Page 42 of Her Righteous Protector

“He’d like milk, and I’m going to make some coffee,” Hannah answered.

Max pointed to the brewed pot of coffee and she smiled. He got down a sippy cup for Zephyr and poured some milk. “Yes, I have friends in Virginia. What about you, do you have friends here? Do you go to school yet?”

“Some days I go to pre-school, but not every day, but I have loads and loads and loads of friends, don’t I Hannah?”

“You do, Zeph,” she smiled. Max set down the green plastic glass in front of Zephyr then leaned down against the counter to watch Hannah make up the boy’s breakfast for him. When she was done cutting up the bananas and strawberries and mixing them up into some vanilla yogurt, she put the bowl in front of Zephyr.

“Where’s my cornbread?” he whined.

She raised her eyebrow at him and he ducked his head. “Sorry.”

“That’s better. I’m glad to see you can hold your horses and stop your whining. I’m bringing the cornbread out to you after I warm it up.”

He gave her a bright smile.

God, Hannah is really great with the boy.

Hannah went back into the kitchen and popped a piece of cornbread into the microwave. “What about you, Max, what do you want for breakfast?”

“Why don’t you tell me what you want, and I’ll get it for you. You did most of the fetching and carrying yesterday.”

Her head shot up in surprise.

“Well, all right,” she agreed after a moment. She took the bread out of the microwave, cut it into smaller pieces, then slathered it with honey butter. She shook her head as she looked at it.

“What?” he asked.

“Just imagining the mess. This is as bad as when I cook spaghetti.”

Max glanced over at the table where there were splotches of yogurt surrounding Zephyr’s bowl. “I see what you mean,” Max agreed. “Go sit down with him and I’ll bring your coffee. Then tell me what you want.”

“Okay.”

* * *

Hannah was amazed at how easy the start of the day went. First, the breakfast where Max had served them both up yogurt, coffee, and fruit then cleaned up after Zephyr. Max had already found a place that would fit them in for a DNA test that morning and could have the test results for them by the end of the week.

“How’d you find out about this place?” Hannah asked as they left the clinic.

“One of the guys I work with can find out about damn near anything, so anytime I need something, I ask him.”

“Zephyr, watch out, your scarf is going to fall off,” Hannah warned the boy. He was running a few yards in front of them, looking for mud puddles to jump in. It was one of his favorite past times.

“What do you do in the Navy? I know that Virginia has a lot of ships and stuff out there. So what’s your job?”

“I’m a SEAL.”

Her gaze flickered up to look at his face. “Like a Navy SEAL?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, kind of like that.”

She looked back and saw that Zephyr’s scarf was now in a mud puddle, but before she could snag it, Max had picked it up.

“Yellow light,” she yelled out to Zephyr when he got too far away from her. Zephyr went from a run to a walk on the little side street and looked over his shoulder at her.

“I wasn’t going to go too far, I promise.”

“It was far enough. I needed to catch up.” Playing the green, yellow and red light game with Zephyr allowed Hannah a second to think about the fact that Max Hogan was a Navy SEAL. That just never, ever occurred to her.