SEAL's Baby (Navy SEAL Secret Baby Romance) (83 page)

Chapter Thirty
Eight

Taylor

I’d had no luck convincing my father to
let Dylan and I go to the prom. I’m sure he’d heard stories about how girls
lost their virginity on prom night. Well, that ship had sailed. Of course, my
father didn’t know that. He wouldn’t suspect.

I turned to my mother for help. I wanted
her to see what a good guy Dylan was, that he needed to stay, and that at least
he was a known variable in the dating world. At least they knew who he was.

So, I decided to make my mother feel sorry
for him – to realize that he was a good guy, despite where he’d come from. As a
mother, her heart had to go out for his situation.

To do this, I asked my mother to go for a
drive.

“Me?” she said.

“Yes, you, Mom.”

She looked at me as if I had two heads.
“You sure you don’t want to go with your father?”

“No, Mom, you.”

“Okay.”

I directed her as she drove. I wanted her
to see Dylan’s trailer. I wanted her to see what we’d saved him from.

“Why are we going down this rutted
driveway?” she said. “Who lives here?”

“I’ll explain when we get there.”

She pressed her lips together, but kept
driving. When we came in view of the trailer, she stopped the car. “Why are we
here, Taylor? I don’t have time for games.”

“No, games. I want to show you something.”

I urged her to park closer, so she did. We
climbed out of the car. I retrieved Dylan’s spare key, then unlocked the front
door. We stepped into the place that hadn’t been aired for a few days. It stunk
of gasoline from Dylan’s uniforms. My mother had made him take off his uniform
in the garage his first night working and living with us. He kept sweats in the
garage so he wouldn’t have to walk through the house in his underwear.

Not that I would mind.

“Who lives here?” my mother said, standing
in the doorway.

“This is Dylan’s trailer. Or where he was
living.”

“Why did you bring me here?”

“Because I want you to see what will
happen if you kick him out. This is the best there is to offer him. After it’s
sold, he has no place to live.”

“Then he needs to keep his nose clean.”

“He has been, Mom. I’m the one who has
been screwing up. Not him. I don’t have anything to lose but privileges.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I don’t want him to be homeless
because I’ve been stupid. I’m trying to abide by the rules, but I love him,
Mom.”

Her mouth opened slightly at my
revelation. I don’t think she realized until that moment that I had real
feelings for him. I think she thought I was just playing. I had to prove to her
that I wasn’t playing, that I was growing up.

She leaned against the closed door behind
her. “Did I ever tell you about the first boy I loved?”

“No, Mom.”

“Your father wasn’t my first love and that’s
okay. He’s my last.”

She glanced around as if she’d been here
before, or she was going somewhere in her mind.

“Go ahead,” I said.

I leaned against the back of the couch.
Waiting. I didn’t know much about my mother’s past.

“I never told you about my childhood,
either.”

“No,” I said.

I knew lots about my father’s family and
how he grew up. My mother was always tight-lipped about what went on in her
childhood.

“I grew up in a trailer just like this.”

I gasped. I never would have guessed. My
mother was frugal when she could be, but she’d never spared any expense for me.
“Okay.”

“I mean, just like this. Same lack of
space. Same smell, almost.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Never thought about your mother
that way. My parents loved me. There were happy times, but I was always eager
to be out. I never wanted to be reminded that we were poor.”

I would never have known. “Then why didn’t
you have compassion for Dylan?”

“I’ve never thought about that trailer
once I graduated from college. I had a good job. I met your father, who had a
good job. I never was poor again. My parents died not long after I graduated.
They both died in a fire in that trailer. I figured if I never thought about it
again, I’d never be touched by it.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I hated being poor. I wanted to forget
that I was ever that way. With Dylan in our lives, I had to remember.”

I walked over and hugged her. “He’s a good
person even if he’s poor.”

“I know that. At least, some part of me
knows that. Not that I’m thrilled that you have feelings for him.”

I stepped away from her. “Think about it
this way. You know more about him than you would know about any other guy I
could date. You know where he came from. You know his influences. You know that
he wants to do anything he can to stay in our house, so he isn’t going to do
anything to hurt me.”

My mother looked down at me as if she had
never seen me before. “You’re growing up.”

“I am. I’m glad you noticed.”

“You really care about him?”

“I do. He’s good to me. He’s more mature
than the other guys at high school.”

“That’s good and bad.”

I knew she was talking about a physical
relationship. He would want that. Well, I wanted it, too, but that didn’t need
to be said here. “You need to trust me. You need to trust Dylan. We both have
plans for our future and neither of us want to mess that up.”

She smiled. “I guess I have to let you
grow up.”

“I thought you were excited about it.
You’re starting something new,” I said.

“It’s bittersweet, Taylor.”

I nodded, understanding. “Now, how do we
get Daddy to let Dylan take me to the prom?”

***

My mother and I managed to convince my
father to let Dylan take me to the prom. He’d even taken Dylan out to rent a
tuxedo. My mother and I had gone shopping, and I ended up with a green dress
that didn’t show too much.

