Chapter Forty-Nine
Sloane
After we’d finished our therapy session on my third day at the beach house, I noticed Ashley come downstairs with Millie strapped to her front and a diaper bag on her arm.
Before I had a chance to inquire if she was going somewhere, she announced, “Okay, I’m off to the VA!”
Crash and Stu yelled, “Bye!” but I said, “Wait!”
She turned around with her head tilted.
“Do you need something before I go?”
“You’re taking Millie to the VA?”
“Yeah. She goes to the daycare there while I see my patients.”
“Isn’t she kind of little to be going there?”
“It’s only for three or four hours. I feed her first, then she usually conks out the whole time she’s there.”
“Do you want to leave her here?”
She studied my face, and I could tell she was considering it, but she said, “I need to talk to Travis, first. I don’t think he’d be okay with me leaving her for the residents to babysit.”
“Well, I’m not just any resident. I’m her dad.”
“Right, but you’d need Crash or Stu’s help with her. You couldn’t carry her.” Her voice became gentler when she added, “Not yet, anyway. You’ll get there.”
I was embarrassed because I knew she was right, and my ego hadn’t considered that I couldn’t carry my own six-week daughter. The best I could do was hold her while I sat on the couch supervised like I was a five-year-old.
My face must have given away my thoughts, because she touched my hand and softly said, “Give it time, Sloane.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said brusquely as I turned my walker toward the family room and said over my shoulder, “Drive safely.”
Another fucking thing I couldn’t do.
Around noon the guys announced they were going to attempt to make lunch.
“Just sandwiches and chips,” Crash declared as we headed into the kitchen. “We promised Ash we wouldn’t cook anything and risk burning the house down while she’s out.”
I opened a cupboard to find a shelf full of packages of the beef jerky brand Ashley used to send in her care packages to me. Just as I reached for a bag, Stu exclaimed, “Those are off-limits. Everything on the top two shelves in that cupboard are.”
“Off-limits? Why?”
“They’re for the care packages Ashley sends to soldiers overseas.”
She was still writing to servicemen?
I mean, it made sense. I knew she’d been involved with Military Angels before writing me. I guess I just assumed that she wouldn’t continue after me.
Because I’d been special.
Apparently, I hadn’t been that special.
“Why doesn’t she keep them in her apartment?”
“My guess is that her kitchen isn’t anywhere as large as this one, and she has bottles, formula, and bibs and stuff that she has to put in her cupboards. There’s plenty of space down here,” Crash explained.
“Good grief, there’s a lot of jerky in here. How often does she write him?”
I remembered when she started sending a package a few times a week instead of the monthly one required by Military Angels. Back when we were writing each other daily. Was she writing someone daily now?
Stu shrugged. “I don’t know. I only pay attention when she’s baking something to send and makes extra for us.”
I eyed the packets of dried meat and felt territorial. I was the one who got those thoughtful, colorful care packages. Nobody else should be getting anything from her.
Reaching for a bag, I muttered, “I mean, she won’t mind if we just take one, will she?”
“Don’t be a dick. If you want jerky so badly, there’s some in the pantry. You don’t have to take from her stash.”
But I wanted to take the entire stash. Those should be for me . Never mind that I sent her letters back unopened.
I was grumpy as we ate our lunch and didn’t partake in the spirited discussion between Crash and Stu over the professional football season that had just gotten started.
In spite of my surliness, they were nice and loaded my dishes into the dishwasher when we were through.
“Do you think Dr. Connolly will show up today?” Crash asked as he closed the dishwasher door.
Stu rinsed the rag he’d been using to wipe the counters with.
“Probably not, unless he doesn’t know Ashley’s at the VA.”
That piqued my interest.
“Who’s Dr. Connolly?”
“He’s our orthopedic doctor who comes here once or twice a week.”
“Oh, that’s great. One less appointment to have to arrange transportation for.”
“Yeah, it’s convenient. And he’s a good dude. He seems really committed to improving his patients’ quality of life.”
He sounded like just the guy I needed in my corner.
****
Ashley
I pulled into the beach house to see Jeff’s Porsche parked in the circular drive and muttered, “Oh, shit.”
