GINA WILKINS - The Soldier's Legacy

“Yes, ma’am.” His tone was good-naturedly teasing, his mood obviously much improved. “I won’t do any flip turns off the ends of the pool.”

“Wise decision.”

They shared a laugh as Trevor gave a light kick to ripple the water around her. Smiling up at him, she resisted the impulse to splash him back, though his grin let her know he was aware of her temptation.

“Do you want a lemonade, Mr. Trevor?” Bella asked, interrupting the cozy exchange as she approached with a glass she carried carefully in both hands for him.

Drawing his gaze from Jade, he turned to accept the glass with thanks, probably more to be nice to Bella than because he wanted the lemonade. And then he patted the tile beside him as he smiled up at the child. “Want to sit here beside me and put your feet in the water?”

Bella backed a half step away. “I don’t like to swim.”

“I wasn’t suggesting you put your whole body in,” he countered. “Just your feet. Like this.”

Holding his injured right leg still, he kicked lightly with his left foot, making the water splash. “Feels good.”

He took a sip of his drink then, looking unconcerned about whether Bella chose to accept his invitation. Seemingly emboldened by the lack of pressure, the child settled cautiously at his left side and let her feet dangle into the water. Trevor kicked up another spray, making her giggle softly and imitate him. He kicked again, and some of the water splashed on Jade this time, which led to both Trevor and Bella kicking more enthusiastically to make sure they showered her.

Laughing, she swung a hand to splatter them back, making sure most of the spray hit Trevor. Bella blinked, as if trying to decide whether to protest, then grinned and kicked more vigorously with Trevor’s encouragement. Jade noted in satisfaction that Bella seemed hardly aware that she was getting liberally splashed now. In fact, the child squealed in delight.

“Mom, you should come see this. It’s so cool!”

Looking around in response to the hail, Jade saw Erin sticking her head out from behind the waterfall. “On my way,” she called back. “Bella, do you want to go with me to see the grotto? We can put your floaties on, if you want, so you won’t go under the water.”

Bella looked tempted for a moment as she gazed toward the waterfall, but then she shook her head. “No, thank you.”

“How about if your mom and I both take you?” Trevor suggested. “Between the two of us, you’d barely be in the water. The grotto’s worth the trip, I promise. One of my young visitors told me it was like a fairy cave.”

Bella’s lower lip quivered. She wanted to see the cave, Jade interpreted, but was afraid.

Trevor slid into the pool and held out his arms to the child. “C’mon, Little Bit. Anyone who can do three cartwheels surely isn’t afraid of a little water.”

Bella scooted back rapidly, looking very close to tears now. “No. I don’t want to.”

“It’s okay, Bella, you don’t have to this time,” Jade said quickly. She needed to make it clear to Trevor that she didn’t want Bella pressured or embarrassed by her fear. “Maybe another day before we move into our house. But only if you want to.”

Catching on quickly, Trevor smiled at the child, though Jade wondered if she detected just a touch of disapproval in his expression. Did he think she should have pushed the child harder to overcome her fear—or was Jade merely being overly defensive? Either way, decisions like that were hers to make, she told herself firmly. She’d been doing just fine on her own, and she needed no advice from an overconfident bachelor.

“It’s fine, kiddo,” Trevor said, and there were no such thoughts mirrored in his tone. “Maybe you’d like to play in that patch of grass over there? You can practice your cartwheels or look for ladybugs.”

Looking relieved, Bella jumped to her feet and rushed away from the pool.

Jade had probably overreacted to the very brief exchange. Was she a little worried that Bella seemed so enamored with Trevor? She didn’t think that was an unfounded concern. Bella had recently seemed very aware of the lack of a father in her life, maybe from observations of friends who lived with two parents. Jade didn’t want her most emotionally vulnerable child to weave unrealistic fantasies that would only leave her disappointed.

Trevor looked at Jade, his expression somber. “She’s really afraid of the water, huh?”

Trying to put her possibly overblown misgivings from her mind, Jade nodded. “She is. I considered enrolling her in swim classes, thinking it might help, but the very suggestion upset her so much I didn’t have the heart to make her go. I thought maybe I’d try again next summer.”

“Your other two certainly aren’t afraid,” he observed, watching Caleb and Erin frolicking in the waterfall. “They swim like dolphins.”

“Yes, well, that’s because their father had them in the water as soon as they could walk.” Jade pushed a drying strand of hair from her eyes and glanced around at the kids. “Both of them could swim well before they were Bella’s age. She wasn’t quite a year old when he died, so he never got to spend time with her. I guess I fell down on the swimming training with her. Stephen was the athlete in the family, while I’m more the bookworm. It’s been a challenge to fill both roles since.”

“As busy as you are now, I’m sure you had your hands even more full for a while after he died,” Trevor replied.

“Three kids under eight,” she agreed quietly. “One not even walking yet.”

“I have a feeling swim lessons were low on your priority list.”

Which didn’t make her feel any less guilty that Caleb and Erin were having so much fun in the water while Bella played in the grass. That latent guilt also probably explained, at least in part, her reaction to Trevor’s attempted intervention.

“Mom, are you coming or not?” Erin demanded from the grotto entrance.

With a nod to Trevor, Jade kicked off from the pool wall and stroked toward the waterfall. By the time she came back out a short while later, Trevor was swimming laps from one side of the pool to the other, letting his arms pull him through the water rather than putting extra stress on his injured leg. And despite herself, she couldn’t help watching for a moment as the water rippled off his bare back and the waning sunlight glinted off his long arms. The man was well toned, there was no denying that. Not in the bulging-muscled, über-warrior physique Stephen had tried to maintain, but with the sleek body of a swimmer or a runner. Nice.

Shaking her head with a shower of glittering droplets, she climbed the steps out of the pool and called for her children.

“Time to get ready for dinner,” she said, motioning for Bella to join them. “That’s enough swimming for today.”

She expected a chorus of protests from her older two, but they gave only token sighs before following her out of the pool—a sign that the busy day had left even them tired.

She looked back from the doorway into the house to find that Trevor had paused in his swimming and was paddling lazily in the center of the deepest part of the pool. He was watching her again. He smiled when their eyes met, and she smiled back.

Chapter Three

THEY WOKE TO rain Tuesday morning, a condition predicted to last most of the day. Jade had breakfast with the children and Mary Pat, who told them she’d taken coffee and a muffin to Trevor in his home office. He was preparing for a business visit from his administrative assistant later that day, she added.

“He wanted to call a driver to take him to his resort office today, but Tamar, his assistant, insisted on bringing the work to him. I’m sure she knew she’d never be able to keep him seated with his leg up if he were there. He’d be out hobbling around on his crutches, making sure everything was running smoothly—as if he didn’t have a crackerjack staff taking care of that. The place runs just fine when he’s off visiting his other properties.”