It had spaghetti straps, which was a
compromise from the strapless one I wanted. I still loved the dress. After my
mother helped me with my hair, she stood behind me as we both gazed into the
mirror.

“You are no longer a little girl,” she
told me.

Guess she wasn’t ready for me to grow up.
“Thank you for helping me convince Daddy to let Dylan take me.”

“You’re welcome. Now, he’s waiting
downstairs. Nervous. He gets an audience when he sees you.”

I glanced back at my reflection once,
happy with how I looked. I almost didn’t recognize myself.

My mother opened the door for me. I
grabbed my clutch that matched my dress, then walked down the steps. Dylan was
pacing at the bottom. My father leaned on the doorway to the living room a
small smile on his face. When he looked up at me, his smile broadened.

I stopped hallway down, and Dylan finally
looked my way. His lips were open and I knew he was surprised. His eyes widened
as he said, “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, kitten. You do look beautiful.”

We took pictures out on the lawn. Dylan
was a gentleman and held the door to the limousine that my father had rented
for us. He held my hand the whole way to the venue.

“I can’t stop staring at you, Taylor. You
look amazing. Awesome.”

“You look pretty handsome, too, Dylan. You
clean up well.”

He laughed. “Your father had to help a
little.”

Now I laughed. “At least he did. He could
have protested.”

“Oh, he let me know that we were to come
home after the dance and that if we were going somewhere tomorrow, we weren’t
staying over.”

I rested my head against his shoulder. “I
don’t need any of that. Just you.”

“That’s sweet, Taylor.”

I shrugged.

The ballroom was full of teenage couples.
The tables were decorated with blue and white balloons, our school colors. I
couldn’t believe the day had finally come. This was the last big event of our
senior year.

After this, it was only a few weeks until
graduation.

I held Dylan’s hand as we entered the
room. I heard a squeal and was hugged fiercely by Helena. I looked her over.
“You look pretty amazing.”

She smiled. “You look beautiful, too. I
grabbed your place cards. You’re sitting with us.”

“Cool.”

She wore a dark blue dress that accented
her eyes. Cole, her date, wore a matching cummerbund. Those two had met at one
point during the drama of Dylan and I, and they’d hit it off. I told Cole that
if he didn’t treat her properly, he would have me to answer to.

So far, he’d been a very good boyfriend to
her.

“Do we get pictures first?” I said.

“Yeah. Cole and I got ours,” Helena said.

I turned to Dylan. “Let’s get this over
with. I don’t know how good I’m going to look after I’m dancing.”

“Dancing?”

I laughed. “Yes. We’ll be dancing.”

“Did I agree to that?”

I laughed and swatted his arm. “It’s
implied when you take someone to a prom.”

“Oh, okay. Didn’t know that.”

The smile on his face told me he was
teasing me.

We did the pictures, and then there was a
slow song. Dylan held me as if I were china. “Why didn’t you run for prom
queen?” he asked me.

I shrugged. “Didn’t seem important with
all that was going on with you.”

“Do you regret it?”

“Nope. I get to dance with only you all
night instead of the prom king.”

“I like that idea.” He nuzzled my neck.
“This is kind of nice. Kind of fun.”

“Better than you thought?”

“Much better, but I think that has to do
with my date,” he said.

That filled me with such a warm feeling. I
wanted to tell him that I loved him, but I didn’t think I was ready to be that
vulnerable. Yet. Maybe by the end of the night.

The prom queen was crowned and the fast
music started. I dragged Dylan out on the dance floor.

“But they just served dessert,” he said.

“It’ll be there when you get back,” I said.
“I want to see you dance.”

“I’m not very good.”

He actually was okay; he had more rhythm
than a lot of guys on the dance floor. He had nothing to be embarrassed about.
We didn’t sit down for three songs. Then I needed a drink.

The cake was gone. He looked like a puppy
who had been kicked.

“I’ll bake you a chocolate cake tomorrow.”

Dylan’s face lit up. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Okay, then.”

And for one quick moment, I saw the
teenage Dylan. Not the serious grownup one that had been around lately. Not that
I minded, either.

“Last song of the night, girls and boys,”
the disc jockey said.

I turned back to Dylan. “One more.”

He kissed my nose. “Of course.”

He held me close again, and I never wanted
the night to end. His warm body was pressed against mine, his bow tie was in
his pocket, and his sleeves were rolled up.

He was all mine. At least, for now.

When the song ended, he led me to the
table. We gathered our things said goodnight to everyone. I really didn’t want
to go back to reality. This had been wonderful.

I held onto Dylan’s arm, my high heels in
my hand. “This was great. Thank you.”

He smiled down at me. “I’m glad you
enjoyed yourself.”

I stopped him before we climbed into the
limousine.

“Is something wrong?” he said.

“No. I just wanted to tell you that I love
you.”

His smile lit up his face. “I love you,
too.”

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This
book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are
products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not
to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual
events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Copyright
© 2016 Naomi Niles