Small Town SEALs: The Complete Romance Collection

by Vivian Wood

  “Just a few more minutes,” she mumbled as she curled herself into a fetal position under the covers.

  Sawyer smiled. She must be exhausted. He would take care of the kids this morning, and let her sleep in.

  Sawyer quietly got out of bed and padded into the kids’ bedroom. Shiloh was still asleep in his room, but Harper was awake in hers, standing in her crib. She wasn’t crying or fussing, just waiting patiently, in her sweet way, for someone to come get her.

  Her big eyes widened happily when she saw Sawyer appear in the doorway. She smiled broadly and lifted up her arms in an invitation to be picked up. Sawyer picked her up and hugged her tight, inhaling the fragrance of her baby head and admiring how much she looked like his beautiful Remy.

  “You look like your pretty mama. Yes, you do! Did you know that? Did you?” he cooed to Harper out in the hallway, keeping his voice low so as not to wake Shiloh.

  She rewarded him with a gap-toothed baby smile, then buried her head in his shoulder.

  For a minute, he stood in front of a mirror, looking at his reflection and letting Harper get to know hers. The pediatrician had recommended this, and once he tried it, Sawyer was hooked. He liked doing this; every few days, he could spot some change in Harper, some small growth or new skill learned. He liked seeing her delight as she reached out to touch his reflection or her own, or how she giggled if he’d tickle her fat, baby feet.

  When he’d had his fill of baby mirror time, Sawyer carried Harper into the kitchen and popped her into her high chair. He handed her a toy to play with, started the coffeemaker, and began to heat her bottle, all while she gurgled happily at him.

  The phone rang, startling him so that he almost dropped the bottle he was carrying.

  Sawyer grimaced. It had to be family, at this hour. Damn. He’d hoped to at least have a chance to get a cup of coffee before having to deal with reality. He thought wistfully of Remy in her peach satin nightgown. If he was being honest, he’d been hoping for a little more than coffee...sleep wasn’t the only thing parents of young kids missed in their lives.

  The phone kept ringing. Sawyer gave in to reality, propped Harper on his hip and picked up the phone with his free hand.

  “Hello?” he asked in a gravelly, early morning voice.

  “Hey Sawyer, baby!”

  It was Marilee, calling way too early, but at least, Sawyer noted, she sounded better than yesterday. Not a very high bar, but still.

  Sawyer gulped down a bit of coffee, then said, “Hey, mama. I’m just heating up Harper’s bottle so Remy can sleep in. How are you feeling?”

  “That’s sweet of you. That’s the kind of thing that makes a marriage work,” Marilee replied, “and I’m feeling a lot better! How are the babies doing?”

  “Shy is still sleeping, but Harper’s up and at it. Happy as always. You know how she is in the mornings,” Sawyer responded.

  “She’s a sweetie pie,” Marilee said, and continued, “Listen, Arlo is awake today and talking.”

  “That’s great news. Really great,” Sawyer said.

  He didn’t sound as enthusiastic as he felt, but he figured Marilee knew it was because it was early and not from a lack of actual feeling.

  “Yeah,” Marilee answered, “and he wants to talk to you three. He’s got something on his mind. He says it’s important. Can you come today, maybe around noon?”

  “Sure, I’ll come,” he agreed.

  It was hardly even 7:30. He would have plenty of time to get the baby fed, Shiloh up and dressed, and maybe even get to enjoy a cup of coffee in bed with his wife. Maybe something more...

  Harper began to stir restlessly in his arms. He tried to quiet her with the bottle, but she was having none of it. He’d have to get off the phone soon.

  “Any idea what this is about?” Sawyer asked.

  “No, baby. You know how Arlo is, he didn’t tell me much. He just told me to make sure you all come, and when I asked by, he said ‘Because.’ That’s all the answer I got out of him.”

  That figured. Even a heart attack couldn’t kick the stubborn out of his father.

  “Harper’s beginning to fuss, so I gotta go. Uh, but wait, do you know what he wants to talk about?”

  “You go take care of Harper now. Love you.” Marilee responded.

