With Me In Seattle: Bundle Two (8 page)

“How often do you do movie night?” Caleb asks, sitting on the couch and passing Josie her package of jelly beans.

“I try to do it once a week.”

“I want peanut butter cups!” Maddie grins up at Caleb and bats her eyelashes, making me giggle.

She is such a flirt.

“Coming right up.” Caleb passes her the candy and grins as they lie on their bellies amid a plethora of blankets and pillows.

“What are we watching?” he asks.

“
Ivan the Incredible.
”

“Great.” He grins, presses Play on the remote and hands me the bowl of popcorn as he whispers, “I have no idea what that movie is.”

“It’s okay,” I whisper back. “They’ll fall asleep in an hour and finish it tomorrow.”

“Do you want one of my peanut butter cups?” Maddie offers Caleb.

“No, thanks, honey.” Caleb smiles down at her.

“You don’t like them?” she asks with a frown.

“Not really.” He shrugs. “I’m not much of a peanut butter guy.”

“You have to like them!” Josie jumps up, and Maddie follows, mutiny in their eyes.

“I do?” he asks with a raised eyebrow, and I know what is about to happen.

“Yep! Here, eat it!” Maddie throws herself in his lap, trusting that he’ll catch her.

“You can’t make me!” he shouts playfully, making a show of trying to fend them off as Josie joins in the fun.

“You must eat it!” Josie cries and begins to tickle his side.

“I’m not ticklish!”

“Yes, you are!”

All I can do is sit back and giggle.

“Help! Brynna, get these little pests off me! I’m not strong enough!”

“You’re a wimp!” Josie informs him with a loud giggle and continues to tickle him.

“Eat it, wimp!” Maddie laughs and continues to try to feed him the candy.

Finally, he opens his arms wide and gathers them against him, stands and proceeds to run about the room, yelling like a Spartan on that show on Starz, “Victory!”

He drops them, gently, onto their pile of pillows and blankets, not even panting. The girls are laughing, tears rolling down their faces.

“And you…” Caleb points at me, a mock glare on his handsome face.

“What did I do?” I ask, eyes wide, feigning innocence.

“You were supposed to be my backup.”

“You handled things just fine.” I grin and then am suddenly on my feet and over Caleb’s shoulder, much to the delight of the girls, who scream with laughter.

“I think I’ll throw her in the garbage!” Caleb announces and heads for the kitchen.

“No, put her in the recycle bin.” Josie giggles.

“You can’t recycle mommies!” I call out and gently hit Caleb’s back with my fists. “Let me go!”

“Traitor!” Caleb yells and circles back around to the living room and dumps me back onto the couch. “That was a warning, woman.”

“So noted.” I laugh, holding my sides.

The girls continue to giggle, and Maddie wraps her arms around Caleb’s waist and hugs him tight.

“I love you, Caleb. Can we watch the movie now?”

His hand pauses on its way to settle on her back, and he blinks twice before answering gruffly, “Yeah, buttercup, let’s watch it.”

She grins up at him lovingly and then joins her sister, ready to watch the movie.

He sits beside me and pulls me to his side, tucking me against him as he kisses my head, grabs a handful of popcorn out of my bowl and shoves it in his mouth, giving the movie his undivided attention.

Damn, this feels good. Having him here with us, playing with us, just feels right.

In less than an hour, the girls are passed out on the floor.

“Well, that didn’t take as long as I thought it would,” I whisper with a smile.

“Thank God,” he mutters and tilts my head back to kiss me, sweeping his lips over mine gently before sinking in and pushing his tongue past my lips, holding my face in his palm. Finally, he pulls back and kisses my forehead. “Let’s get them to bed, so I can get you to bed.”

“Good plan.”

***

“Mommy! Mommy!”

“Bryn.” Caleb touches my arm.

“It’s Josie,” I cry out, immediately awake and springing from the bed to run down the hall to the girls’ room. Caleb is right behind me.

“Mommy!”

“I’m here, baby girl. What’s wrong?”

“She throwed up,” Maddie informs us and points to the side of Josie’s bed.

“I’m sorry,” Josie cries.

“Oh, baby, it’s okay.” I pull her into my arms, unaware that Caleb has left the room. I press my cheek against her forehead and gasp.

She’s burning up.