We were supposed to go to the WWP carnival at the VA tonight, and I’d forgotten to arrange for someone to watch Millie.
I knew Jeff would understand, but I felt bad cancelling last minute. Just because he was a good guy didn’t mean I should take advantage and have bad manners.
Peanut was asleep in her car seat and didn’t wake up when I put her in the baby sling attached to my front. I walked in the house, put the diaper bag on the steps, and went into the PT room off the kitchen to find Jeff and the guys yucking it up about something.
“Aren’t you boys supposed to be working,” I mock chastised with my hand on my hip. “I can’t leave you alone for even one afternoon.”
“We just finished, boss,” Jeff said as he snapped his leather doctor’s bag closed, then turned to Crash. “Make sure you get that x-ray scheduled for next week.”
I made a mental note to ask both Jeff and Crash about that.
Crash mock saluted. “Will do, Doc.”
“Captain Davidson, it was a pleasure meeting you. I’m looking forward to working with you some more.”
“Likewise, Doc. I’ll see you next week.”
Jeff came to where I stood in the doorway, and softly soothed Millie’s hair.
“How’s she doing?”
“She’s a little grumpy. She got a few shots today.”
“Aw, sweet baby girl,” he murmured at the same time Sloane said, “She did?”
“Just two,” I told Sloane. I could tell by his downturned mouth that he didn’t like finding out after the fact.
I hadn’t been trying to keep it from him when we’d spoken earlier. I’d scheduled the appointment last week before he was even back in the picture and hadn’t thought about it until the reminder on my phone went off while I was driving to the hospital.
It wasn’t like I was going to give him a say in the matter, so I don’t know why I felt guilty about not telling him. I guess it was the people-pleaser in me.
“Walk me out?” Jeff asked, and I nodded.
He put his bag in the back seat of the Porsche and closed the door with a smile.
“Are we still on for tonight?”
“I’m so sorry. It completely slipped my mind to ask my mom to watch her. And now she’s fussy, so I’d feel like a jerk asking last minute and leaving my mom with a cranky baby.”
“Bring her along. It’s a family event.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Of course not.”
I glanced up at Jeff’s handsome face. He was such a kind man, and I knew he’d be great husband and father material. I needed to figure out a way to convince my heart that Jeff was who we should be interested in, and not that Marine in the house who’d stomped all over it.
“Okay. What time should I meet you there?”
“You sure you can’t just go now? We could grab a bite to eat first.”
“It’s easier if I drive. Her car seat’s already in my backseat.”
“They’re not that hard to move, you know.”
“I know. But I need to feed her first, then make sure the guys have dinner, then get ready.”
He dropped a kiss on my forehead. “How about we say six-thirty?”
“Six-thirty works.”
With a wink he opened his car door. “See you tonight.”
“See you tonight.”
I willed my stomach to have butterflies at the thought of spending time with him, to no avail.
Walking back inside, I found a scowling Sloane sitting at the kitchen island.
“You’re not taking my daughter on a date.”
****
Sloane
I liked Dr. Connolly. He was a good dude. But I wasn’t sure how I felt about him rubbing my daughter’s head. Or putting his hand on the small of Ashley’s back.
Actually, that wasn’t true. I knew exactly how I felt about it. I didn’t like it. At all.
That’s when I realized that Dr. Connolly must be the doctor Ashley was dating, and I really didn’t like that.
I’m not proud of what I did next. But as they walked out the front door, I shuffled to my room and brought up the camera feed I now had the password for. And I eavesdropped on their conversation.
I snorted as I listened to him tell Ashley to bring Millie along when Ashley had obviously been using that as an excuse why she couldn’t go. Then she agreed and I clenched my jaw so hard I thought my teeth might break.
I knew I had no right to be jealous, but I was. Jealousy was not a familiar emotion for me—especially over a woman. Yet here I was considering being the literal one-legged man in a proverbial ass-kicking contest.
Ryan’s warning about another man snatching Ashley up and becoming Millie’s bonus dad echoed in my head.
He was right. I was a fucking Marine, and I needed to start acting like it. I needed to fight for Ashley and my little girl.
I wasn’t exactly sure how though.
I guess it started with staking my claim.
Spoiler alert: I had no claim to stake. Not yet anyway.