Hot Combat

“My God, Charlie!” He grabbed her arms wanting to shake her like a rag doll. But he didn’t. “I have a daughter, and you never told me?”

“You were going places. You had a plan, and a family wasn’t part of it. What did you expect me to do? Get an abortion? Give her up for adoption?”

“Hell, no.” He choked on the words and shoved a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe it.” His knees wobbled and his eyes stung.

He turned toward the back door. The little auburn-haired girl-child stood watching them, her features muted by the screen.

That little human with the beautiful red hair, curling around her face was his daughter.

Chapter Three (#ulink_a697b235-003a-557c-9827-503759777ac4)

Charlie walked toward the house. As she reached for the doorknob, her hands shook. Now that Jon knew about his daughter, what would he do? Would he fight for custody? Would he take her away for long periods of time? Would he hate her forever for keeping Lolly from him?

Questions spiraled out of control in Charlie’s mind.

Lolly stood in the doorway, watching the two adults. Had she heard what had passed between them? Did she now know the big man was her father?

Up until Lolly had started school, she hadn’t asked why she didn’t have a father. Her world had revolved around Charlie. She didn’t know enough about having a father to miss it.

Charlie pulled open the screen door, gathered her daughter in her arms and lifted her. “Hey, sweetie. Do you still have that brush?”

Her daughter held up the brush. “Is the big man going to stay?” She shot a glare at Jon. “I don’t like him.”

“Oh, baby, he’s a nice man. How can you say you don’t like him when you don’t know him yet?”

That stubborn frown that reminded Charlie so much of Jon grew deeper. “I don’t want to know him.”

Charlie cringed and shot a glance over her shoulder at the father of her child. Had she been wrong to keep news of his daughter from him? Would he have wanted to be a part of her life from birth?

Jon’s expression was inscrutable. If he was angry, he wasn’t showing it. If Lolly’s words hurt...again, he wasn’t letting on.

Then he smiled. Though the effort appeared forced to Charlie, it had no less of an impact on her. She remembered how he’d smiled and laughed and played with her when he’d been there seven years ago.

She still had a picture they’d taken together. He’d been laughing at something she said when she’d snapped the photo of them together.

Her heart pinched in her chest. No matter how much she might want it, they couldn’t go back in time. What they had was gone. They had to move on with their lives. How Jon would fit into Lolly’s world had yet to be determined, if he chose to see her again. Now that Jon knew about her, Charlie couldn’t keep him from being with her. She just hoped he didn’t break Lolly’s heart like he’d broken Charlie’s all those years ago.

“Lolly, Mr. Caspar is going to be visiting for the next week. I think you’ll like him.” She stared into her daughter’s eyes. “Please, give him a chance.”

Lolly stared over Charlie’s shoulder at the man standing behind her. She didn’t say anything for a few seconds and then nodded. “Okay.” Then she extended the hand with the brush toward Jon. “You can brush my hair.”

A burst of laughter erupted from Charlie. She clapped her hand over her mouth, realizing it sounded more hysterical than filled with humor. Trust her daughter to put the man to the test first thing.

Charlie set her daughter on her feet.

Jon nodded, his face set, his gaze connecting with Lolly’s. “I’d be honored.” He took the brush from her and glanced around.

“You can have a seat in the kitchen,” Charlie said. “I’ll make some coffee. Have you had breakfast? I’m making blueberry waffles.”

She went through the motions of being a good hostess when all she wanted to do was run out of the room screaming, lock herself in her room and cry until she had no more tears left. With a daughter watching her every move, Charlie couldn’t give in to hysterics.

She’d cried more than enough tears over this man. No longer a young woman on the verge of life, she was a mother with responsibilities. Her number one priority was the well-being of her little girl.

Charlie rinsed the bowl in the sink, poured cat food into it and set it aside. Shadow jumped into the window again, startling her. “Cat, you’re going to give me a heart attack,” she muttered. “I’ll be back.”

As she left the kitchen with the cat food, she watched Jon and Lolly.

Jon had taken a seat at the kitchen table and stood Lolly with her back to him between his knees.

Charlie swallowed hard on the lump forming in her throat.

The Navy SEAL, with his broad shoulders and rugged good looks, eased the brush through Lolly’s hair with a gentleness no one would expect from a man conditioned for combat.

Once outside, Charlie stood for a moment on the porch, reminding herself how to breathe. What was happening? She didn’t know which was worse, being threatened by a potential domestic terrorist, or facing the man she’d fallen so deeply in love with all those years ago. Her life couldn’t be more of a mess.

An insistent pressure on her ankles brought her out of her own overwhelming thoughts and back to a hungry cat, purring at her feet.

“Sorry, Shadow. I keep forgetting that I’m not the only one in this world.” She set the bowl on the porch, straightened and was about to turn when she saw movement in the brush near the edge of the tree line behind her house.

Narrowing her eyes, she stared into the shadows. Sometimes deer and coyotes made their way into her backyard. An occasional black bear wandered into town, causing a little excitement among residents. Nothing emerged and nothing stirred. Yet awareness rippled across her skin, raising gooseflesh.

Charlie rubbed her hands over her arms, the chill she felt having nothing to do with the temperature of the mountain air. She retreated behind the screen door where she stood just out of view from an outside observer. A minute passed, then another.

A rabbit hopped out of the shadows and sniffed the air, then bent to nibble on the clover.

Releasing the breath she’d been holding, Charlie turned toward the kitchen. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the rabbit dart across the yard, away from the underbrush of the tree line.

Charlie shook off that creepy feeling and told herself not to be paranoid. Just because someone threatened her on the internet didn’t mean someone would follow through on his threat.

She closed the back door and twisted the dead bolt. It didn’t hurt to be careful. Walking back into the kitchen, she couldn’t help feeling safer with Jon there. He had Lolly’s hair brushed and braided into two matching plaits.

Her daughter leaned against Jon’s knee, showing him her favorite doll.

Jon glanced up, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Oh, yeah. He was angry.

Charlie didn’t doubt in the least he’d have a few choice words for her when Lolly wasn’t in the room. And he had every right to be mad. He’d missed the first six years of his daughter’s life.

Glad she had a bit of respite from a much-deserved verbal flogging, Charlie rescued a waffle from burning, poured batter into the iron and mixed up more in order to make enough for a grown man. Flavorful scents filled the air as the waffles rose.

Milking the excuse of giving her full attention to the production of the waffles, Charlie kept her back to Lolly and Jon. Yes, she was avoiding looking at Jon, afraid he’d see in her gaze that she wasn’t totally over him. Afraid he’d aim that accusing glance at her and she’d feel even worse than she already did about not telling him.

“Here. Let me.” A hand curled around hers and removed the fork from her fingers. “You’re burning the waffles.”

Charlie couldn’t move—couldn’t breathe. Jon stood so close he almost touched her. If she backed even a fraction of a step, her body would press against his.

God, she could smell that all too familiar scent that belonged to Jon, and only Jon—that outdoorsy, fresh mountain scent. She closed her eyes and swayed, bumping her back into his chest.