Page 16 of Abigail
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Holy smokes!Abigail thinks as she drives away from Robert standing in the hotel parking lot. She is overwhelmed with how well the evening went with Robert and his friends. He’d come by the check-in station to drop off a sleeping Ellie and an exhausted Sara after they’d had an adventurous afternoon at the pool. Seeing Robert carrying a sleeping Ellie tucked into the crook of his neck made her heart skip a beat. Ellie has never been around men other than Brent at work or a worker at the daycare.
Abigail has never felt comfortable enough to leave Ellie long enough to really date. She knows that Ellie needs a father figure in her life, but Abigail has been too afraid to let anyone get close to them. She went out once in the last year, but she felt absolutely nothing for the man. He’d been nice enough, but Abigail suspected he was married. He’d been staying at the hotel for a convention. His reservation was for a week and he’d been there for three days when he’d asked her to have dinner. She’d only accepted after Sharon found out about it and insisted Abigail go and she would keep Ellie for her. Sharon was shocked when Abigail arrived back at the apartment complex before ten p.m. Sharon had scolded her and told her she needed to get over Ellie’s dickhead father. Sharon had had no idea the ‘dickhead’ is dead. Abigail has never shared her story with anyone. She trusts Sharon but not enough to share that bit of information. She has to protect herself and, more importantly, Ellie.
Abigail has resigned herself to being alone for the rest of her natural life. At least, she had until Robert showed up. Now she is thinking that maybe being a nun isn’t really her thing after all. The man has awakened her sex drive for sure, but more than that, seeing him and his friends together and how well the men treat their women, it makes her want more. To maybe dream once again of the white picket fence with kids playing in the yard.
Later as she lays in her bed after getting Ellie tucked safely into bed, Abigail allows herself to dream of a life she never thought would be a possibility. Robert has made her rethink her ban on military men and on dating in general. She knows she’s being silly. He’s only here for a couple of weeks. He lives in North Carolina, way too close to her past for her to even consider it, but a girl can dream at least for the next two weeks.
Ten days later…
Abigail is flying high on cloud nine. She knows she’s being absurd. She’s only known Robert for less than two weeks, but he’s been more than she could ever imagine. He’s so thoughtful and considerate. He’s gone out of his way to make her feel safe, and while he takes every opportunity to touch her in subtle ways, he’s not pushed her for more. She’s getting a little worried though because he will be leaving soon. He’s supposed to leave in three short days. Every time she’s mentioned it, he changes the subject. His face gets hard, and his jaw ticks. Abigail is beginning to feel he’s dreading leaving her as much as she is dreading it, but that’s ridiculous of her to think, too. She’s allowing her heart to get the better of her and she needs to calm it down. She’s only going to end up getting hurt. It’s already too late to prevent that. She can already feel pain at the thought of never seeing him again.
Abigail, Sara, and Ellie head out to the employee parking lot a little after five. Sara came to work with her and Ellie today as she didn’t have school, and Sharon is sleeping after her shift last night. Abigail and Sharon feel it is better for Sara to be at the hotel than taking a chance that the men Sara saw in the alley are still trying to find her. They haven’t seen anything suspicious since then, but there’s been news stories about a missing woman, and Sara swore that’s the woman she saw. Sara wanted to call the police and tell them what she’d seen, but Sharon had put her foot down that they wouldn’t be getting involved. Abigail feels bad for the missing woman, but she is secretly relieved that she doesn’t have to be involved with the police.
The trio heads across town to their crummy apartment complex. Sharon is up and has prepared supper for Sara. She thanks Abigail for walking Sara to their apartment. She asks if they want to join her for supper, but Abigail and Ellie are heading back to the hotel to have dinner with Straw and his friends. They have eaten with them every night. They have eaten at different restaurants in the area, but tonight they are dining at the hotel again. Robert has told her that many of the men and women they have been meeting with over the week and a half will be in attendance. The place will be packed. Abigail is worrying about seeing the Admiral again, but she hasn’t seen him around since that first day. Now she’s mostly convinced herself she imagined him. It was just a reaction to all the men in uniform that caused her to have a momentary hallucination. A product of her fear.
