The Hot Sergeant (Second Chance Military Romance) (Hargrave Brothers - Book #2)

by Alexa Davis

  “What did we end up telling the police?” he asked my dad.

  “Nothing, we weren’t sure we had anything to tell at that point. Lanie thinks we should just go back to business as usual. But, Bill, I don’t think it’s good for either of us if you stay on at Drake Construction.” Bill nodded in agreement.

  “What about the fire?” I asked. “We can’t exactly go about business as usual there.”

  “That’s your call, baby-doll.” My mother raised her hands palm up, like a set of scales. “We can’t tell you what is just for you or for Miss Slinky-dog.” Hearing her name, she jumped up on Mom until she commanded her to sit, and rubbed her down.

  George rubbed his hands down my arms, and I looked Bill in the eyes, then down at his bandaged hands, burnt when he ran into a burning building to save my little girl. When he did that, it no longer mattered how the fire started. Not to me, anyway.

  “If the police figure it out and arrest you on their own, then I will make a statement that includes your selfless action to save Slinky. If they never find you, then I guess the matter is done. I think Dad owes us all enough for the damage he’s caused that fixing the buildings on his own dime is fair. I’m sorry you’re out a job at this difficult juncture, Bill. I can’t afford to pay you much, but you’re always welcome to work at the Pup Hut until you get something better.”

  “I think he already has something better.” George interjected. “What do you think Tom? Can you handle Bill being my lead foreman? I’d make you a partner, Bill, but I offered that to Logan last night, so I’d have to talk to him first.”

  Bill slowly sat down in the chair behind him. He shook his head and sniffed, and I realized that behind all the shaggy hair hanging down, he was crying. I slipped George’s bandana out of his back pocket and held it under Bill’s face so he could see it.

  Silently, he took the proffered cloth and wiped his face. He cleared his throat and sniffed again, then lifted his face and shook his hair back.

  “I don’t think I’m ready to be a partner yet, but I’d be happy to work for a Hargrave or two. In fact, around here, they say the only thing that’s close to the way the Hargrave’s treat their guys, is if you can get on at Drake Construction. I guess I’m in the perfect position to find out if that’s true.”

  “I’ll work you harder,” George cautioned.

  “I suspect you aren’t kidding,” Bill chuckled. “After what I did, what I put you through, you would still give me work?”

  “Not so long ago, I would’ve thrown you to the wolves,” George admitted. “But, I’m only here today because of the people who didn’t give up on me, namely Callie and Tom. So, if I’m still allowed to stay on the island, and Tom is still on the island, then who are we to not give you a second chance?”

  He leaned heavily on his cane as he made his way to the fridge and pulled out a beer. “But, if you want to work for Hargrave Builds,” he continued in a booming voice that made me grin, “you best be asking Nell’s forgiveness first. Because the scare your boys gave her nearly put that poor woman in her grave.”

  “Don’t expect her to forgive you,” I blurted. “All he’s asking is that you try.

  “I can try.” Bill rubbed the back of his neck. “I came here, drunk as hell, expecting to be arrested. Maybe shot – I didn’t know if you carry like your pa.” He glanced in my direction as he spoke. “I didn’t think it was possible to come back from my stupid, childish mess. I certainly didn’t think I’d walk out of here with even one friend in the world.” My mother crossed the room and knelt in front of him.

  “You always had me, Bill. You always will. I loved Cathy, and I promised her I’d watch out for you. I failed her, and it won’t happen again.”

  “Yeah, and we have to get past this someday because I sure as hell won’t stand by and watch you throw your life into a whiskey bottle again,” my father spoke up. “So, you best be forgiving me sometime.”

  “I forgive you, Tom. If it had been Cathy, I would’ve killed you. But, I figure I cost you just about what Bridgette cost me to take care of her while she was running around on me with you. As far as I can tell, we’re pretty much square.”

