SEAL Baby Daddy

Suddenly, I swallowed. Maybe the flowers were an apology. Maybe after yesterday, when I’d blown him off, he’d decided that we weren’t going to be able to work things out between us after all, and now he was really going through with his plan to sue me for custody. He might already have a lawyer and everything.

“You’re not just waiting until we meet in court, are you?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

“What?” Ace asked, sounding outraged. “I thought we agreed we weren’t going to go to court.”

“I know,” I said. “But you were the one who asked for the DNA test, and I guess I kind of blew you off yesterday, and I don’t know. I just don’t know what you’re thinking. That’s all.”

Ace made a noise of frustration. “What I’m thinking is that I’m just busy this week, that’s all,” he said, sounding peeved. “You use that excuse all the time. And I get that it’s different since you have Ava to look after, but I have projects, too.”

“Right,” I said in a small voice. “Sorry.” I was surprised to feel tears pricking the corners of my eyes. Bad enough that I couldn’t have him. Bad enough that he didn’t want to see me at all. But on top of all of that, he was angry with me, too.

I wished desperately that I could go back and tell him about Ava sooner, before he figured it all out on his own. Would that have changed things? Or could that possibly have made things even worse, just springing her existence on him like that? This way, at least he’d had time to wrap his head around it before I confirmed the truth.

I didn’t know whether that was better or not.

“No, it’s fine,” Ace said, his tone changing just like that. He sounded tired. “I just really am busy this week. What’s your weekend looking like? I could meet you at the park on Saturday.”

Saturday felt like it was a long way off. I hated having to wait, especially for something like this. The longer we waited, the more I was going to start second-guessing myself. But I didn’t know how to tell him no, that we needed to meet sooner. Like he said, I understood what it was like to have a busy schedule.

I just didn’t understand how he was suddenly so busy. It seemed pretty suspicious, in fact. I wanted to ask him about it, but I also could tell that he didn’t really want to be on the phone with me right now. And I also didn’t totally feel like I deserved to know what he was up to. I didn’t know where he and I stood at the moment. We definitely weren’t in a relationship; I had ruined that.

My mind immediately started jumping to all sorts of different conclusions, though. Most of them wildly unlikely. Like the idea that he might have already found a new girlfriend, one who didn’t come with baggage. One who didn’t have his kid, one who hadn’t lied to him. Maybe he was busy with her all week.

But that was silly, and I knew that. I felt jealous of whoever it was that was taking up his time that week, though.

I shrugged, even though he couldn’t see it. “Saturday is fine,” I said, wondering if he was planning on bringing that other woman, Sadie, to our talk. Maybe he thought we needed to be supervised.

I hated the idea of that. But I didn’t want to say anything, to jump to conclusions.

“How about lunchtime on Saturday?” Ace suggested. “I’ll bring us a picnic.”

“Sure, that sounds great,” I agreed, But I still hated having to wait. I’d never been the most patient person, and when it came to this, well.

There was nothing I could do about it, though. We said our goodbyes and hung up.

34

Ace

Thursday morning, I wasn’t feeling great physically, but mentally I was totally buoyant. George and I had gone out for drinks the night before to celebrate the new venture. By the time I’d gotten home, mildly tipsy, I'd been thinking about Harper. I’d cracked open more than a few beers with Stone. I just hadn’t felt like going to bed just yet. But now, I thought that I had probably overdone it. I wasn’t drinking as much lately, and my tolerance was shot to hell.

Miserable as I felt, I was still thinking about Harper. I wished I’d been able to see her sooner. I’d actually been surprised when she called to schedule our meetup; it seemed like total role reversal. Suddenly, she had plenty of free time, but now I didn’t. There was so much to do with the new training school. That was our first week of real business, and my schedule was packed.

Besides, I was still trying to figure out what I really wanted out of the situation with Harper. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I wanted my relationship with Harper again, but I wanted a relationship with my daughter as well. And I wasn’t sure that I was willing to risk my relationship with my daughter if things went south between Harper and me.

For the first time, I started to understand how Harper must have felt when she and I had first bumped into each other there in Boston. No wonder she had been so reluctant to start something with me again. She just wanted what was best for Ava. And now, so did I.

I just wasn’t entirely sure what that was.

That wasn’t the only thing on my mind now, though. George and I had signed all the paperwork, the new space was leased, and I was officially a protection and service dog trainer. I’d have my own office and everything. Not only that, but after a solid day of convincing, I’d gotten Sadie to agree to work with me.

I smiled, thinking about that. I knew exactly how lucky I’d been to land the job with George when I came back. Now, I had the opportunity to hire people as well, and I intended only to hire veterans. Even if they were people like Sadie who didn’t have much formal experience in the field, I knew they could be trained. Besides, they had many of the skills that they needed in order to be trainers. No one understood discipline quite like an ex-military member.

I hoped that Sadie would be the first of many people I would hire. But for now, we had a small crew and a large number of dogs coming in. Things were starting to feel hectic already, but I liked it. For the first time since I was in the field, I felt like I had a position. A schedule. Things that needed to get done every day. And I liked that.

That morning, Sadie and I rode out to the new office space. The building was pretty nondescript. It used to be a veterinarian’s, so it was set up pretty much exactly how we needed it, with space for a bunch of animals inside. Our front, there was a large, fenced-in area, and there was an even bigger plot of land out behind it. We’d have to figure out something to do about the grass in the backyard; it was thin and scraggly, with more dirt than anything else. I wanted a nice place for our dogs to roam.

Even if they were well-trained service dogs, they deserved to have a nice place to run around when they weren’t being trained.