  “Love you too,” Sawyer said, and then he hung up. “And I’m getting to you, Miss Fussy,” he said to Harper.

  Sawyer pulled the bottle from the warmer, settled Harper on the rug in front of the tv, put on a cartoon program she liked, and gave her the bottle. She had recently, and very proudly, learned to hold her own bottle - even if she spilled half of what was in it. At first, Sawyer had been reluctant to cede control of the bottle, thinking she must be too young, but Remy had explained that different babies became independent at different times.

  “Harper is stubborn and she wants to do things on her own,” Remy had gently chided Sawyer, adding, “So I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree on that one.”

  “Yeah, but from which tree?” Sawyer had fired back, causing Remy to cackle and choke on the iced tea she’d been sipping.

  Sawyer smiled at the memory. He never expected to find so much joy in discussing stuff like bottle feeding schedules, or in watching his wife spew tea across the table, for that matter. He never expected to willingly, happily sacrifice sleep just to get a chance to hug his children the minute they woke up.

  Sawyer knew plenty of guys who only looked as far as the next notch on their belt and viewed domestic life the same way they’d view a scorpion. He’d run across that overly-macho type all the time in the military. Hell, he used to be that type, before he’d fallen in love with Remy.

  Years ago, Sawyer had a friend, Greg, whose baby was born premature. Greg had described how the baby rarely slept and was fussy all the time, so he and his wife often stayed up through the night to be with her.

  “That must be awful,” Sawyer had said, trying to be sympathetic.

  “To be honest, I kind of love it. I’m exhausted, but I get to spend just hours with the baby, watching her sleep or holding her. It’s like an addiction, man. If she wasn’t a preemie, I don’t know that I’d get to spend so much time with her,” Greg had responded.

  Sawyer had not understood that at the time, but when he and Remy had Harper, he came to know exactly what Greg had meant. Having a family was chaos and stress, but it was also all those incredible, small, sweet moments of love, bonding, and care. The moments were even sweeter with young kids because they grew so quickly. If you blinked, you’d miss them.

  Yeah, his life had changed a lot since he’d come back to this small town. At one point, he wouldn’t have even considered moving back here. A quiet, boring life with one woman? Yeah, right. Sawyer was happiest flying from country to country, adding endless notches to his bedpost in between SEAL missions.

  He knew now that this was real happiness. Remy and the kids had changed everything.

  That was the nice thing about life, Sawyer reflected. It was always changing. Even, he admitted, glancing at Harper, when you wished to god you could slow it down, or pause it for just a second.

  Just then Shiloh came charging into the living room, charged up from a night of rest and whatever crazy dinner the babysitter had fed him last night. He slammed into Sawyer’s legs for a hug, and began telling his dad about all the stuff he’d done yesterday while they were at the hospital.

  No chance of hitting a pause button, Sawyer thought, but after yesterday, he intended to make the most of every minute.

  He bent down and kissed Harper and Shiloh on the head, then pulled up a recipe for blueberry chocolate chip pancakes on his phone. He had time enough this morning to make breakfast in bed for his beautiful wife.

  4

  Walker headed down the hall of the hospital toward Arlo’s room, clutching a cup of bitter liquid from the hospital cafeteria that claimed to be coffee. After yesterday, he could use plenty of extra energy, but still, he grimaced every time h
e took a sip. He hoped Arlo wasn’t eating any food from that cafeteria. One meal from there might finish what the heart attack started.

  Down the hall, he could see his brothers huddled outside Arlo’s hospital room. Colt and Sawyer were talking animatedly, oblivious to the hospital staff whirling around them. Walker walked up and clapped them on the back, being careful not to spill his drink. It was shit coffee, but he’d paid six dollars for it.

  “Hey guys. Do either of you know what this is about?” he asked them.

  Colt and Sawyer shook their heads.

  “No, I just got a call from Marilee this morning that he wanted to talk to all of us. She didn’t say any more than that,” Sawyer said.

  “Yeah, she just said he had something serious to tell us all,” Colt affirmed.

  Walker shrugged. With Arlo, there was no telling. He played his cards pretty close to his chest.This could be about anything, but at least they were all equally clueless.

