Mommy Loves The Military Man

Prologue

Lizzie darted out the door as soon as the bell rang for recess. The last fifteen minutes of class had been so long. Why did they have to study math? It made no sense to her. But class was over now, and she got to play with Mariana. Thank God her new best friend had moved to town over the summer. Lizzie had seen her across the playground on the first day of school, slumped in a swing, kicking at the dirt while all the other girls huddled and gossiped in the corner. Those girls were mean, talking about other people. So, Lizzie had asked the dark-haired girl if she could swing with her.

The girl’s eyes lit up. Lizzie knew right away that they would be friends. And by the end of that recess, they had made plans to sit together at lunch.

Lizzie screeched when she saw Mariana across the playground. “Mariana!”

Mariana ran up and hugged Lizzie like she hadn’t seen her just yesterday. Lizzie didn’t mind. After feeling like the outsider for the past few years, the girl from California who didn’t quite fit in Virginia, Lizzie finally had a best friend. Mariana grabbed Lizzie’s hand and started running. “I saved you a swing.”

Lizzie and Mariana plopped down side-by-side and started kicking their legs. A few minutes later, Lizzy was no longer worried about long division. “Whew, I’m so glad class is over. Mrs. Simmons was in a bad mood today.”

“Mrs. Martin was no better. She made us recite our parts of speech all morning. Blech.”

Lizzie would spend all day in English class if she could. She loved to read and write stories. For Mariana, English was tough, but she loved math. They were like two pieces of a puzzle that fit together perfectly. “My mom made me sit at the table last night and work long division problems for thirty whole minutes. What is it about grownups?”

Mariana smiled at Lizzie but the twinkle faded. Her mom had died a few years back. It was just her and her dad.

“Maybe we can have a sleepover this weekend.” Lizzie had been bugging Mom since the day she’d met Mariana to have her over. Mom hadn’t said no, but she was so busy that she hadn’t had time to make the arrangements. Or at least that was what she said.

“Really? That would be great. But I don’t know if my dad will let me. He doesn’t want me to go anywhere. I wish I had a mom like yours.”

“If you had my mom, we’d be sisters.” That would be perfect. Yes, Lizzie complained about her mother. But nothing was better than having Mom kiss her head each night when she went to bed. And knowing Mom would be there when she woke up in the morning.

“Your mom makes the best chocolate cupcakes.” Mariana kicked the ground and spun herself on the swing. “Do you think she’ll bring them to the next class party?”

Lizzie’s mom didn’t have much time to volunteer at school, but Lizzie had convinced Mom to help the teacher at the monthly birthday party so she could meet Mariana. Mom had agreed that Lizzie’s friend was awesome.

As Lizzie kicked her feet and pulled them back, inspiration struck. “Oh, my gosh, I’ve got a great idea.”

Mariana dug her heels into the ground and stopped her swing. “What? Tell me.”

“You don’t have a mom. If we were sisters, like we want, then my mom would be your mom…”

Mariana picked up on where Lizzie was going. “… and my dad would be your dad.”

“Wouldn’t that be great?”

Mariana’s face fell. “But my dad doesn’t even know your mom. They’d have to get married for us to be sisters.”

“Exactly. Isn’t that great? Not only would I get a sister, my mom would have a new husband.”

Mariana shook her head. “I don’t know. My dad works a lot. I don’t think he wants a new wife.”

“Sure he does. This is going to be great. Here’s what we have to do.” Lizzie whispered in Mariana’s ear. As Lizzie explained her plan, Mariana’s eyes widened. Soon, she pitched in with ideas of her own, and by the end of their conversation, Mariana’s head was bobbing up and down.

Perfect. Now they had a plan.

Chapter One

Driving to her daughter’s school was the last thing Cameron Baldwin wanted to be doing right now. She was knee-deep in debugging an especially tricky web site for her newest customer. But instead of sitting at home in her yoga pants and ancient T-shirt, concentrating on her computer monitor, she was trying to obey the speed limit on the two-mile drive to Clara Barton Elementary. In those same yoga pants and T-shirt with her hair pulled up into two messy buns that looked more like the badly trimmed bushes in her yard than the cute style kids were wearing now.

To pick up Lizzie. Who shouldn’t have missed the bus in the first place. On the one day Cameron’s mom was completely unavailable to help since it was her monthly spa day.

Why were there so many cars on the road at two-thirty on a Wednesday afternoon? School was already out and nobody should be coming or going to lunch.

It made no sense. Cameron had a conference call in thirty-five minutes. She didn’t have time to deal with extra traffic. Thankfully the rain had let up, or she’d have a whole additional set of problems. People in St. Judith did not know how to drive in the rain.

The car in front of her stopped the minute the traffic light turned yellow. Cameron slammed on the brakes… and her cup went flying and doused her with water. She gestured to the car in front of her. Like they could see her back here. It didn’t matter. It made her feel better, and that was what was important, right? “Why in the heck did you stop? The light was still yellow.”

She looked down. Great, now her shirt was wet in some very unfortunate locations. If Lizzie couldn’t catch the bus like she had every other day, then this was the mom she got to deal with—one who clearly hadn’t planned to leave the house. That would be fine if she was in the pickup line, but it was past time for the kiss and ride line, so Cameron would have to check in at the office to pick up her daughter.

The brash, yellow Maint Req’d light on her dashboard popped on. Shoot, another thing she had to worry about. The car thought it was time for an oil change. But she didn’t actually drive that much. Most of her trips were within a few miles of her house. The car could wait another month or two before she took it in.

The turn to Lizzie’s school snuck up on her while she was glaring at her car’s check engine light. She whipped the wheel around and careened into the parking lot, sliding into a teacher’s spot beside a shiny new SUV. A man was sitting in the driver’s seat, staring at his phone. Hopefully he wouldn’t rat her out for parking in the wrong spot. It wasn’t like she was going to be here long. She snatched her purse off the passenger seat, almost knocking everything out of it as she slammed it into the gear shift. She grabbed her phone and tried to slip it into her back pocket as she climbed out of the car.

Rats, wrong pants. Why in the heck don’t they make yoga pants with pockets? She fumbled to hold onto her phone while juggling her purse. She hurried onto the sidewalk and rounded the corner toward the school entrance, purse slipping off her arm, phone tipping… and then her phone slipped out of her hand like wet soap. She cursed, stumbled after the phone, caught it, righted her purse… and slammed into a wall.

Everything went flying.

“Oof.” Two hands landed on her arms to keep her upright.

That was no wall. That was a giant person. Could this day get any worse?

“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Too embarrassed to meet the eyes of her victim, she knelt and began scraping stuff back into her purse. Pens. Receipts. Empty aspirin bottle. Tampons. When was the last time she’d cleaned out this purse? Two weeks from never. Where was her wallet?

A huge strand of hair fell out of her bun and into her face. She puffed air at the curls only to have it land in her eye again.

The person crouched beside her, helping scrape together the embarrassing contents of her purse. “Are you picking up your child, too?”

Cameron’s hands stilled. No, she didn’t just…

* * *

The woman on the ground raised her deep blue eyes and blew some bangs out of her face. They fell right back into place. The right thing to do would be to hand her the things that had exploded out of purse. But he had to turn away so she couldn’t see him laugh first.

He was being rude. He grabbed her keys from the pavement and then reached for… was that a half-eaten sandwich? Well, it never hurt to be prepared. He gathered as much as he could and extended his hands. “Here.”