Abigail enters their apartment with Ellie in tow. She puts on cartoons for Ellie to watch then heads into her bathroom to begin getting ready. She showers and after drying off she stands in front of her closet in her bra and panties. She can’t decide what to wear. Robert has already seen every outfit she has that is decent enough to wear to dinner at the hotel restaurant. She doesn’t have a lot of clothes and certainly none that are considered formal attire. Just her uniforms she wears to work. After several long minutes, she is still debating when Ellie wanders into her room.
“Momma, what you doing? I’m getting hungry,” Ellie whines. Abigail smiles down at the child. Ellie is always hungry. For her to be so small, she can eat a lot.
“Okay, sweetie I am going to get dressed, and I’ll fix you a small snack.” Ellie frowns in disappointment at this. Abigail smiles down at her daughter. “We are going back to the hotel to have dinner with our friends again. I don’t want to give you a big snack and spoil your dinner.”
Ellie’s eyes light up in excitement. “We are going to see Josh and Jessie again?” Ellie peers up at Abigail with big, bright eyes. The kids have gotten close over the last ten days. Abigail worries how Ellie is going to take it when they have to head back to their home in North Carolina. She’s tried to remind Ellie at every opportunity that the kids and their parents are only visiting and will have to return home soon. However, it’s difficult for a four-year-old to gasp that concept.
“Yes, now scoot so I can get my clothes on.” Abigail laughs softly and pats Ellie on her back. “You can put some toys in your backpack to take with you, if you like.” Ellie runs to her bedroom to grab some of her favorite toys.
Abigail turns back toward the closet, frowning. Why is she so worried about what she will wear? She hasn’t ever been worried about her clothes before. It’s Robert. He is the reason she is having such a hard time. It has been a very long time since she has cared what someone would think of her. She huffs out a large breath. She is being foolish. It’s not important what he thinks. She just needs to put on some damn clothes and stop worrying about it. Fifteen minutes later, she has finally chosen a pair of black slacks, which hug her hips just right. She has paired them with a wine-colored blouse. It is short sleeved with a V-neck that shows just a hint of her ample cleavage. She slips on a pair of sensible black pumps.
In the kitchen, she fixes Ellie some apple slices with peanut butter and a glass of water. Abigail doesn’t really worry about spoiling her appetite for dinner. Ellie will be more than ready to eat again by the time dinner is served. The child eagerly downs her snack as she chatters about her afternoon. Sara had taken her and the boys to the pool again, along with Charlotte, Lisa, Emma, Daisy, and Elise. She’d had fun at the pool. She goes on and on about how the twin boys had splashed each other. Then they had splashed her and Sara, but she didn’t mind because she had splashed them, too. Abigail smiles as she listens to the little girl ramble on and on about playing treasure hunting in the pool. Sara had brought some pretend jewels and dropped them in the shallow end of the pool. The children had taken turns diving under the water to find the ‘treasure’.
“Josh and Jessie are boys, but I like them anyway. Kari says boys are yucky, but I don’t mind playing with them,” Ellie says as a matter of fact. “They like a lot of the same stuff I do, so that’s why I like them.”
“Is that right?” Abigail smiles at the small child’s harmless chatter. Ellie nods at her.
“Yeah, Kari says I’m weird because I’m a girl and like to play with super heroes, dinosaurs, and cars. She says those are boy toys,” Ellie explains. Abigail eyes her daughter closely, but Ellie doesn’t look upset.
“What do you think about what she said?” Abigail asks feeling concerned that Kari might have made her independent tomboy daughter feel bad about herself.
“Well, at first it kinda made me mad, but then I remembered you told me that everyone is entitled to their own ideas. So, I guess that is Kari’s idea and she can think that if she wants to, but that’s not what I think. I told Kari that I like girl stuff and boy stuff too,” Ellie replies. “And there’s nothing weird about that.” The child says simply, “I still play dolls with Kari, but I can play with super heroes and cars, too.”
Ellie’s face is the picture of innocence despite the topic of conversation and the potential for feelings to be hurt. Abigail smiles to herself at her daughter’s simplistic view of things. It’s too bad the whole world can’t be more like her daughter. They should be willing that people can have their own opinions but not try to force them on everyone around them or treat them badly because their views don’t align perfectly.
