by Katie Knight
“I’m good, thanks. How are you?”
“I’m just peachy,” she said with a smile. She started scanning the items as Hanna continued unloading the rest of them. When the cashier saw the book, she stopped.
“Oh, honey,” she said. “I know you’re never s’posed to ask, but seeing as you’re buyin’ this book and all, are you expectin’?”
Hanna nodded. “I am,” she said. “First doctor’s appointment tomorrow, actually.”
The woman’s eyes lit up. “Well congratulations! How exciting.” Then she started talking about her own children and grandchildren, but Hanna wasn’t really listening.
She had been in a fairly decent mood up until she’d picked up that pregnancy book. But now something just felt off. And she couldn’t put her finger on it.
Aside from Jake and the receptionist at her doctor’s office, the cashier was the first person she’d shared the news with. She felt like she should have been more excited to talk about it. But it somehow felt flat.
Hanna paid and thanked the lady, then pondered it some more as she walked to her car. Was it because Jake wasn’t there to experience all these moments with her?
It seemed silly, considering they weren’t together, but she had never really thought about doing everything alone. Reading the books, going to appointments… Jake wasn’t going to be around for any of that. And it wasn’t even because he was away for work. It was because he didn’t want to be.
Hanna realized that’s what stung the most. It wasn’t that he had somewhere better to be. It was that he didn’t want to be involved.
When she’d ditched her checklist, she’d realized she could handle having a husband who was away once in a while. She was okay with that. She was a strong, independent woman who didn’t need a codependent relationship to feel fulfilled.
But that didn’t matter because that wasn’t why she and Jake weren’t together.
Jake wasn’t with her because he didn’t want to be.
And it really was that simple.
By the time Hanna got home from the store, she was ready for a big bowl of ice cream. She put away all the groceries minus the toffee vanilla swirl and scooped a hearty serving into a cereal bowl.
Then she put on her coziest pair of pajamas—the pair that neither Jake nor any other man would ever see her in—and settled on the couch with What to Expect When You’re Expecting.
Unfortunately, what should have been a relaxing evening became more depressing by the minute. She was skimming the chapters, and at every mention of “your partner,” her heart sank.
She felt naïve for not thinking about it sooner, but then she reminded herself that so much had happened over the past month that she never even had time to consider what doing this alone meant.
Now, though, it was becoming clearer by the minute. She was going to be a single mother.
She finally gave up on the book and tossed it on the coffee table. She tried to enjoy the rest of her ice cream, but even the toffee goodness wasn’t enough to revive her spirits.
Hanna got up and dumped the rest of the ice cream in the sink. Then she rinsed the bowl and put it into the dishwasher.
What a pathetic evening. If the rest of her pregnancy was going to be like this, she wasn’t sure how she was going to cope.
Tomorrow would be a good test, she realized. If she could get through one OB-GYN appointment on her own, she could get through a dozen more.
She reminded herself Tyler was coming home soon, too. He would certainly be home before she started showing, and he probably wouldn’t deploy again until after the birth.
As Hanna got ready for bed, she tried to focus on such happy thoughts.
She couldn’t help but wonder how she was going to feel in a month, though. Or three months. Or six months. With every day that passed, she was becoming closer and closer to being a single mother.
She only hoped she was strong enough to handle it.
Twenty-Nine
Hanna had been to this doctor before, but only for her well woman exams. And considering the reason for the visit, it felt like a totally different office. Even the parking lot looked different. She pulled into a space near the back of the lot—ever since getting home from the safe house, she’d made it a point to get in exercise wherever she could—and grabbed her purse.
She started walking toward the office when she heard a man’s voice calling her name.
“Hanna!”
She turned in the direction of the shouting and saw a gray Subaru parked a few spaces over. Her heart leapt in her throat when she saw Jake getting out. He locked the door and jogged over.
“Hanna,” he said. “I need to talk to you.”
She looked at her watch. “I’m literally about to go in for an appointment,” she said.
“I know. Tyler said you had an ultrasound today.”
Hanna crossed her arms. “Un-fucking-believable.”
“He didn’t tell me to come,” Jake said quickly. “I came because I wanted to.”
“You want to go in with me?”
He nodded. “But can we talk for a minute first?”
Part of Hanna felt like she shouldn’t even give him the time of day, but another part—a much larger part—wanted to hear what he had to say.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I was wrong.”
That was just about the last thing she’d ever expected to hear Jake say. “What?”
“I was wrong about everything. About how we couldn’t be together as long as I’m a SEAL and how you were just a distraction and how we would never work. I was wrong about it all.”
