Page 16 of Curves and Cradles

“You’re the one who walked away yesterday.” He comes closer, his eyes again straying to the bed behind me. It’s then that I remember I have peanut butter smeared on my shirt, and my messy bun may have stray glitter dispersed throughout. But what I look like doesn’t matter. I tear my eyes from his ridiculously broad chest and defined arms. Seriously, can’t he find T-shirts that fit his biceps?

“I tried.” I take a cleansing breath. “I tried to tell you when I first found out I was pregnant. But no one on your base would relay a message to you because I wasn’t family.”

He swallows visibly and nods. “So, she’s not quite two?”

“Eighteen months.”

“Right.” He blows out a breath. “You’re right. I don’t have any reason to be angry. I’m sorry.” He comes to stand in front of me. “I just freaked out and of course they wouldn’t give me the message. I’ve been on classified missions ever since.”

I grab a random piece of laundry to put something between us.

“Janie, you have no idea how many times I thought about you while I was gone. How many times I took myself in hand to try to work you out of my mind.”

I shake my head and hold up a hand. “No! You’re not doing that seduction thing. ‘I’ll keep in touch, Janie. I’ll call, Janie. You’re the kind of girl a guy can come home to.’ Remember that, Kevin? Or is that the shit you whisper to all the girls you bring back to your hotel room?”

“I don’t know what to say to that. There are no other girls. And there haven’t been since you.”

My heart comes to a screeching halt. “Do you honestly expect me to believe you haven’t slept with another woman for two years? You? With all that?” I gesture to his entire person.

“I don’t know what that means.”

I roll my eyes. “Do you think I’m an idiot? There’s no possible way that women don’t throw their underwear at you on a regular basis.”

His lips quirk in a grin. “It’s the truth. I haven’t slept with anyone since I met you.” He winces and pinches the bridge of his nose. “I never even had the urge. Every woman I saw, all I knew was that they weren’t you.”

My heart pounds and my mind whirls with the possibilities of what his words mean. “Well, whatever. It still doesn’t explain why you said those things which sounded like promises, but then I…” I pause and shake my head. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. Wherever you were, whatever you were doing, you obviously didn’t think I was important enough to contact.”

“Had I known what was going on back here, I would have made an effort sooner. Truthfully, I wanted to be with you. I knew that an email or a phone call would’ve only made me want you more, and there was no way I could get to you. So, I waited until I had more time to spend with you. Then I got injured, and now here I am.”

More like he waited until he didn’t have anything better to do than come back to the awkward girl he seduced in Texas.

“But now I know about Stella, and we can plan our future,” he adds.

Did he just sayfuture? With a straight face? “Hold up. What future?”

“Us. Our family.” He gives me a soft smile before falling quiet. “I’m not sure if I told you I grew up in the foster care system. Aged out.”

“What does that mean?”

“I was never adopted.”

My heart stutters. I’ve had students in similar situations, and it’s always heartbreaking.

“I’m well and truly on my own, or I was until I joined the Navy,” he continues. “Anyway, I always promised myself that if I ever had a kid, I’d do whatever it took to be the best dad possible.”

“You want to get to know Stella?” I’ve never considered that as an option—having Kevin in Stella’s life. Well, I did initially when I found out I was pregnant. I had fantasies about him coming back and finding out and us making things work. But those fantasies were fueled by bizarre pregnancy-induced horniness.

“I want us to be a family,” he says, and my confusion must be apparent because he takes my hands in his. “Janie, marry me.”

“What? We don’t even know each other.”

“We’ll get to know each other. It’s the right thing to do.”

“In the eighteenth century, but not anymore. No one is worried about my reputation.” That isn’t entirely true, but most of the rumors and whispers stopped once Stella turned one, and people stopped asking where her baby daddy was.

“I’m not having my kid floating around without my name. I’ll honor my responsibilities.”

“She’s notyourresponsibility. She’s mine, and we’re doing fine.” I cross my hands over my chest. “If you want to get to know your daughter, that’s one thing, but I’m not marrying you.”

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