Military Daddy. Patricia Davids
can afford a classic car like this on a corporal’s salary?”
He laughed. “She wasn’t much to look at when I first found her, but it still took two summers of roofing in the hot Texas sun to pay for her back when I was a teenager. Restoring her has been a kind of hobby of mine ever since. Besides, I live on base so I don’t have many expenses. This car is my one luxury. Annie, is the fact that I’m in the Army part of the reason you don’t want me involved with our baby?”
It was as good a reason as any. “To my mind, guns and babies don’t to go together.”
“There’s a lot more to the Army than guns.”
“I’m sure that’s true, but how many years have you been in?”
“Six.”
“And how many different places have you been stationed in in that time?”
“Including basic training? Four.”
“That’s not exactly a blueprint for maintaining close family ties.”
“No, but it’s not impossible if you’re willing to work at it.” She heard the resignation creeping into his voice, even if he wouldn’t admit as much.
She drove home her point. “Tell me how we could make it work. Should we ship the kid back and forth between us every six months? Aren’t you going to Germany soon?”
“We live in the same place now.”
“But not for long. I might decide I want to move. Who knows where you’ll be stationed after Germany. It’s too complicated. I need to get on with my life and you need to get on with yours. I wish now that I hadn’t told you.”
“No, don’t wish that.”
A sadness to match his settled over her. “You probably wish you had never met me,” she said softly.
He stared at his hands clasped around the top of the steering wheel for a long moment, then looked over and met her gaze. “No, I don’t.”
He started the engine and shifted into Reverse. She gave him her home address, then leaned back into the plush seat. He didn’t speak during the ride and neither did she.
When he pulled up in front of her house, he shut off the engine and turned toward her. “I can’t help thinking that one of the reasons you don’t want me around the baby is because you don’t know me well.”
“I know you well enough.”
“If you’re referring to the night we met, I’ll be the first to admit that we started off all wrong.”
“So?”
He pressed his hand to his chest, his expression earnest and intense. “I’d like to change that. I’d like to get to know you and I’d like you to get to know me. Someday the kid is going to ask about me. I’d like you to be able to tell him something about what I do and what kind of person I am.”
“What are you suggesting? That we start dating?” She didn’t bother to hide her sarcasm.
“That’s an excellent idea. What are you doing Saturday afternoon?”
Chapter Four
“Annie, you seem awfully quiet tonight. Is something bothering you?” Marge diced another carrot and added it to the large kettle of vegetable soup simmering on the back burner of her stove.
At the long pine table nearby, Annie closed the book she wasn’t actually reading. Since she couldn’t come to a decision about what to do by herself, perhaps Marge could help. “When Shane Ross brought me home yesterday…he asked me out.”
“Like—on a date?” The astonished inquiry came from Marge’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Olivia, as she breezed into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge door. With her sleek chin-length dark hair and dark eyes, she and Annie could have passed for sisters.
Marge turned and scowled at her only child. “Get out of the fridge. Supper will be ready in half an hour. And what is so surprising about Annie being asked out on a date?”
Olivia rolled her eyes and took a container of flavored yogurt before she shut the door. “It’s just that she never goes out.”
While it was true, it was embarrassing to have a teenager point out her total lack of a social life.
Annie said, “He didn’t exactly ask me for a date. He asked me to come and watch his unit perform on base Saturday afternoon. It’s some kind of community appreciation day.”
“Oh, oh, is he the one with the horses?” Olivia’s eyes widened with interest.
“Yes, he’s in the mounted color guard. How did you know that?”
“Crystal told me about him. Heather, one of my friends from school, saw them ride last year. She said they were awesome. She’s going with her family. I heard that there’s going to be a carnival and tons of stuff to see and do. I wish we could go. Could we, Mom? Please?”
Marge shook her head. “I’m sorry, sweetie, but I’m working at the clinic on Saturday.”
Olivia’s excited expression turned to disappointment. She plopped into a chair beside Annie. “You’re always working at that clinic.”
“Which is exactly why you have a roof over your head and food in the refrigerator, young lady.”
“It’s not much of a roof. It leaks like a faucet in the corner of my room when it rains.”
Annie nudged the pouting girl with her elbow. “Your mom does important work at the mental-health clinic. If she hadn’t been there for me, I wouldn’t be here today. She saved my life.”
“I know, but I’d really like to see the Army’s horses.”
Leaning forward, Annie winked at the girl. “Plus a few good-looking guys dressed in romantic cavalry uniforms sporting sabers and pistols.”
Olivia’s frown changed to a conspiratory grin shared between the two of them. “That, too.”
After seasoning the pot with salt and pepper, Marge put the lid on and lowered the heat. Wiping her hands on a paper towel, she turned to Annie. “What did you say when Shane invited you?”
“I said I’d think about it.”
“And have you?”
Far more than she cared to admit. With his deep-timbred voice and slow Texas drawl, his bright blue eyes and soft, enchanting smile, Shane was almost all she had thought about these past few days. Her plan to tell him about her pregnancy and then dismiss him from her life wasn’t exactly working out. “I don’t think I should go.”
“Why not?”
Annie shrugged. “I don’t know.”
She didn’t really have a reason, at least not one she wanted to talk about. She didn’t want to go because she suspected that the more she saw of Corporal Ross the harder it would be to ignore his request to be included in her baby’s life—their baby’s life.
“Why don’t you go and take Olivia with you? That way you won’t have to go by yourself. Plus, Olivia won’t have to spend the next two days giving me those deep sighs and pitiful looks that mean I’m the world’s worst mother because I’m not letting her do something she wants.”
Olivia’s face brightened. “Yeah, that would be great! And I don’t think you’re the world’s worst mom.”
“That’s not what you said when I wouldn’t let you get your belly button pierced.”
“Mom, that was weeks ago—and so not fair. Heather got hers pierced.”
“Just because Heather does something doesn’t mean you have to do it, too.”
“She’s