  I squeezed George’s hand. My amazing, self-doubting George, who was so afraid to let anyone down he could barely find the strength to start anything, but without hesitation or second thought stepped up to put out fires for people who probably didn’t deserve it. Bill didn’t deserve to be saved. But, that was the point George had been making, I figured. It was easy to save someone who hadn’t caused their own troubles. Not so easy to give someone a second chance when probability that they’d blow it was high.

  My parents excused themselves and headed out, no doubt to continue the argument that seemed to always brew at the back of their conversations. Bill hugged George and me, and George walked him to his truck. I didn’t know what they talked about, but he was earnest and held Bill’s keys until I saw Bill nod his head in agreement to whatever is was he was saying.

  I turned out some of the lights, put the dogs out, and sat facing the backyard so I could watch the sunset through the glass doors while they played and ran around. My home wasn’t frightening at all as I sat in the low light of dusk, watching the sun disappear over the tops of the trees. I felt silly for having thought I was in danger here. I heard the front door creak open and then shut again and the deadbolt shot to with a loud click.

  It was hard to imagine being scared with a big, strong man checking the doors and the locks on the windows. My romantic evening had been shot, I had a knot in my stomach when I thought of my parents that suggested they might not be able to make it work after all, and my husband-to-be had just hired the only drunk arsonist we knew to help him get his first business off the ground.

  I took a pull from my beer and held out another bottle to George as he sat beside me. Snuggled up to his side, I couldn’t help but believe that everything was going to be all right.

  29. George

  I couldn’t tell if it was elation or just the stress let-down, but after making sure Bill was okay to drive himself home, and waving goodbye to my future in-laws, all I could think of was to carry Callie to bed and pass out with her warming my side. I wanted to feel better about how my last days with Drake Construction had worked out, but my I had a bad feeling swimming around on the edge of my thoughts.

  I’d never seen Callie’s mom angry, let alone physical with anyone. I’d just asked their daughter to marry me, and now our biggest concern was whether the bride’s family would be willing to sit together for the wedding. I pretended I didn’t feel like it was a bad omen and let her curl up next to me on the love seat. She handed me a beer that I took gratefully and downed in one breath. We watched the dogs play outside until Xavi tired of Slinky’s antics and came to the door, whining and scratching at the post.

  “And that’s why I put in the dog run,” Callie griped, jumping up to open the door. Even the pups seemed to feel the after-effects of our group therapy session, and with one last nip at Xavi’s heel, Slinky trotted over to her kennel, turned in a circle on herself, and with a huff, went to sleep. Xavi waited for the jerky treat he knew I had hidden in my fist. I commanded him to come and sit and held the dried meat under his nose until he gently lipped it into his mouth. While he munched, I locked the back door and closed the drapes, shutting us away from the world outside.

  Callie had disappeared into the bedroom, and I heard the shower start. More than half tempted to join her, instead I got out her laptop and started it up so I could email Jackson the business name that had come to me earlier and get him started on a website.

  When I opened Chrome to sign into my email, Callie’s was already open. My eyes roved over the list as I moved the mouse toward the option to sign out, and saw a message from S.Abbott and clicked on it, despite the clanging warning bells in my head.

  It wasn’t a new message, but it had been marked as priority so it was still at the top of her list. I scanned the brief message with an ear tu
ned to the sound of the shower. I felt guilty as hell for spying, but that guilt was quickly burned away, replaced by a white-hot rage at what my brothers’ ex-girlfriend had said to my girl. Heart pounding, I closed out her account and signed into my own, but the description of the encounters we’d never had were so graphic, I had to mentally double check that I’d never been with her, despite Callie being the only woman I’d ever made love to. No wonder Callie had wondered, she had no idea how hard her shoes were to fill.

  Callie appeared in the doorway as I was surfing for venues other than the family ranch to get married in. Her wet hair was slick and dripping against her skin, and the frayed, much-loved towel barely covered her, leaving the tops of her breasts and all that leg at the mercy of my eyes, and as she approached the bed, my hands.

  She giggled as I groped at her, teasing her until her towel fell off. She looked at the wadded-up cloth on the floor and back at me.

