“that’s not really important now, is it?”
He sighed and followed her gaze back to the child staring up at them with wide blue eyes. “I guess not. But damn, Kelly. This wasn’t exactly the kind of reunion I was expecting.”
“I know,” she said, and reached out to lay one hand atop his.
A short, choked laugh shot from his throat. “Well, at least I know why your brother tried to tear my head off.”
He didn’t know the half of it. Since telling her brothers that she was pregnant, all four of them had been just itching to get their hands on the man responsible.
“I’m sorry about Kevin,” she said, “but my brothers have always tried to protect me—even when I didn’t want them to.”
“Can’t blame ‘em,” Jeff said, and reached out to touch her cheek before letting his hand fall to his side. “If I were in their shoes, I’d be pretty damn mad at me, too.”
“As much as I love them,” Kelly told him, “it doesn’t matter what they say in the end. Emily is our daughter. We decide what to do and where to go from here.”
“You’re right,” Jeff said, nodding and straightening up to full attention. “And where we go from here is to the closest justice of the peace we can find.” “Huh?”
“We’re getting married.”
Four
And that was a word he’d never thought to use in a sentence.
Married.
He scraped one hand across his jaw and looked down into Kelly’s sea-green eyes. Jeff had never once in his entire life considered the idea of marriage. Hell, why should he? He’d spend most of his growing-up years in a too-crowded county home. And when he’d finally been placed in a foster home, he’d seen up close and personal just how miserable a bad marriage could be on everyone.
He’d escaped that home as soon as he turned eighteen and enlisted in the Corps. There, he’d found his niche in the world. The one place he belonged. The notion of honor and duty had struck a chord with him, giving Jeff the firm footing he’d always craved. He’d excelled in marksmanship and handling explosives, eventually earning himself a spot in Recon Forces, the Marine Corps’s answer to the Navy SEALs—only better. It was an important job and a dangerous life. One that didn’t lend itself to home-and-hearth type relationships. Which had never bothered him any, since until Kelly he’d never really had anyone to care about.
And as to being a father? Well, that went along with marriage in his mind. He’d been the unwanted child of an unwed mother and wasn’t about to foist that burden on some unsuspecting kid of his own.
Nope. Emily was his daughter. And he was going to do right by her.
“We are not getting married,” Kelly told him with a shake of her head.
“Oh, yes, we are,” Jeff told her. “As soon as I can arrange it.”
“Listen, Jeff,” she said.
“No,” he interrupted her quickly. He knew what his duty was here. He’d left Kelly holding the proverbial bag eighteen months ago. Okay, sure, he hadn’t known about it. But now that he did, he was going to make up for not being around when she’d needed him.
He’d thought of Kelly so often during the past year and a half. Every dream was filled with her image. Every spare moment, his thoughts turned to her. He’d mailed postcards from every port, enjoying for the first time actually having someone at home to write to. It hadn’t mattered that there’d been no way to receive mail from her. It had been enough just knowing she was there. At home. Safe. He’d enjoyed the thought that she might actually miss him. And how many times had he wondered if she thought of him as much as he had her?
Well, now he knew that she couldn’t have helped thinking of him. She had a living, breathing reminder of him right there with her, twenty-four hours a day.
And something inside him was so damn grateful that she hadn’t ended the pregnancy. That she hadn’t given his child away. Emotion coiled in his gut, and he fought it down. The only way to win a battle was to stay clearheaded, and judging by the look in Kelly’s eyes, they were about to go to war.
“Jeff, getting married isn’t the answer here.”
“What is?” he asked, and from the corner of his eye, he saw little Emily pulling herself up in the crib again. Strong, he thought. And healthy. And damn pretty, he told himself.
Kelly opened her mouth, then snapped it closed again. Lifting both hands high, she let them fall back to her sides and then shrugged. “I don’t even know if there is an answer. I just wanted you to know about Emily. I want you to be a part of her life, if you want to.”
“If I want to?” he asked. Could she really believe that he’d turn and run when confronted with a child he’d created? Did she think so little of him?
“Wrong choice of words,” she said, lifting one hand, palm out in a peaceful gesture. “Of course you want to. All I meant was that Emily deserves to know her father.”
Yeah, he thought. She did. But what would she think of a man who didn’t have the slightest idea of just how to be the father she deserved? Would he let her down? Would he not be good enough?
The baby slapped at his hands, still curled around the top rail of the crib. Jeff’s gaze shifted to the little girl, and he found himself staring into eyes so much like his own, it was eerie. An unseen fist tightened around his heart and squeezed until the sensation was damn near painful.
Then Emily grabbed hold of a fistful of his shirt and lifted one small foot as though trying to climb the bars enclosing her. She wanted up and she wanted him to lift her. Just why that hit him so hard was a mystery to Jeff, but giving in to the child and his own temptation to hold her, he cupped his hands beneath her arms and picked her up. Her feet bounced and kicked and she threw herself at him, trusting him to hold on to her. To keep her safe.
And as easily as that, she fell into his heart. And that heart, the one he’d thought was so insulated against love, stirred with feelings so deep and so thick, he wasn’t sure what to do about them. Just as he didn’t have a clue what to do about Kelly.
Granted, his proposal wasn’t the most romantic one in the world. But hey, he’d never done this before.
One arm cradling her well-padded behind, Jeff kept his free hand on Emily’s back to make sure she wouldn’t take a dive backward. And while he held her, inhaled the now recognizable scent of baby powder, he turned to look at Kelly again.
Late-afternoon sunlight streamed through the window and set the fiery colors of her hair aflame. A half smile curved her lips, and the unmistakable sheen of tears clouded her eyes as she looked at him with their daughter. “She likes you already.”
He hoped so. “Kelly …”
She shook her head before he could get started. “Don’t start the marriage thing again, Jeff. Please.”
“Did you really think I wouldn’t want to get married?”
She
