He could feel her nod against his shoulder.
“Okay then. Let’s get comfortable.” He took a seat on a padded rocking chair. He tipped back in the chair, happy to find it was almost like a recliner. “Can we sleep here?” he asked as he settled Melody in the crook of his arm, half-sprawled on his chest.
He waited, but no answer came, so he began to sing to her the Navy Hymn. With its slow cadence and calming sound, it was the closest thing to a lullaby he knew. After a few minutes, Melody’s body became almost limp and he found himself relaxing. She was asleep, and he was pinned down under the weight of a thirty-pound toddler. The trapped feeling he expected never came. Instead, he started to drift off to sleep. He woke himself once, listening for sounds in the night. Everything was peaceful, so he closed his eyes, letting himself fall into a deeper sleep than he usually allowed himself.
What felt like five minutes later, a rush of cool air crossed his chest. He reached for the child and came fully awake when he found nothing. Gray light outside the window told him it was early morning, and he could just make out Cora, dressed in a short terrycloth bathrobe, settling Melody back into her crib.
Cora watched the child for a second, checked the other two, and tilted her head toward the door, gesturing for him to go. He did but waited for her in the hall. She followed him out and—still without speaking—led him away from the nursery.
“Coffee?” she asked when they reached the staircase. “We should talk.”
The words sounded ominous, but he didn’t mind the idea of time alone with her. She had avoided that since his first evening in the house when they’d shared a kiss. It had been an unexpected moment for him, a surprise, and very little in life surprised him. Neither had brought it up, but there was something between them now, simmering.
“I’ll check on the security system and meet you in the kitchen.” He made quick work of it and included a brisk circuit of the property on foot, not minding the dewy grass on his bare feet. No threats appeared, except for the slight gleam in Cora’s eyes when he entered the kitchen.
She put a mug of coffee on the island in front of him and handed him the carton of milk. She’d noticed, he thought. The fact that she’d paid attention to the little detail of how he took his coffee somehow warmed him. Their situation was domestic, more so than he’d ever experienced. He liked it. He liked the way her hair was tucked behind her ears on one side and fell like a silky curtain on the other. He liked the little nervous motions she made as she straightened items on the counter. And he’d liked how her lips felt against his.
What would happen if he tried to repeat their kiss?
“If Melody’s crying woke you then you should have knocked on my door last night,” she said, pulling him out of his contemplation.
“I thought you needed some sleep. Was I right?”
She shrugged, which he took as agreement. “You shouldn’t make a habit of letting one of the girls sleep with you like that.”
He didn’t plan to, but he hadn’t wanted to leave the child unattended and upset either. “I can do more than monitor the security cameras and guard the perimeter.” Why wouldn’t she accept his help? He got that she was independent and felt the girls were hers to raise, but he was frustrated by her lack of faith in him.
“You might have lost your grip on her in the night. She could have fallen to the floor.”
“I don’t sleep that soundly,” he said, which was true most of the time. Strangely though, he had slept like a rock holding Melody.
Cora’s eyes glinted at him, and he couldn’t tell if it was anger or concern. “You were out. I picked her up, and you never moved.”
A little of both, he decided. But arguing in circles like this wasn’t getting them anywhere. He returned to the main point. “Cora, I’d like to help you more. I don’t want to offend you, but it looks like you’re drowning somedays. The kids make demands on you from morning until night, and you respond to every one of them.”
“I suppose you’re going to say I’m spoiling them, but I’m not. I’m just being a parent to them.”
“Most people don’t parent triplets by themselves. You can’t be both mom and dad, no matter how hard you try.” He didn’t know much about kids, but he thought it would be good for them to have more than one adult in their lives, too. The girls had accepted his presence in the house, seemed to trust him, but until Cora let him in the rest of the way, he was powerless. Not a feeling he liked. “Not to mention, you deserve some time to yourself. It couldn’t have been like this when the Lawrences were alive.”
She sighed and gave him a rueful smile. “I had days off then, and evenings free unless they had an event to attend.” She leaned on her elbows, sipping coffee and studying him. “They were good parents, great people.”
“You miss them,” he said. Had anyone considered what their deaths had done to Cora, above and beyond the new responsibilities she now carried? How was she handling it emotionally? He felt even more strongly that she needed his help.
“I do,” she admitted, “but I have to think of the girls first.”
“Not alone. I’m here, and I want to help you.” He could re-arrange his day to spend more of it with the kids. It surprised him how much he enjoyed being with the girls. Not something he’d expected of himself. He liked how each had her own personality. Earning their trust and their smiles meant more to him than he could have imagined it would.
“You want to put the kids on a schedule, so the household runs like a mini-military base. I can’t agree to that.”
“And I’m not asking you to. Let’s start small. Let me take them to the park today so you can stay home and read.” He’d noticed how she always had a book around. The one on the counter looked to be a mystery, with an uncooked spaghetti noodle holding her place.
“No offense, but your training doesn’t extend to toddlers. Do you know how to do the Heimlich maneuver or CPR on a child?”
