He let out his breath, wishing she’d come and congratulated him, or something.
He figured she would return to her apartment once he was gone. He hated the way they had ended their short-term relationship, despite the fact that neither had expected to have anything more than this.
Yet…he had wanted…more.
1
Nearly five years later
Jack was thrilled to go home for a month to see his family near Branson, Missouri. What he really wanted to do was visit Dottie Hamilton, though he knew she lived in Yuma Town still. Her Aunt Emily did live here and her home was located not far from where his family’s home was situated on a lake. He hoped to meet with her and learn what had happened to Dottie the last few years. Aunt Emily had been out of town the last three times he’d been home. Which wasn’t often. He hoped Dottie hadn’t married and had kids—and was settled in with one big happy family. Well, not that he wouldn’t want her to have a happy family. He’d been hopeful that when he finished his service obligation, she’d still be available to renew their relationship.
The problem was he was still in the military, still had a service obligation, and she was completely against being a military wife and having to move all over the country, or overseas. He understood that, never having had a military family or having to move around a lot. Yet, that had been some of the intrigue for him. He had also incurred the service obligation for attending four years of AROTC, most of which he’d worked at long before he met Dottie. Mainly, she hadn’t wanted him to get himself killed in some war, leaving her a widow, just like her cousin had done with his wife and three kids.
Jack had only been home for an hour, listening to his mother, Lisa, talk about her garden club and his sister talk about her new boyfriend. Roberta was twenty-seven, like him, his younger twin, and she always had a new boyfriend. He didn’t think she’d ever settle down.
Well, him either. In the last nearly five years, he’d dated a lot while he was away in the army. He could never stop thinking about Dottie, his first and only real love. He realized early on he’d lost his heart to her.
“I need to run to the store.” He wanted to pick up some things to eat that he liked and drop by and see Aunt Emily.
His mother was browsing through a garden catalogue and looked up at him.
Her blue eyes smiling, Roberta flipped a dark brown curl behind her back. “You’re going to see Dottie’s aunt. I know. It. You always do. Every time you visit.”
“Dottie and I would have been married if—“
“She hadn’t said no when you proposed to her. Give it up. You’re still in the military, and unless she’s changed her mind about being a military wife, you don’t stand a chance. Besides, by now, she’s probably married and raising a passel of cougar babies, and not waiting for you to come around.”
He let his breath out in exasperation. Roberta had never felt anything for a guy like he did about Dottie. She couldn’t understand.
“I’ll see you all later.”
“Coming home for lunch?” his mother asked.
“Nah. I’ll just grab something while I’m out. I might run by Royce’s house and see how he’s doing. Play some video games for a while. I’ll be back later.” Jack loved seeing his family, but he found visiting to be tedious after a few hours. No one wanted to hear about his job. He wasn’t interested in his mom’s prize irises, or Roberta’s string of boyfriends. When his dad returned home after dealing with computer support issues all day, he would talk with him. They actually both loved playing computer games, fishing, boating, and camping. So he’d always been close to his dad.
Before he went anywhere, he called Aunt Emily, hoping she was in good health, was here this time, and free to see him.
“Omigod, yes, come right over. Can you come right over?” Emily was so excited about hearing from him, she cheered him up right away. She’d always wanted Dottie to marry him, so maybe this was good news. Dottie must still be available. At least he hoped that was the reason for Emily’s enthusiasm.
“I’ll be right over.” Within twenty minutes, he was parking in the driveway of the little white French provincial style home, a white picket fence out front, red roses and red crepe myrtles all along the border. Her place was on the other side of the lake from where his parents lived. Emily didn’t even wait for him to get to the front brick walk before she was heading out to see him as if he were her long, lost son. He loved her, her dark brown hair graying at the temples, her smile contagious.
“You are a sight for sore eyes.” She gave him a big hug and took his hand to lead him inside. “If I’d had more warning, I would have baked your favorite blueberry muffins. No matter, I’ll do it now.”
He laughed. “I didn’t come over here to make you work.”
“Oh, I know. You came over to see me because you love me.” She smiled up at him. “And you love Dottie.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s the matter with my niece. She is so pig-headed about you being in the military. If I had been her, I would have married you in a heartbeat and even been fighting beside you in the field, protecting your back.”
“You’ve always been my favorite aunt.”
She laughed. “You don’t have one.”
“Sure I do. I adopted you the day I met you.”
They walked inside her comfortable home, and she led him into the kitchen. “Have you been in touch with her?”
“I tried a few times after I left. She didn’t reply. She had already told me she wasn’t interested. I know she was close to her cousin, and that affected the way she felt about the military.”
Aunt Emily sighed. “We all loved Buddy. That’s not a good enough reason to give you up. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to her.” She began making up the batter for the muffins. “Okay, listen. She might not have ever told you about her father. He’d also been in the military.”
Jack couldn’t believe it. “Don’t tell me he died in a conflict too.”
“Not a military conflict. He had an unaccompanied tour overseas, no family allowed to stay with him, except for short visits for the nine months he was over there. He hooked up with a woman—a married woman. When her husband discovered the adulterous affair, he killed both of them.”
