by Katie Knight
His loss.
Shoulders squared, Maria faced her living room, a full array of cleaning products at her disposal. Time to do some rearranging of her own. Every time she looked around the place these days, all she could see was Trevor. All the things he’d cleaned and tidied. All the organization. All the moving around of her possessions. No more. Maria was determined to take back her own home, if nothing else.
Camille gurgled and giggled from her playpen on the floor. Lying on her tummy, she was doing mini pushups and reaching for the toys nearest her, making Maria prouder every day. Her little wonder.
Her little world.
“Yes, sweet girl. Mommy’s gonna clean the house today.” She set down her plastic caddy of supplies on the coffee table and pulled out a feather duster. “I know this is a rare occurrence, so enjoy the show while you can.”
Her daughter giggled again, eyes locked on the feather duster.
“Okay. Let’s start with these bookshelves over here, shall we?” Maria headed to the opposite side of the room and began reorganizing knickknacks, only to realize that they’d all been carefully arranged by size and color. Trevor’s doing. Damn. “Right. Moving on to the books.”
Those had been shelved alphabetically.
Ugh.
She’d change them around, put them back into the scrambled mess they’d been before he’d arrived on her doorstep that night, but darn if she didn’t like the new system. It worked better.
Everything worked better when he was here….
No. That wasn’t true. Lots of things had been more difficult after Trevor’s arrival. Take the extra laundry for instances. Okay, fine. Maybe not. He’d folded and put away all that laundry, after all. Groceries. Yes, that was a good one. The guy ate his own weight in food each week. Except that he’d shopped for that food himself. Paid for it too, along with all the things she and Camille had needed.
Dammit.
Maria moved on to the cabinets below the entertainment center. Surely, Trevor the Magnificent hadn’t worked his magic down here. Only as she opened each small door, she saw that yeah, he had. Did the man have to be so damned irritatingly helpful?
Frustrated in more ways than one, she sat on the floor and opened the final cabinet door. Inside, she found the baby book she’d bought shortly after Camille had been born. An assortment of cute animated animals smiled back from the pink cover and Maria grinned. She’d intended to keep a journal of her daughter’s first year, but time had gotten away from her, what with work and parenting and trying to maintain a household.
She flipped open the cover and was surprised to find the first page had been filled out. Flipped more pages, and saw more information documented. All in Trevor’s neat handwriting. Tears stung her eyes before she blinked them away. He’d recorded all this stuff about Camille, about her first year of life, all without Maria knowing.
That’s not the work of a man who doesn’t care….
Frowning, she looked up to check on Camille. Her daughter was still slobbering all over her stuffed lion, happy as a little clam. She couldn’t wait until her hair grew longer, turning the same shade of dark blonde as her father’s. Her eyes would be blue, like Trevor’s. The squeezing in Maria’s chest grew stronger.
When she’d started all this, drafted that contract, she’d thought it would be so easy to get pregnant by Trevor Daniels, then leave him behind. Thought it would be a piece of cake to raise a baby on her own. After all, the people on TV and in the movies did it all the time. She had a home, a good job. Now, she had a support system too, thanks to Penelope. But she didn’t have the most important thing of all.
The man she loved by her side.
Maria traced her fingers over the words Trevor had written in the baby book, her tears flowing unbidden now. Yes, she still loved him. Even after he’d kicked her to the curb. Even after he’d walked out on their adorable daughter. Even after he’d rocked her world between the sheets and basically ruined her for other men forever.
She loved Trevor Daniels. Today. Tomorrow. Always.
And even if he never set foot in her house or her life again, her feelings for him wouldn’t change.
News droned from the TV in the background, a reporter outside the naval courthouse on the base. Looked like preparation for Monty’s trial was starting. Good. She still woke up at night sometimes, reliving those awful moments outside that apartment building across town. The sound of bullets firing as she’d run up the stairs, feeling like her feet were mired in quicksand, each step getting her closer, yet she was still so far away. Entering that doorway to see the two MPs down and the heart-stopping dread of thinking Trevor might be injured or worse. The knee-melting relief of finding him unharmed.
Maria had walked out on him that night, after seeing everything was all right. She’d turned the tables. Could she do it again? He’d not called, not stopped by, not had any contact with her or Camille since that night. That’s why she’d been so hopeful about the zoo trip—and so disappointed.
If felt like confirmation of her worst fears. Trevor was gone, and he was never coming back.
And yeah, she tried to put on a brave face for Camille. At such a young age, she doubted their daughter would remember any of this, but babies still responded to the emotional energy of the people around them and Maria wanted to make sure her energy was positive. So, she fibbed a bit and told Camille her daddy loved her and would be back to see her soon.
If God wanted to strike her with a lightning bolt for that, so be it.
No one else would know.
A knock sounded at the door and she quickly swiped the back of her hand across her damp cheeks. Frowning, she got up and walked across the living room to the front door. She wasn’t expecting anyone. Penelope and Mr. Daniels were in Fairfax for the day, doing some shopping. It was Saturday, so her office was closed. It was after five, so too late for solicitors.
