Page 68 of Fire and Rain
Maybe it would be better for both of them if hedidn’tstay at her place. He could cool off and get over his need for her, and his vehicle wouldn’t be parked in her driveway to fuel rumors. Eden was just off base, after all—close enough for a rapid police response if there were an emergency. She had her shotgun, and she knew how to use it.
She’s also five-foot-two and has a toddler to protect. Do you really want her to face a dangerous assailant alone?
Just the thought put Sean on edge.
It most likely wouldn’t come to that, but those messages worried him. Whoever the sender was, he was a drug dealer and had Eden’s cellphone number. He’d threatened her by name. He’d already been indirectly involved in Justin’s and David’s deaths.
He’s a killer.
Then Sean remembered her tear-stained face after her nightmare last night. She’d gone into Maverick’s bedroom just to make sure her boy was safe.
He’s all I have left, Sean. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him, too.
Sean couldn’t let that happen. It wasn’t just the promise he’d made to Justin. He cared about Eden. He cared about both of them.
If anything happened to either of them…
Sean climbed out of the pool just as two new rescue swimmer candidates entered, followed by Chief Allen, the chief aviation survival technician. If they made it through their training, they’d be recommended for AST A-school—rescue swimmer school.
Sean greeted Ed with a nod. “Hey, Chief.”
“Hey, McKenna. Glad to see you back in action, man.”
“Glad to be back.”
“Get in the water!” Ed shouted to the candidates. “I want twenty laps in twelve minutes. Give me an all-out effort. Go!”
Sean showered in the locker room, dressed, and headed back to the barracks to grab a few things he’d forgotten before he headed up the hill to Eden’s. He stuck his laptop with its charging cable in his backpack, tossed in his phone charger, and opened his dresser drawer to get a clean pair of boxers. His hand bumped something—an unopened box of condoms.
He stood there, looking at it, arguing with himself.
Better safe than sorry.
True. But there were so many ways to be sorry.
He closed the drawer, locked up, and left the barracks, backpack slung over one shoulder.
* * *
Eden liftedMaverick out of the tub and wrapped him in a warm towel. “Let’s dry you off and get you into your jammies.”
She picked him up and carried him to his bedroom, glancing over her shoulder to find Sean sitting on the sofa, still on his laptop. He’d been closed off since he returned, and she knew he was still angry at Dalton. She couldn’t blame him. They hadn’t had a real conversation since then, not with Maverick around.
She finished drying Maverick, then picked him up and carried him to his room, where she set him on his changing table and combed his damp hair. “You look so much like your daddy. He had beautiful brown eyes, just like you do.”
She put him in a nighttime diaper, zipped him into his pajamas, and set him on the floor. “Pick out some stories, okay? It’s story time.”
“Stowy time,” he repeated in a sing-song way.
Maverick walked over to his little bookshelf, chose a few books, and ran out of the bedroom on tiny feet, as if story time were something that demanded swift action. Laughing to herself, Eden followed him down the hallway, only to watch him clamber into Sean’s lap, books in hand.
Looking bemused, Sean closed his laptop and set it on the end table, then settled Maverick in his lap. “What have you got there, buddy?”
“Books!” Maverick held them up.
“That’s okay, Sean. I’ll…”
Sean looked up, a lopsided grin on his face. “It’s okay. I’m happy to read to him.”