“You have a fever, my friend. I’m going to take your temperature, okay?”

“Okay,” she croaks and lies back just as Caleb returns with a large bowl and cleaning supplies.

“You take care of her. I’ve got the mess.”

“You don’t have to…”

“It’s fine, Bryn. I’ve got it.”

“Thank you.” I kiss his cheek and bustle to the medicine cabinet for fever medicine and a thermometer and return to the bed just as Caleb is finishing with the mess on the floor.

“Mommy?” Maddie calls from her bed.

“Yes, baby,” I respond and take Josie’s temp in her ear.

One-oh-one. Damn.

“I don’t feel good.” Maddie sits up and wraps her arms around her waist.

“Come on, buttercup.” Caleb scoops her up and carries her into the bathroom, where I hear her retching.

Josie hears it, too, and it makes her throw up again. Thank God, Caleb brought the bowl.

And so it goes for the next few hours, holding the girls while they throw up, cooling them down with wet cloths and, finally, giving them fever medicine and praying it will stay down.

Caleb never falters. He never leaves us to go back to bed. He doesn’t scowl and get grossed out by the amount of vomit coming out of these two little people.

He just quietly helps me, as we alternate between the girls, changing their clothes, helping them to the bathroom and comforting them.

I’m rocking Josie in the plush rocking chair in the corner, and Caleb is holding Maddie, sitting on her bed with his back against the wall.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” I whisper to him.

“You don’t need to thank me, Brynna.” He looks down into Mads’ face and frowns. “Poor things are so sick.”

“The flu is going around.” I lean my head back on the cushion and close my eyes. “Samantha had it last week.”

“What do we do now?” he asks.

“This is pretty much it,” I respond with a grin. “Stay up and give them medicine, pray the hurling is over, and hold them.”

“It’s hard work,” he remarks casually and watches me over Maddie’s head.

“This is nothing.” I laugh humorlessly. “When they were little, I never slept. They never wanted to sleep at the same time, no matter how hard I tried to get them on a schedule. They had to eat every two hours, both of them, so I felt like I was always feeding them.”

I shake my head and smile over at him. “I think I went two weeks at one point without a shower.”

“Why didn’t you have help?” he asks.

“My mom came out for a few weeks when they were first born, but they were in the NICU because they were born early, and when it was time to bring them home, my mom had to go home, too.”

“How early were they?”

“About three weeks,” I reply.

“Where was Jeff?” he growls.

I laugh again and trace Josie’s soft cheek with my fingertip.

“Working. Always working.” I bite my lip, hating that I feel tears coming on. “He wasn’t even there when they were born.”

Caleb curses under his breath.

“He wasn’t a bad man, Caleb.” I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Honestly, he just shouldn’t have ever started a family with anyone. I knew when I married him that the job was his priority. He never made that a secret.”

Josie stirs, changing position in my arms.

“I guess I thought he might change once the girls were born.” I smile at Caleb sadly. “But he didn’t. And we realized early on that he shouldn’t be with us.”

“So you’ve been a single mom from day one.” It’s not a question.

“I have.” I nod. “I love them so much. They are worth every hour of sleep lost, Caleb. But, damn, it’s exhausting and scary when they’re sick. There are times that I’ve had one throwing up in the bathroom and one throwing up in her bed, and I can only be with one of them. What am I supposed to do then?”

I look up at him and let the tears fall silently down my cheeks in frustration.

“Or when they’re both crying for me, and I can only hold one of them at a time, especially now that they’re so much bigger.” I shake my head and wipe my cheeks. “I worry that I’m not enough for them.”

“Stop, baby. You’re such a great mom. They couldn’t love you more.”

I just nod and gaze at Maddie resting peacefully in Caleb’s strong arms, her cheeks still pink with fever.

“When I told them that their dad died,” I whisper and swallow, rocking slowly, “I thought they’d be hysterical, but they just frowned and Maddie said, ‘Does that mean we won’t see him again?’”

I turn my eyes back down to Josie and kiss the top of her head.

“What did you say?” he asks quietly.

“I just said yes, that was right. Neither of them cried, Caleb. They just frowned and hugged
me
, because they said I looked sad. They didn’t mourn him because they didn’t know him.”

“It was his loss, Bryn, and his own doing.”

