To Claim Her (10 page)

She poured a glass of wine and nudged it across the counter. 

He eyed her carefully.  “Holding up okay?” 

She smiled.  “Yep.  Just slaving over your dinner.”

He glanced through the patio doors.  “Looks like you’ve drafted some help.”

Refusing to look over her shoulder to stare at his supreme physique again, she nodded.  “He offered.”

“I know you are a little skittish about him, but you need to know he has good intentions about you.  Coming back here wasn’t just for me.”  He patted her with his weathered hand and smiled kindly.

“I don’t believe that he has anything more than a passing interest in me.”  She gave in then and glanced out toward the patio.  Mark stood over the grill looking like an Adonis, the wind flipping the tails of his shirt out from his body.  “I was a rescue the other day.  It’s the only thing that put me on his radar.”  She took a healthy swallow of her wine to wash away the bad taste the thought brought.

“I hope you know that’s not true.”

“I’ve grown up a lot since he left.  I don’t have any illusions about his interest in me.”

Sebastian took a seat at the table and drank his wine. 

“Where is he planning to settle anyway?”

Mark chose that moment to reappear.  “Right here.  I’ll be taking call starting next week.”

She gave him a startled glance.  “Call as in medical calls?”  He had received training for medical rescue in the Air Force. 

He gave her a cheeky grin as he washed up.  “As in.”  He brushed past her to sit across from Sebastian. 

“Where will you be working?”  Curiosity about where he’d be forced her to ask.

“Doing some rescue calls for local medical flights, helping out with areas difficult to reach by land, also looking at teaching at a friend’s martial arts school.”

She gave him a tight smile.  So he would be staying for a while.  He’d certainly made sure he had plenty of ties here.  “Sounds like you’ll be busy.”

“Not too busy for family though, darlin’.”  His words were charming but his tone was not.   Sarcasm bit with every word.    His eyes were narrowed in a way that told her he was thinking about the bombshell of his son.  She wasn’t prepared to verbally spar it out now. 

However angry he was, Mark relented enough to make dinner comfortable for his father.  He told a little about his training.  “The biggest part is physical for some men. “  He rolled his shoulders, flexing muscles, as if he could still feel the strain of it.  “I thought the pressure of saving lives was tougher once we got in the field.  Adrenaline delayed the physical stress until after the rescue.  The next day, though, ouch.”  He gave a wince that said he’d felt it more than once. 

The two glasses of wine caught up to Gretchen as she finished putting the last of the dishes in the dishwasher.  She felt lethargy creep into her muscles, so rather than returning to watch television with Sebastian or continuing her work, she climbed the stairs to her living room and headed for a hot bath.                She filled the tub with bubbles and steamy water and sunk into it to soak her muscles, tired from days of tension.  Her house was scheduled for repairs next week after the carpenter had made sure it was secure for the time being.  Mark had taken charge of checking on it while she was working through the afternoon. 

She was grateful but unsure why he did that.  He certainly didn’t owe her.   In fact, he was no doubt tallying up all she owed him.

She slipped into her pajamas and checked the clock.  It was just after eight.  She longed to climb into bed, warm and woozy, and for the first time in a week and sleep through until morning.  Instead, she climbed into a chair to wait for Laura’s call that Eddie was coming.  She and Sebastian had told him about his Dad.  Maybe that would help.  She closed her eyes to breathe a little prayer that everything would turn out all right.

Mark held his finger to his lips.  He stood at the top of the stairs with Eddie beside him.   The boy lifted his shoulders in an excited shrug and grinned. 

“Let her sleep.  I’ll get you settled downstairs.”  He led his son down to the extra bedroom next to Sebastian’s and pulled back the covers.   When Laura had arrived with Eddie a while earlier, Mark had been speechless.  The boy was a little shy to start but quickly became a whirlwind of energy in the house.  He had questions.  Lots of them. 

