Ice

by Chelsea Camaron

  I took them with a shaky hand then cut through the cord that was a visible lifeline from my daughter to the woman I loved. Now, instead of only depending on Belle for her life, she would be depending on me, too. I was ready for that, ready to give my little girl everything she would ever need.

  The nurse took our baby from the doctor and laid her on Belle’s chest while the doctor finished up down below.

  “What’s her name?” the nurse asked.

  “Willow,” Belle murmured happily, beyond exhausted, though obviously thrilled.

  We both stared at the tiny bundle on her chest. I didn’t know how Belle felt, but I felt like I was floating in a hallucination. I was praying with everything I had that no one was going to pinch me and tell me it was all a dream.

  I found out quickly a pinch was not needed.

  Belle turned her head and looked at me with a huge smile. “I love you more than you’ll ever know, Bobby … but you’re never coming near me again.”

  I probably should not have laughed at the threat, but I was so fucking happy I couldn’t care less that Belle had threatened my manhood seven ways from Sunday. After she recovered, I knew I would be able to convince her differently.

  Until then, I was more than happy to count all the blessings I had. All three of them.

  Chapter

  5

  The hospital door to our room silently slid open, and then a thin form hidden under a ball cap and baggy clothes slipped silently into the room. It was obvious the person was not a nurse or doctor, and I worried that whoever it was had walked into the wrong room. Belle was sleeping, and little Willow was resting in my arms. I didn’t want anyone to disturb my girls from their much needed rest.

  I started to open my mouth to ask the person if they were lost when a dainty, pale hand reached up and whipped off the hat to reveal red hair that tumbled down past her shoulders, mischievous blue eyes twinkling from a smiling face.

  Teagan Willow Roberts. The woman my daughter was named after and a complete pain in my ass. She was loyal to my woman, though, and loved my son unconditionally. Maybe one day I would get the prickly Marine over whatever problems she had with me.

  I shook my head in surprise as one side of my lips kicked up in a small smile. “Last I heard, you were deployed. Want to tell me how you managed to get here from half a world away?”

  This was not the first time Teagan had popped up when she was supposed to be somewhere else. Because of that, I was beginning to get suspicious of what she actually did in the military. No simple MP got to move around the way she did. I had worked in Special Forces long enough to know the military would not let her come and go in such a manner if she was a regular Marine like the rest of them.

  If I didn’t know any better, I would say Teagan was a spy or some sort of military Special Forces. Last time I checked, however, women were still not allowed in any Special Forces regiment. That didn’t mean the US Military hadn’t branched out to start including females in a top clearance capacity. Maybe it was time to put some feelers out to see if that consensus had changed behind the scenes while the general public didn’t know yet.

  Watching Belle’s best friend, I waited for an answer.

  She simply shrugged. “Seth managed to get a message to me. Because Belle took my last name when she went into hiding, I was able to convince my Commanding Officer she was my sister. You’d be amazed what pulling some favors and a little sweet talking can get you, including a seventy-two hour holiday to go see your sister who is having a baby.”

  Now, why didn’t I believe that explanation? Perhaps because it was a crock of shit. However, if Teagan was as deep into military subterfuge as I was starting to believe she was, there was no way I was going to learn the truth from her.

  Looking around the room, Teagan asked “Where’s Seth?”

  “Jenkins took him home to get some rest.”

  Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “Jenkins?”

  I nodded, trying to hide my annoyance, but I obviously didn’t do a good enough job, because Teagan smirked at me.

  Then she walked over to the side of my fiancée’s bed and smoothed the hair out of Belle’s face. With that loving caress, it was easy to see the bond that had been forged between the women when they were children still thrived just as strongly today.

  “How are they doing?” Teagan murmured.

  “They’re doing great. Your goddaughter here decided she didn’t want to wait for her due date, so she somehow poked a hole in her amniotic sac. Belle woke up and noticed she was leaking. Luckily, I got here in time for the birth. For a while there, I was worried I wouldn’t.”

  “It had to be hell on you.”