“I know.” I nod. “It just makes me so sad because they are so wonderful, and he missed out on knowing them.”

Suddenly, Josie stirs again and cries before throwing up all over me.

“Here we go again.”

***

Twenty hours later, we are all exhausted. At one point during the day, Meg brought us all soup and sandwiches, broth for the girls, and looked over them to make sure that it was indeed just the flu.

The past two hours have been relatively calm. The fevers are coming down, and they’ve managed to sleep relatively peacefully.

“I think we’re about through the worst of it,” I murmur and comb my fingers through Maddie’s hair. I’m lying beside her, dozing on and off with her. Caleb is rocking Josie in the chair.

“She loves to rock,” he murmurs with a soft smile.

“She’s always been my rocker,” I agree. “Maddie can sleep anywhere, anytime. Josie, not so much. But sit in a rocking chair with her, and she’s a goner.”

“I’m going to try to lay her down,” he mutters and kisses her forehead. “Fevers are down, thank God. They scared me.”

How can I resist a man who is so good to my girls?

I let my eyes drift closed, listening to him tuck Josie in her bed. I must doze for just a minute, because the next thing I know, Caleb is lifting me off the bed.

“I can walk,” I protest but wrap my arms around his neck. “I’m not a small woman like Jules.”

“You’re fine.”

“I’m not feeling terribly sexy,” I murmur apologetically.

“I think I can control myself tonight,” he replies with a laugh.

“I should stay with the girls. You go to bed.”

“I grabbed the monitor.” He holds it up for me to see. “So we’ll hear them if they need us. For right now, I’m going to put you in a hot bath. You deserve it, sweetheart.”

When he carries me into the bathroom, I’m shocked to see that he’s already filled the tub with steaming hot water and my lavender bath oil.

“How long was I out?” I ask.

“About fifteen minutes.” He sets me down on the toilet seat, props the monitor by the sink and helps me out of my clothes and into the hot bath.

“Oh my, that feels good.” I pull in a deep breath and let it out slow, then open my eyes and gaze up at the man standing next to the tub, his hands in his pockets. His eyes are tired. “This tub is big enough for two, you know.”

“Nope, this is just for you, Legs. But do you mind if I jump in the shower while you soak?”

“Hmm…” I scrunch up my face like I’m thinking really hard. “Watch a sexy man get naked and take a shower while I lie here and be lazy? Sure, why not?”

“Smart-ass.” He laughs and strips naked, completely comfortable in his own skin, and turns on the water in the shower.

I may be exhausted, but I’m not dead. Dear Jesus, the man is just
hot.

“What is the tat on your back?” I ask. I can’t read it from here, but it looks like four lines of script on his shoulder blade.

He drapes a green towel over the bar beside the shower and then backs up so I can get a closer look.

MONTGOMERY, CALEB J

990001212USN O NEG

CHRISTIAN

US CITIZEN

“What is it?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

“It’s exactly what’s on my dog tags, in case I was ever…”

“I get it,” I interrupt him, not wanting to even contemplate the what-ifs.

He looks over his shoulder at me and then frowns when he sees the look on my face.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

I shake my head and sink farther down into the water. “Thank God you’re safe.”

He bends down to kiss my head and whispers, “I’m fine, baby.” Then he walks into the shower.

Dear God, what if he’d ever been captured? Tortured?

Killed?

A shudder wracks my body, despite the hot water. I reach over to grab the soap, but it slips out of my hand, falling to the floor with a loud
thunk.

“Are you okay?” Caleb shouts and throws the shower door open, his eyes wild and chest heaving as he pants.

“I’m fine. I just dropped the soap.”

He closes his eyes and shakes his head, and without a word, closes the shower door and finishes cleaning himself.

When he leaves the shower, he won’t meet my eyes. He dries himself off, tying the towel around his hips, and helps me out of the bath. When I reach for a towel, he takes it from me and dries me himself.

“Are you okay?” I whisper.

“Fine.”

He continues to dry me off, then takes my hand in his and pulls me into the bedroom, where he helps me into my pajamas and pulls on his own underwear and black basketball shorts.

“I’ll sleep on the couch.”

He starts to leave the room, but I stop him.

“Bullshit. You’ll sleep in this bed with me, Caleb Montgomery.”