have any professional teams.”
“Don’t you go to high school and college football games?”
“Not really,” Aiden admitted. “I enlisted in the navy right out of high school.”
“How long did you serve?”
“Fourteen years.” He had taken an oath at eighteen to protect his country and he’d fulfilled that commitment as a navy SEAL. Being away for extended periods of time had placed a strain on his marriage and whenever he returned home it was to a house in crisis. Nothing he’d done for Denise was ever enough and after a while he stopped trying to please her. She had complained bitterly that the house was too small for four people, so to appease her he used the money he’d earned as a private military contractor to expand it.
After the entire house was renovated Denise wanted to leave Wickham Falls and that’s when he put his foot down. There was no way he was going to pick up and move after giving her what she’d called her dream house. Once their arguments had escalated to screaming matches, Aiden knew their marriage was in serious trouble. He’d suggested counseling, but Denise refused to go with him.
Aiden stopped at the end of the hallway. “Here’s your room, also known as the in-law suite.”
* * *
Taryn entered the sun-filled bedroom suite and felt as if she had stepped back in time when she saw the honey-toned, queen-size, hand-painted sleigh bed with a white goose-down comforter, lacy, sheer dust ruffles and mounds of matching pillows. She opened the door to a massive armoire to find a large flat-screen television and audio components. Stacks of linens, comforters and quilts were stored in the drawers of a smaller ornately carved armoire. A double mahogany dresser with a gilt mirror contrasted to the other pale furnishings. Taryn thought of the space as a lady’s bedchamber and sitting room, with a sofa set on a straw rug and covered with yellow polished cotton and two flanking armchairs with hunter-green suede seat cushions. The suite was a quiet retreat where she could relax, sleep or just escape from the world around her.
Framed photos of Audubon prints were set on the mahogany desk and bedside tables. She walked over to French doors, which led out to the porch. It was the perfect place for her to begin the day with a cup of coffee or end it while watching the sunset. Pale yellow silk drapes could be closed to provide privacy or left open to take in the view of the distant mountains.
“I hope it’s to your liking.”
Taryn turned to find Aiden in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest. “It’s more than I could’ve imagined.”
His pale eyebrows lifted slightly. “You like it?”
“I love it.” Taryn didn’t say she would love it even more once she added her personal touch. She walked across the room and opened a door to a closet with overhead shelves. It wasn’t as large as the walk-in closet in her Long Island bedroom but it would be adequate if she donated clothes she hadn’t worn in years instead of packing them up and bringing them to Wickham Falls.
She opened another door to find a bathroom reminiscent of those in spas. Taryn could imagine herself whiling away time in the black marble garden tub with a Jacuzzi. A dressing table and chair were tucked under an alcove, while a vanity, freestanding shower with a large showerhead, commode, bidet and mirrored walls made the bathroom appear larger than it actually was.
“The suite gets an A-plus,” she told Aiden once she returned to the bedroom.
He inclined his head. “I’m glad you’re pleased with it. Now, are you ready to see the rest of the house?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll take the back staircase.”
There was something about Aiden’s body language that also prompted her to recall Langdon’s, who’d bragged that all special ops had a particular swagger identifying them as military elite. She did not want to ask Aiden about his past because she didn’t want to open the door for him to ask about hers. Taryn wanted their relationship to remain strictly professional.
Her single focus was educating his daughters and nothing beyond that. She had no intention of becoming his friend or replacing his wife as a mother for his children. She’d given up her condo to move in with a man who’d deceived her, and now she was giving up her home on Long Island to move in with a man who would become her employer. And she had a hard-and-fast rule never to engage in an affair with a supervisor or coworker. She had witnessed firsthand the fallout and embarrassment when a first-grade teacher had been dating the school psychologist, who hadn’t disclosed he was married, and was confronted by the man’s pregnant wife after she showed up unexpectedly at the school building to threaten her husband’s lover.
She climbed another flight of stairs with Aiden until they came to the third-story landing and his home/office/bedroom. A king-size platform bed, bedside table and a brown leather love seat were positioned under an eave, while a workstation with a desktop and printer was placed in front of a window overlooking the front of the house. An entertainment stand held a television and stacks of DVDs. Taryn walked over to the credenza to study several framed black-and-white photographs. The image of an elderly couple sitting on a bench holding hands captured her attention. There were other photos of the same couple with the tall thin man dressed in his Sunday finery, while the short dark-skinned woman by his side wore a Native American beaded dress and moccasins.
“The woman is my maternal grandmother,” Aiden said as he moved closer to Taryn. “Grandma Esther belonged to North Carolina’s Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. My sister is named after her.”
Taryn’s eyes went from the photographs to Aiden’s features, noticing he’d inherited his grandmother’s high cheekbones. “Is she still alive?”
“No. She died eight years ago, exactly one month to the day my grandfather passed away. My mother claimed she died of a broken heart.”
“How did your grandparents meet?”
“That’s a long story. I’ll tell you about Grandma Esther’s people another time.”
Taryn wondered if Aiden had told his daughters that their great-grandmother’s tribe had occupied what is now Western North Carolina for countless centuries. “How much time do you spend up here?”
“A lot, but only when the girls are away. Whenever they’re here I sleep in the bedroom across from theirs as a safety precaution.”
She did not want to imagine the consequences of someone attempting to break into Aiden’s house. Given his size and military training, there was no doubt he would prove a more than worthy opponent. “Do you have a lot of crime in The Falls?”
“We have burglaries and vandalism, but it’s been years since there’s been a murder. Most of the break-ins are from kids hooked on drugs and looking for something they can easily sell so they can get their next fix. Back in my great-granddaddy’s day it was the revenuers chasing moonshiners, and now it’s the sheriff and his deputies going after those dealing drugs.”
“How large is the police force?”
“We have a sheriff and three deputies now that they’ve hired Seth Collier. Seth grew up here and enlisted in the Marine Corps. The sheriff got the town council’s approval to hire him.”
“How many folks from here join the military?”
“It
