The Marine's Red Hot Homecoming (15 page)

Like reading a book to his little boy, and snuggling with him on the sofa. Caleb glanced at the black medallion clock on the wall in the living room. Was it him or had time slowed to trickle of sand in the hourglass? He still had at least two hours to go before she returned home from her meetings downtown. They might as well be two hundred hours, but he wouldn’t trade what he had learned about his son—and Hannah—for anything.

Being a parent was tough, but now, as he tucked his boy under his arm and opened the storybook to read, he loved the way Jason curled against him with his favorite blankie in his fist. And he loved the sound of his sweet voice when he said, “Love you, Daddy.”

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Hannah opened the door and stepped inside the hallway. “Caleb? Jason?” she called, but no one answered. Thinking Caleb might be in Jason’s bedroom to change a diaper, she toed off her practical pumps and padded down the hallway.

All day long she couldn’t stop thinking about them. How were they doing? Should she check in and make sure everything was okay? But she held her ground, knowing that if there had been a real emergency, Caleb would contact her immediately.

But when she peeked into Jason’s room and didn’t find them inside, a sliver of panic sliced through her throat. The house was too quiet, and dim. Almost as if no one lived there at all. What if something had happened after all and Caleb hadn’t been able to get a hold of her? She checked her phone. Silly. No messages.

Still, adrenaline prickled in her fingertips. She retraced her steps, calling their names, announcing her return home. No answer. But as she rounded the corner and entered the living room, her heart melted.

Caleb lay on the brown leather sofa with Jason in his strong arms. Asleep. Most likely worn out given the state of the room. She picked her way through the maze of toys, blocks, and cracker bits until she reached them. Kneeling, she caressed Caleb’s brow and whispered his name.

His eyes snapped open, wary until he recognized her face and smiled. “How was your day?” he asked quietly.

“Probably a lot less crazy than yours.” She tilted her head toward the mess on the carpet. “You manage to get any work done?”

“That would be a negative.” He stroked Jason’s back lightly. “But he was worth it.”

A soft glow filled the air. Dust motes sparkled and glinted in the rays of sunshine that wafted through the floor to ceiling windows. Though the room itself was cluttered and littered with little boy debris, Hannah only had eyes for the beautiful sight of their son nestled contentedly in his father’s arms.

Warmth filled her chest. How many nights had she had dreamed about coming home to this kind of sight? Not just temporarily, but permanently. And as much as her arms ached to hold her son, she didn’t dare break the tender connection Caleb had forged with Jason.

She pressed a light kiss to Jason’s temple. “You stay here. I’ll get changed and take care of this mess.”

“You sure?” Caleb raked his eyes from the top of her mussed ponytail to the small runner cutting along her pantyhose at her toes. “You look like you need a break, too.”

“True.” She huffed a breath and plunked onto her bottom, felt a cracker crunch beneath her seat. “Mayor Bradley was fussed about the grand opening not going off without a hitch because of the fire.”

A muscle jumped in his jaw. “I’ll follow up on the crews. Get them to work double time.”

“No, you can park your big guns. Everything’s moving right on schedule.” Hannah loved the fact that Caleb immediately moved to jump in to fix her problems. But the last time she had let a man be in charge she had given up too much control. “I illustrated all of the progress we’ve made step by step to the mayor and he calmed down. Too bad he asked for a literal tour.”

He shifted Jason in his arms and lifted up on the pillow behind him to take a closer look. “Ouch,” he said. “How are your feet?”

She wiggled her toes. “Glad to be out of heels. That’s for sure.”

“You want a foot rub later?”

A vision of Caleb doing that and so much more danced inside her head. But then the call she had received earlier from his mother pinged a warning shot inside her head. “Maybe later,” she said. “Right now I need to get out of this power suit and throw on something more comfortable.”