Abigail checks her watch. It is almost 7:30; time to get going so they won’t be late. “Come on sweetie. Let’s go see our friends,” Abigail tells the child as she mentally wonders what has gotten into her that she has allowed herself to get so involved with anyone, much less someone that in the military. She feels like she is just asking for trouble, but at the same time, she feels drawn to Robert and his group of friends. There is something so familiar and comforting about him. Yet she can’t seem to figure out why. She might be making a huge mistake, but when she thinks about not going, she feels sad like she’d be missing out on something really important.
Ellie jumps down out of her chair and hurries into her room. She emerges a few moments later with her backpack on her back and a happy smile on her face. No sign that she in the least upset about Kari thinking she’s weird for liking boys or their toys. It crosses Abigail’s mind, not for the first time either, that when Ellie gets to be a teenager, Abi will have her hands full and then some.
They arrive at the hotel with time to spare. Abigail parks in the employee parking lot. She gets Ellie from her booster seat and leads her into the hotel. Abigail enters the lobby and begins to head toward the restaurant. As they are nearing the elevator section of the lobby, the doors open and suddenly Robert and several of his friends are stepping out of the elevator.
Abigail’s breath is sucked from her body at the sight in front of her. Robert and his male friends are in military dress uniform. It’s almost too much to take in. All the men are well built and handsome, but in uniform-Damn!They’re smoking hot. The dark blue uniforms of the Marines with the red contrast are eye catching. Couple that with the tailor fit over the men’s perfectly formed god-like bodies, and you have a panty dropping moment. Women all over the lobby are turning to stare as the men enter the main throughfare leading to the restaurant.
Robert is by far the most handsome of the group, but she can’t deny that all the men in the group are super hot. Robert hasn’t noticed her yet, so Abigail takes her time studying him. His chiseled jawline is perfectly defined with strong high cheek bones. His smooth-shaven face is absolutely lick worthy. His gorgeous bluish-grey eyes with lashes longer than should be allowed on a male could easily drive a woman insane. Pair all that with his well-defined muscled body, it really should be illegal for a man to look that good.Lordy! Lordy!Her female organs have definitely taken notice and are doing cartwheels in her abdomen.
Suddenly he turns. When his eyes land on Abigail, his face lights up in a panty-melting smile. Heaven help her; his hotness level quadrupled, which she didn’t think was even possible until he smiled. He begins to prowl, yes, prowl toward her and Ellie. Abigail feels like prey being stalked by a predator, but she doesn’t fear him. Oh, no, she wants to be his prey and is having some seriously inappropriate thoughts about what he might do when he catches her. That in and of itself is a red flag. It is flapping like crazy to get her attention, but she is too busy swooning over the Greek god before her to pay it any attention. A smart woman would turn tail and run but not Abigail. Oh no, she has to stick around and take in the show. More than likely, this will end as they all have in the past, with her heart broken and dreams shattered, but as the old saying goes there’s a fine line between a genius and an idiot. Abigail being the latter when it comes to men and relationships. She just can’t seem to help herself, especially when it comes to Robert. That feeling of being drawn to him is different than any she has ever felt before. It reminds her of the song she heard on the radio on the way over.More than gravityby Colin and Caroline. The song seems to fit them to a tee.
“Abigail.” Robert’s rumbling voice causes shivers to run down her spine. A response she is unable to control, and Robert notices it. As if he can read her mind and all the dirty thoughts running through it, he has the nerve to give her a wink, letting her know that he knows exactly what is on her mind. She feels her face heat, and then he smirks at her.Seriously! Ugh!Cocky man. Unfortunately for her, that is just her type. It gets her motor running even faster. Can you say red flag?
“You look beautiful, sweetheart,” Robert says as he reaches her and Ellie. He leans in and plants a kiss on Abigail’s temple, again, causing her body to tremble at his nearness. This time however, he gives her a reprieve and doesn’t let on that he’s noticed. He surprises the crap out of her when he wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her close to his side. He holds her a moment, like he just needs to feel her touching him as much as she needs to feel him. Then he releases her and kneels down to talk with Ellie.
