Make Mine a Ranger (Special Ops: Homefront Book 4) (14 page)

Gazing out at the water, he noticed it
was a very different scene here than closer into downtown Annapolis. On the
Magothy, there were more powerboats than sailboats. Tyler gathered it must be
because of the shallower waters of the river. Yet still, it was a lively scene,
even at this hour of the morning, with a few people crabbing off docks and a
handful of joggers.

Across the river, the houses here were
more humble than the sprawling new construction that overlooked much of the
Chesapeake Bay. Mostly 1950s ranch houses, more modest and a hell of a lot less
intimidating. Spotting a little white ranch with blue shutters and window
boxes, his mind wandered. He might be able to afford a place like that one day
soon, even on the water, if he looked for a house in this area.

And why the hell was he thinking about
the future so much this morning?

He smiled when he felt the tension
finally leave her body, as she snuggled a little closer to him on the bench.

“Thanks, Tyler.”

“For what?”

“For believing in me.” Nibbling her
bottom lip, she pulled away about an inch. “Your friendship means so much to
me. Too much. And you’re so special to Abby.” She paused, letting out a long
sigh. “Don’t you think it would be safer if we just pretended that last night
never happened?”

“Probably,” he said, draping his arm over
her shoulder and pulling her close again. “But if I liked to play things safe,
I wouldn’t be a Ranger.” Having made his point, he lifted her chin upward with
his finger and did the only thing he could think of to silence her.

He kissed her. Thoroughly.

***

Bess pulled her car out of the driveway. Things
looked no less confusing to her after a good breakfast and a hot shower.

So, he wanted this to continue. She
should be elated about it. Aside from the birth of her little girl, Tyler
Griffon was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

But what she’d never dare to admit was
that her worries about their relationship reached far beyond concern about its
effect on Abby. Bess was worried about herself.

Even if they continued their relationship
for the remainder of the time he was here, what would happen when he left? When
he moved someplace else and found someone new? If he were anyone else, she’d be
able to cut all ties with him.

But he was Tyler, Abby’s hero. Her
honorary uncle, bearer of a constant stream of gifts. The man who had promised
to whisk her away to Disneyworld one day.

Abby needed Tyler in her life. And that
meant Bess would have to tolerate hearing from him even after he had moved on
to someone else.

When he eventually married, had kids of
his own, she’d hear about it. Hell, she wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up getting
a wedding invitation.

Her phone beeped, alerting her to a text.
Seeing as this would likely be her last moment alone for a while before picking
up Abby, she pulled off to the side of the road along Spa Creek, where a
handful of fishermen were sitting on the docks.

She gazed down at her phone. “Feeling any
better?” Lacey had written, followed by, “Men suck,” added by Maeve.

Oh, God.
Bess groaned inwardly. She should feel a
schoolgirl excitement at the prospect of telling her two best friends in the
world that she had just had sex with the man of her dreams. But as it was, she
only felt a knot in her stomach.

“Kind of. Just sort of confused now,”
Bess wrote them back.

It took only a few seconds before Maeve’s
reply came in first. “Can’t believe he led you on like that. Horizons is
totally a date place. Doesn’t he know that??? I vote you should just ignore him
this morning.”

“I second that,” Lacey typed in next.

Bess shook her head, reading their
replies.
Here goes nothing.
“Sort of hard to do,” she wrote, “since we
just had sex last night.”

Her cell phone immediately rang. “What
are you talking about?” Maeve’s voice rang out the instant Bess answered.

Bess laughed. Obviously Maeve was the
faster dialer of her two friends. “We sort of had sex last night.”

“Shut the fu… front door,” Maeve
stuttered, and Bess could picture her sitting at the kitchen table with her two
children. Yep, no more foul language out of Maeve unless the kids were asleep.

“Yeah. I was downstairs around 2 a.m. Just
couldn’t sleep.”

“I’ll bet.”

“And neither could he. So one minute
we’re talking, and then next—oh, wait, Lacey’s calling on the other
line.”

“Don’t you dare stop talking now,” Maeve
threatened.

 “Okay, okay. I’ll call her back. Anyway,
we’re suddenly kissing. Then he picks me up—literally sweeps me off my
feet—I could have died. And the next minute I’m in his bed having the
best sex I’ve ever had in my life. Including my fantasy life.” The phone beeped
again. “Hold on a sec. She’ll keep calling till I pick up.”

“Tell her you’ll call her back. I need
the story and we’re headed to church in a few minutes. Ha! How ironic is that? Want
me to ask for a little absolution for you, Bess?”

Bess groaned in response, switching over
to Lacey.

For the next ten minutes, she was bouncing
in between two calls, giving her friends the briefest update possible, till
Maeve finally had to leave for church with Jack and the kids.