She kissed Jason’s forehead and glanced at Caleb through her lashes. Though tired, her libido kicked into high gear. Need thrummed through her veins and ignited every girl part Hannah possessed. Even in a food stained T-shirt and rumpled drawstring jersey pants he exuded all masculine scrumptiousness. With those washboard abs and powerful pecs Caleb was temptingly decadent and all male. But what made him even more deliciously sexy was how adorable he looked while holding their sleeping son.

“What?” He looked down at his shirt, then back into her eyes. “Okay. I confess. I screwed up his diet a little. But lesson learned. I won’t deviate from your plan again.”

“Let me guess. He got you with the ice cream.”

“He’s persistent.”

She smiled. “Or stubborn depending on how you call it.”

“Well, he won the battle, but lost the war.” He kissed the top of Jason’s head. “Poor little guy really can heave a lot of food.”

The chagrin in his voice wove a tendril of affection into Hannah’s physical reaction to him and her breath caught in her throat. He loved Jason. That endeared Caleb to her all the more.

“Awe,” she said. “I should have warned you. But it looks like he survived.”

“He’s a tough kid.”

“Just like his father.”

Caleb caressed her cheek, held her gaze. “And like his mother.”

More tenderness and a sweet longing swirled into the heat pulsing through her body. Caleb could become everything she and Jason deserved. But only if the memories haunting him no longer came between them and drove him away again. He had to find a way to forgive his father and accept that taking over the family’s multi-billion-dollar conglomerate of companies wouldn’t make him become the same emotionally distant man. Caleb didn’t have to become like his father if he stayed on to takeover the family company’s helm.

Worry popped the bubble of happiness floating inside her heart. “Speaking of mothers,” Hannah said. “Yours texted me today about our visit.”

“She wants to cancel?” he asked hopefully.

“No.” The summons she had received from Janet to join her and Steven back at the estate rather than in Asheville on Mother’s Day might blow her day to smithereens. “A slight change of plans.”

“Define slight.”

“Your dad’s been released from the rehab center early,” she said. “We’re going to the estate for brunch.”

“I guess that means dear old Dad’s on the mend,” Caleb said. “He’ll be back to work before the end of May at the rate he’s recuperating.”

“He’s still got a long a way to go,” she said, not wanting him to make plans to leave again. “But the main thing is that he’s getting better. He’s a lucky man.”

Something flickered in his indigo eyes. “I’ll prep a report for him to check over when we see him on Sunday.”

“He might not be into discussing the company.”

“Are you kidding?” He straightened and stirred Jason awake. “That company is the only thing that ever mattered to him.”

Jason rubbed his pudgy fists across his eyes, then reached for her. “Momma, hold me.”

“Sure thing,” she said, then took him from Caleb, snuggling him close. But she wasn’t sure who needed each other more for comfort. Because the edge in Caleb’s tone, and his obstinate refusal to believe that his father might be a different man than the one he had left behind, unsettled her earlier sense of peace.

“Let’s talk about this later tonight,” she suggested and stood. “You clean up here while I change his diaper.” She needed time to plan. Going to the Gibson family estate for brunch on Sunday didn’t have to result in a disastrous encounter.

Maybe, just maybe, if she showed Caleb that his childhood didn’t have to define his future—that people had the ability to change if given a chance—then he might choose to stay and fight for what they all had a right to claim: family, love, and happiness.

Chapter Thirteen

Hannah had hoped to talk with Caleb about Mother’s Day, but he had managed to use work and business as an excuse to avoid the discussion. That wasn’t all he had avoided. He had been distant emotionally in addition to physically ever since she had sprung the news about his father’s release from rehab on Friday night. His distance echoed Brandon’s retreat into the shadows of his messed up brain, and that frightened her.

Caleb had made no promises to leave the military after they’d made love. Now, standing in front of the double mahogany doors at his family’s estate home, she tried to calm her jittery nerves down with a deep breath. So not working. Not one bit. And to be honest, a stab of pain pushed behind her sternum.

