Special Forces Father Read online

  “But then you deployed...”

  “Right. And even though I’d warned her how it would be when I did, I don’t think it really sank in with her until she actually experienced it a few times. I know when I finally did call her that last time—the call that, according to the nanny, was when Audrey made the decision to take this Owen guy up on his offer—she was pretty upset that there hadn’t been one word from me in a long while.” He tried to get some breakfast down but the appetite he’d woken up with had disappeared, so he just pushed his plate away.

  “Sooo...how are you doing with the idea that these kids could be yours?” Conor asked.

  Liam shook his head. “I’m just kind of in a daze,” he admitted. “Like your message about Declan, the one from the nanny—now guardian—only caught up to me a week ago. I almost thought it was some kind of bad joke. Audrey was dead? She’d left twins that are mine? The kids have no one else and now need me to step in or risk being separated and put into the foster care system?”

  He shook his head again. “It sure as hell seemed like it must be a joke. But then I got to a computer and found an obituary for Audrey that didn’t say how she died but said she was survived by four-year-old twins. Four years plus however many months since they turned four, add nine more—that puts it somewhere in that five-years-ago time slot that I spent with Audrey. And here I am.”

  “Still, you just said yourself that Audrey was a partyer... You are going to test the DNA the way the lawyer told you to, right?”

  “Oh, yeah. This afternoon. I got a text from the nanny saying she scheduled an appointment with the pediatrician to do it.”

  “And what about the nanny?” his brother asked.

  Yeah, what about the nanny...

  That mere mention of Dani Cooper brought the image of her into his head again.

  Not only did she have great skin, she was something to look at all the way around. Exquisite caramel-colored eyes. High cheekbones, a straight nose. Pretty, luscious lips. And a delicate bone structure that gave her a kind of sophisticated, unapproachable beauty.

  Or at least it would have seemed sophisticated and unapproachable if her long, dark brown hair with its rich reddish cast hadn’t been in some kind of weird style that he couldn’t imagine she’d done on purpose. But the style was so weird—and silly—that it had softened the distant, classy beauty.

  And she had one damn fine body to go with it—trim without being too skinny, not tall, curves in all the right places.

  One damn fine body that she’d been using to gyrate like a crazy woman with as much abandon as the kids when he’d first pulled up to the house and could see what was going on inside.

  And yeah, he had to admit that even though the kids had been the reason he was there, even though he’d been sleep deprived and freaked out at the thought that the kids might actually prove to be his, it was still the nanny who had caught his attention. And held it for a while, sitting in his rented SUV, unable to take his eyes off her.

  But what about the nanny—that’s what his brother had asked.

  “What do you mean?” he answered with a question of his own because all he could think about was the way she looked and he didn’t think Conor was asking about that.

  “You said she was the guardian now,” Conor reminded him.

  “Right. I guess she’s been their nanny for a few years, and when Audrey and her husband died she had Audrey’s husband’s attorney go to court to have her named as the kids’ temporary guardian so they could stay in their own home for now.”

  “That’s nice of her. That’s got to mean she went from taking care of them as just her job to being completely responsible for them and playing single parent 24-7?”

  “Yeah, that’s the way I’m understanding it.”

  “That’s above and beyond the call of duty.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed, realizing that he’d been so busy thinking about how she looked that he hadn’t given her credit for that. And he should have.

  “Are you going to start trading shifts with her?” Conor asked then. “Taking care of the kids part of the time so she can get away?”

  “Oh, god no!” Liam said, feeling a rise in his stress level at that idea. “I figure if the court appointed her as their guardian she has to stick around, right? And she needs to—I don’t have a clue what to do with them. I mean, I said I want to get to know them, that I thought it would be good for them to get to know me, in case I am their father. That it would be good for me to learn the ropes. And that if by some chance I’m not their father, I want to make sure they get well taken care of for Audrey’s sake. But I can’t be left alone with them.”

  His brother’s expression was amused and sympathetic at once. “Okay. But you know that if you are their father eventually that could happen?”

  “I... Yeah... But that isn’t right now. Right now the nanny will be there and I’m just planning to lend a hand. To follow her lead. I can’t be left alone with them,” he repeated.

  His brother grinned. “So you’re really terrified of them?”

  “Wouldn’t you be?”

  “I had to do a rotation in pediatrics so I’ve had a little experience,” Conor said of his training as a doctor.

  Liam got up from the kitchen table and took his plate to the sink to rinse it and do what he could to calm his nerves over a prospect he hadn’t considered before this: being left alone with twin four-year-olds.

  Once he felt as if he had some control, he turned back to his brother and said, “I just have to do what I have to do. Whatever that is.”

  “Sure,” Conor agreed. “And I’m here for you, if there’s anything I can do.”

  “You can take me shopping for some clothes,” Liam said. “I don’t have any civvies with me—I pretty much just threw what I needed to travel in a duffel and took off. And I think the uniform makes me a little intimidating to the kids.”

