SEALed With A Kiss(38)

The baby gave a resounding kick and then promptly fell asleep.

“Great. Stubborn.” Why she should be surprised at that, she had no idea. She also wondered how long Chris had known about the fact that their baby was now in breech position and unlikely to move back at this late date, considering how big he was.

Which meant C-section. But she knew Chris could do miraculous things with babies—she’d seen some evidence of it firsthand, had listened to stories from Jake and Nick about how Chris worked magic, like he was channeling his midwife mother, Maggie or something.

“Help me out here, Maggie.” She put her hands on her belly, tried to imagine the baby turning, but the little one seemed determined to sleep.

It was two days until Christmas. For the first time since Maggie died, there was a tree in the house. Nick had dragged it inside by himself, grumbling the entire time but it was a perfect fit.

It remained undecorated—that would be up to her and Izzy and Kaylee, Nick informed her darkly. But didn’t seem all that displeased overall.

Now, she got up, the baby sleeping and her still restless and unsettled from seeing her past played out in her nightly dreams. She wished she could blame the nightmares on not knowing where Chris was, but really, it was more her problem than any deployment or mission he was on.

Every deployed spouse or family member had the same worries, no matter the brave face they put on. Jamie had come into a ready-made family with four military personnel to worry about.

Her sister, PJ, was engaged to Chris’s CO, Saint. Isabelle and Jake married months earlier and Kaylee and Nick would no doubt just show up one day married. For now, they were happily discussing adoption and Chris told her he’d never seen either brother so happy.

PJ took a job piloting private jets for private contractors—it kept her in just enough danger to satisfy her and not enough to make Saint drag her home and chain her to the couch.

Jamie smiled, because she was guessing Chris felt the same about her. Desk work wasn’t exciting, but she could still help people by getting them comfortable with the process of witness protection before they were turned over to the US Marshals. After the baby was born, she’d continue that way because Chris’s job was enough danger for one small baby.

Chris had been away for a lot of her pregnancy. They Skyped whenever possible but she’d known the nature of his job as a SEAL even before she’d met him. She was part of the FBI and had spent the majority of her life in Witness Protection as well, up until several months earlier. She wasn’t a wuss by any means.

They’d fought about that very thing right before he’d gone away this last time, about how they both couldn’t be in the line of fire. She knew he was right. Having grown up in danger, she knew that better than anyone. But being told what to do was never her style. It made her bristle. She thought Chris knew that, but since all of this happened, it had been tough settling back into normal for all of them.

None of them had ever really had it. PJ seemed to be handling it the best of all of them, relishing in having a place of her own. Well, Saint’s own, but he didn’t care what PJ did as long as she remained happy.

And it appeared she reciprocated the favor to Saint, because according to Chris, the big, Louisiana born and bred CO hadn’t been this happy ever.

Neither had she, but it was hard not to be when surrounded by love and heroes.





Chapter Three




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There was no radio in the car but that didn’t stop Chris from singing “Rock of Ages” not as loudly as he would’ve liked to out of respect for Saint and the fact that they couldn’t afford to draw any extra attention to themselves.

He was so tense that his entire body ached and he wouldn’t relax until he touched down in Virginia.

You’re gonna have a kid—no more relaxing for you, anyway.

They’d made it twenty miles along precarious roads before the car started breaking down.

“Come on, come on,” he muttered, ran his hands along the steering wheel like he could cajole it into staying alive.

Didn’t work. After another several miles and a sputtering, smoking engine, the Land Rover finally gave up the ghost.

“Not like we didn’t expect it,” Saint said. “On foot.”

The two of them were out of the jacked up Land Rover and moving stealthily and fast along the side of the road, just out of view.

They could attempt to hitch, but in these early morning hours before the light of day, trusting any random vehicle along the way to get them there faster would be risky as hell.

The hit of his boots against the soft dust was the rhythm in his head for the next four miles. He’d had harder runs, with heavier gear and more danger but none of them meant anything close to what this one did.