“Hell.”
“Yeah. That’s another reason Dottie is so afraid of being a military wife. That her husband would have to go off on assignment and might pick up another woman. Even though it can happen in any line of business, or at home even. Still, her mother was affected horribly by it, and that affected Dottie. She was five at the time. Then her mother and Chase Buchanan’s parents were at a New Year’s party a year later, heading home. Their car hit ice and went into the river. The coroner pronounced them dead at the scene. Dottie lived with me then, taking trips back to Yuma Town to see her friends.”
“She didn’t reveal any of that to me. Whenever I tried to talk to her about her parents, she just said they’d died.”
“You can imagine it still is a sore subject for her. So how long are you going to be here this time?”
“A month. I just arrived a couple of hours ago.”
Aunt Emily stirred the blueberry muffin batter while Jack sat at the bar and watched. “That’s great news! I wish I could say Dottie was visiting around the same time as you. She hasn’t been here in a good long while.” Emily looked up from the bowl of batter. “She’s not married, but she’s been married.”
The way her aunt looked at him, frowning, he suspected it hadn’t been a good marriage. It sounded like they were no longer married either. So that was good news.
“He’d been in the military like you.”
That revelation had Jack’s ire stoked. She couldn’t marry him, but she could marry some other guy who was in the military? Maybe she really hadn’t felt anything for him after all.
“He’d already left the military when he met her, and he’d kept his past secret from her. She didn’t even know he’d been in,” Emily quickly said.
“It was a strange situation. She left here, went back to Yuma Town, and I don’t know, within the month, she married him. She said very little about him, just that he was making lots of money as a computer software salesman, and I was concerned that meeting him and marrying him was so sudden. She said she’d known him for some time before that. So I figured he was a college student. He wasn’t. I thought she must have met him in Yuma Town, and she had. I only learned much later that he wasn’t from there either.”
“Okay so you said they’re no longer married. How long have they been divorced?”
“He’s dead. Another cougar killed him to protect her and the…” Emily paused.
“Kids? She has kids? By him?” That changed everything. Jack realized she really wasn’t the same woman he’d known when they had attended college. She was no longer a never-been married, single cougar. She was a mother with…how many kids? Then he remembered the part about the guy being dead and that she’d needed protection from him. Hell. Jack would have taken the bastard out, and protected both her and the kids.
“Yeah. An adorable little boy and girl. You know, if I didn’t know better“—Emily paused to fill the muffin tins with batter—“I’d say they were yours. Just guessing. You know, the timing would have been right. Much more right than if her ex-husband had been the babies’ father. She didn’t meet him until well after you were gone. And she had the babies nine months after you left.”
Completely blind-sighted, Jack’s jaw dropped, and he stared at Emily as if she’d told him she knew he was a purple-horned unicorn—and she believed it.
Dottie Brown had been meaning to see her aunt and just that morning had been thinking about making the trip when Aunt Emily gave her a call at the Yuma Town sheriff’s department where Dottie was a dispatcher. She figured it was a good reminder to see her.
“Hey, I’m not getting any younger, you know. I haven’t seen the kids since they were babies. They’re four now, and old enough to ride some of the kiddy rides at the theme park. Why don’t you ask that boss of yours to give you some time off to see me? You know I’m terrified of flying and it’s too far for me to drive.”
“I wish you’d just move up here to Yuma Town and live with me or at least nearby.”
“I have too many friends here, and I have to visit your Uncle Jeff’s grave and my son’s once a week. I couldn’t bear to leave them. We’ll have fun. We always do. Even if you don’t want to see me, I’ve been dying to see my grand-niece and nephew. They’re all I have, you know. With Buddy gone, that was the end of me having any chance to have grandchildren.”
“Of course I want to see you. Honestly? I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.”
“Don’t just think about it. Tell me you’ll come. I’ll pay for your airfare even.”
“You don’t have—“
“I want to. Just confirm with your boss that you can take the time off, and we’ll have a load of fun.”
Dottie was excited about the prospect of seeing her aunt, and the kids getting to know her better. “I’ll give you a call right back.”
“Make it by Wednesday, will you? The weather’s perfect, and I don’t want to put this off any longer. You might change your mind.”
Dottie smiled. “I won’t change my mind. That’s only two days from now. I’ll have to see if the sheriff’s department can get another dispatcher to cover for me.”
“For two and a half weeks.”
“That’s kind of a long time. They might think I’m not coming back.”
“The Renaissance festival starts in another week, and I’ll get the kids’ costumes for it. They can use them for Halloween then. You never visit me. Please, come for a couple of weeks at least.”
“All right, all right.” How could Dottie say no when her aunt did love children. Dottie could really use a break and a change of setting for some plain old fun with the kids. It would be entertaining for all of them. “I’ll call you in a little while.”
As soon as she was on the phone to Dan, he gave her a hard time, teasing in his way. “We’ll never be able to manage without you.”