“So are you going to bring him to Vi’s
wedding in a couple weeks?” Lacey asked.

“I hadn’t thought about that. Do you
think I should?”

“Of course. Geez, you slept with the guy.
He’d probably be hurt if you didn’t ask him. Besides, he’ll want to see you in
that bridesmaid dress.”

Bess winced. “I still haven’t tried it on
yet.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Probably. But with that tight bodice, I
just keep thinking it won’t fit me. Don’t tell Vi, okay?”

“I won’t. She’s stressed enough right now
with Joe in Qatar till next Sunday. Keeps thinking he’ll be held over in the meetings
and will miss his own wedding.”

“That won’t happen though, right?”

“No. Mick says that it would take
something really cataclysmic for them to make him miss his own wedding. He’s
just TDY, not like he’s deployed or something. But she’s freaking out anyway. So
the last thing she needs to hear is that one of her bridesmaids won’t even try
on her gown to make sure they sent her the right size.”

“I’ll try it on. I promise.”

“If I were you, I’d be more worried that
it might fall right off you. What with all the weight you’ve been losing. Before
you know it, you’ll be in better shape than Tyler.”

“Ha!” A laugh exploded from Bess. “You’ve
never seen the guy naked. He looks like he stepped out of
Men’s Fitness
magazine, except that he’s not photoshopped.”

Lacey laughed. “Yeah, Special Ops guys
have to be in pretty amazing shape. Just watch out. Mick says they soften up
after retirement.”

“Oh, he’ll be long gone by that time,
anyway.”

Bess heard a sigh from Lacey. “Bess, stop
planning on this thing to end already. I know you, and that’s what you’re
doing, aren’t you? You’re shooting the horse before it even makes it out of the
gate.”

“No. Well, maybe. I’m just so worried
about Abby getting more attached to him.”

“You mean that
you’ll
get more
attached to him.”

“Maybe, yeah. Definitely. But even when
we break this thing off—”

“—
if
you break this thing
off—”

“—I still need to keep him in my
life, Lacey. Abby adores him.”

“Well, then I suggest you buy some more
of those spaghetti strapped dresses that Edith got you and pull out all the
stops.”

“Yeah. Figures Edith would know just
where to shop. The woman’s well over seventy and more in tune with today’s
trends than—Oh my god.”

“What?”

“Edith. I’m late picking up Abby. Gotta
run.”

Edith
. She only hoped that Edith didn’t want the details of what
happened last night like her other friends had demanded.

Freshly showered, Bess sat on her bed, still
winded from tonight’s grappling class, staring at the strapless chiffon
bridesmaid gown as it hung in her closet. It had been over a week since she had
promised Lacey she’d try it on.

She could use Tyler as an excuse. He
certainly kept her busy anytime they weren’t at work or the gym. Taking full
advantage of autumn in Annapolis, he had taken them to two corn mazes, three
fall festivals, and one hay ride that had Bess’s eyes puffing up like melons
from allergies. And on the rare rainy days, they tried their hand at duckpin
bowling and enjoyed a couple evenings of skeeball at Pirate Pop’s.

It was like they were pretending to be a
family, and the feeling was becoming a little too addictive for Bess.

And for Abby, she worried.

Laughter and few jubilant squeals from
Abby drifted down the hall. After finishing a makeshift dinner of
leftovers—with their busy schedule, Bess found less time to cook these
days—Tyler had volunteered to put Abby to bed. But she was still “torqued
up,” as Tyler always put it, from ninety minutes of rambunctious playing in the
gym’s child care room.

“She’s supposed to be winding down now,
Tyler,” Bess called into the next room. “Quiet time. You know, reading a book
or something.”

“Nooo…” She heard the whine from Abby, and
a few more squeaks of the bed as she jumped on it, followed by Tyler’s calm
tone, no doubt telling her to pick out a book for him to read.

Bess smiled, imagining them in the room
together. They could pass as any father-daughter pair these days, and it warmed
Bess’s heart, at the same time it was breaking it. How would Abby handle it
when Tyler left next year to return to Savannah and the 1
^st
Ranger Battalion?
Anytime the two were together in public, little Abby would reach for Tyler’s
hand as if to tell the world, “He’s with me.”

Bess knew exactly how her daughter felt.

Barely five feet away, the blue chiffon
mocked her again, pulling her mind back to the present and the wedding that was
just over a week away. Jack and Maeve would be coming up the Wednesday before the
wedding, the first time Bess would see them as parents.

Jack and Maeve. Parents.
Bess was excited to meet their kids, and
secretly so hopeful that they would get along well with Abby. How horrible
would it be if the three children despised each other?

Giving a little shake, she assured
herself it wouldn’t happen. Marcus was just Abby’s age—the perfect
playmate. And Kayla, at eight, might serve as a good older sister role model
for Abby one day just like Maeve had always been to Bess.

