All he could see now was that he loved her as much as he had two years before, maybe even more now that they shared a son. He wanted Carolyn and Austin as his family, not just to visit or watch over from the street. He wanted to live with them and share everything. It would be a matter of convincing her of that. The good-night kiss was a good indication of her feelings, but building a life together wasn’t as easy as just moving in.
He considered the best way to win her back as he drove across town to a buddy’s place for their weekly poker game. Zach stopped to buy chips, salsa, and beer, his contribution to the evening, before heading to his former spotter’s house. He and Nick Kobal went way back, having worked as a team during several missions. Nick retired from the SEALs three years earlier, when his second daughter was born. He now worked for the same security firm Zach did.
Seeing some of his former brothers-in-arms with families had helped him understand Carolyn’s perspective. Many of the guys he’d trained with had retired when they married and had kids. Others got out when injuries slowed them down. They’d prioritized their lives, while Zach had continued until chronic injuries forced him to make a change—and only then because he feared letting down his team while on an operation. The Navy would have reassigned him to a desk job or made him an instructor, but those weren’t positions that interested him.
Getting out of the service was a big change, and now he had to grapple with even bigger changes in his life. Changes that he found himself excited about. A son and a woman he loved. He was still worried about the threats to Carolyn’s store and her insistence on investigating them, though.
He pulled up in front of Nick’s house, realizing how much the shoe was on the other foot. Carolyn broke it off with him because of her fear for him. Now he was concerned about her, the danger she might be facing. Her problems had become his—as they always should have been.
His brother Colin parked behind him and flashed his lights. Being with his brothers again was another reason Zach was happy to be home, even if they were only on leave. They stayed in contact as much as possible, connecting in between missions over the years—but it wasn’t the same as getting to see each other any time they wanted. As Colin stepped from the driver’s side, their younger brother Alex got out of the passenger’s. The three met in the street, taking a few minutes to talk before going inside.
“How’s Austin?” Colin asked.
“He’s great,” Zach replied. A couple of days earlier, both his brothers had gotten the chance to meet Austin at Carolyn’s house.
“Can’t believe you produced such a cute kid,” Alex teased him. “Must all be from Carolyn.”
“She’s a good mom,” Zach said sincerely. She was a good woman and the one he wanted in his life permanently. He’d made that decision once before about her, but he wondered now if he’d really been willing to commit to her. He’d thought other things were more important. Now he could see that nothing was. He just had to play it right with her and Austin.
“You’ll make a good father,” Colin said, realizing Zach’s worry, “even if you’re coming to it a little late.”
“I appreciate that,” Zach replied. “Carolyn’s made it easy for me.”
“You’re still in love with her,” Alex observed with a grin.
Zach kept his face carefully neutral, as if he had four aces in his hand and didn’t want anyone to know. He wasn’t going to let his little brother goad him into admitting what he was just figuring out himself.
“Ignore him.” Colin gave Alex a shove back. “How is Carolyn holding up after the robbery? Is her store open again?”
“Soon, but there’s a problem I might need your help to deal with.” He explained Carolyn’s suspicions to his brothers. Different perspectives might give him some guidance, since he wasn’t sure what lead to follow next after the dead end at the rival jeweler’s.
“Could be nothing,” Alex said when Zach had rundown the incidents.
“Is that what you’d say if it was your girlfriend at risk?” Zach countered. It felt off to him, and he’d learned to trust his gut.
“What’s the IT company say?” Colin prompted.
“Still waiting to hear back on that one.” Information from the tech people might give them a direction.
“Guess you’re stuck waiting then,” Alex concluded.
“Not happy about that, since it puts me in the position of being reactive and not proactive.” Sometimes their missions in special forces were cleanups from someone else’s mess. Those were the nasty ones. Anticipating a problem and eliminating it in advance was much more effective. “I want to keep Carolyn and Austin safe.”
“Still spending your nights over there?” Colin asked.
“Outside in my car,” he confirmed.
“Can’t get an invite in?” Alex goaded him again. His younger brother could be a smart-ass, but there was no one he trusted more than these two guys.
“Haven’t tried.” After tonight’s kiss, he didn’t think it would be long before she let him back into her house as more than a presence in Austin’s life.
“You want one of us to take a night?” Colin offered. “You could do with some real sleep.”
“No, they’re mine to keep safe.”
Identical stubborn looks appeared on his brothers’ faces. None of them had to say it. They’d survived their childhood because of the tight bond between them. Zach and Colin had protected Alex at first. By the time Alex was eight, he was as tough as his brothers and never let them forget it. They’d needed each other to survive their dad’s abuse. Even after the Admiral took them in and life was so much better, they continued to stick together.
“Not how it works,” Colin said.
“I’m okay for now.” And Zach was. He could operate on very little sleep, and his day job wasn’t nearly as demanding as being a SEAL had been.
“The Admiral would have been one hell of a grandpa,” Alex commented suddenly, showing a streak of sentimentality.
“He was a hell of a father,” Colin agreed.
