Small Town SEALs: The Complete Romance Collection

by Vivian Wood

  Dr. Haversham fiddled with the wand and then practically squeaked when he found what he was looking for.

  Ashleigh scrunched up her eyes, trying to see what he had seen as she waited for him to punch some buttons on his machine. Walker grasped at her hand and his gaze -- light green today -- was fixated on the same spot that hers was.

  “Well, well,” Dr Haversham said, drawing a small line on the display to indicate to them where he was looking. “Looks like the Romans are finally starting to make up their number in girls, Walker.”

  He looked down at Ashleigh, wearing an almost goofy grin before looking back at Dr. Haversham. “I’m gonna have a little baby girl?”

  “You sure are, Walker. Congratulations. I’ll just give you two a minute.” Dr. Haversham was out the door just as Walker pressed his lips to hers.

  She felt him smile as he kissed her, tears of joy streaming down her face.

  “So, mama, you have any ideas for a name?” he asked her quietly.

  “I do, actually. I know we’ve talked about this, but I think I’ve come up with something better. I want her name to be Jax, after Jacqueline.”

  His eyebrows shot up, and a look she had never seen in his eyes before shone as he looked at her as if she were the first woman to ever bear child.

  “After my mother?” he whispered.

  “She raised great sons and from what I’ve heard, she was one hell of woman. I can’t think of a better namesake than that.”

  “Jax,” he whispered. “I love it.”

  They kissed, knowing they had a long time together to get used to the name… and their lives together.

  Hard Candy Christmas

  1

  Shelby River most definitely was not pouting.

  Or at least that was what she had kept telling herself during her long, lonely car ride up to Tennessee. Shelby was simply taking some much-needed time to reconnect with herself, not hiding away in the mountains to avoid the River and Roman families.

  Shelby gave a resigned sigh as she parked outside the rustic cabin that was meant to be her private winter retreat, but had started to feel more and more like a safe house the farther away she got from Catahoula Creek.

  Okay, so maybe she hadn’t anticipated spending Christmas alone this year, but she didn’t see what other viable alternative there was for her. Not when the impromptu holiday trip to Cancun that Remy had talked everyone into going on meant Shelby being the only sad, single person amongst all the happy couples.

  “Stupid Walker,” Shelby grumbled to herself as she climbed out of her car. She may have slammed the door shut behind her a little harder than was absolutely necessary.

  Shelby sighed defeatedly again as she walked around to the back of her car and popped the trunk so she could unload it.

  She knew it wasn’t fair for her to be angry at Walker for going and getting himself hitched, but she couldn’t help it. He and Shelby had been the only two people left unattached amongst their two families. Though they had never acted upon anything with each other, somewhere in the back of Shelby’s mind she had always expected that they would eventually end up together one day.

  What she hadn’t counted on was for Walker to go and fall fast and hard in love with another woman. Before Shelby even realized what was happening, it was already too late. Walker was already too far gone.

  Not that I’m not happy for them, Shelby reasoned to herself as she hauled out all her groceries with one hand and her suitcase with the other. She closed the trunk awkwardly with her elbow before turning to make her way toward the cabin.

  It was true; seeing Walker dote over his new bride made Shelby smile, even if she sort of also felt like crying at the same time. She had never held any real claim over the middle Roman brother, but the loss of what could have been—given different circumstances—bummed Shelby out a little.

  Shelby unlocked the double-paned glass front door to the cabin, making sure to stomp her feet to knock off all the snow that clung to her boots before entering. She shivered from the frosty chill of the mountain air that stole in behind her before she could get the door shut again, her southern blood quick to resent the cold.

  But as she turned back around and really got to survey her hideaway for the first time, all her dislike for the climate instantly vanished when she got an eyeful of the breathtaking view of the Smoky Mountains that the large bay windows in the living room boasted. The beautiful scenery had been the main reason she’d chosen to sequester herself all the way out here in Tennessee, after all.

  Well, that, and the fact that her personal idol, Dolly Parton, had a lot to say about how getting away from the rest of the world for a little while had the power to soothe all things.

  Even heartache.

  Shelby dumped her suitcase on the couch before carrying her groceries over to the state-of-the-art kitchen off to the left of the living room, wanting to get them put away first before unpacking the rest of her stuff. Shelby had stopped at the grocery store on the way through Murfreesboro, and she hadn’t denied herself a single thing. Salty, sweet, and everything in between found a place in her shopping cart.

  Though the pickins had been pretty slim by the time she’d gotten there.

  When she had finally reached the limit of her ability to suppress her curiosity about the numerous barren shelves in the store, Shelby had approached an employee to find out what the hell was going on.

  Apparently there was a snowstorm looming in from the west and the townspeople had learned from past experiences to stock up on food goods while they could.

  So Shelby followed suit, buying enough food and other necessities to last her the entire duration of her ten-day-long vacation, and then some. She hadn’t really planned on leaving the cabin much during her stay here, but the impending storm seemed to solidify her solitary fate.

  There was no going back from her solo Christmas adventure now.

