Protecting Melissa (Holiday Cove 4)

Chase’s blue truck came into view in the congested traffic and I flagged him down when he got close. He pulled into the lot and stopped along the curb. He hopped out and raced around to open the door for me before I could object. As I slid into the passenger seat, Jackson proudly held up his triple scoop chocolate ice cream cone.

“Oh my!” I glanced at Chase as he got back behind the wheel and he gave me a guilty smirk. “Can I have a bite?”

“Of course, silly!” Jackson handed me the cone and I licked at it. It took me a second but I realized Chase was watching me suck the ice cream instead of putting the truck in drive. I rolled my eyes at him playfully before reaching around to hand Jackson his cone back. “You’re impossible,” I teased.

“I was waiting till you got buckled,” he retorted.

I laughed and clicked into my seat.

“Safety first!” Jackson added around a mouthful of his dessert. Chase arched a brow at me.

This was going to be an adventure for sure. I rubbed my belly and started hoping for a girl. I needed one more on my team.

“I made reservations at the Western Skies. Do you know it?”

Chase plugged it into his GPS and we took off. “How did the meeting go?” he asked when we merged onto the highway.

“Overwhelming.” I sighed. “I’ll tell you later.”

Chase nodded and Jackson filled the silence by suggesting a sing-along of some of his favorite pirate songs which continued until we got to the hotel.

I’d booked a suite with three rooms, secretly hoping that Chase would decide to stay with us. I knew he wasn’t going anywhere—he was committed to raising our child together—but we also hadn’t had much of a chance to seriously talk about the logistics of how it would all work out.

“Yowzers,” Chase said as we shuffled into the room. The suite was at the top of the high-rise hotel and gave breathtaking views of the city below from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

“Hey! Sweetie don’t touch anything. Your hands and face…well, everything really…is sticky!”

Chase laughed under his breath as I tried to wrangle Jackson. “I think I’m going to take him off for a bath. Are you going to be here…?”

“I’m going to go drop my stuff at Matt’s and grab a shower. But I can come back over a little later if you want to do dinner together.”

I nodded. “I’d like that.”

“All right. Your new phone is on the table out here, okay? My number is programmed in. See ya later, buddy!” he called to Jackson who was running down the hall toward one of the bedrooms. I waved at him and then tore off after my son. As I corralled him into the bathroom, I heard the front door close and latch.

I stifled the tears as I realized I was on my own again.

After his bath, Jackson wanted to catch up with one of his TV shows—now that we had the option for cartoons in English—and I set him up in one of the bedrooms with his show and a plate of mac and cheese that I ordered up from room service. Chase had texted me to let me know he was hunkered down at Matt’s, waiting for traffic to die down a little.

By the time I checked back on Jackson, his show was playing the credits and he was asleep against the pillows I’d propped up behind him. I sneaked into the room and turned off the TV. I cleared his dishes and pulled the blanket up a little higher on his chest before leaving him to sleep. I knew he hadn’t had a good night of sleep on the boat and after three busy travel days, he needed his rest.

I left his room and went back to the sitting room and picked at the magazines and books displayed on the coffee table. Nothing interested me but mindlessly flipping through magazines was better than worrying about the millions of thoughts raging inside my mind.

Around eight o’clock, there was a knock at the door, and I went to answer it. Chase appeared on the other side of the security peephole, a big grin on his face. I opened the door and he took a step inside. “Room service,” Chase said, holding up two bags of take-out. The spicy smell wafted from the warm bags and I licked my lips. “Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. There was a pileup on the highway.”

“It’s okay.” I popped up on the balls of my feet to kiss him briefly on the lips. He looked startled and glanced around behind me. “He’s conked out already.”

“Oh,” Chase said, a dark smile taking the place of his playful grin.

I laughed and tugged on his arm to haul him inside the hotel room. “You’re amazing, do you know that?”