When Admiral Peter Anderson took them in, he had no experience as a father. What he had was years of Navy life. He instilled discipline in the brothers, brought order to their chaotic existence, and taught them that they were worth something. It hadn’t been easy. By the time they were placed with him through a program for at-risk teens, they’d committed misdemeanors, skipped school, and honed their skills at writing off anyone who told them what to do. Through a combination of tough love and a rigid schedule, the Admiral had gotten them back on track. They owed him their lives, and they all knew it.
“Still miss the old cuss,” Alex admitted.
The Admiral had passed away four years earlier.
“We all do,” Colin declared, “but he’d be proud of us.”
“I stopped down at the center,” Zach said, not having to clarify what he meant. The organization that had saved them still existed. They all donated money to it in the hopes that other kids would find someone like the Admiral.
“Yeah?” Alex asked.
“I plan to volunteer my time if I can, maybe mentor some kids. You guys want to join me?”
He got nods from each as headlights cut across them. More of their buddies had arrived for the game, and they went inside Nick’s house. His wife greeted them and pointed toward the basement stairs.
“Good to see you.” Nick came up to them and shook hands. “Food over there. Drinks in the cooler. Let’s play.”
A couple hours later, Zach was the first to toss his cards down. He’d broken even on the night, and that was always a good time to quit. Besides, he needed to get back to Carolyn’s. He’d had one beer early in the night before switching to soda, so he’d be alert enough to keep his watch.
“It’s early,” Nick complained. “Not even midnight.”
“He’s got places to be,” Alex said.
“Something to do with your son?” Nick eyed him.
“In a way,” Zach answered. “I’ll se
e you guys next week.”
Zach returned to Carolyn’s street, taking up his usual position. He’d only been there a few minutes when her front porch light flicked on and the door opened. Carolyn stood in the glow, looking straight toward him. He jumped from the car and jogged to her.
“Something wrong? Is Austin sick?” His imagination conjured up twenty possible problems.
“All’s well,” she assured him, “except you’ve been sleeping in your car for how many nights now?”
“This is six,” he admitted with a shrug. When had she become aware of his nighttime presence on her street?
“When you left earlier, I thought you were headed home for the night. Zach, you can’t keep this up.” She rubbed her hands down her arms in the cool air.
“I want to make sure you and Austin are all right.” It was the simple truth, but it was only part of the reason he wanted to be close to them.
She smiled at him then. “I told myself if you came back tonight, I’d invite you in since I know I can’t talk you out of watching over us. But you can do it more comfortably. I’ve got the spare room made up.”
“If you’re sure you don’t mind, I’d appreciate that.” At her nod, he clicked the button to lock his car before entering her house and dead bolting the door.
“You’re in the room next to Austin,” she said as he followed her up the stairs. They paused outside her room, across from Austin’s, and she surprised him by kissing his cheek. “Thanks for looking out for us. Good night.”
After she left him alone in the hall, Zach peeked in his son’s room, watching the boy’s little chest rise and fall, before going to the guest room. Sleeping in a bed during the night was going to feel good, and being close to his son felt right. The only way his situation could improve was if he were holding Carolyn in her bed. Soon, he decided.
8
“Like nothing happened,” Charlotte said as Carolyn turned in a slow circle, taking in every detail of All That Sparkles.
“Amazing,” Carolyn agreed. After a week of cleanup and repair, the store was set to reopen. Every sign of the incident was gone, and all the surfaces sparkled in keeping with the store’s name. But the closure had taken its toll on her bottom line and her employees. Jenna and Michelle seemed better now, after an initially shaky return to work. She smiled at Jenna, who was preparing a display case. “I wish people could recover so quickly.”
Carolyn had made sure they got counseling right away. Jenna had responded quickly, but Michelle was slower to recover. However long it took, the store would provide the counseling. It wasn’t cheap, and it stretched her finances even thinner than they already were, but it was the right thing to do.
“No ill effects for Austin?” Charlotte asked.
“Nothing. Not even a bad dream.” She’d been amazed at his resiliency, but then he’d had his daddy come into his life at the same time. Maybe the positive event offset the negative one.
“We were lucky,” Charlotte said, giving her sister a half smile. They didn’t need to say that it all could have been a lot worse, although Carolyn knew they weren’t out of the woods yet. A late evening call from her IT company had confirmed that.
“I hope our luck holds. Did you see the ads I placed?” Carolyn had made sure to advertise their reopening, offering some good deals with the hope that customers would come in. She wanted to get back to business as usual despite her worry about the possible saboteur.
“Good choices. My marketing professor would give you an A-plus.” Charlotte had one semester left in her MBA program.
Carolyn laughed. “Thank goodness for that.”
A knock on the front window drew her attention away. Zach waved to her through the glass, his smile disarming her as it always did. She hadn’t minded seeing him across her breakfast table that morning one bit, and Austin had been ecstatic about having his daddy with them.
“You’ve got company,” Charlotte commented. “The good kind.”
“The best,” she said before thinking how much her answer revealed.
