Brenda Jackson - His To Claim

The last operation had been brutal, but all the members of his team were alive and accounted for. Now he was glad to be back home with his wife and kids, and as much as he loved his parents, he hadn’t counted on having any company. He needed a cold beer and his wife. Not necessarily in that order.

He figured everyone was in bed, yet an uneasy feeling crept over him as he entered his home. He paused in the foyer. Was that the television he heard coming from the living room? Typically, Teri would be in bed before ten because she got up around six to jump-start her day.

Tatum was seven and attended a different school than Tia. Tempest was five and attended kindergarten at the same school as Tatum. Tasha, their baby, who was barely three, attended day care. He hadn’t liked the idea of Tasha in day care, but Teri claimed Tasha needed to be around kids her age at least a few days a week to start developing her social skills.

Mac hadn’t wanted Teri to work outside the home, either, but she’d insisted that she needed to get out of the house for a while during the day. So now she was working part-time at one of the libraries in town.

Mindful of not waking the kids, while at the same time intent on not scaring his parents, he took out his phone and texted Teri. She practically slept with the phone beside her. When the message didn’t immediately show as delivered, he frowned, wondering what was wrong with her phone. He’d tried calling her earlier, twice in fact, when his plane had landed in DC. He hadn’t gotten an answer either time.

What was going on?

He placed his gear down and was headed toward his bedroom when his father rounded the corner. Carlton McRoy nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw his son.

“Damn it, Mac, you trying to give me heart failure?” his father asked. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

Mac crossed the floor to give his father a bear hug. “You weren’t supposed to hear me. I’m a SEAL, Dad.”

“Why didn’t you ring the doorbell?”

Mac thought that was a crazy question. “I live here. I don’t need to ring the doorbell. Besides, I didn’t want to wake anyone. By the way, I like your new set of wheels.”

His father beamed. “Thanks. It’s your mom’s car. I surprised her with it as an early anniversary gift. It’s been almost forty years, you know.”

Yes, Mac knew. He was the oldest of two and Carlton and Alexis Youngblood-McRoy hadn’t wasted any time after their wedding to start a family. He’d been born a week shy of their first anniversary. He figured he was supposed to be one and done, but his sister Kylie had been born on his parents’ tenth anniversary. “That’s a nice gift.”

“I thought so, and Lex was more than deserving,” his father said.

Mac smiled. His parents were special. There weren’t two adults he admired more and they had always been great role models for him and his sister. Their interracial marriage had worked for them because they’d always said love got them together and it would be love that kept them together.

“Thurston!”

Mac glanced around and chuckled when his mother practically threw herself into his arms. “Hey, Mom,” he said, placing a kiss on her cheek.

“I heard voices and thought one of the girls had awakened.”

“No, it’s just me and Dad. He saw me when I was headed down the hall to my bedroom to let Teri know I was home.”

He still had his arms around his mother’s shoulders when he felt her tense up. “Mom? You okay?” he asked, looking down at her.

He thought the same thing now that he’d thought while growing up. His mother was a beautiful woman with eyes a unique shade of blue and ash-blond hair. His father had a dark chocolate complexion, which accounted for Mac and his younger sister’s skin tone being a combination of the two.

When his mother still hadn’t answered his question, he turned his eyes to his father, who had the same wary expression on his face that Mac’s mother wore. Releasing his arm from around his mother’s shoulder, Mac straightened to his full height of six feet three inches. “Okay, what’s going on?”

When his parents glanced at each other, that uneasy feeling from earlier crept over him again. Not liking it, he turned to go down the hall toward his bedroom when his father reached out to stop him.

“Teri isn’t here, Mac.”

Mac turned back to his father. His mother had moved to stand beside his dad. “It’s after two in the morning and tomorrow is a school day for the girls. So where is she?”

His mother reached out and touched his arm. “She needed to get away and she asked if we would come keep the girls.”

Mac frowned. He knew his wife. She would not have gone anywhere without their daughters. “What do you mean she needed to get away? Why?”

“She’s the one who has to tell you that, Thurston. It’s not for us to say.”

His mother looked up at him with an uncomfortable expression on her face. His gaze left his mother and moved over to his father, who was wearing the same look.

“What’s going on, Dad? Mom? Why can’t you tell me the reason Teri felt she had to get away?”

“Because it’s not our place to do so, son.”

Mac drew in a deep breath, not understanding any of this. Because his parents were acting so secretive, he felt his confusion and anger escalating. “Fine. Where is she?”

It was his father who spoke. “She left three days ago for the Torchlight Dude Ranch.”

Mac’s frown deepened. “The Torchlight Dude Ranch? In Wyoming?”

“Yes.”

“What the hell did she go there for?”

His father didn’t say anything for a minute and then gave Mac an answer. “She said she always wanted to go back there.”

Mac rubbed his hand across his face. Yes, Teri had always wanted to go back there, the place he’d taken her on their honeymoon a little over ten years ago. And he’d always promised to take her back. But between his covert missions and their growing family, there had never been enough time. Teri, who’d been raised on a ranch in Texas, was a cowgirl at heart and for a short while had competed on the rodeo circuit due to her roping and riding skills. She’d even represented the state of Texas as a rodeo queen before they’d met.

When they’d married, she had given it all up to travel around the world with her naval husband. She’d said she’d done so gladly. Why in the world would Teri leave their kids and go to a dude ranch by herself?

He knew the only person who could answer that question was Teri.

“I tried calling her twice from the airport and she’s not answering her phone,” he finally said, his tone truly filled with anger now.

“She probably couldn’t. We talk to her every day when she calls to check on the girls. The reception at the dude ranch is not good and she has to drive into town to call out. Teri usually phones us around five every evening. I’m sure she’ll be calling today as usual, so you’ll get a chance to talk to her,” his mother said, smiling.

He stared at his parents. Did they honestly think he intended to hang around and wait for Teri’s call?

“I want to see the girls. I won’t wake them, but I need to see them before I leave.”

“Leave?” his father asked, looking at him strangely.

“Yes, leave.”

“Where are you going?” his mother asked.

He met their gazes. “I’m going to the Torchlight Dude Ranch.”

“Now?”

“Yes. Now.”

Moments later, he slid open the door to his oldest daughter’s room. Tia was asleep but he needed to look at her for himself to see that she was all right. He smiled as he studied her in sleep. She had her mother’s mouth, but that was about it. Everything else was his. Her eyes didn’t need to be open for him to know they were the exact color of his. A color so rich they looked like dark chocolate.