Patricia Davids - Military Daddy

“Oh, Crystal.” Annie didn’t try to hide her disappointment.

“What? This guy could be the one. You don’t know him.”

“And neither do you.”

“Don’t be that way. He makes me feel special.” Crystal pushed open the outside door but stopped dead in her tracks with a sharp gasp. Just as quickly she relaxed and said, “Oh, it’s you.”

When Annie came out the door, she saw Shane standing beside her car. Her breath caught in her throat. Dressed in jeans and a dark blue sweater that accented the color of his eyes, he looked far too handsome and exactly like the man she had fallen for that night three months ago.

Calling on all her willpower, she hardened her heart against a sudden and frightening desire to step into his embrace and rest her head on his shoulder.

He nodded at Crystal but walked past her to stand in front of Annie. “We need to talk.”

Shane was prepared for a verbal battle, but to his surprise, Annie didn’t tell him to take a hike. She edged away from him, toward her car. He had the distinct impression that she was afraid of him. That was the last thing he wanted.

She licked her lips quickly, then said, “We don’t have anything to discuss. How did you find me?”

He smiled, trying to put her at ease. “Let me buy you a cup of coffee and I’ll tell you.”

“I don’t drink coffee.”

“Then make it a cup of tea or a lemon-lime soda—anything you want. Annie, I’m not going to go away until we’ve had a rational discussion about our baby.”

He had come here intending to do just that, but now he found himself wanting something different. His motives had been hidden even from himself until he’d seen her face today. She looked tired, sad, vulnerable. That vulnerability was what he remembered most about her. It was why he had looked for her after their night together. It was why he couldn’t get her out of his mind.

Now that he had found her again, he wanted to spend time with her. He wanted to get to know her better. He needed to find out if their one bittersweet meeting might have been the beginning of something special.

Crystal shifted from one foot to the other beside the car. “I need to get going. I told Willie I’d meet him after work.”

Annie took another step toward the car. “I need to get home.”

She was making it obvious that she had no desire, hidden or otherwise, to spend time with him. Shane took a step back and held up his hands. “All right, but I’ll be here tomorrow…and the day after that and the day after that. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to talk to me.”

He watched her indecision play across her face. She chewed the corner of her bottom lip for a few seconds, then she turned to her friend and held out the car keys. “You go, Crystal. I’ll be home later. Tell Marge that I went to get a cup of cocoa with Corporal Ross.”

Crystal took the keys. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

Relieved by her change of heart, he said, “I’ll see that she gets home.”

Annie’s smile looked strained, but she nodded. “I’m sure. You go on.”

Shane worked to keep his elation in check. He didn’t know where any of this was going, but at least he was doing something. She was willing to talk to him and he wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.

As Crystal drove away, he faced Annie and asked, “Where would you like to go?”

“The hotel has a restaurant. We can go there.”

“Fine by me. Lead the way.”

It was too early in the evening for the Italian-themed bistro to be busy yet, but the aromas coming from the kitchen were tempting enough to make Shane hope he could convince Annie to have dinner with him. Once they were seated in a corner booth out of earshot of the other customers, he leaned back against the green plaid fabric and smiled to put her at ease. “Crystal told my friend where you and she work.”

Annie frowned at him. He shrugged. “You asked how I found you.”

“Oh.” She rearranged the salt and pepper shakers and moved the green ceramic container of sugar and sweetener packets to the center of the table to form a straight line. She seemed to realize what she was doing and quickly clasped her hands together. The clink of tableware and muted voices from the other diners did little to fill the void of silence.

“So where do we start?” he asked as he studied her face. She was pretty in an exotic way with her long, dark hair and deep brown eyes. Dressed in a simple white blouse with short sleeves and a pair of black slacks, she seemed to want to blend in rather than stand out from the crowd. Her lips were full, and he remembered the way they had softened when he’d kissed her.

Was the sweetness he had tasted that night really there or had it been part of a dream? They were going to have a child together, but he realized he knew almost nothing about this woman. He wanted to know more. A lot more.

She met his gaze. “You tell me where to start. You’re the one who insisted on this meeting. I still don’t understand why. I thought I was letting you off easy.”

“Easy? You call this easy? Every day of my life I’m going to wonder if I had a son or a daughter. You intend to go your merry way and I’ll never know where he is. I’ll never know if some other man is reading him the stories he likes or playing catch with him or taking him fishing.”

Pressing his lips into a tight line, Shane looked down and struggled to keep the old pain in check. The waitress arrived to take their orders, and it gave him a moment to compose himself.

When she left, Annie said softly, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make light of the situation. There’s something more going on here, isn’t there?”

He was surprised by her perception. Shaking his head, he said, “It’s a long story. I don’t want to bore you with my ancient history.”

“You wanted to talk. I’m trying to listen.”

Touched by her compassion, Shane considered how much he should tell her. If he had any hope of convincing her to let him share in the decisions she had to make, he would need to gain a level of her trust. Wasn’t that worth exposing a part of his past, even if it was a painful part?

Slowly he began telling his tale. “I was engaged about a year ago. Her name was Carla. She had a little boy named Jimmy. He was the cutest, smartest little kid you have ever met. At four he knew the entire alphabet.”

He paused, remembering those happy times, remembering how proud he had been of Jimmy.

“He was your son?”

“No, but that didn’t matter. It didn’t matter to me, anyway. It was easy to love Jimmy and to think of him as my own. I believed that I was in love with Carla, but it was Jimmy who got me to thinking about making us one big happy family. For Carla it was a different story.”

“How so?”

“Jimmy’s father had split right after Jimmy was born. He never kept in touch, never paid support—you know the type.”

The deep bitterness in his voice momentarily took her aback. “I’ve met a few guys like that in my time.”

“One day he showed up again. Carla decided life would be better for Jimmy with his ‘real’ father. She broke it off with me, went back to him and they moved away.”

“That must have been rough.”

“It was. Jimmy didn’t know his ‘real’ father from a hole in the ground. I was the only father figure he’d had in his life. Carla was an adult. She made her choice and I hope she is happy, but Jimmy didn’t get a choice. I hope he’s happy, but I’ll never know for sure.”

“So what do you want from me?”

He stared down at his hands clasped together on the tabletop, then looked up and met her eyes. “I keep asking myself that same question. I guess I want to know that you have all you need to make a good life for my son or daughter.”