Charlotte grinned at her but didn’t ask questions. “I’m going to prep inventory in the safe. Tell Zach I said hi.”
After her sister walked away, Carolyn disabled the alarm and let Zach in. He waited until she rearmed the system before drawing her into a hug. She half waited for his kiss, but with her employees only steps away, she didn’t think he’d repeat anything like the kiss they’d shared the evening before. It had been all she could do not to repeat it herself when she invited him to stay at her house, but she’d been too unsettled to risk it. The kiss unearthed feelings she’d long buried and thought dead. They’d burst back to life like a poppy opening in the June sunshine.
“Thanks for letting me sleep over last night,” he said quietly.
He’d already thanked her, so she just nodded. “Austin was happy to see you.” The boy’s smile had widened when Carolyn carried him into the kitchen where Zach was making coffee. And then her heart had melted as she watched Zach feed their son breakfast. They belonged together, all of them, but she couldn’t trust that the fairy tale of the happy family could come true for her.
No matter how hard she tried, how much effort she put in, her perfect life eluded her. She’d learned that lesson when her father ignored all her efforts to catch his attention. She’d thought if she could be perfect enough, he’d come home and be with the family again. It hadn’t worked. She feared the same might be true with Zach, so she didn’t want to get her hopes up despite how she felt about him.
“You’re doing me a favor,” she reminded him.
“It’s not a favor, Carolyn.” His eyes turned serious. “Can we talk in your office?”
“Sure,” she said and led the way. Her heart skipped a beat with worry. What did he want to say to her?
* * *
“I got a phone call not long ago from a buddy of mine on the police department.” The call had taken Zach by surprise. A former SEAL teammate at last night’s poker game was a police officer in Sheridan Falls and had recognized Carolyn when she went in to the station that morning.
“Oh?” She arched an eyebrow at him.
“We had a deal.” He gestured between them. “You’d let me be your sidekick during the investigation.” He was disappointed that she hadn’t told him about her plans.
“You went with me to Castle Jewels, and I let you spend the night. What more do you want?” She gave him an innocent look, all big brown eyes and dimples. She was beautiful, but he wasn’t going to be deterred.
“I want to know what information you shared with the police this morning,” he said.
She huffed out a sigh. “Fine. Late last night I got an email from my IT company. They found malware in my network, a particularly nasty kind that has to be implanted from the inside. This isn’t a random cyberattack. It’s personal and targeted at my business, which explains the canceled deliveries. I thought it might make the police take me seriously.”
“Did it?” he questioned.
“I got a ‘We’ll have our techs look into it’ response, which is better than nothing, I suppose. I just don’t know what to do now.” She paced in the small office as she spoke. “I can’t sit around and wait for whoever this is to come at me again. I’ve got to figure it out, and the police don’t seem eager to help.”
“Not enough evidence for them.” He understood that. The police had limited resources and couldn’t chase down a suspicion.
“I don’t know what would be.” She sounded exasperated, and he wanted to do something to assuage her worries.
“I know a top-notch tech guy. He’s a forensic computer analyst, some kind of expert in the field. He works with the police and other government agencies as well as in the private sector. I could ask him to—”
She cut him off. “Thanks, but those guys charge a fortune, and I can’t lay out that much money right now.”
“I’ll cover his fee,” Zach said. “Besides, he’ll give me a discount.” The last thing he
wanted was for her to be concerned about money when so much more was at stake.
“No, I can’t let you do that.”
“Carolyn, I want to do this for you.” He’d do anything to bring this problem to a close—for her business’s sake, but, more importantly, because he didn’t want her to be in any danger. He could see from her expression that she was wavering. “Please let me.”
She wavered. “Maybe I could pay you back next month,” she said.
“That’s fine,” he agreed while thinking no way in hell would he take a dime from her. “I’ll give him a call. In the meantime, I think you should focus on the store and let the investigation go. It’s too dangerous for you. My brothers and a few guys we know can pursue it, but you need to keep your distance.”
“No way.” Her eyes sparked fire. “No chance of that. This is my business to run. I can’t let a threat to it go. And I’m capable of fighting my own battles.”
“No one knows better than me how strong-willed you are.” He’d misjudged that in the past and paid dearly for his mistake.
“Then you should know not to suggest it,” she countered.
He was tempted to kiss away her irritated expression—but he knew better, so he changed tactics. “You promised to let me be by your side when you hunt this guy.” He made his tone gentle to unruffle her feathers. “I need to know you’re going to keep that promise, because I can’t let the mother of my child walk into danger. Austin needs you too much.”
“Darn you,” she whispered, her face softening, and he knew he’d said the right words. “Okay, you’re right. I can’t do that to him.”
Zach reached for her, wanting to feel a connection to her. She didn’t resist, resting her head against his shoulder, letting him run his hands down her back to soothe her. He was going to leave it as just a comforting embrace until she tipped her face up to his and he forgot everything but how much he felt for her.
The SEAL’s Surprise Son: The Admiral’s SEALs Book One Page 6