He was trained in basic battlefield emergency response. He could tie a tourniquet, bandage minor injuries, and call evac when the situation warranted. Beyond that, he was a novice.
“No, but what are the chances—”
“What about changing diapers? The girls still wear those at night. Giving baths, engaging their minds with play instead of just letting them watch television. Children’s TV is…” She shuddered and shook her head.
“Cora,” he reached across the counter and covered her hand with his. He meant to say something re-assuring, but his mind went blank with the physical contact between them. His fingers tingled with awareness that shot up his arm and straight to his dick.
A blush spread across her cheeks and down her neck. He couldn’t help himself from watching its progression until it disappeared below her robe. He wanted to find out just how far it went and follow it with his hands and mouth.
“Cora, I want up,” Paige’s demanding voice echoed through the baby monitor that sat on the window ledge.
Cora pulled her hand from under his and took three steps back until she bumped into the sink. She tugged at the robe, pulling it closer around her body. “The hospital offers a babysitting course. Maybe…Maybe if you take that…” She was as shaken as he by whatever flowed between them. “I’ll call and see when the next one is.”
After she left the room, he poured a second cup of coffee and stood looking out the window, listening to the sounds from the nursery on the monitor. Cora talked to the girls, telling them about what a beautiful day it was outside and what she had planned for them to do while she snuck in little lessons about the color of certain items or how many stuffed animals were on the shelf.
She probably could do everything for the triplets by herself. Her strength and resolve would make that possible. But even if she could do it all herself, she shouldn’t have to. He chuckled to himself. He had plenty of strength and resolve as well, and he’d resolved to make Cora’s life a little easier even if he had to strong arm her a bit to make that possible. His first step was t
aking the babysitting class and proving his worth in her eyes.
Seven
“I guess that didn’t go as planned,” Cora said with a laugh as Paige and Jimmy Harkness both dove for the ball at the same time. The kids ended up in a giggling, grass-stained heap, while the ball rolled out from under them to be snagged by Melody. She took off toward the designated goal with Haley and Jimmy’s twin brother, Jackson, giving chase.
“Not much does for three-year-olds. Score,” Annie yelled when Melody reached the hula-hoop and tossed the ball into it. All five children took off after the remaining balls, scattering across the lawn on their toddler legs.
“I’m so glad you came over,” Cora said. She and Annie had become friends through a playgroup specifically for families with twins or triplets. When the girls were six months old, Cora had started going so she could learn more about the challenges of caring for multiples. Since then, the meetings had turned more social in nature. She still attended at least one a month, but she and Annie, who lived just a few streets away, often met for playdates.
“This game’s lasted longer than usual,” Annie commented as two more balls made it to the goal. “They must be growing into a sense of competition.”
“I think the girls are happy to have the opportunity to run free.” It wasn’t that they were locked in the house, but with William’s security procedures in place, a simple trip to the park or an outing to get lunch had become an ordeal. He wanted exact locations of where they were going along with arrival and departure times, plus he failed to understand the unpredictable nature of kids. An outing could last hours—or it could be cut short after fifteen minutes if one of the triplets was having a bad day.
“Something wrong?” Annie took her eyes from the kids for a second to study Cora.
“We’ve been a little cooped up lately.” Cora didn’t feel like going into detail about how her life had changed in the past ten days with William living with them. Somedays she was adjusting better than others to having a hot, live-in protector. The problem was two-fold, she’d decided. First, she didn’t know what to do with William as an attractive man, whose kiss she couldn’t get out of her head. And, second, she was frustrated with him for questioning her every time she opened the front door.
She’d had to provide Annie’s full name and address before her friend was approved to come visit. After refusing to do so for two days, Cora had given in. She’d wanted time with a girlfriend and the kids needed to see other children.
“Jackson,” Annie called, when her son started a flat-out toddler sprint across the yard toward the treehouse. “Not now. Maybe after lunch.” The boy stopped, spun around, and charged at them.
“How about bubbles?” Cora suggested. Blowing bubbles was always good for a few minutes of happy play, and it was one of her favorite activities. She poured bubble mix into two circular pans and gave everyone a wand to dip into them.
“Great idea.” Annie blew a giant bubble for the kids to chase. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look a little tired.”
“So, all that concealer didn’t work?” Cora tried for a joking tone—but it wasn’t just a joke. She had added a bit to her makeup routine lately, trying to erase the effects of being worn out.
“Afraid not.” Annie gave her a gentle smile. “I get it though. A few months ago when Jerrod traveled on business for three weeks straight, I thought I’d lose my mind being the only caregiver for the boys.” She caught both her kids and gave each a swift kiss on the head before sending them out after more bubbles. “And I only had two to deal with and my mother came over some days to help. You’ve got no one.”
“It’s been a little difficult at times,” Cora said, feeling she could be honest with her friend. “Okay, it’s been a lot difficult.”
“I can’t believe no one from Bob or Jeanie’s families have come through to help you.” It wasn’t the first time Annie had expressed such a sentiment.