  When she was done sorting away the food, Shelby walked back into the living room to grab her suitcase before venturing down the short hallway that lead to the cabin’s one bedroom and its adjoining bathroom.

  The room was small—being barely large enough to accommodate the four-poster king-size bed, matching dresser, and overstuffed armchair that it held.

  But Shelby barely noticed the lack of space, for the floor-to-ceiling windows that dominated the wall opposite the bed made the room feel as vast and endless as the surrounding wilderness.

  She plunked her luggage on the bed; nearly breathless with awe as she bore witness to the most beautiful sunset she could ever recall seeing. For the first time since deciding not to go with everyone to Cancun, Shelby felt her spirits begin to lift, if only a little.

  Shelby’s lips curled into the barest ghost of a smile; maybe this trip hadn’t been completely in vain after all.

  2

  Shelby woke with a start from where she had fallen asleep watching TV on the couch some hours before.

  After she’d unpacked her clothes and put away her toiletries in the bathroom—her eyes lingering on the huge glass walls of the shower and yet another picturesque window—Shelby had quickly shucked her clothes in favor of her favorite oversized LSU sweatshirt and a soft pair of fleece leggings that she had bought specifically for this trip.

  She’d originally wandered out into the living room with the intent of curling up in one of the large armchairs beside the inviting warmth of the stone fireplace, deciding that this was the optimum spot for her to start reading one of the half-dozen trashy romance novels she had brought along with her.

  But after only twenty minutes or so of reading, Shelby had closed the book with a sigh.

  It was no use. Reading about somebody else getting some action—no matter how fictional—was doing nothing to help her forget about Walker. In fact, it seemed to only further worsen her mood, more than anything else.

  So she’d gotten up and padded over to the kitchen for a snack. She debated for a short moment on whether or not she should bake some
of the cookies she’d bought earlier, right before ultimately deciding that just eating the cookie dough raw would suffice for the time being.

  With tube of cookie dough in hand, Shelby had plopped down on the couch and switched on the large TV that was mounted on the wall above the fireplace mantel. The TV was a luxury of sorts in itself, seeing as how Shelby didn’t even have one back home. So she saw no harm in indulging in it now, if only for a little while.

  After flipping through a couple channels, Shelby had eventually settled on a documentary about the wildlife of Maasai Mara. She’d reclined on the couch, content to eat more cookie dough than was advisable in one sitting as she watched lions rip apart gazelles and hippos charge from rivers, frothing at the mouth. It wasn’t exactly Christmasy, but it suited her current mentality quite nicely.

  Now, she groggily groped around on the couch until she found the remote, turning off the TV that she assumed had been the source of the sudden disturbance in her slumber.

  That was, until she heard the loud banging sound that was coming from outside the house.

  Shelby was wide awake now, her senses on high alert as her body instinctively kicked into fight-or-flight mode. She quickly rose from the couch as she stepped over to the hearth and pulled a fire poker from its holder, wielding it like a baseball bat.

  The banging started up again and Shelby spun to face the front door, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. It sounded like someone was trying to break in to the cabin, the door rattling angrily in its frame from the force of each blow.

  I should call the police, Shelby thought suddenly, feeling like an idiot for just standing there waiting for the door to burst open.

  She rushed to the bedroom to find her phone, makeshift weapon still in tow. She scooped the phone up off the bed and frantically dialed nine-one-one…

  Only to curse and throw it back down again when she understood with an impending sense of dread that she had no cell service way out here.

  Not being able to call for help was only part of her problem, Shelby realized as her eyes lit upon the mass of swirling whiteness that she could see through the bedroom windows. Even if she did manage to contact the police, there was no way they’d be able to reach her in time if someone was intent on robbing her, or worse.

  Not with the virtual blizzard that was raging outside, anyway.

  Shelby’s eyes widened as she stood still for a moment longer, completely transfixed by the snow, despite her current intruder predicament.

  In Louisiana, they might get a little snow, but it never stuck. Not like this.

  Now she could fully appreciate the locals’ desperation to gather supplies before the storm hit—going out in this sort of weather, for any reason, would be insane.

  Mentally shaking herself, Shelby’s hands tightened back around the fire poker as a new resolve presented itself to her.

  There was little choice in the matter; she would have to take care of this situation herself, through any means necessary.

  Slipping on her boots where she’d left them by the bedroom door earlier, Shelby slowly crept back down the hall and into the living room once more.

  The banging had stopped, but in its absence, Shelby was left feeling even more unnerved by the resulting silence. All she could hear was the sound of her own heightened breathing, too loud in her ears to be reassuring.

  Shelby gave an involuntary shiver that was completely unrelated to the cold.

  What if she had only imagined the knocking? What if she was only overreacting to some completely innocent sound that had been caused by the storm, just because she was on edge about being out here all alone?

  Shelby felt her spine stiffen defensively. No, she hadn’t imagined it. And the banging had been too purposeful sounding to be made unintentionally by the snowstorm.

  Shelby took a hesitant step toward the door, swallowing dryly before opening her mouth to speak.

  “Is somebody out there?” she called loudly, so as to be heard through the door and over the sound of the wind gusting outside the cabin.