Hanna’s eyes started welling up. Over the past week, she’d started tearing up at practically every little thing, but now she genuinely had a reason to cry, and she knew it wasn’t going be pretty.
“What are you saying?” she asked, just to be sure she had heard him right. After all, she had taken another stab at reading What to Expect When You’re Expecting and had realized that pregnancy affected literally everything. So why wouldn’t it affect her hearing, too?
“I’m saying I want to be with you,” Jake said. Hanna felt a tear roll down her cheek, but he reached up and brushed it away with his thumb. It was such a small gesture, but it was so sweet and real and intimate. And it further weakened her resolve. “I’m saying I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he continued. “I thought I was distracted when you were in my life, but that was nothing compared to how distracted I am with you out of it.”
“So now you’re saying this is what you want?” she asked. “You want me and the baby?”
“I’ve never wanted anything more in my life,” he said. “I want to make this work. You, me, and our baby. I want to be a little family.”
Hanna wanted to cave. It would have been so easy to let him envelop her in his arms, but she hadn’t forgotten the way he’d rejected her. Over and over and over. And the most recent rejection, when he had refused to give her a ride home, had been the last straw.
“You can’t just waltz back into my life because you’re having a hard time focusing,” she said. “It’s not that simple.”
“I know. I don’t expect you let me in right away.”
“Why should I even let you in at all? How do I know you’re not just going to abandon me again? Like you already have so many times?” She shook her head, tears of anger now streaming down her face. “Even if I wanted to give in and be with you, I have a baby to think about now. Which means if you abandon me again, you would also be abandoning my baby.”
“Our baby,” Jake said, panic etched across his face. “It’s our baby.”
“No,” Hanna said. “I made my peace with doing this alone. It’s my baby. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m going to be a single mother.”
She turned and started walking toward the doctor’s office.
“Wait!” Jake called. “Hanna, just give me one more minute.”
She stopped. She knew in that m
oment if she didn’t listen to what he had to say, she might regret it for the rest of her life. And what would be worse? Giving Jake one chance too many? Or living her whole life wondering if she had given him one chance too few?
She turned around but didn’t walk back over to him. So he jogged over to her and pulled something out of his pocket.
“I’m not going to abandon you again,” he said. “And I can prove it.”
“How?”
He held up the piece of paper that had been in his pocket.
“I made my own checklist,” he said. Then he cleared his throat and read off it. “Jake’s list for a perfect partner. She’s fiery and fierce. She doesn’t give up easily on anything—or anyone. She’s a problem solver. She helps people not only because it’s her job but because it’s her calling. She’s gorgeous and sexy and has a cute little heart tattoo on her thigh. She loves toffee vanilla swirl ice cream and that thing I do with my tongue…” He paused and looked up from the list to wink at her. Then he continued. “She’s carrying my baby. And she’s going to be my wife.”
Wife? Hanna gasped. Was this really happening? Was Jake about to…
As if on cue, he got down on one knee and pulled something else from his pocket. He opened it and held it out to her.
“Hanna Masterson,” he said. “Will you marry me?”
Hanna was practically bawling now, but they weren’t tears of anger anymore. She was so utterly happy.
“Are you sure?” she asked in barely more than a whisper. “Is this really what you want?”
Jake pulled the ring out and held it up to her. “Like I said, I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.”
Hanna was so overwhelmed with emotion that she couldn’t speak. Biting her lip, she nodded eagerly, and he slipped the ring on her finger. It was a gorgeous solitaire stone, and it was a perfect fit.
Just like Jake.
He stood up and pulled her in for a kiss. It had been far too long since she kissed him last, and Hanna reveled in the moment. They eventually had to stop, though. After all, she still had an appointment to get to.
“Do you want to come in with me?” she asked. “It’s our baby’s first ultrasound.”
Now it was Jake’s turn to nod eagerly. “Of course,” he said. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
When the doctor called Hanna and Jake into the office, Jake was surprised to find that he felt nervous. He was always calm, cool, and collected, and yet this situation was almost more than he could handle. He felt like he was going to burst with happiness at any moment.
He helped Hanna onto the exam chair, and the doctor explained what they hoped to see that day. Then she lifted Hanna’s shirt, squirted a dollop of gel on her belly—Hanna was convinced she wasn’t showing yet, but Jake could swear he saw just the slightest hint of a bump—and started rubbing it around with the wand.
“Okay,” the doctor said, “if you’ll look at this screen, we should be able to see your baby in a minute.” She moved the wand around for a minute, then held it still and pointed in the corner of the screen.
