe came forward. “Lean your head back, Mitchell.”

He gave her a nasty look. “They say not to do that anymore.”

“I know they do. I am an RN, so I kind of know, but you’re bleeding on our fucking carpet. Bathroom, now.”

She tugged him in the other direction. Once they were alone, he turned to Sam. She had her face covered, and he was worried she was crying.

“Oh, baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think. I’m not trained to when I’m attacked.”

She finally looked up, and she was crying, but it was from laughing. “Oh, Lord, that was funny.”

She was snorting.

“You think me breaking your brother’s nose is funny?”

“Yeah. He has been a pain in the ass. And I will let you in on a little secret—I did the same thing to him when we were in middle school.”

He felt his lips curve. “Is that right?”

She nodded and sat down on her bed. “Mitchell told me that I didn’t have the right to play baseball in middle school because I was a girl and girls were weak. So I popped him.”

He chuckled. “Of course you did.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t have time to tell him you were here.”

“Would you have told him?”

She frowned at him. “Of course I would.”

“Okay.” He grabbed a T-shirt and pulled it on. “I have to talk to your brother, then I have to get dressed to meet my new supervisor. Do you want to go with me?”

She hesitated then shook her head. “I don’t have an id card.”

“I can sign you on, you know that.”

She didn’t look too sure. Being an ex-brat, wife, and sister of a military man, she knew the rules, so he knew that she didn’t want to do it. Normally, he would push her, but maybe they needed space. But only for a few hours.

“Okay, you stay here. Do you mind going out with me later if you feel up to it?”

She smiled. “Yeah. Just not in the early afternoon. While I am out of school, I’ve been napping then. I do better if I get a little rest.”

He nodded. He quickly finished dressing. “Get some rest and make sure you eat.” He gave her a kiss, just a nibble on the lips, but she slipped her hands up his back and he lost himself. Heat exploded between the two of them in an instant. It took him a second to realize he had his fingers slipped under her shirt and was pulling it off her.

With a groan, he pulled back. Her lips were swollen and her eyes heavy lidded. He curled his fingers into his palms. Damn, the woman was dangerous.

“I gotta go.”

She smiled at him. “Okay.”

His belly clutched. Damn, she looked so sweet, but he knew he had to go check out the new work situation. And he needed to talk to Mitchell at some point today.

“I’ll be home—I mean back—before lunch.”

She nodded, and he gave her another quick kiss. When he stepped out into the living area, Zoe and Mitchell were gone. Fiona was cleaning up the kitchen. He realized then he’d left a mess.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Fiona.”

She smiled at him and shook her head. “Naw. You cooked. Someone else cleans. And Zoe will bully Mitchell.”

He nodded. “Can you be honest with me?”

She turned the water off and faced him. “Yes.”

He was struck by just how truthful she was being in that short answer. There was something so direct but otherworldly about Fiona. She was short and round, like a cocoa-skinned Madonna. And he thought for the first time, if his heart wasn’t taken, he would definitely ask the woman out. She was downright stunning.

“Sam’s doing okay? She isn’t lying, right?”

She gave him a maternal smile, which was odd because he was sure he had at least ten years on her. “She’s fine. I think the stress of not being able to get ahold of you sort of bothered her a little bit much. And, you have to remember, Samantha loves a plan. This sort of wasn’t planned.”

He felt his cheeks heat.

“Oh, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. Fate.”

He shook his head, wondering if he had missed something. “What?”

“Fate. It has her way with mortals. She wanted you together, and now she has bound you together.”

“Uh, okay.”

She laughed. “You’ll get used to me. Everyone does. Just know I will keep your secret.”

That had him frowning.

“What?”

She leaned forward and patted his cheek. “You have secrets, and I know some of them. Just make sure you treat Sam and the love she has for you with respect. It will all work out.”

Before he could say anything, she turned and went back to cleaning the dishes.

“She always says stuff like that,” Mitchell said from behind him. Deke turned and tried not to wince. Mitch’s nose was swollen, and his eyes were already starting to turn black. He deserved it for what he’d done, but it didn’t make Deke any happier about doing it. Well, not much.

“Sorry about that.”

Mitchell’s scowl turned darker. “It’s okay.”

“Yeah?”

“No, but I’ll find a way to pay you back.”

It had been three years since he’d seen Samantha’s brother, and Mitch had grown into his height. He was over six feet tall and the skinny frame was now what would be termed as lanky.  Deke wondered if he even fit in the cockpit of the fighter he flew.

“I have to head out.”

“Why don’t I take you?”

Deke eyed him suspiciously. “Are you sure you aren’t going to dump me somewhere?”

“No. I would be stupid to drop a Seal somewhere and leave him to die.”