  “It isn’t safe for me to pick that up, is it?” she mused. I shook my head, and she nodded in agreement and sighed as I grinned. Her body was not the first thing that had attracted me to her; we’d been too young for those thoughts when I first realized there was no one like her. However, there was no shape on earth that I loved more than the curve of her full breasts planning down to her gently curved abdomen, almost flat but for the feminine softness that kept her slim figure from being too boyish. I used my palms to trace that curve down to her hips and over them, holding her while I looked up the length of her, into her eyes.

  “Where would you like to get married?” I asked before I placed a kiss just below her belly button. She took a quick breath, but I didn’t tease her any further. I looked up at her and smiled. “And, are you open to eloping?”

  “Can we do that?” she gasped. “I mean, after tonight, I thought about it, but…”

  “I think you can always elope. I’m not the firstborn and my parents have already had a wedding.” I paused for a moment. “Your parents would be pissed. But, I don’t know how to have a wedding with them in it, so I don’t know if I care as much that they attend.” Callie sighed.

  “I don’t disagree, but they’re my parents. Besides, I don’t know that it’s fair to punish my mother because she married a selfish asshat. After all, she loves us.”

  “I guess so. I just wanted to have a moment of untarnished happiness and now I feel like there will be a cloud over the day no matter what we do.”

  “Oh, George, I’m so grateful that you care about it, but I have a feeling that neither of us will notice if my dad is a jerk, or if my mother decides to boycott because he’s there. When the time comes, it will be just you and me, with a little background noise from the peanut gallery.”

  “Well, the question still stands: where would you like to get married?”

  “How about, tomorrow we look in earnest and pick the place that will cost my father the most. Paying for the venue is his job, after all.” I stared at her.

  “Good God, you’re diabolical. I love it.” I pulled her between my knees. Her legs were still damp enough that I felt it seep through my cargo pants. “Let’s get you dry and warmed up. Your skin is like ice.”

  “After how hot today was, I wasn’t complaining. But, I’d like to be dry before I get into bed.” I leaned over and picked up her towel. She put it behind her head, and with a flick of the wrist, wrapped it around her head like a turban.

  She grinned at me and picked up the laptop to move it off her side of the bed, and glanced down at the gallery I had open, of a local event venue. “You were really looking.” She smiled, and it was shy and sweet, as her cheeks and the skin of her chest pinked up. “Get out of your clothes. Let’s look together, in bed.”

  That was all the direction I needed. I held the blanket back for her as she slid naked between the sheets and quickly stripped down to boxers before climbing in next to her. We looked at venues, then somehow started looking at flowers, then on to photographers. By the time we finally gave our sticky, burning eyes a rest and turned off the computer, Cal’s hair had dried and the towel was in a damp pile next to the bed. Xavi had given up on us and gone to his kennel, and I was torn between the siren’s call of my pillow, and the perfect set of breasts I was staring at, as Callie set her alarm and turned out the light.

  “Whatcha thinking?” she whispered in my ear as she laid her head on my chest.

  “Today was difficult. I’m deciding if we’re past it far enough for me to ravage your body.”

  “I think tonight, you’ll be forgiven for just holding me.” She slid her hand down my body and slid her fingers into my boxers, cupping me gently. “We’ll hold each other.” She snickered in the dark, and I chuckled. “You go right ahead. We’ll see how that works out for you.” Already my body was responding to her, and my increasing erection didn’t care that we’d been wrung out by trouble that wasn’t our fault and wasn’t supposed to be our problem.

  I rolled on my side, so I was pressed into the warm, soft skin of her backside. She wiggled up against me and pulled my arm around her so my hand was over her breast. I tucked my hand tight around the luscious globe and tucked my fingers under, between her and the mattress. I moved with the rhythm of her rubbing against me, and I was so hard, I slid between her legs, sliding between the folds of her wet core, rubbing over her until I heard her breathing change.