  Confused, I asked, “The delivery? Well, there was this one moment where Belle went a little crazy, and the nurse asked me if we needed an exorcist …”

  Teagan snorted and rolled her eyes. “No, dummy. I meant being worried about missing your daughter’s birth when you had already missed your son’s. That must have been hard on you, Bobby. I’m glad you made it in time.”

  Was Teagan Roberts being genuinely nice to me?

  That couldn’t be. The woman had made it as clear as day from the moment I had reconnected with Belle in Texas that she hated my guts. She also had gone out of her way to insult me every chance she got.

  So … if Teagan was being nice to me … then that meant…

  I got up out of my chair, keeping the tiny bundle of my daughter secured in my arms as I stalked over to the window and looked out, inspecting the city and sky.

  “What are you doing, Baker?” Teagan huffed.

  “Looking for the end of the world. If you’re being nice to me, it has to mean we’re all about to go up in a poof of smoke. What is it? An asteroid? Nuclear warhead? Aliens?” I finally looked back at the woman standing on the other side of the room to find her glaring at me.

  “You jackass.”

  “There’s the Teagan we all know and love. Nice to have you back,” I mocked halfheartedly.

  She looked up to the ceiling as if she was praying for patience. “Of all the men in the world, my best friend had to choose you.”

  Nodding my head, I agreed. “She chose me.” Then I braced for it: the barb, the insult. The woman always had some shit to sling my way.

  “I’m glad,” was her soft reply.

  I didn’t know what to do with this nice version of Teagan. It was throwing me off my game.

  Instead of commenting on her weird behavior, I walked over and placed Willow into her arms. “Meet your namesake, Roberts.”

  Teagan’s face turned to one of abject horror. “You didn’t name her Teagan, did you? My God, people will call her T2 if they find out she’s named after me!”

  I snorted a laugh. “We named her Willow, you nut job.”

  Teagan beamed down at the tiny girl sleeping in her arms. “She looks just like Belle. Thank God. If I had to hear her moan and groan one more time about Seth being a mini-you, I was going to sew her lips shut.”

  “Yeah, Belle finally has a mini-me.” Going quiet, I watched my woman’s best friend stare lovingly at my daughter.

  Teagan was an enigma. I might never figure her out. However, now that I was getting a good look at her face, I started to worry. Back in Texas, I had noted signs of weariness, indications that she might be working herself into the ground. She didn’t look any better now.

  Was it just her job that had her looking so worn or was there more to it? Had Riley been right when he mentioned that he thought Declan got to Teagan almost as much as Teagan got to Declan? It was time to ask a few questions.

  “So, what are your plans for your seventy-two hour holiday?”

  Rocking from side to side while stroking a finger down Willow’s cheek, she answered, “I have to catch a ride on a bird at Quantico 0400 the day after tomorrow. That obviously doesn’t leave me a lot of time to do stuff, Bobby.”

  Did she give me an evasive answer because she knew I was digging? Teagan tended t
o be naturally guarded anyway. It was hard to tell if she knew I was being nosy or not.

  “Belle is going to love seeing you. She misses you. Are you going to spend all day tomorrow with her?”

  This time, Teagan’s eyes looked up from the swaddled bundle in her arms and stared at me shrewdly for a second before her face went blank. “I’ll spend tomorrow morning with her up until lunch time. Then I’ll have to leave to take care of a few things.”

  Crossing my arms over my chest, I pushed a little harder. “One of those things named Declan?”

  She stopped rocking from side to side, tensing from head to toe. “Why would you think I would see Declan?”

  Oh, she was trying to play it cool, but the emotions rolling through her eyes were a dead giveaway. Apprehension. Confusion. Possibly affection.

  “Do you know that he’s asked for you constantly since he became temporarily paralyzed back in Miami?”

  “Oh?” Teagan tried to play it off nonchalantly; however, I had been trained to see the things people did not want you to see.

  “Yeah, oh. But I’m guessing you did know that. I’m also guessing you’ve already been in contact with him because Belle swears that, even though you’re a raging bitch to the world, you really do have a heart of gold.”

  “What are you fishing for here, Baker?”

  Now we were back on familiar ground. Her guard was back up, and she was feisty as hell. A part of me hated to see the loss of the softness she was letting loose with me for once, but I was starting to suspect Teagan needed a wakeup call when it came to a certain Sullivan. I was worried, if she did not get it, someone would get hurt. Only I was not sure who the wounded party would be—Declan or Teagan.

