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“I like how you think.” His voice was like silk. “But you know I’ll disrupt any plans you make once I get you naked.”
She smiled, remembering their conversation before they made love a few days ago. He’d disrupted her plans in the best possible way. “See that you do, sailor.”
He kissed her before he straightened with Eddy in his arms. When he went out in the hall to walk with the baby, who was getting a little fussy, she leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes. Today had changed her life. It was one of those watershed moments where everything on the other side would be different and, in her case, so much better than it had been before. Her happiness and sense of utter contentment made her relax and drift off to sleep.
A touch on her shoulder brought her awake. “Sweetheart, your dad’s on his way back from the scan,” Cole said, “and the doctor’s coming in to go over the results.”
“I slept,” she said, surprised at herself.
“I know. You’re beautiful when you sleep.” He gave her a quick kiss just as her father was wheeled back into the room. The doctor followed, and Kelsey got to her feet, awaiting his report. Without thinking, she linked her fingers with Cole’s. It was the most natural thing to do. Knowing that he loved her, that he was there for her no matter what, made her feel that she could face anything.
“Is he okay?” she asked the doctor.
“Everything was fine,” the doctor said, turning to her. “No sign of internal injury or bleeding.”
“Told you,” her father put in.
The doctor kept his focus on Kelsey. “I’m going to keep him overnight for observation because of a mild concussion. Other than that, his injuries are minor and will heal quickly. He’ll need to report to the base doctor in about a week to get clearance before returning to duty. In the meantime, Commander Reeves, you’ll need to take it easy.”
The doctor didn’t wait for a reply before exiting the room. Kelsey expected her father to make an unflattering remark about his prescribed week off. Instead, she noticed that his gaze had shifted to her and Cole’s hands. He raised his eyes and pinned her with a look.
“So the two of you are together again,” he commented. “I thought so. About time.”
She stole a look at Cole, but he wasn’t smiling. Then she saw why. Her father was staring him down.
“You hurt my daughter,” her father said. “You broke her heart and left her alone when she needed you.”
“Dad, don’t—” she tried to object.
“I’m aware of that, sir,” Cole responded. “There’s no excuse I can make for my behavior.”
“I respect you,” her dad continued. “I even think of you as a son, and I know you protected her and Eddy over these past weeks when I was gone. Today you saved my life. But let me be clear, none of that will matter if you hurt her again. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Stop it, both of you.” She squeezed Cole’s hand. “You sound like cave men.”
“We’re men. This is what we do,” her father said, but his tone lightened. “When you two have a daughter, you’ll understand.”
Her cheeks warmed at the thought of another baby. Her father was assuming a lot about her and Cole’s relationship, when they hadn’t had an opportunity to discuss it. Time to change the subject and get her questions answered. It was late, and they were all tired, but she couldn’t wait to hear her father’s explanations.
“I’m trying to clear up some details about this whole mess in my head, Dad. Why did Dobson get so aggressive against me? At first, I can see how he might have thought that I knew where you were, but that doesn’t seem like enough reason to want me kidnapped or killed.”
Her father winced, his expression darkening. “When I first went AWOL, he wanted to capture you to use you as a hostage against me, forcing my return. But later on, he got paranoid. He’d convinced himself that I’d shared vital information with you. Silencing you would have been his way of tying up loose ends.”
“Youdidshare information with me in the encrypted file,” she said. “I know you thought that disappearing so you could investigate made the most sense, but it put me in harm’s way.” The threats and the media attention came to mind. She knew her father hadn’t anticipated those things, but it still bothered her that she’d gotten inadvertently mixed up in something that could have harmed her or Eddy. She was about to lecture her father about hurting others—which made it a little hypocritical for him to lecture Cole about doing exactly that—when he spoke.
“I’m sorry you got caught in the crossfire, Kelsey. I didn’t expect that to happen.” Her father suddenly looked older than his years. She could see the regret and the worry on his face, and she forgave him instantly. “I wouldn’t have made the choices I did if I’d known.”
“Good thing you sent me the scheduled email to protect her just in case,” Cole said.
That was a good thing for a lot of reasons. Her eyes met Cole’s and understanding passed between them. That message was responsible for bringing them back together. Without it, she wouldn’t have known he loved her, and Eddy wouldn’t have his daddy.
“Yeah, I like to have backup plans. You know that, Cole,” her father said. “Dobson was tougher to catch than I thought, and then my phishing program didn’t work the way I wanted it to. So, yeah, things got out of control. I’m just glad it all worked out in the end.”
“You’ll have a lot of questions to answer,” Cole commented.
“Yeah, military intelligence is going to be relentless,” her father said. “Thanks to the computer on board the boat, there’s documentation to prove Dobson’s guilt, but they aren’t going to appreciate my method of investigation or the fact that I was AWOL.”