He hadn’t remembered her on Mother’s Day this morning. Anything, a small gesture of some kind, would have been appreciated. But nope. He’d been distracted and distant rather than the loving partner she’d yearned for during the months when she had been a single parent. Brandon’s descent into the hell of PTSD had started in a similar fashion. First, he stopped talking, then he went out more often, hitting the bars. Finally, he’d wounded her with his angry words and heated arguments born out of alcohol abuse. All the while, denying the help he needed. The accident that had almost taken Brandon’s life after another horrendous fight followed by an all night booze-a-thon had been her wake up call.

Did she face another one of those calls in her future?

She clutched the bouquet of Gerber daisies she’d insisted they stop to get at the local florist’s shop before heading to the estate. Even that not-so-subtle hint hadn’t clued Caleb into what he’d forgotten. Plus, after getting Kennedy’s text about her fabulous Mother’s Day gifts from Zach, Hannah’s self-esteem took a huge hit. Was she wishing for something that couldn’t become real?

“It’s too bad your parents are in New York City with Michael.” Caleb rang the doorbell with one hand while holding Jason in his other arm. “You miss them?”

“Sure, but the interview on the Daily Show is important,” she said through a tight throat. She’d have liked to hear her mother’s words of advice and have her comforting arms today, but she’d never been the type to complain. She wasn’t about to start now. “They want to support Michael as much as they can—plus Mom loves to shop and catch a show on Broadway whenever they go there.”

The door opened and the family’s housekeeper Nancy welcomed them inside. “Your parents are waiting in the sitting room,” she said. Tall, with long legs and arms that looked like the joints could poke an eye out if given half a chance, Nancy looked down her thin nose as she spoke.

“I see some things haven’t changed,” Caleb muttered as they followed the mousy brown haired woman down the hallway.

“Go easy on her,” she said. “I mean she does suffer from a superiority complex, but that’s because she’s lonely.”

“Who’d take her? She’s as prickly as a cornered porcupine.”

Hannah stifled a giggle. “Your folks keep her on because she’s loyal and has always given them excellent service. Now that your mom has given Nancy extra vacation time and bi-annual bonuses, Nancy can actually be somewhat pleasant to be around.”

“You always find the good in people,” he said, rounding the bend that lead to the main living area of the mansion.

“It’s better than searching for the bad.”

She moved quickly into the room. Steven sat in a wingback chair with a walker parked next to it while Janet had perched across from him on the circa eighteen hundred pale green damask sofa. Her heart sank a little and heaviness filled her limbs. The last time she had come over to the mansion with Jason, Janet and Steven had been relaxed as always and eager to get on the carpet to play with their grandson. They, too, had been unable to contact Caleb while he’d been in deep cover. Wealth only went so far where the military was concerned.

Today the stiff, formal Gibsons had returned in full force. Janet’s perfect hair bob and her pale peach Chanel suit all the way down to her practical, square toed beige pumps didn’t scream let’s-have-some-fun. Nor did Steven’s pressed chinos, pin-striped dress shirt, and tie.

But Jason, wiggling in Caleb’s arms, didn’t seem to register the differences. “Pawpaw,” he squealed, reaching for his grandfather.

He shot her a glance, his brow raised. “Pawpaw?” he asked.

“Grandfather is a mouthful for a little boy,” she whispered while trying to smile through her clenched teeth. “Put him down. Jason wants to go to him.”

Caleb lowered him, and he promptly rushed to his grandfather’s side, then held his arms up. “Hold me,” he demanded, completely oblivious to grandfather’s limp right arm.

“Hold on, little guy,” Janet said, standing. “Let me help you.” She shot Hannah an apologetic look as she lifted Jason and gently placed him in Steven’s lap. “We didn’t have time to get changed after church. Things take...” she paused, gave Steven a reassuring stroke on his shoulder, then continued, “just a little longer than usual. We didn’t want to miss a minute with our boy.”