  She cocked her head to the side and listened hard for any sort of response.

  Nothing.

  “If somebody is out there, I’ll have you know that I have a gun and I’m not afraid to use it if I have to!” she shouted after a moment, louder this time.

  It was a lie, of course, but her mystery intruder didn’t need to know that.

  Again, more silence followed.

  Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Shelby eliminated the distance between her and the front door. She took ahold of the doorknob, gripping it so tight that her fingers turned white as she slid back the deadbolt.

  Fire poker at the ready, Shelby cracked the door open so that she could peek outside.

  There was nobody there.

  Releasing the breath that she’d been holding, Shelby let the door fall open a little wider. The wind ripped at her blonde hair, blowing it across her face and into her eyes, making it harder to see than it already was.

  “Hello?” Shelby called, impatiently pushing her hair back as she squinted into the surrounding darkness. There was nothing visible for as far as she could see outside the halo of the cabin’s front security light; just an endless expanse of white snow, so thick and heavy that she couldn’t even distinguish her car from the rest of the landscape.

  “Is anybody there?” she asked hesitantly. She was beginning to feel silly about the entire fiasco. Maybe the sound had been caused by the storm after all.

  Brows drawn in uncertainty, Shelby took a determined step away from the cabin door, wanting to make sure once and for all that no one was really out here…

  And her foot came down on something soft, yet resilient, that most definitely was not snow.

  Shelby instantly reeled back in surprise, the snow quickly swallowing the fire poker as it fell from her grasp, her fingers suddenly gone limp.

  Because there, half protruding from the snow, was what could only be a human arm, its gloved hand still extended toward the cabin door as if trying to reach it.

  But it wasn’t moving.

  Giving a small squeak of alarm, Shelby’s hands flew up to cover her mouth. Her body was trembling, but she couldn’t tell if she was shaking from the cold or from shock at this point.

  Oh my god! Is that a dead body? she thought, her mind going into a different sort of panic.

  What the hell am I supposed to do if it is a dead body? I can’t even call the freakin’ police because of the storm!

  Do I bring it inside? Or should I just leave it out here?

  Giving herself a mental shake to quiet her growing hysteria, Shelby knelt down to pull on the arm. She felt weirdly relieved when it provided some resistance, the snow falling away to reveal the rest of the arm and part of a torso.

  Well, at least it’s not a severed arm, she thought, somewhat detachedly as she began to brush away the rest of the snow. Because that would be an entirely different level of fucked up.

  When she had gotten rid of enough snow to finally see the body’s head, she strained to flip it over so that it was no longer facedown in the snow.

  And gasped in surprise when the body’s owner gave a low groan as it fell on to its back.

  It’s alive! Shelby exclaimed internally, before mentally correcting herself. He’s alive.

  But not for much longer if I don’t get him inside and out of this cold.

  With that threat in mind, Shelby redoubled her efforts to free the man from the snow. Her fingers soon became numb from the cold and she wished she’d had the forethought to put on gloves.

  But then again, she hadn’t really anticipated digging through the snow to uncover a man who’d been buried alive when she’d first come out here anyway.

  “Hello? Can you hear me?” Shelby asked the man as she finished removing a majority of the snow from his body. She placed a hand against his cheek and—to her surprise—his eyes flickered open to meet hers.

  The man blinked at her, dazed.


  “Are you…an angel?” he asked, so softly she could barely hear him over the wind.

  Shelby felt her cheeks heat, despite the cold.

  “No. I’m just staying at this cabin for Christmas.”

  “Oh,” he said, as if finding out that he wasn’t dead was the same as if he’d mistaken the time and gotten to a meeting earlier than he had intended.

  Shelby probably would have laughed at his frank acceptance under different circumstances, but still, she couldn’t hold back the small smile that tugged at her lips.

  They gazed at each other for a second longer, and, strangely enough, Shelby felt a tightness ease in her chest that had been there before she’d even left Catahoula Creek.

  But then the man’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as unconsciousness took him under once more.

  “Shit!” Shelby cursed as she patted his face to get him to open his eyes again, to no avail.

  “Shit,” she said again as she moved to crouch behind his head and grip him tightly under each arm so that she could pull him into the cabin and out of the storm.

  Thank god he passed out so close to the door, Shelby thought gratefully as she struggled to heave him over the threshold. He was almost too heavy for her to move, but she managed to drag him into the cabin and across the living room so that she could lay him on the rug beside the fireplace.

  Shelby quickly went back to shut the front door before more of the outside cold could infiltrate the small cabin. As it was, the snow that had found its way inside while she’d been digging out the stranger on the doorstep was already melting into puddles that led all the way into the living room.

  Shelby ignored the mess as she went back to the fireplace and threw some fresh logs onto the dying fire, quickly stoking it with the spare fire poker that she hadn’t lost in the snow so as to bring the room back to a cozy heat.

  Once finished, Shelby turned back to the man and knelt beside him. His eyes were still closed, which worried her. And when she reached out to test the too-pale skin of his face, it was still ice cold to the touch, despite the roaring heat of the nearby fire.