It would be so good to have all her
friends together again. That first night when they arrived, Bess planned on
making a nice meal for all of them, here in this wonderful house where all of her
friends had found their true loves.

Could Bess dare to hope she’d have a
happy ending in this house, too?

Well, it certainly wouldn’t happen if she
couldn’t manage to squeeze into that damn dress.

Giving an internal nod, she finally
stood, ready to take on the dress and defeat it. With all the exercise she had
been getting, it was absurd to think that it would be too small. But after four
years of being disappointed by the way things fit her, the idea of putting on
the dress could only make her feel just this side of panic.

Reaching out, she took the dress off the
hanger. She slipped it over her head and felt the lightweight chiffon drape
over her skin.

It seemed… loose.

Seriously
loose.

Reaching behind her, she struggled with
the zipper. Frowning, she went to her door. “Tyler, can you come in here a sec?”

Within moments, he appeared at her door,
his eyebrows lifting an inch at the site of her
almost
in the dress. “Wow.
That’s gorgeous.”

“Yeah, but I can’t get it zipped up. Can
you help?”

With a smirk, he approached her.

She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t get any
fancy ideas. I just can’t reach the zipper.”

“Likely excuse,” he said, coming up
behind her. He paused a moment, his hand touching the bare skin of her back
only an instant, making her ache for more. Her eyes shut momentarily, her mind
drifting into a fantasy of him slipping his hands beneath the chiffon, stroking
her back, her sides, and eventually reaching her breasts.

Oh, God, how she missed his touch. Was it
driving him nearly as crazy as it was her? Opening her eyes to gaze at him, she
couldn’t tell from the reflection of their image in the mirror.

He zipped the dress and looked at her
quizzically “It’s beautiful on you, but way too big,” he commented.

Still needing to hold up the dress in
front of her to keep it on, she stared at her image. “Oh my God.”

“Don’t worry. It’s not a big deal to take
it in. We’ll need to pay for a rush job, but I’m sure we can find someone who
will do it.”

Her eyes glistened with tears as she
soaked in her reflection. How many times had she had the nightmare of putting
on clothing that didn’t fit, watching her weight spiral out of control right
along with her whole life these past years? A tear streaked downward on her
cheek.

Tyler came up behind her and put his
hands on her shoulders. “Bess, don’t get upset. It’s really doable. You won’t
be without a dress for the wedding. I guarantee it. Even if I have to take the
damn thing in with duct tape myself.”

Bess laughed. Military guys sure liked to
fix things with duct tape. “I’m not upset,” she said, with a smile. “I’m
thrilled.” A fit of laughter escaped her. “I’m ecstatic. I was fitted for this
gown just before you moved in. It was going to be snug. Now it’s falling off of
me.”

“You’ve lost a ton of weight since you
started working out. And you’ve firmed up.” A playful smile touched his lips. “I
know. I felt that muscle tone first-hand. How could you not have noticed?”

Bess shrugged, remembering what Edith had
said. “Everything I own has an elastic waistband. I knew I’d lost a little
weight but I didn’t realize how much. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like
to look in mirrors much, Tyler.”

Tyler turned her around to face him. Cupping
her face gently in his hands, his eyes met hers. “Bess, you’ve always been
beautiful. You might be a bit thinner now, but you’ve always been beautiful. Don’t
ever forget that. There’s more to beauty than whether or not you can squeeze
into a size 6, okay?” He glanced briefly at the door and then stole a kiss,
sweet and sensual at the same time. It wasn’t nearly enough for her, and Bess
ached to dial Edith right now and see if she could watch Abby for the night.

Pulling his face back from hers, Tyler grinned,
walking toward the bedroom door. “Abby! Come on in here and check out your pretty
mama in her bridesmaid gown.”

Abby quickly appeared at the door, with a
colorful book in her clutches. “You look like a princess, Mama.”

Still holding up the dress, Bess agreed,
“I feel like a princess in it. Your Aunt Maeve picked it out.”

“Not as pretty as my flower girl dress
though,” Abby said, swaying back and forth.

“Nothing is as pretty as that. Just remember,
though, you’re not the only flower girl this year. Your Aunt Maeve’s little
girl will be one, too.”

“No, she’s a junior bridesmaid,” Abby
corrected. “Aunt Maeve said so.”

Tyler reached out for a hand from each of
them. “And how lucky will I be to have two pretty girls as my dates that
night?”

Abby lunged at Tyler’s leg, wrapping her
arms around it like a boa constrictor. “Let’s go back to the story,” she said, handing
him the book and dragging him by the hand toward the doorway.

Tyler grinned. “My presence is required
elsewhere,” he said to Bess. “Meet me downstairs after I put her to bed, okay?
Just give me a minute. We’re on the last page.”