  “Whose names are?”

  “Oh, yeah, they have names,” Liam said, sounding overwhelmed and at sea. “The girl is Evie. The boy is Grady.”

  “Evie Madison. Grady Madison. I guess that works,” Conor mused.

  “Yeah, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Liam cautioned, thinking that he could only handle so much at a time.

  And also thinking how grateful he was that Dani Cooper really would be there to hold his hand through what seemed like the most daunting mess he’d ever been in.

  Well, not to literally hold his hand.

  Although there was something about that idea that made the thought of going back to the house to face what he had to face much easier...

  * * *

  “That man from last day is coming back and we have to go to the doctor with him?” Evie said, questioning what Dani had just told her and her brother.

  “The man who was here last night,” Dani corrected. “Remember his name is Liam, and yes, he’s coming with us to the doctor.”

  She was combing Evie’s long hair and putting it into pigtails while Grady watched.

  “But we aren’t sick,” he pointed out. “Why do we have to go to the doctor? Are we gonna hafta have shots?”

  “No, no shots and nothing that will hurt. You won’t even have to get undressed. All you’ll have to do is open your mouths and let the nurse touch the inside of your cheek with a cotton swab.”

  “But why?” Evie persisted.

  “It’s a test. Remember last time you guys had sore throats? The nurse used a cotton swab to get some stuff from back there and sent it to be tested to see if you had strep—”

  “I didn’t like that,” Evie said.

  “Me either,” Grady chimed in.

  “I know, but this will be easier than that. Here, let me show you.” She took three cotton swabs from the medicine cabinet, demonstrated what would be done on herself first and then persuaded them to let her d
o it to them.

  “See? This one is no big deal. But then they can send the swab to a laboratory to test it and tell all kinds of things about you.”

  “Like what?” Grady asked suspiciously.

  “It could tell that Evie is a girl and you’re a boy. It could tell the color of your hair and eyes—”

  “I can tell you that,” Evie reasoned.

  This wasn’t easy to explain to inquisitive four-year-olds.

  “It can also tell you stuff that you can’t see—what’s inside of you that makes you you and who your family is. Like if I had the test, it could tell me that my grandmother was my grandmother.”

  “So it’s gonna tell us if we have a grandmother?” asked Grady.

  “Well, no, we already know your grandparents are all in heaven, too, but it might tell us if you have any other family you don’t know about.”

  “You think we do?” Evie asked.

  “Maybe,” Dani said. “And that would be kind of nice to know, wouldn’t it? That there might be someone else in the world who would love to know you guys are their family?” And she hoped that would somehow prove true—that if Liam Madison was their biological father, he’d eventually make his way through what had seemed like shock last night and embrace the news and the kids and become a loving, caring parent to them.

  “I s’pose it would be nice,” Grady agreed marginally.

  “Then would we hafta leave the glass house to live with them?” Evie asked.

  They’d referred to this place as the glass house since moving six months ago from what they’d called the brown house—the house they’d lived in while this place was being built.

  “I don’t know,” Dani answered honestly.

  She didn’t want to go beyond that so she changed the subject.

  “Okay, how about if you guys do some of the new puzzles while we wait for Liam?”

  It felt a little odd saying Liam Madison’s name with such familiarity but it was for the sake of the kids. She wanted to give the impression that he really was a friend to them.

  Dani sent them into the common area just outside their bedrooms. Once she knew they weren’t going to fight she went into the room she was using and checked her own appearance.

  She’d gone to a few extra lengths today to make up for the way she’d looked the night before. She wore a pair of her good jeans and a blue T-shirt over a tank top edged with a row of lace that showed above the T-shirt’s square-cut neckline.

  She’d also gotten up early so she could pay special attention to her hair. Rather than a quick blow-dry, she’d let it air-dry so she could scrunch it and bring out the natural waves. Then, instead of keeping it contained in some fashion the way she ordinarily did for working with kids, she let it fall free to the middle of her back—what Grady had deemed real princess hair when he and Evie had seen it this morning.

  She’d also applied a pale eye shadow to accentuate her eyes and a little mascara to go along with her blush and lip gloss.

  But even though it was all what she might have done for a casual, daytime date, that wasn’t the reason she’d put in the time and effort, she told herself as she checked to make sure the hours that had passed since then hadn’t left her in need of touch-ups. She just wanted to improve upon the bad impression she was afraid she might have made on Liam Madison with her hairstyle by Evie the previous evening.

  As nanny—and now as guardian—she had to play two roles. To the kids, she had to be a disciplinarian in a warm, caring manner so that her young charges could be at ease with her. But to the adults in their lives, she had to present a more professional image. A more professional image that she might not have presented to Liam Madison the night before.

  So today she wanted to compensate. It didn’t have anything to do with the fact that Liam Madison was a fantastic-looking man.