“Okay, so, just a week?”
“No way. You take the two and a half weeks. Three if you need them. We’ll be fine. You need to visit your aunt, and let her see Trish and Jeff before they’re all grown up. Time doesn’t sit still for anyone.”
“All right. If you get in a bind because I’m gone—“
“We’ll handle it. Stryker can drive you and the kids to the airport.”
“Wednesday is fine with you then?”
“Sure. And have fun. No thinking about work. Just enjoy your visit with your family.”
She never knew what was going on with Dan. He loved her kids and was good to her. Still, he was holding back concerning any real relationship with her. She thought she could live that way, just enjoying his company when they could both get together. She realized she really wanted more. She wanted a father for her children. A live-in daddy. A loving husband. A mate.
She was trying not to think about Jack’s service obligation and that it was nearly up, though she couldn’t help it. She’d never cared for another man like she did him. But so much time had passed, and so much had happened, she knew they were two very different people now.
She’d heard another Cougar Special Forces Division agent, who handled cougar-related issues, was coming into Yuma Town. She wondered if maybe he might be someone she could be interested in. The problem with Dan was they’d been friends since they were kids. She thought that might be the reason he was pulling away.
She sighed and called her aunt back. “Okay, Wednesday it is. Just let me know the flight times and we’ll be on our way down there in a couple of days.”
“Oh, I’m so thrilled. We’ll have so much fun. I’ll send it to you in just a minute. Bye, honey. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Within minutes Dottie had the itinerary in her email. Her aunt had scheduled her for a flight at six Wednesday morning? Ugh. Didn’t her aunt remember Dottie had two little kids to take to the airport?
She hoped they didn’t miss their flight.
Emily gave Jack a thumbs up. “She’s coming. Now don’t you dare fight with her when they get here. I want her to visit with me, not return home right away.”
Jack couldn’t believe Emily had managed to pull this off. He was thrilled.
“No mentioning the kids might be yours. There’s time enough for that later. She’s had to adjust to a lot of major changes in her life since you saw her last. She’s not the same person at all. Having the twins, a failed marriage, nearly losing her house, reinventing herself with her new job as a police dispatcher, and the ex coming back to threaten her has changed her.”
He didn’t care. He realized some time ago that he loved her and had always loved her. “Has she been seeing anyone since the ex was out of her life?” He worried that she might already have someone new she was seeing and that being away in the army for three and a half more months could mean he’d lose out. Not that he could do anything about the time he had left in the service.
“She’s been seeing a few guys. Nothing in the least bit serious. Not everyone wants to marry a woman, or a man, and then have to help raise someone else’s kids. The thing of it is though, she’s fine on her own. She supports herself. So she really doesn’t need anyone else in her life right now. Just remember that. You have two and a half weeks to convince her she wants you no matter what else is holding her back from marrying you.” Emily shrugged. “Though the two of you might not care for each other after all of this time. Which would be a crying shame. In which case, I get to see my adorable grand-niece and nephew anyway. If she does want to go out with you, I’ll be the perfect babysitter for the kids.” She tilted her head in question. “What about this business with the army? Do you plan to make it a career?”
“I have three and a half more months left on my service obligation. If she’s not interested, I’ll stay in. I know it’s hard t
o have a long-distance relationship that works. If she feels anything for me like I feel for her, I want to give it a shot. If she wants to make a go of it, then maybe we can make it happen this time.” He didn’t know what else he would work at if he left the army. Would she still want to live in Yuma Town? He figured he wouldn’t be able to get a computer science type job there. He’d only ever thought about staying with the military. And being with Dottie. He couldn’t believe she had kids that could be his and she hadn’t told him about them. Then again, he could. He was certain she would have worried that he’d want partial custody to take them away from her so he had time to get to know them, if she wasn’t interested in being with him. “Is she still in Yuma Town?”
All he knew was that if they were his kids, he wanted to be part of their lives too.
“Yeah. After you left, she ended up returning to Yuma Town, met Jeffrey Brown, married him, divorced him, and she hasn’t left. She loves it there and has lots of close friends. Like I have close friends here. I’m not sure that she’d want to move the kids to somewhere else. It’s a great cougar community, from what she’s told me. Out here? Not so much. I mean, it’s perfect to run in the wilderness as cougars, but it’s nice having a bunch of cougars to help out. Especially when you have kids. There are other cougar kids to play with and she’s had a lot of help with taking care of them while she’s had to work.”
If they could get their relationship back on track, he’d be thrilled if he could provide her enough support that she could stay home with the kids. As long as that’s what she wanted. “The guy’s name was Jeffrey?”
“Yeah. She thought one of the reasons she liked her husband was because of his name. She adored her Uncle Jeff. I guess she thought this guy would be nice like him, and he probably treated her well while they dated. I met him once. He didn’t care for me. I think it was because I could see clean through him. That he was hiding who he really was from her. I really believe she felt pressured to marry because she was pregnant, and hopeful that it would work out. I shouldn’t be telling you this, but her son’s middle name is Alexander.”