Resilient Love (Navy Love Series Book 3) (15 page)

Obviously, the abs win.

What woman wouldn't stare at them? The damn things look like something out of a fitness magazine.

J.C. notices my staring and chuckles as he wipes sweat off his forehead with his forearm.

“You tryin’ to catch flies?”

“What?”

“Your mouth hangin’ open like that, gonna catch some flies. That's what my mama used to say to me as a kid.” He walks up to stand in front of me and I'm still slightly awestruck by him. “You see something you like, darlin’?”

“I uhh,” clearing my throat to remove the lump that's lodged in there, I try again, “I was just coming out to see what's happening with the lawn. Mom said I needed to come see.”

My eyes can't help but fall back to his bare chest again.

He holds his arms out to the sides, wide open in a welcoming gesture. “By all means, check it out,” he grins.

The double meaning of his statement isn't lost on me. So I do exactly as he says, and take it all in. The chiseled chest and stacked abs, the tan skin and light sprinkling of chest hair, the thick, trimmed beard that's grown in nicely, all courtesy of his recent deployment.

My husband is sexy.

I know a lot of women believe that about their man, but mine is the stuff that Tegan’s romance novels are inspired by. There's not a doubt in my mind that I could spend all day right here, standing in the front yard staring, and still not have my fill of J.C.

While that idea actually sounds incredibly fascinating, my ogling is interrupted by the object of my desire’s mouth.

“Ya know, you could at least
look
at the yard for a second. Don't get me wrong, I love that you can't seem to take your eyes off me, but I'm startin’ to feel like a piece of meat here, darlin.”

I can't help the twinge of embarrassment at my gawking.

“Sorry,” I reply, finally able to pull my eyes away from J.C.’s body.

Turning around, I finally take in the front yard. The overgrown flower beds that my father planted are now thriving with a beautiful assortment of flowers, the weeds have been pulled from around my mom’s birdbath, and the mildew has been cleaned off of it as well. The grass has been mowed, mulch had been added in the flower bed and the hedges have had a much needed, long overdue trim.

It looks as though a professional landscaping company was here.

If not for the sweat and dirt covering J.C., I wouldn't believe he did all of this himself. Astonished, and completely disregarding his sweaty state, I walk up and wrap my arms around his neck, burying my face in his pec to hide the emotions itching to come out.

“Thank you,” I choke out.

“Hey, this ain't nothing. I used to work for a landscaping company in high school.” He pulls back and looks at me fully. “I always wanted something I was good at and that I liked doing. I never planned to make the Navy a twenty-year career for myself. I almost forgot how much I enjoyed doing this, at least I know I’ll have something to fall back on when I decide to get out.”

I'm still mesmerized by all of this.

“How? Why? What made you do all of this?”

“I know Pat has mentioned that she loved to garden before, and it was something she enjoyed doing with your dad. I figured this might bring her a little bit of happiness when times are tough in the future.”

A sad smile graces my face. He’s right, mom will love that her garden is once again vibrant and beautiful; I know that it will bring her joy.

“It’s perfect, J.C.” I notice he’s added a small bistro style table and two chairs with cushions that match the rose buds right beside the garden. I can already picture Mom out here enjoying this.

“I hired a landscaping company to come out once a week and keep it up for the next six months.” At my astonished look, he shrugs his shoulders. “I didn’t want it to overgrow again and I know your mom can’t tend to it herself like she wants; I thought it was the best option.”

I lunge into his arms again.

“God, I love you. You really are amazing; you know that?”

He laughs off my praises and suggests we get my mom to show her how it looks before he jumps in the shower.

I’m slightly confused until he enlightens me.

“Oh, I grabbed my stuff from the hotel and checked out this morning. I’ll be here with you until we leave for Virginia in a couple days; of course, this was at your mom’s demand.”

I can’t help but laugh; leave it to my mom to insist he stay here at the house. I honestly believe she loves J.C. almost as much as she loves my brothers.

Of course, Mom loved everything J.C. had done to the yard. And he was more than happy with his reward— an authentic Mexican dinner prepared by Christina and I, followed by a back massage that night.

For our last days in California, we simply hung around the house relaxing, other than a short shopping trip with my sister-in-law. Well, I relaxed and spent down time with my mom, J.C. took care of many of my mom’s ‘honey-do’s’ around the house. Joseph and Miguel work so much that minor repairs have sat unfixed for who knows how long.

Another surprise that J.C. was behind was rearranging his and my flights to ensure we’d fly home together. While I could fight to stay longer, I know it would be futile; although my mom is sick, and technically she’s ‘given up’ so to speak, she refuses to stop living simply because this cancer is taking over. And I’m itching to share our news with all of our friends back home.

So I’m sad but also excited to return to Virginia.

Saying goodbye to my family is always hard, especially to Mom. I’ve been a mommy’s girl since I was little; leaving her, my best friend, never seems to get easier no matter how many times I’ve done it now. But this time, it’s even harder. Knowing that the next time I see her she won’t look this healthy, she will have lost even more weight, the cancer will have spread even more.

This time leaving, I know there’s a ticking time bomb on just how long she has left.

Miguel and Mom both tried discussing her final arrangements with me, but I refused to acknowledge the subject as much as possible. Although I may regret it later, I finally told Miguel to handle as many of Mom’s arrangements without me, prior to anything happening. I don’t know that I will be able to handle making any type of decision when her time comes.

The flight home was tough just having that heavy subject matter on my mind. J.C., of course, was supportive and nurturing the entire flight. If I wasn’t already head over heels for him, I would have fallen by his concern for me during this time.

Our flight lands at Norfolk International Airport at four in the afternoon. I can honestly say I’m surprised to see Reed here to pick us up.