  “Riley says he thinks Declan cares for you, Teagan. I know through the grapevine that you’ve seen him more than a few times since we were in Texas. What exactly is going on with the two of you?”

  For a split second, grief washed over her features. It hurt something inside me to see a woman so strong apparently mired in pain and unwilling to share it with anyone. Then, once again, her expression cleared, and I couldn’t read a damn thing from her emotions, no matter how hard I tried.

  Gingerly, she handed my daughter back to me and then kissed her forehead. Without saying a word, she walked over to Belle’s bed and also kissed her lightly on the forehead.

  As she was walking towards the door, stuffing all of her hair back up into the ball cap she had returned to her head, she murmured, “Tell Belle I’ll be here tomorrow morning to see her.”

  Just as she turned the knob and pulled open the door, I called her name to stop her.

  She turned her head to look back at me.

  “I’m just worried about someone getting hurt, that’s all. I wasn’t trying to drive you away. You can stay, and I won’t ask another question.”

  Her features hardened as she replied, “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt your precious Declan.”

  I shook my head. “You’ve got it all wrong, woman. It’s you I’m worried about getting hurt.”

  Surprise lit her face. Finally, after she took the time to gather herself, she said. “I’m a tough girl, Bobby. Don’t worry yourself over little ol’ me. See you tomorrow.” Without another word, hint, or even a sign of what was going on, she disappeared from our room without a backward glance.

  I looked over to Belle’s sleeping form and sighed with relief that she had missed the exchange. The last thing I needed to do was rile her up when it came to the subject of Teagan. After what I had witnessed tonight and what I knew of Teagan’s past, I was sincerely worried that Teagan would get hurt.

  She put on a good game face when it came to the world, but behind it was a woman who had been emotionally neglected by her father after her mother had died. Young Teagan had learned to be tough enough to defend herself, not just against her no good daddy, but also against a small town that had turned its back on a child in need.

  No one had truly loved her besides Belle; as a result, she had shut off her emotions. I wasn’t sure she knew how to love someone in a romantic sense. Getting involved with a man like Declan, who went through women faster than he went through his underwear, was probably a very bad idea.

  Sitting down in the chair, I stared at my daughter, heavy in thought. If anything ever happened to me, I would hope another man would step up in her life to protect her from the angers and heartbreaks of the world, exactly what had not been done for Teagan. Well, maybe it was time for me to be that man. Whether she liked it or not, I was going to do my damndest to protect Teagan Robert’s vulnerable heart. I just wasn’t sure if I was protecting it from Declan … or herself.

  As I smoothed my hand over Willow’s baby soft blonde hair, she made a small grunting noise and wiggled in my arms. The sight brought a smile to my face and lifted my heart in ways I didn’t know were possible. Before, I could not imagine loving another person as much as I loved Belle and Seth. Today had shown me that, when you added to your family, your capacity for love only grew.

  Memorizing her small features, cataloging this for every precious moment it was worth, I leaned down and gave my daughter my own kiss on her forehead.

  “You, Willow Baker, will be the most loved little girl on the planet. Your mommy will kiss your boo-boos and let you cry on her shoulder. Your brother will beat the hell out of any boy who attempts to look your way, and I will be whatever else you need. The rock you lean on. The hug you want after a bad day. Hopefully, the advice you seek when you’re confused about life. But, most importantly, I’ll be the father who loves you unconditionally.”

  My cell phone vibrated in my pocket, so I pulled it out and looked at the caller id.

  Jaxon Wall.

  Worried something was wrong after our mission, I answered the phone with a low hello.

  “Baker, calling in to check on your status since your arrival at the rendezvous point.”

  A smile tipped the side of my lips. Only Jaxon would talk military jargon when it involved a baby.

  Cuddling my daughter close, filled with an absolute happiness and loving every minute of this new stage in my life, I gave him the only answer I thought fit the question.

  “Mission Delivery was a success, sir.”

  Sweet Recovery, Ex Ops Series #3, coming January 25, 2015!

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