              Mark felt as if he’d been through an interview rivaling one for a high level security clearance.  His thoughts about how he would tell this four year old who he was were dashed clear out of his mind when Eddie recognized him and began the inquisition.  His tough attitude about keeping Gretchen out of their initial meeting had melted away when he realized what she had done.  She had made him a hero.  Between Gretchen and Sebastian, Eddie had acquired enough information to give him an ego twice the size of any normal man.  Questions Mark had dreaded about his absence had never come.  Instead, a small hand had crept into his larger one to lead him to his suitcase and pull out his treasured stuff animal and tell him about the trip to the zoo.

              No matter how much the boy was new to him, he was no stranger to his son.  He repeated back stories about his military service, stories about growing up that Sebastian loved to tell, even bragged about the missions he had survived.
Missions,
for goodness sake
.
  Mark felt a smile creep across his face.  He definitely had been no secret to Eddie.

              His heart felt strangely full as he listened to the boy.  His son had his own dark hair, and Gretchen’s eyes, and his sweet mother’s smile, God rest her soul.  The best of both of them.  His connection to boy was immediate.  It was hard not to feel it with the innocent trust he showed.  How had Gretchen instilled this in Eddie?  Especially when he knew she felt so little trust for him after he’d deserted her years before.  True, he hadn’t known she was pregnant, but he wasn’t entirely blameless in her thinking he had no interest in the baby.  It was something he planned to rectify shortly. 

              Mark tucked in his son, promising he would still be waiting come morning.  Knowing Sebastian was next door and seeing the light spill in through the open doorway was enough for Eddie to fall asleep quickly.  Mark watched his features relax.  An innocent, trusting child.    He smiled. 

He had missed so much of his life already, but the boy seemed at peace with the circumstances.  He wanted to blame Gretchen for his absence and could lay a lot of this situation at her feet.  He would have returned for leave time to make a relationship with his son.  On the other hand, his position required deployment and time away.  A lot.  Knowing the details would have made no difference in that.  

Either way, the choice should have been his.  She’d taken that right away without a word.

              The house was quiet as he stepped out of the shower and pulled on a pair of shorts.  He flipped off lights as he double checked the locks.  He didn’t even pause in the kitchen.  He headed up the stairs and stood before the chair where Gretchen slept.  Her brow was puckered.  Fretting.  

She had eaten very little at dinner and wore the expression of an unforgiven convict heading for the gallows as she cleaned up.   No doubt she would have made a run for it if Eddie weren’t the issue.  She never had been great at confrontation.  He turned off the overhead light, leaving the room bathed in dim lamplight. 

He scooped her up and sat down with her in his arms.  Her weight rested against his chest and felt good. 

She stirred, nuzzling her face into his neck.  Her breath stroked the skin at his throat and made him warm all over, but his mind was on other things.  He waited as she came awake slowly.

“You missed the big reveal.” 

Her eyes widened.  “Eddie’s home?  I fell asleep.  What time is it?”  She glanced around the room.

“Little after eleven.  Laura said to apologize.  She couldn’t call ahead.  Her phone went dead on the drive back.”  No doubt that call had been part of the plan to catch Eddie before he entered the house for a quick chat.

She stiffened and tried to sit but shifting her hips across his lap just put her more solidly in his arms.  Not a bad place for her to be. 

He looked more closely at her then.  She was wearing a gown, not a sexy one either.   She looked tired and very much like he remembered his own mom looking at the end of the day.  Spent.  Might as well put her out of her misery.

“He’s fine.  Had a good time.  Knew who I was.”

She blew out a small breath and nodded.  “You were never a secret, Mark.  He’s seen pictures, stayed with your dad, heard stories.  You just weren’t around.”

He rolled that thought around with a shift of his jaw and squinted at her before responding.  “My being here or not wouldn’t have changed entirely if I had known about him.  I still would have fulfilled my responsibility to the military.”

She was obviously surprised he admitted that.  Shouldn’t be.  He was nothing if not honest.  Painfully so sometimes.  She should have learned that five years ago. 

“I’m trying not to be angry, but I have to tell you it’s not easy.  I’ve missed everything.”  He gritted his jaw for a moment, trying to reign in his anger.  He thought about the way Eddie had opened up about the upcoming ball season and his interest in doing things together.  The kid had never played a game in his life and might not be ready.  Mark would get him ready. 