“I wonder who this could be, sweet girl,” she said, glancing back over her shoulder to make sure Camille was still secure in her playpen, then yanked open the door, only to stop cold. It was Trevor.
“What are you doing here?”
He was dressed in civilian clothes—jeans, a blue sweater that brought out the color of his eyes—and looked far more delectable than any man had a right to. Maria, on the other hand, looked a mess. She’d dressed for comfort, what with the plan to clean and all, in ratty jeans and an old T-shirt. Her hair was pinned up in a messy bun and there wasn’t a trace of makeup on her face.
In Trevor’s hand was a paper. “Uh, can I come in for a moment?” he asked.
She frowned, not wanting him to think she was pining for him, even though she was. “I’m kind of busy right now.”
“It won’t take long,” he said, shuffling his feet. He looked…nervous. “Please?”
Her heart caved, darn it. “Fine.”
Maria stepped aside reluctantly to allow him into the living room.
“But make it quick. I’ve got other plans tonight,” she lied. Her other plans basically consisted of stuffing her face with chocolate and watching old tearjerker romance movies while sobbing into a box of Kleenex while her broken heart ached. He didn’t need to know that though. He looked remarkably good, darn him. All clean shaven with a new haircut. As he passed by her, she caught a whiff of his clean scent and her knees tingled anew. Stupid knees.
Trevor took a seat on the sofa, the same sofa they’d made love on a few weeks prior.
Those thoughts were not helpful. Not at all.
Maria took a seat on the floor next to Camille’s playpen. Getting too close to the man she loved was dangerous. It made her want to climb him like a tree and kiss him until he promised never to walk out again. But he’d made it clear he didn’t want her, didn’t want their daughter, didn’t want this life.
She had to respect that, just like he’d respected her wishes and her contract the year prior.
“So, uh, Tim actually went over the agreement we signed from before and I had
a couple of questions.”
Whelp. That wasn’t what she’d expected.
34
“What questions?” she asked, on auto-pilot at this point, thank goodness. Because the rest of her was stewing in a nice, uncomfortable brew of oh-my-god mixed with a healthy dose of he-asked-his-brother-about-us, which quickly transitioned to he-must-still-care-at-least-a little. She tamped that last one down fast. No sense hoping for what wouldn’t happen. “I drafted that contract myself. It’s airtight.”
“Sure. Okay.” He scowled down at the paper in his hand, then flipped through a couple of the pages. That’s when she realized that it was the contract. He’d printed it out and brought a copy with him. She could see little marks and notes jotted in ink in the margins. Her insides gave a warm clench at that. He’d been studying it, obviously. But why? Trevor rubbed the back of his neck, his tone hesitant. “There this clause though, toward the end.”
“Clause? What clause?” She snatched the papers from his hand and stared down at the words. Honestly, she’d not read the thing in over a year, not since the day they’d both scrawled their names on the dotted line. But now, as she stared at the paragraph he’d circled in red ink, with an exclamation point off to the side for emphasis, that spark of hope inside her flared to a bright ember. She’d forgotten about this part, maybe because it had seemed impossible at the time. Still, she was nothing if not thorough and professional, so she always gave her client an out to cover all the contingencies, even if that client was herself. Maria looked over at Trevor to see a hint of gray behind his normally tanned cheeks. He really was nervous, though whether it was in a good or bad way, it was too early to tell yet. “Oh, this,” she said, doing her best to keep her tone as neutral as possible. “This would only apply if both parties agreed to the terms.”
Terms which specified that due to mutual love and affection on behalf of both parties involved in the contract, said parties agreed to dissolve the contract and raise their daughter together as a couple.
“You’ve made your position clear on this.” She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat and handed the papers back to him. “No need to worry about that. The rest of the contract stands.”
He took the contract and tossed it aside, his gaze earnest. “What if I’ve changed my mind? What if I want my daughter to grow up knowing her father?”
As if to give her approval to that idea, baby Camille squealed, kicking her legs against the portable playpen, causing it to move before Maria reached out to stop it.
Trevor chuckled and grinned down at his daughter. “You like that idea, baby? Yes, you do! Look at daddy’s little girl. That’s my baby. Yes, you are.”
Maria couldn’t help laughing, despite the way her heart pounded in her chest, threatening to fly right over to Trevor’s capable self just the way Camille had done. Like mother, like daughter. She forced herself to ask the serious questions. “I thought you were going back to your SEAL team. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“It was, yeah.” He reached into the playpen to pick up Camille, holding her against his chest. She immediately giggled and gurgled her approval. “But then the raid happened, and those MPs got shot and Tim said I should think about what kind of courage I want to have, and Markowitz offered me a job and—”
“Hang on.” Maria moved from the floor to take a seat on the opposite end of the sofa, in her usual spot. After weeks of turmoil, things finally felt right again. “Slow down. I can see how that raid might make you reconsider your life choices, but what’s this about Tim?”