“And here’s baby,” she said.
Jake was floored. He hadn’t expected to see much—or to feel much—during that first appointment. To his surprise, he was flooded with emotion at the sight of their baby—something he and Hanna had created together—on the screen. He reached for her hand and squeezed it. When he felt the diamond ring he had just given her, he gazed down at her and grinned. She smiled up at him.
“So do you think it’s a girl or a boy?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Jake said, pretending to squint at the screen. “It’s too early to tell.”
“Well, what are you hoping for?”
He turned and looked at her in admiration. “I wouldn’t mind having a little Hanna running around.”
The doctor handed them a few still shots that she had captured and printed, and then excused herself to give them a minute.
Hanna sighed contentedly. “Can you believe it?” she asked, nodding toward the screen.
Jake followed her gaze and shook his head. “I honestly can’t,” he said. Then he turned back to Hanna. “I want you to know I meant everything I said in the parking lot, though. I can’t wait to marry you, Hanna. And start our life together.”
Hanna smiled up at him. “I can’t wait, either.”
Thirty
One Year Later
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Hanna asked as she rocked the car seat that was on the floor beside her gently back and forth.
The tattoo artist looked up at her and laughed. “It’s a little late for backing out now.”
Jake nodded. “I’m sure.”
He was leaning forward in the chair with his shirt off, so the artist had access to his shoulder. The design had already been stenciled on his skin, and now it was just a matter of filling it in. While the artist prepared the needles, Hanna and Jake chatted.
“It’s just that it’s so permanent,” she teased. “If you do this, you’re stuck with us forever.”
“Oh, so the wedding is just a formality?” he teased back. “That doesn’t unite us until death do we part or anything?”
“Ooh!” Hanna clapped her hands together. “Speaking of the wedding, I found the perfect dress for Claire.”
“Really?” Jake asked. “They make fancy dresses that small?”
Hanna nodded.
“And what about your dress?”
“That’s still a no-go.”
“You’re still not ready to try anything on?”
“Nope.”
Jake shook his head, but he was smiling. “You’re adorable,” he said.
Hanna had given birth a few months ago, and she was still incredibly self-conscious about her body, but Jake found her more beautiful than ever. He would marry her tomorrow if he could, but he wanted her to have her dream wedding, and he knew that meant wearing a dress she felt good in.
Even though he thought she looked good in everything—and best of all in nothing but a smile.
“It would be nice to get married before Tyler leaves again, you know,” Jake said.
Hanna sighed. “I know. He’s due to head out again soon, I’m sure.”
Jake hated seeing how upset Hanna got when she thought about Tyler leaving again, and he was glad he’d been able to modify his assignment a bit to be more involved in training and less in active situations. He’d just happened to be in the right place at the right time—and he happened to know a few of the right people—and it meant he would be home a lot more and deployed a lot less. And once he finished out his contract, he was seriously considering getting out for good.
When they first started talking about him eventually retiring from the Navy, it was because he was willing to do whatever it took to make Hanna happy. With Claire in the picture too, though, he actually wanted to get out. He loved his little family more than anything. And he never wanted to leave them.
“All righty,” the artist said, holding up a needle. “Are you ready?”
“Yup. Let me have it.”
“You sure?” he joked. “I’ve seen bigger men than you go down.”
Jake laughed. “I think I’ll be okay.”
Jake had entered the shop with one bird on his shoulder, but when they left a few hours later, there were three.
One for him, one for Hanna, and one for Claire.
He had always thought starting a family would drag him down. It wasn’t until he actually did it that he realized they soared alongside him and lifted him higher. And that’s exactly what the tattoo meant to him.
It was an indelible reminder of the love he had for Hanna and Claire.
For his family.
End of Coming to Her Rescue
Do you love hot Navy SEALs? Please keep reading for preview from my next book, Her SEAL Rescuer and The SEAL’s Contract Baby.
Thank You
Thank you for choosing my book.
If you’re keen to read m
ore heart-pumping, fast-paced romances by me, than please help me, by leaving an honest review.
Want sexy military men straight to your inbox?
Then sign up to my mailing list at:
www.leslienorthbooks.com/katie-knight
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.
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: http://leslienorthbooks.com/katie-knight
You can find her hanging out on:
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.
Find your next Leslie North book visit LeslieNorthBooks.com or choose:
PS: Want sneak peeks, giveaways, ARC offers, fun extras and plenty of pictures of bad boys? Join my Facebook group, Leslie’s Lovelies!
