Mommy Loves The Military Man

“I’ve heard Grandma bug you about never going out with friends or anywhere without me or Grandma. I just wanted you to have fun tonight. You had fun, didn’t you? I heard you and Mr. Sanchez laughing. It sounded like fun to me. And nobody had to cook.”

Cameron sucked in a breath. Lizzie wasn’t wrong. But she didn’t know what Cameron did… going out with her friends was how she’d met Josh in the first place. And look how that turned out. But she’d gotten the better end of that deal—a beautiful little girl. Even as she tried to glower at her sufficiently-chastised daughter. “It wasn’t fair to me and Mr. Sanchez to surprise us like that, so how about no more lies, okay?”

“Okay, Mommy.” Lizzie jumped up and headed down the hall.

“Where do you think you’re going, young lady?” Cameron pointed to the kitchen. “You’ve got dishes to do.”

* * *

The doorbell rang right when Cameron was in the middle of a complicated debug. She almost ignored the bell. It was probably a door-to-door salesman, anyway. Or, worse, a kid selling fundraiser candy. Always impossible to turn down.

The bell rang again. Shoot. She couldn’t concentrate if she was thinking about who was standing on her porch. She hit the save button, hurried across the house, and threw the door open.

Where she saw a delivery man holding an arrangement of flowers.

“Cameron Baldwin? These are for you.”

She accepted the bouquet that was thrust into her hands. The young man then beat a path to his car so fast that she didn’t have a chance to tip him.

She buried her nose in the flowers. Much better than fundraiser candy—and cheaper. And they were her favorite—Gerbera daisies and alstroemeria lilies. Were these from Mom apologizing for conspiring with Lizzie last night?

They hadn’t talked long, but Cameron had had a few choice words with Mom before she headed out to yoga this morning.

As she wandered into the kitchen, Boomer crashed against the sides of his crate and barked at the large bouquet of flowers. Why did the dog with the world’s most sensitive stomach eat everything he could sink his teeth into? And then throw up on unwitting houseguests? Boomer wasn’t coming anywhere near these flowers.

She slipped the card out of the envelope. “Thank you for a wonderful evening. We should do it again.”

The card wasn’t signed, but it didn’t need to be. Alex had sent these.

She buried her nose in the fragrant flowers until she remembered that she wasn’t going to like Alex. She certainly wasn’t going to fall in love with him. She couldn’t get involved with anyone in the Army. Or the Navy or Marines, for that matter. The military sent their soldiers on assignment. Sometimes for a year or longer at a time. So, Alex couldn’t be in the Army and guarantee he could stick around. And sticking around was a requirement on her list.

She grabbed her phone and dashed off a text. I don’t think so.

A minute later, the “delivered” switched to “read,” and three dots flashed on her screen. Cameron?

Yes.

What don’t you think so?

He had sent the flowers. He should know what she is talking about. I’m not looking for anything. You’re a nice man and our kids are friends, but that’s it.

His response came almost immediately. I understand.

So why the flowers?

She stared at the screen, waiting for the three dots. She nearly dropped her phone when it rang.

“Alex?”

“What flowers?” he said in that husky voice that had washed over her last night when they’d talked on the dark porch.

“The flowers you…” About the time she said flowers, she realized her mistake. “You didn’t send

flowers, did you?”

“Uh, no.”

She sank into a chair and thumped her head on the kitchen table. Again. And again. What was it about this man that had her constantly embarrassing herself?