Colonel Daddy

He shrugged but she caught a glint of remembered pain shining briefly in his eyes. Then he closed the door and walked around the hood to climb in beside her. As he fired the engine and pulled away from the curb, Kate watched him, her mind racing.

Three years, she thought. Three years she’d known him and yet she really knew so little. Swallowing back the sadness welling inside her, she asked quietly, “Your father?”

“Died when I was a kid.” Tom kept his eyes on the road, “Angie raised me. What about you?”

Kate’s hands smoothed the fall of her dress across her knees and watched the ripple of material as she said, “I never knew my father. My mother died when I was fifteen.”

“So we’re both orphans.”

She shot a look at him from beneath lowered lashes. “Yes. I guess we are.”

Another long moment of silence stretched out between them until finally, when they stopped at a red light, Tom spoke. Gently he asked, “Do you realize how little we know about each other?”

“Strange, isn’t it?” Strange and sad and lonely. She’d loved him from the moment she laid eyes on him. She could map every inch of his body from memory. She’d held him inside her, found magic in his touch and was now sheltering his child within her and she didn’t even know his middle name.

“What is your middle name?” she asked abruptly, determined to start mining him for information.

He stared at her, brow furrowed in confusion. “My middle name?”

“It’s a place to start, don’t you think?” She crossed her legs, black silk stockings swishing. She linked her shaking hands around her knee.

Someone behind them honked, and Tom turned his head forward and stepped on the gas.

“Yeah, all right.” He nodded and moved into the left lane. The fingers of his left hand tapped nervously against the steering wheel. “Nice night.”

She stared at him as he steered the truck into a well-lit parking lot. When he didn’t say anything else, she commented, “You’re stalling.”

“Hmm? Why would I be stalling?”

“You don’t want to tell me your middle name.”

“That’s ridiculous.” He snorted a laugh as he pulled into a parking slot, set the brake and killed the engine.

“I think so.”

He winced. “You haven’t heard it yet.”

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Was he embarrassed? Another piece of information to add to the paltry store of things she knew about the man she loved.

Kate locked her fingers together tighter to keep from reaching out to touch him. In the dim, muted glow of the overhead lights, his face was shadowed but she still read the stubborn reluctance on his features.

“Okay,” she said softly, “now I have to hear it.”

One corner of his mouth tilted up, and that dimple of his creased his cheek. Kate’s stomach slipped and she forced air into her lungs in an effort to quiet it.

“This is top secret, Major,” he warned, giving her a mock glare.

“Sir!” she snapped, and freed one hand long enough to give him a sharp salute.

“I’m serious,” he said. “Only a handful of people know what I’m about to tell you.

“I’m honored.”

“I’m embarrassed.”

“I noticed.”

“Fine.” Frowning, he leaned in close and muttered, “Salvatore.”

Kate pulled back and looked at him. “You’re kidding.”

“Would I make that up?”

No, she supposed not. Aloud, she tried it out. “Thomas Salvatore Candello. Hmm.”

“It gets worse.”

Her eyes widened. “There’s more?”

“Thomas Salvatore Giovanni Candello.”

“Wow.”

He nodded sagely. “Now you understand the reason for secrecy.”

Actually her hormones were making her just sappy enough to find his full name sort of...romantic. But instead of saying so, she told him, “Your secret’s safe, Colonel.”

“It had better be, Major,” he said with another warning look. “Now it’s my turn. Give.”

“Give?”

“The middle name, Major. Let’s have it.” He crooked one finger at her.

“It’s not nearly as...interesting as yours.”

“Undoubtedly,” he admitted. “Still. Fair’s fair.”

“It’s Marie,” she said. “Katherine Marie.”

He looked at her for the space of several heartbeats, then smiled softly. “It’s beautiful.”

Something inside her trembled.

“You’re beautiful,” he added, and leaned toward her again. “Lord, I’ve missed you, Kate.”

“Thomas...,” she said on a sigh and wasn’t sure if she’d meant it as an invitation or a warning. His eyes flashed and in their depths she read his hunger. His desire. She recognized it effortlessly because she was sure the same emotions were glittering in her own eyes. It happened every time he got within three feet of her.

But this wasn’t supposed to happen tonight. Their first real chance to talk since she’d arrived in California, heaven knew they had plenty to talk about. All afternoon she’d reminded herself that this was a night for conversation—not for picking up where they left off in Japan.