He lifted and carried Gretchen to the bed where he laid down beside her, propped his head on his crooked arm, and demanded to hear it all. 

“Don’t leave anything out.  Not. One. Thing.”

The combination of vulnerability and anger in Mark’s expression touched Gretchen.  She cherished every face of her life with Eddie.  She had robbed Mark of the few experiences he could have had in these four short years.  It was time to make up for that. 

She could either try to shield Eddie and distance him from Mark, or she could let him know what a great kid Eddie was.  Maybe he would stick around, take a genuine interest, and be a great father.  Either way, she had to be strong for Eddie.  This was about his needs, not hers.  Her heartbreak didn’t matter anymore.

So she settled in, turning to face him on the bed, and she began from the beginning, with her pregnancy and the initial sadness about having a baby without a father.  But there were worse things.  She had lived through worse with a dad who would rather be anywhere else.  All of their lives would have been better if he had taken off after her sister had been born and stayed gone rather than returning whenever the mood struck him.               

Mark didn’t say what he must be thinking.   That he was better than her deadbeat father.  Sebastian had been a great example of fatherhood by giving Mark the space he needed when his mother had died and pulling Gretchen in close when he had found her raising his grandson alone.

              “I made sure he knew you left with honorable goals.”

              He snorted.  “Yeah, I got that.”

              She smiled ruefully.  “There were a few times he watched spy movies with your dad.  Those might have influenced his thinking some.”

              He nodded.  “Go on.”

              She spent the next few hours talking about the milestones, big and small, in Eddie’s life.  His daycare, sleep habits, favorite toys, trips to the lake, starting preschool soon, and plans for the summer.  She answered Mark’s questions and tried to fill in any gaps to help him know everything he wanted.  She even pulled out the album she had rescued from her house and showed him the snapshots that she had.  “There are a lot more on my computer that I haven’t printed.  He’ll love telling you about them.”

              “I’ll love hearing all about them.”

“I’m sorry.”

              They fell asleep that way, sleepily sharing bits from the past four years, and when she awoke before dawn snuggled into his big body she didn’t panic as she have just days before.  She sighed and settled into his warmth before closing her eyes and nodding back off to sleep.

Chapter Seven

Gretchen planned to spend the next day catching up with Eddie and working at the kitchen table rather than jaunting across town to get through the day. Normally, she was up with the sun to spend time with Eddie before heading out to Sebastian’s for his breakfast and medicines.  Now that she was just up the stairs, the urgency might have been gone had she not been on pins and needles about the day ahead with Eddie and Mark.  According to Mark, it was smooth as could be, and she hoped that easy attitude would last.   

She put on jeans and a top and went downstairs.  Eddie was still sleeping but she knew that wouldn’t last.  She sat up her computer in a corner of the kitchen where she would be out of the way and connected to the internet.   

She felt small hands on her arm and turned to see a sleepy Eddie standing beside her. 

“Wow!  You were stealth!”

He grinned a big toothy smile.

“Been practicing?”

He nodded.  “Can I have some chocolate milk?”

She opened her arms, and he stepped into them for a big hug, grunting as he tried to squeeze the life out of her.  “Missed you.  Did you have fun?”

He released her and climbed into a chair at the table.  “We played at the pool and the zoo.”
              Gretchen heard the stairs creek and glanced toward them in time to see Mark step into the kitchen.  He wore shorts and his chest was bare.  She immediately flashed to a memory of licking across the smooth skin the morning before.  Her face flamed, and he smirked as if he could read her mind. 

“Morning, Eddie.”

Her attention was diverted to Eddie standing up from the table. 

She watched painfully.  He didn’t move away from the chair, just stood there, and her heart squeezed at the idea he might not be sure Mark would want a morning hug. 

“My dad came back.”

She nudged her head toward the table as she made for the fridge.   Mark went easily and sat, pulling Eddie into his lap.  She exhaled in relief.  “I know!  It’s very exciting.”