He sighed and leaned back against the cushions, Camille resting against him. It was a good look. “At Monty’s arraignment hearing, Tim and I talked out in the hall about my dad and about other stuff. He doesn’t know all the details about what happened with us during the time I stayed here, but he saw a change in me. He said that re-joining my SEAL team would be a courageous move. But he said that staying here and making a life with you and raising my daughter would take bravery and courage too. A different kind of bravery. It took me a while to understand that, but now I do. I’m not going back to the SEALs. I turned in my resignation to my commander earlier today.”
“Wow.” Maria slumped back into the corner of the couch, taking that in a minute. “Okay. So, you’re going to stay in Little Creek then?” He nodded and so did she. “Right. You mentioned a job offer from someone named Markowitz? Would that be Ed Markowitz?”
“Yeah, that’s him. Former SEAL, runs his own security business. You know him?” Trevor gave her a side glance while playing with Camille.
“I do. We’ve worked a couple of the same cases before, like when one of my domestic battery clients needs protection while I dig up evidence on their abuser. Run into him at conferences, too. Good guy.” Camille grinned, and Maria couldn’t help but smile, the ember of hope inside her bursting into fireworks of happiness. Trevor was staying, he’d be around to spend more time with their daughter. And if it wasn’t exactly rainbows and roses where their relationship was concerned, at least it was better than nothing. “So, he asked you to work for him?”
“He did. I start Monday.” Trevor kissed Camille’s forehead and the world seemed to brighten. “Now, all I have to do is figure out my living situation and I’ll be all set.”
“Penelope told me the other day your room’s still available at your parents’ house,” Maria said, reaching over to take her daughter’s tiny hand. “They’d be thrilled to have you home.”
When he didn’t respond right away, she glanced up to find him watching her with a too-perceptive gaze, heat flaring in the depths of his gorgeous blue eyes. “I was kind of hoping for a different sort of arrangement.” She opened her mouth to answer, but he shook his head. “Not me moving in here. Though that’s my goal down the road. I’ve got some making up to do first though. The way I walked out of here was wrong. Granted, I thought I was doing it for the right reasons, to keep you and Camille safe, but it went against every fiber of my being.” He carefully set the baby back in her playpen, propping her up on the pillow, then turned to face Maria, taking her trembling hands in his. “I love you, Maria Blanchard. Always have, always will. And I’d love to be a part of your life, a part of our daughter’s life, for as long as you’ll have me. In whatever capacity you want that to be.”
Tears welled again in her eyes, but this time she didn’t try to hide them or brush them away. Instead, she leaned over and kissed him, soft and sweet. “I love you too, Trevor Daniels. And I’d love you to be in my life, our lives, forever. You can move in here and we’ll take things one day at a time. How does that sound?”
“Perfect.” He laughed and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her over to sit in his lap. Camille giggled from her playpen, kicking her legs and waving her arms as if to cheer them on. “That sounds perfect.”
“And I love you, Trevor.” She kissed him again, then pulled away, resting her forehead against his. “Does this mean you want to invoke that clause in the contract?”
“Hell yes.” He grinned. “Consider our agreement dissolved.”
End of The SEAL’s Baby Arrangement
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About Katie
It isn’t a big surprise Katie Knight ended up writing romances about the stellar, studdly men of the Navy SEALs; after all, she was a K-9 trainer for the SEALs and met her own Navy SEAL hero husband while preparing one of their K-9 partners for combat. A few years after their marriage, her and hubby decided to retire with their K-9 partner, Sam, to raise their children in the Midwest. It wasn’t long after that before Katie decided to write her own stories featuring the men of the SEAL teams and the women who love them.<
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When not imagining dangerously romantic scenarios for her heroes and their feisty heroines, Katie enjoys hikes with her husband and Sam, spending time with her children, and long runs (on and off the beach).
To learn more about Katie you can check out all her books on social media and her website.
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About Leslie
Leslie North is the USA Today Bestselling pen name for a critically-acclaimed author of women's contemporary romance and fiction. The anonymity gives her the perfect opportunity to paint with her full artistic palette, especially in the romance and erotic fantasy genres.
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BLURB
When Navy SEAL Jake Hendrix attends a charity bachelor/bachelorette auction as a favor for a friend, he’s stunned to see his squad mate’s gorgeous sister, Hanna Masterson, walk across the stage. She’s grown even more stunning in the years since he’d met (and very nearly made out with) her at the end of basic training. When Jake overhears other bidders talking about her, his alpha protector instinct kicks in and he decides to bid on her himself. He thinks he’s saving her. What he didn’t expect was how upset she’d be at him.
Hanna has developed a checklist of qualities she wants in a man. Someone reliable, dependable, and family oriented who can provide for her and their children. She doesn’t need the likes of Jake Hendrix—smoking hot as he is—getting in the way of her man hunt. She’d been hoping the auction might pair her with a potential long-term match, but alas she just got her brother’s hot squad mate who has “one night only” written all over him.