No doubt he probably had to fight Marshall, or keep our arrival time a secret, in order to be the one who collected us instead of my nosey friend.

“Hey, you two!” he calls out as soon as we clear the arrival area. We walk to where he’s standing and are welcomed with a smartass smirk when Reed catches sight of our entwined hands.

With an arched eyebrow, he states, “Glad to see you two finally got your shit together.”

J.C.’s deep voice makes a chuckling sound. “Throwing my words back at me now?”

“Fuck yes, you knew it was coming,” Reed calls over his shoulder as he leads the way to baggage claim. “Oh, we have plans after this, by the way.”

“What?” J.C. and I both question.

Reed steps onto the moving walkway and turns around to face us. “Apparently, some of our friends are tired of being in the dark with just what exactly is going on with the two of you.” He turns back to facing forward, but calls over his shoulder again, “I’ll be sure to mention to everyone, including Marshall’s nosey ass, that I knew you two got hitched first.” He glances back just in time to see me scowl at J.C.

“You told him, too?!”

Before J.C. is able to answer, Reed defends him.

“He didn’t have to, Jo. That big ass rock on your hand told me everything I needed to know,” he winks and flashes me his panty-dropping smile. “Congratulations, happy for you guys.”

We exit the moving walkway and immediately hop on the escalator and ride down to the ground floor where the bags have just started circling around the conveyor belt.

“See, dang! Always blamin’ me when I didn’t do anything wrong,” J.C. mocks.

“Welcome to married life, man,” Reed retorts.

“And what would you know about married life?” J.C. asks, “Unless you and Tegan ran off and got hitched, too, without tellin’ anyone.” He raises an eyebrow in question.

“Yeah right, you know Tess would have my nuts if I did that. She’s still crazy overprotective of Tegan. Shit, I should probably plan on asking their dad and Tess for permission to marry her.”

This is the first I’m hearing Reed mention marriage, but judging by J.C.’s unsurprised look, I believe the two of them have discussed the topic before. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go much deeper than that before the talk turns to sports and our bags are spotted.

Our bags are finally gathered and loaded in the back of Reed’s truck and we make our way over to Reed and Tegan’s apartment. To say I’m nervous about how our friends will react to our marriage is an understatement, but I’m slightly less nauseated now after seeing how well Reed took the news.

J.C.

I can tell Jo is anxious about dinner with everyone; she’s avoided them all for months and held herself at such a distance that she’s uncomfortable around what’s become a family to all of us. Not to mention the fact that I’m sure the twins will be there. She’s going to have to face a lot tonight; telling everyone about her mom, seeing our friend’s babies that she’s avoided, and admitting why she’s been MIA. Oh, and that we ran off and got married—
yep, I think that’s everything
.

I’m riding up front with her sitting behind me and I hate that I can’t wrap my arms around her to provide some comfort right now.

We arrive within a couple of minutes at Reed and Tegan’s apartment. The three of us pile out and are met with an overly excited Tegan running down the stairs.

“Jo! I’m so glad you’re back.” She immediately pulls her into a hug. “How’s your mom doing?”

Before Jo can answer, I suggest they head inside while Reed and I move our bags to my truck that was left parked there, and we can discuss everything when we’re all in the apartment together. Jo and Tegan both nod and walk up the stairs.

“You ready for this?” Reed asks as soon as they’re out of hearing distance. “You know everyone is going to be all over her, right? They’ve been questioning the fuck out of me since the night you came back.”

I nod.

“How is she? And be real with me here, J.C.”

I light a cigarette while thinking of the best answer.

“She’s getting back to our Jo. The first few days I was there, she avoided me. It took some planning, with her mom of all people, to set us up on a little getaway to Vegas before she finally started talking to me. But once she did, it was like we clicked back to the old us immediately.” I shake my head unsure if what I’m trying to say is coming out right at all. “She’s been through hell these past few months, man. I hate that I was part of the cause of that. I don’t ever want her to feel that way again, and I know she’s going to with everything happening with Pat.”

“I get it. She told me what happened before you came home. She hasn’t told anyone other than me and Miller what she went through, and to be honest, everyone has noticed her distancing herself from us.”

“She told you about the baby?” I damn near whisper the question, hating to even speak of our lost child.

He nods.

“I blew up on her and ran out when I should have stayed and took care of her. You know how fucked up that was to go through on deployment?”

Reed shakes his head. “I can’t fuckin’ imagine. You know you both have to put the past in the past, as hard as something like that is to overcome, you aren’t going to move on without letting it go. Trust me, I know all about the past fucking with your future. It was a hard lesson for me to learn and I don’t want Jo, or you for that matter, to have as hard of a time with it as I did.”

I drop my butt to the ground and put it out with my boot, then wrap an arm around Reed’s neck as we start walking towards the stairs that lead to their apartment. The door opens just as we make it up the top step.

“It’s about time, fuckers,” Marsh says, looking over us both. “I was beginning to wonder if you two had run off together.” I roll my eyes at him and walk by into the house.

“Whatever, Marsh-Mellow,” I hear Reed say mockingly behind me.

“Shut up, asshole,” he retorts.

Reed starts laughing as Tessa walks up and hugs me while filling me in. “It’s Sawyer’s new nickname for Marsh. How are ya?” I nod and place a kiss to her cheek as she hugs me. “How’s Jo doing?” she questions quietly.

“Good and she’s gettin’ there.”

“And her mom?”

I shake my head no and my face must relay enough to Tess to figure out that things aren’t looking good for Pat. She doesn’t ask any more questions though, thankfully. I’m not sure I can handle them, and I’m pretty sure Jo doesn’t want to deal with the grim reality of her mom’s health right now.