  “Please, inside, George, don’t tease,” she panted as I stroked between her legs. She reached down between her legs to change the angle and slid me in. The sensation came intensely and fast enough to make me gasp when she sheathed me deep inside her. We rocked together, neither of us on top or bottom, equal and balanced in our rhythm. I held on tight and moved gently, slowly drawing out of her and then back in, the feeling building in me as powerfully as if I were pounding into her.

  “God, Cal, I can’t hold on.” She whimpered and moaned.

  “Just go. Oh God, I’m…” Her voice broke and I felt her muscles clamp down hard around me as she moaned into her pillow. She pushed me over the edge with her orgasm, and I pushed all the way in and held her against me as I throbbed and spasmed inside her. She shuddered and sank into the bed, sighing her pleasure.

  “I think now I can go to sleep. Maybe today wasn’t so bad, after all,” I whispered to her as she chuckled and pulled the light blanket up over us both. I drifted off with one arm still under her head, still wrapped around her body, amazed that after all this time, she was still the only one for me.

  30. Callie

  I left a note for George before I left for work in the morning, under the key I was giving him so he had the freedom to come and go as he wished. I knew it wouldn’t occur to him to just move in, so I made it as easy for him to come and go as he pleased. I let him know that I’d be at the shelter all day, working with two new soldiers who had qualified for service animals, and asked him to join me.

  Now that he wasn’t preoccupied with my father’s company, we could go back to focusing on the final step in his training with Xavier and make certain he understood what a hero we saw him to be. I hadn’t had the chance to tell him that legislators were looking for him to be the face of TAWSAD, and I wanted him to feel encouraged, not afraid.

  I finally managed to be the first one into work and started by cleaning out the small pet cages. I chatted up the hamsters and “cat snakes,” the lithe, friendly ferrets who we’d rescued and were fostering for adoption, fed the betas and the feeder fish that we sold with aquariums, and mucked out and scrubbed down the reptile cages, which was everyone’s least favorite job.

  Personally, I loved all my furry, feathered, and scaly friends. I was as happy as a mom on Christmas morning every time I saw that light appear in a person’s eyes, that that realization that an animal was the perfect friend to have. Which, I thought to myself as I looked down at my buzzing phone, was probably why my best friend in the whole world aside from George was Shaylen, and my social life the private animal sanctuary she ran.

  I picked up the call and she t
old me to let her in the back door, then hung up without a goodbye. I jogged to the back of the storage area and let her in the deliveries door, where she was standing with her arms full of literature for the shelter, training treats for the TAWSAD dogs, and most importantly, breakfast and coffee.

  “How did you know I would be here?” I laughed as she shuffled past me, set the greasy bag of Chick-fil-A down on a pallet for me to carry, and headed up toward my office.

  “Well, I drove by on my way to get breakfast for myself, and saw your office light on and your car parked around the side. I know you were pretty shaken by that fire at your dad’s job site, so I figured I’d keep you company until your employees arrived.” She set the drink carrier of coffee down on the desk and dumped the rest on the extra chair in the room.

  “Actually, I am glad to see you this morning, but you don’t have to worry about me; things are going much better since George and I got back from the ranch. In fact, my parents and Dad’s foreman, and, of course, the two of us, got together last night, and I think we resolved a lot.” I bit through a hot, flaky biscuit into the thick chunk of juicy fried chicken inside. “Of course, George would like to elope, but that has nothing to do with me being scared and everything to do with my parents.”

  “Oh, honey. Everyone likes their own parents best. He’ll get over it and enjoy himself on the big day. I mean, be honest. You love Hannah Hargrave, but even when you’re married, you’re not going to call her instead of your own mom, will you?” I sipped some coffee and nodded.

  I wanted to tell Shaylen about my family, to bitch to her about my dad and the termite-riddled foundation of our family behind the perfect façade, but there just didn’t seem to be a good reason to air our dirty laundry, even to someone I loved like her.

  “I’m just glad I have you to help plan the wedding. George doesn’t want it on the ranch, which, honestly, was the only place I’d ever thought of getting married, so I get to rethink the whole Lago Colina wedding, thing.” Shaylen laughed and choked on a bite of her breakfast.