SEAL Baby Daddy

Sadie and I wandered around the building and the yard. “This place is so perfect,” Sadie said. “I mean, I know you said that it was, but I guess I didn’t really know what to expect still. This is going to be great.”

“Still sad that you left your desk job for this?”

“Not at all,” Sadie said, shaking her head. “Don’t get me wrong, being a secretary for some pompous ass in a high tower was always my dream, but I like that this is a lot more hands-on.”

I laughed. “No love lost between you and Dr. Coulbin, then?” I asked.

“None at all,” Sadie said succinctly, shaking her head. “Seriously, thanks again for bringing me in on this project. I’ll do my best not to let you down.”

“You’re not going to let me down,” I told her exasperatedly. “All you have to do is exactly what we’ve been doing with Vixen. In the beginning, I’ll handle teaching all of the complex tricks, so all you’re going to have to worry about is putting them through their paces. Getting them their exercise.”

“And cleaning up their poop, right?” Sadie asked, her eyes twinkling.

“And cleaning up their poop,” I agreed with a snort.

Sadie looked around the empty kennel. Everything was set up the way that it would be once we had the dogs there. Beds were out, and food was ready, but it was still empty.

“I can’t wait until we can get all the dogs in here. When do they start coming in?”

“I think some of the police dogs are arriving in the next couple days, so we’ll have plenty to work on. Plus we’ve got the few that are coming over with us from the other practice.”

“Right,” Sadi

e said. “And that’s when my formal training begins?”

I laughed. “You’ve already done your quote-unquote formal training,” I told her. “What do you think we’ve been doing when we work in the park with Vixen? That’s exactly the kind of stuff that I want you to start doing with some of the new dogs. Remember that some of the dogs coming in here aren’t even going to know basic commands like ‘sit.’ I’m sure you can teach those.”

“Probably,” Sadie agreed, grinning at me. She reached down absently to put a hand on Vixen’s back. Then, she shot me a guilty look. “Hey, I just wanted to say, I’m sorry again that I kind of stuck my foot in things with what I said about Ava being your daughter.”

I sighed and sat down on one of the desks. “Actually, if you can believe it, you were right,” I told her.

“What?” Sadie asked in surprise, looking sharply at me.

“You were right,” I said again. “Ava is actually my daughter. Harper confirmed it.”

“How is that even possible?” Sadie asked. “Didn’t you say that the two of you had just started dating when I met her? Not that you acted like it at all. You seemed like you’d known one another for years. Intimately.”

“We kind of had,” I told her. “I met Harper in Kuwait; she was there as a journalist. And we had one perfect night together, but then my unit headed out to the front line on a mission, and I didn’t have the chance to tell her goodbye. And by the time I got back to camp, she was already gone. I figured she must have finished up her interviews and come back home. I thought she had more time over there, but apparently, I was wrong, or things changed, or something.”

I paused. “I don’t want to say that I forgot about her, but I wasn’t really pining for her or anything like that. But then I happened to run into her again here in Boston, and we hit it off. I knew about Ava right from the start, but I didn’t know she was mine. I didn’t know who the dad was.”

“Didn’t you do the math?” Sadie asked, rolling her eyes.

I gave her a look. “I did, but you know how time is when you’re in the field. I didn’t know exactly how long it had been since Harper was over there.”

“That’s fair,” Sadie said, nodding. “But still. She’s your kid?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“What did you say when Harper told you?”

“I asked her, actually,” I said. “I just kept thinking about what you said, about how Ava looked so much like me. And I realized you were right. I was pretty sure she was my kid. So I asked.”

“And the three of you lived happily ever after?” Sadie joked.

I looked away from her. “Not exactly,” I admitted. “I was just so mad at Harper for not having told me the truth right away. For never having told me that she was pregnant. So I walked out on dinner, and then I had a paternity test sent to her.”

“Ouch,” Sadie said. “Bet she didn’t take that very well.”