  “Okay, should we go in?” he asked, gesturing toward the hospital room.

  “We’re waiting for the nurse. She is doing something in there, changing an IV or something. She told us to wait out here for a minute,” Colt explained.

  “How’s the coffee?” Sawyer asked. “I was thinking about getting some myself.”

  “It’s fucking disgusting,” Walker said with a wry chuckle.

  A pretty brunette nurse emerged from the room and laughed sharply, having caught the last bit of their conversation.

  “If you think the coffee is bad, try the sandwiches. I think they’re made by the same catering company that does the meals at the jail downtown. Anyway, I’m done here so you boys can go in now,” she said.

  The nurse’s gaze lingered appreciatively on Walker for a moment before looked back down at her clipboard. Colt chuckled as she walked off to the nurse’s station and nudged his brother in the ribs.

  “Did you see how she was looking at you? Like she could about eat you up!”

  “Oh, shut up, Colt” Walker said irritably as he pushed the door open. He really wasn’t in the mood for his brother’s joking right now.

  Marilee was sitting in a chair that she’d pulled up close to Arlo’s bed, which was covered in a blue plush blanket. She greeted the boys cheerfully, but it was plain to see she’d hardly slept that night. She had deep bags under her eyes, and fatigue lines were etched around her mouth and forehead. Someone must have brought her a change of clothes, though, because she was no longer wearing her mismatched shoes from yesterday and had on a fresh, unwrinkled t-shirt.

  Marilee greeted the boys and chatted for a few minutes.

  “Um, mom, did you stay here last night?” Walker asked her.

  “Well, yes, I just sort of dozed off in a chair in here, and then I popped out to get some dinner and picked up a few things for Arlo,” she said, pointing to the blanket on his bed and the pillows that, upon close inspection, were much nicer than normal hospital pillows.

  “Anyway,” she continued, “by the time I got back, I figured I might as well stay,” she said, fussing with the sheets on Arlo’s bed.

  “Gets damn cold in here, so that blanket came in handy,” Arlo added. “They even tried to tell her she couldn’t bring those pillows in. Said they weren’t sanitary. I told them ‘I’ve just had a damn heart attack. A few pillows aren’t gonna kill me.’ ”

  Walker chuckled. Same old Arlo.

  Arlo was mostly quiet while Marilee and the boys chatted. After a while, he nudged Marilee, who popped out of her chair and headed for the door.

  “Well, now that you’re all here, I’m gonna go grab something from the cafeteria. That coffee looks pretty good.” she said.

  “It’s actually terrible,” Walker said.

  “Glad to hear it, dear,” Marilee said absent-mindedly as she edged out of the room. Colt rolled his eyes at her.

  Arlo looked frail and tired - more so than Walker had ever seen. In fact, he’d never seen his father looking anything but healthy and completely in control. He’d seen Arlo doing heavy work his whole life, and it startled him to see Arlo looking so vulnerable, so...human.

  Walker glanced at his brothers. From their faces, he could tell they were thinking the same thing he was.

  When Arlo spoke, however, his voice was as loud and assertive as ever.

  “You boys want to know why I asked you to come here, I’m sure.”

  They all nodded.

  “Well, have a seat, then. I don’t want to talk with you all towering over me.”

  They all found seats in the room. Sawyer chose the one Marilee had just vacated, sitting close to Arlo.

  “The truth,” Arlo continued, “is that this heart attack has made me think about my life. Almost dying will do that for you.”

  He looked each of them in the eye for a few long seconds before continuing.

  “I’ve always had the best intentions for you boys - but you know what they say about good intentions, right? They pave the road to hell.”

  “What I wanted was for you all to become independent, have your own lives and families and be happy. You all did. I’m proud of you boys. I really am. But there have been times when I’ve treated you wrong. Times when I’ve been wrong, no matter what my intentions were. I regret those times. I regret the hard feelings it caused. I’m sorry it took a damn heart attack to make me say it. I guess I’m a proud man.”

  Arlo’s eyes were shining with unshed tears. He paused and wiped them. The boys all averted theirs from this unfamiliar scene, looking at each other instead. They’d never seen Arlo cry like this.