“Neither had much family.” Which was true. Cora only knew of a cousin, and the couple’s relationship with him had been strained. She’d last seen Francis Kelp at the funeral and hadn’t cared for his attitude toward the girls or her. He’d called twice, but she’d let both calls go to voice mail. She was managing, she told herself. The girls were fed, clean most of the time, learning, and as well-adjusted as children whose parents had recently died could be.
She dipped her wand into the bubble mix and blew out a double bubble that popped almost instantly when it came in contact with a gray Navy t-shirt, stretched tight over William’s muscular chest.
“Ladies,” William greeted them. His dark hair shone in the sunlight, making it appear so touchable that Cora’s fingers tingled a little. Cora liked the three-day-old stubble he had going, too. It notched up his level of sexiness.
“Annie, this is William Royce.” Cora performed the introduction, forcing a neutral tone to her voice. “He’s providing security for the girls.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Annie said, and they shook hands.
Haley tugged at William’s jeans. When he looked down, she held up her bubble wand to him. “My turn?” he asked, taking the item from the child. He turned it over in his hand.
Did he not know what to do with it, Cora wondered as William watched Paige and Jimmy blow bubbles in each other’s faces. After a minute, he caught on, dipped the wand, and blew a series of small bubbles for Haley to chase.
“So, he’s the muscle,” Annie whispered, not quietly enough to Cora. “I guess you can feel safe with him around.”
“Actually, I was named by the Lawrences as a sort of second guardian to the girls,” Williams corrected Annie with a smile that took in reproof from his words.
Annie raised an eyebrow at Cora but didn’t comment. To Cora, “guardian” implied so much more than what she felt William had signed on for. She took her role as guardian to mean she’d be there for the girls until they were legal adults, and then some. She’d take them to their first day of kindergarten and help them pick out prom dresses and select colleges.
She expected that William would be with them until the threat was over—which would hopefully be soon— and then he’d be a little blip on the radar of their lives. She watched him blow another bubble for Haley. He’d won Melody over and made inroads with shy Haley. Paige hadn’t deigned to trust him yet, but based on the way Paige was assessing him now, Cora knew it wouldn’t be long.
So, maybe his presence in their lives wasn’t so bad and her fear had been unfounded. He was good to them. But a second fear had started to develop. The girls had been abandoned by their parents—unintentionally, of course, but still. Cora didn’t want them to suffer through another abandonment when William was no longer needed.
“Time for lunch,” she said as a way of breaking the contact between the girls and William.
The hungry kids crowded through the kitchen door. She made sure everyone washed their hands and got the kids settled in front of the television to watch cartoons while she and Annie prepared lunch. TV was never her first choice of entertainment for the girls, but she wanted them away from William before they completely succumbed to his charms. Fortunately, he had disappeared when they entered the house, probably back to his cameras and security procedures.
“What can I do to help?” Annie asked. Her friend had brought honeyed fruit salad, and Cora planned to make pinwheel sandwiches to accompany it.
“I’ve got most of it ready in the fridge,” Cora said. “We just need to assemble. Do you mind making a pitcher of lemonade?”
Cora gathered items out of the refrigerator before laying out the tortillas and layering them with mayo, lettuce, cheese, and turkey.
“So, William is a guardian for the kids, too?” Annie asked as she juiced lemons. “Then why isn’t he doing more to help you with them? They seem to respond well to him.”
“They do,” Cora had to admit, “and he has tried to help. He got up in the night when Melody had a bad dream. It was really sweet. I found he
r curled up with him early the next morning.” Even though she’d expressed her concern about it to William, it had been kind of him to help her, and Melody was none the worse for it.
“One night,” Annie pointed out, gesturing with the spoon she used to stir the lemonade. “You need more help than one night.”
“We’re hungry.” Jackson and Paige appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. Cora quickly put together five little cheese and cracker sandwiches along with some carrot sticks and carried them into the living room on a tray. That should tide the kids over for now.
When Cora returned to the kitchen, she hoped Annie would drop the subject, but one look at her friend said that wasn’t going to be the case.
“Okay, I confess,” Cora let down her guard. “I haven’t let William help much. He’s never been around kids before and we have different ideas about what’s appropriate for them. It’s just easier for me to do everything myself.”
“I don’t think triplets ever get easier.” Annie stole a piece of turkey and ate it. “You need a partner. You need time to put your feet up or sleep an entire night. Maybe go shopping by yourself.”
Cora carefully rolled the tortillas, stuck toothpicks through them, and began slicing off sections. “He did agree to take a babysitting course. I just haven’t taken the time to see if the hospital is offering one.”
“They are. Jimmy had a checkup yesterday and I saw it posted. I think it’s on Tuesday next week.” Annie took the pinwheels and arranged them on individual plates with a helping of fruit salad and a few veggie chips for each one. “You should call about it or have Mr. Muscles enquire. I bet he’s very efficient. The kind of man who gets things done.” Annie grinned at her. “And if he isn’t, what does it matter when he looks like that? The man is seriously hot. Former military?”
“Navy SEAL,” Cora confirmed. She’d worried about that, but so far he’d proven all her pre-conceived ideas wrong. He was disciplined and dedicated without the cold detachment she had expected.
The SEAL’s Unexpected Triplets Page 5