Stealing a glance at him as he walked out
the door, Bess detected a hint of mischief in his eyes. She sure hoped so,
anyway.

Shutting the door, she sighed contentedly.
The dress was too big. All these weeks of trying to get stronger had made her
thinner in the process. Biting her lip, she pulled off the dress and hung it
back in her closet. She’d take it to the seamstress at the mall tomorrow
morning, she decided. For a price, they’d certainly be able to do it in time.

She hoped.

Slipping on her comfy yoga pants and a
t-shirt, Bess emerged from her room to complete silence. Abby’s light was off
and Tyler must have gone downstairs already.

“Love you, Mama,” Bess heard Abby murmur
as she slipped by her door.

Unable to resist her daughter, Bess
stepped inside her room a moment, and planted a kiss on her daughter’s
forehead. “Love you, too, baby. Call me if you need me.” Abby’s eyes fluttered
shut, already drifting to sleep.

Bess watched her a moment, her heart
swelling with love. Never once had she taken for granted the miracle of her
child in her life. Her perfect little girl—well, perfect to her mama anyway.

She shut Abby’s door halfway and went downstairs.
The house was dark, and the back door was open. She stepped into the doorway, feeling
a warm autumn breeze rolling off the Bay and into the house. Candlelight in the
backyard caught her eye, and she stepped outside. After her eyes adjusted, she
saw Tyler sitting on a picnic blanket spread out on the lawn.

“What’s all this?” she asked moving
toward him.

“A dessert picnic. I figured it’s all we
could manage after Abby was put to bed. I picked up some crème
brûlées
at
that gourmet shop off Main Street.” He pulled a cork from a bottle of wine.
“And some dessert wine,” he added as he poured it into two glasses.

“Tyler, that’s so sweet. But Abby—”

“Sound asleep already, I’m betting.” Tyler
reached behind him and pulled off the remote for the baby monitor he had
clipped to his shorts. “But if she stirs, we’ll know it.” He set it on the grass
beside them.

Bess sat on the blanket. “You are so
thoughtful.”

“Not thoughtful at all. Just desperate to
get some time alone with you.”

“It’s hard with Abby around, isn’t it?”

Tyler tossed his shoulders up lightly. “I
can’t complain. She’s fun to be around. But you?” He leaned forward, touching
his lips to hers. “You are an entirely different kind of fun. If Abby didn’t
end up crawling into bed with you half her nights, I might be tempted to do the
same.” He handed her a glass of wine. “This is a dessert wine Maeve
recommended.”

“You called Maeve?”

“Actually, I called Lacey first for
advice. I’m really clueless when it comes to wine. But she confessed she usually
buys wine in a box, so she gave me Maeve’s number. Guess she’s a wine connoisseur,
huh?”

“She is.”

He pulled out a propane torch. “So, want
to see if these
crème brûlées are a
ny good?”

As he lit the two ramekins, the fire
blazed, browning the sugar. The glow was alluring, and the sizzling sound made her
mouth water just as the smell of vanilla bean wafted past her nose.

“You lit those like a pro,” she
commented.

“No different than lighting the coals on
a Weber.” He started to hand her a spoon, but seemed to think the better of it,
instead dipping the spoon into the ramekin and scooping out a bite.

Extending it to her, she took it in her
mouth, feeling her hormones spike.

“How is it?” he asked.

“You be the judge,” she replied, dipping
the spoon into his ramekin and feeding him. The way his mouth closed around the
spoon made her shiver, remembering how it felt to have those lips toying with
her and tasting her. The need to have that kind of satisfaction again burned
inside of her.

“It’s good,” he said, his tone less than
enthusiastic. “But not nearly as tasty as you.” Careful to not knock over the
two votive candles in the grass, he reached for her, caressing a tender path
from the cleft in her chin, along her jawline, to the back of her head. He
pulled her closer, his mouth meeting hers eagerly, urging hers open for him. Then
she tasted him, savoring the saltiness mixed with a hint of vanilla
. He
was decadent to her, a craving she’d have every day for her lifetime.

With his mouth barely an inch from hers,
his breath tickled her lips as he spoke. “I’ve been dying to get you alone,
Bess. But I figured this might be the best we could do for a while.”

“I’ll take what I can get,” Bess murmured
in response, her eyes widening briefly when she heard a soft sigh coming from
the baby monitor. “You know, I nearly threw that baby monitor out last spring. I
thought I had reached the point when I didn’t need it anymore.”

“I vote we keep it till she’s eighteen.”

She warmed inside at the idea of him
still being around then, even if he had been just joking. “Edith suggested she
take Abby to her house after the wedding for the night. Abby will wear out
pretty early in the evening and Edith said she’d love an excuse to slip out
early, too.”