Page 39 of Damned
Chapter Eighteen
“I’m just saying that, yes, I like Kruze. But I don’t know him well enough to jump into marriage.” Bree poured a splash of cream into her coffee. “Lord, Mom, give me a break.”
Her father nodded, his gray eyes serious, yet patient. “Understood. We’re not pushing marriage, Bree. Not at all. We’re just concerned. Your young man in there seems like a stand-up guy, and he did come here to meet his daughter. That says a lot about his character. Too many guys these days never step up to the plate to take care of their children. They take off at the first hint of responsibility. Look at the climbing rate of single mothers in this country. Make no mistake, that man intends to make you his. You heard him. And he served his country, Bree. For the love of God, he was a Navy SEAL.”
Her father seemed overly impressed with Kruze’s military service. Bree was not. “Not all SEALs make good husbands, Dad. For Pete’s sake, they have the highest divorce rate in the country. I’m not rushing into anything just because he got me pregnant.”
“Now, now, don’t be short with your father.” Her mother reached across the table and patted her arm. “We’re just trying to help.”
“Boo!” Robin shrieked from the doorway, where she leaned out of Kruze’s arms like a little monkey. She was peering through her fingers, her hands still up to her face. “Ha! I scared you, Mommy! You jumped! I saw you! Ha, ha!”
“You did scare me,” Bree exclaimed with a touch less enthusiasm. How long had Kruze been standing there, and what had he heard? His leather jacket was slung over one shoulder. Was he leaving? So soon?Well, didn’t that just figure?
“Boo Who?” Her father stood and poked Robin’s tummy, making her giggle. Not like she could fall out of Kruze’s capable hands. He seemed to know just how to handle that little girl, and he was grinning like a cat that ate the canary, feathers, feet, toenails, and all. He was up to something. Bree could tell.
“I just heard back from my boss,” he said, those green eyes of his sharp and too authoritarian for Bree’s liking. “We need to talk. You got a minute, sugar?”
“Sure,” she replied indifferently.
“You called Mommy sugar,” Robin said brightly. “Is she sweet? Like me?”
He nuzzled his nose into the corner of her neck and shoulder, making her wiggle. “Sweetheart, no one’s as sweet as you, but Mommy comes really close.”
Her father reached for Robin. “Let me take that sleepy girl off your hands. Come on, kiddo. It’s past your bedtime, and you’re not looking too chipper.”
“No, Grampa, I don’t want to go to bed,” Robin whined as she curled her body more fully into her father’s chest. “I’m staying with Mister Kruze. He’s my boyfriend, too, and he says I’m sweet.”
Bree would’ve slapped the tender look off Kruze’s face if he hadn’t spoken up and told Robin, “But your Mommy and me need to talk for a minute. You keep Nana and Grampa company until Mommy and I get back, okay?”
“Oh. Okay,” Robin replied, as if she’d do anything just because he asked. “But just one minute. Then come right back.”
“We may need a little more time than that.”
Robin crossed her arms over her chest and huffed like the little tyrant Bree knew she could be. “Well, okay, but I want you to tuck me into bed tonight. Just you. Okay?”
“You bet, sweetheart.” The oddest light cracked Kruze’s manly face when he passed her off to her grandpa. Bree had to look away. Love at first sight was real. She was witnessing it in action.
Kruze stretched a hand for Bree. “Walk with me?” he asked, an adorably cute, boyish smile on that manly, clean-shaven face. Now she knew where Robin got her charm. This guy was full of it.
“Sure,” Bree replied as she clasped his fingers. “Let’s go sit on the front porch.”
She intended to lead the way, but Kruze didn’t let her step around him, and he seemed to know right where to go. Not like her parents’ massive front door was hard to miss, but he was doing it again. Taking command. Leading her. Bree’s thin hold on common sense weakened with every step. He did it again when he closed the door and gestured for her to sit beside him on the steps, instead of in the comfy, homemade rocking chairs her mother had picked up at one of the local antique shops.
Bree settled to the top step. Darned if he didn’t float his leather jacket over her shoulders. Needing space just to think clearly, she edged away from him. Just that fast, Kruze reached one long muscled arm around her and pulled her back into his side and under his arm.
“Don’t start on me,” she warned him, even as the masculine scent of his body lifted up from all the folds of that delicious leather. Her traitorous nostrils flared wider to catch every last pheromone.
He pressed a breathy kiss in her hair. “Not starting anything, Bree. Thanks for letting me meet Robin. I don’t deserve it, but I can’t tell you what she means to me. She’s something else.”
Bree swallowed hard, needing more than just that tiny kiss. She’d held onto her hurt and anger for so long, it felt disloyal sitting there chatting about her illegitimate baby girl with that baby’s absentee father. Weirdly, jealousy had lifted its head and poked one long, crooked finger at her. Kruze had been out of Robin’s life for years. Bree wasn’t sure she wanted him in it now. He’d done nothing to earn that little girl’s love. For heaven’s sake, all he’d done was just—JUST—show up. He’d missed every last one of Robin’s smelly diapers, her middle of the night earache, the single nightmare she’d had when she’d watched Ghostbusters, of all things. Bree had her father to blame for that. Yet Robin had readily and eagerly accepted Kruze—as if he hung the moon in the sky. She already loved her father. How could Bree hurt her?
Bree shifted her butt on the cold concrete step, not sure why she was edgy. She didn’t have to earn Robin’s love. That was a given. She’d die for that sweetheart. Every good mother knew that.
Kruze rubbed his palm up her arm. “Sorry, sugar. I know I’ve put you in an awkward position tonight, but…” His chest swelled with a deep breath.
“Don’t,” she told him before he launched into reasons for being anything more than an on-again/off-again visitor in Robin’s life. “I don’t need anything from you, and I’m not asking. Don’t think for one moment that’s what this visit is about. It isn’t. I’ve done fine financially without you these past years.”Not emotionally, but you don’t get to just show up and act like you never left.
“Yes, you have. I can see that. You’ve done great, and your parents adore Robin. I’m proud of you. So proud. You remind me of my mom. She had a deadbeat husband, too.”