  Walker wondered if the heart attack had flipped some switch on in Arlo’s brain. Maybe the one close to empathy. Weird as it was, he was kind of touched.

  Arlo cleared his throat and continued.

  “I had it before, what you all have right now, you know? I was crazy in love with your mother. She loved me back. We really had something good. It’s not the kind of thing that just comes around all the time. But I screwed up. I ran around, and she wouldn’t take me back. There are some hurts that, once you cause them, you can’t undo. I never thought about that, though, when I was younger. I just thought about what I wanted. I was headstrong, and I was proud, and I really didn’t appreciate what I had until I’d lost it. Maybe I didn’t appreciate it fully until yesterday.”

  Arlo stared them down.

  “There’s no point in me making all these mistakes if you don’t learn from them. So I want you all to promise me you won’t do what I did. Don’t waste the good love those women are giving you. Don’t fool around on them. You’re all big, strong men - but there’s more to it than just being tough outside. Sometimes it’s tough just to be the kind of man that does it right. Always remember that you have something special, and you have to treat it that way, too. Promise me that?”

  Colt, Sawyer, and Walker looked into Arlo’s eyes and promised. Sawyer patted him awkwardly on the arm. Colt and Walker came up and kissed him on the cheek. Arlo smiled weakly in return.

  “That’s all I had to say. I’m tired now. I want to sleep. You all go on home to your families, okay?”

  The boys nodded and left the room, unsure how to process what they’d just heard. They hadn’t known what the meeting would be about, but they certainly hadn’t imagined Arlo would cry and list his life’s regrets, or give them relationship advice.

  Walker sped past the nurse’s station, obviously trying to avoid the flirty nurse, and over to the elevators. The others followed. They rode down in silence, but when they got to the lobby, Colt laughed out loud.

  “I never thought I’d see the day when the old bastard would cry and tell us to be good to our women,” he said. “He’s just full of surprises, ain’t he?”

  Walker and Sawyer laughed too. There was no denying it had been an unexpected conversation, and also, perhaps the most emotionally honest one they’d ever had with their father.

  “He’s right, though,” Walker said, “and it was kind of nice to hear him ap
ologize, wasn’t it?”

  Colt smiled at his brothers. “It actually was nice.”

  “It’s funny,” Sawyer said, as they walked down the corridor to the elevator. “I woke up this morning thinking how damn lucky I am to have Remy and Harper and Shiloh. I mean, I felt great. And I was thinking about his heart attack, how it sort of made my blessings so clear to me. I guess he felt the same.”

  “We’re lucky men,” Walker agreed, patting his brothers on the back as they walked out of the hospital lobby and into the bright, midday sunshine.

  5

  It was a beautiful day for a picnic.

  After months of grueling physical rehab, studiously nursed along by Marilee and the rest of the family, Arlo had slowly regained his health. Recently, Dr. Stenersen had declared him “out of the woods.”

  “Not many of my patients get so much support from their families,” she had said to Arlo as she walked him out of the appointment, glancing at the Romans who filled her waiting room.

  “They’re nicer to a sonofabitch like me than I deserve,” Arlo had grumbled, although it was obvious from his smile that he was actually quite touched the doctor had praised his family.

  To celebrate, the family had decided to gather at the park in the town square.

  They couldn’t have picked a better day. The midday sun was high and bright in the sky, blocked occasionally by floating cumulus clouds. A cool breeze carried the scent of springtime flowers and freshly-mowed grass. Large oaks with branches that leaned all the way down to the ground provided welcome shade, as well as a chance for the bigger kids to show off their tree climbing prowess.

  Sawyer carried Harper in his arms as he walked up to where the family was gathered. Remy lagged behind, holding hands with Shiloh, who stopped every few seconds to examine some intriguing insect of plant on the ground. They were the last to arrive. Getting two kids out of the house was work, and then Remy had taken her sweet time getting ready, too.

  Not that Sawyer was complaining. She had ditched her at-home clothes today, and was wearing a low-cut, red cotton dress that hugged her hourglass figure in all the right places. She’d also put on a new perfume.