  So fantastic-looking that the image of him had stuck with her, even as she’d tried to fall asleep last night. And it had still been with her the minute she woke up this morning and the whole way through her shower and all that extra primping.

  But picturing him in her head merely came along with thinking about him actually doing what Audrey had wanted him to do—coming to the kids’ rescue. It wasn’t about anything personal between the two of them. And there wouldn’t be. They had one thing and one thing only bringing them together: the current care and future well-being of Evie and Grady. And once what would happen to them was established, Dani would move on.

  It came with the territory of being a nanny.

  Yes, she did get a little attached. It had happened with kids she’d nannied for much shorter lengths of time before Evie and Grady. It was especially true of these twins because she’d been with them for a little over three years now. And they were great, smart, adorable, funny kids who she’d needed to provide for more than she had others whose parents were more involved than Audrey and Owen had been.

  Add to that that she’d gone through weighty loss with them—both the loss they’d suffered and a particularly difficult loss she’d suffered herself at almost the same time—and now she was their stand-in parent, so a bond had definitely formed.

  But still, her attachment to them had to have a limit because it all came with the knowledge that Evie and Grady were not her kids. That she would have to move on and leave them behind. It was something she never lost sight of. And since her sole connection with Liam Madison was through the kids, she’d be moving on and leaving him behind, too.

  So the fact that he was great-looking was insignificant and the fact that she couldn’t stop carrying around the image of his great looks in her mind was also unimportant and meaningless.

  Besides, she reasoned with herself as she turned upside down to brush her hair from underneath to add some fullness, even if they’d met at a party, locked eyes across a crowded room and been drawn together last night, nothing would have come of it. Too much had happened recently that had left her in no position for anything.

  She’d ended her engagement to Garrett after too long indulging his need for control and living under his thumb.

  She’d lost the grandmother who had raised her, the grandmother she’d loved dearly.

  And then Audrey and Owen had died.

  Now she had to make sure that Evie and Grady would be okay.

  Plus her grandmother had left her with the biggest decision she’d ever faced—a decision that could not only affect everything for her from now on, but that could also affect numerous people and their jobs.

  And if all that wasn’t enough—which it was—Liam Madison was in the military.

  She knew only too well what that could mean because her own father had served. And suffered for it.

  So no matter how fabulously handsome the guy was, she had a laundry list of things that all added up to one really big no when it came to Liam Madison, and made those good looks and the fact that she couldn’t stop carrying the image of him around in her head totally and completely irrelevant.

  She straightened up and flipped her hair into place, feeling a strong resolve settle over her at the same time.

  She’d enjoy the view of Liam Madison but that was it. The nurse at the pediatrician’s office had said DNA results took about five days. There would likely be a few more days before a final decision was made for Evie and Grady, and she would do whatever she could to help them transition to any new situation once that decision was made. After that she’d pack her bags, move on and leave that view behind.

  Simple as that.

  “Evie says this piece is for her puzzle but it’s not for her puzzle. It’s for my puzzle!” Grady hollered from the other room.

  The doorbell rang just then, making Liam Madison ten minutes early but giving Dani an excuse to sidestep the kids’ conflict.

  “That’ll be Liam and we need to get to the doctor’s office so we’ll sort it out later
. Get your shoes on,” she said to the twins before snatching one last glimpse of herself in the mirror and then hurrying to the front door.

  Denying along the way that what she felt was eagerness to see the big marine again.

  * * *

  “Is he really gonna stay here?” Grady whispered to Dani that evening when the four of them returned home. Liam Madison was outside, retrieving his things from the back of his rented SUV to move in. Dani was in the kitchen with the kids.

  “He really is going to stay here,” Dani confirmed. “He’ll be up in the guest room. It’s what your mom wanted.”

  “Because he’s her friend?” Evie said in disbelief.

  “Yes. And because she wanted you all to get to know each other, and he wants to help out with you guys.”

  “I don’t think so,” Grady added his own skepticism, which had some foundation based on the way today had gone.

  But rather than confirm the little boy’s doubts Dani instead said, “I want you guys to be kind of patient with him, okay? I don’t think he knows much about kids.”

  “I don’t think he likes us,” Evie amended.

  “I don’t think we like him,” Grady added under his breath.

  “We all just have to give each other a chance,” Dani said, making it a quiet command. “That’s why we get to know people—so we can find things about them that we do like.”

  “He doesn’t smile,” Evie observed.

  “He’s like a robot. But not a fun robot,” Grady contributed.

  There was no disputing either criticism because both things were true during the time they’d known the man.

  “It’ll get better,” Dani assured, hoping she was right. “Now go put on your pajamas and I’ll cut you some yellow cheese and tomatoes and avocados to go along with your yogurt since you didn’t have much dinner.”

  “I want my adocados in salad,” Evie informed.

  “And the magic word is...” Dani said.

  “Please,” Evie complied.

  “Please,” Grady said, too, even though Dani hadn’t been instructing him. “But I want my adocados sliced.”