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Cameron just shook her head. “Boomer.” The dog hadn’t met a toy he didn’t consider his own.
Alex laughed and threw Barbie in the garbage can. “It should be fine, now. I’ll just clean up in here… and myself… and I’ll be right down.”
Cameron mentally marked another item off her list. Rescuer: check. Sometimes being a single mother meant she had to deal with the dirty work she’d rather not, like killing bugs and, yes, unclogging toilets. But Alex hadn’t hesitated to pitch in.
Her list was rapidly being checked off.
Alex plunged his hands under the faucet and scrubbed them with soap. “What’s wrong?”
She sighed. Yes, it might be nice to have someone else around to help with Boomer and unclog the toilets and chase critters out of the house, but this wasn’t the woman she wanted to be. She wanted to be sophisticated and put together. If that was too much to ask, she’d at least like to hide the less than desirable stuff until Alex knew her better. “This is not what you signed up for.”
Alex wiped his hands and arms on a towel and stepped in front of her. “What do you mean?”
“I’m a mess. We met when I slammed into you on the sidewalk because I wasn’t watching where I was going. I’ve got a dog that eats garbage and farts and throws up… and loses his toys in toilets when he gets a drink. There has got to be someone easier than me.”
He tucked his finger under her chin. “Easier, maybe, but I like this Cameron.” He pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Now go downstairs. I’ll be there in a sec.”
She nodded. As she turned to leave, he smacked her on the backside with his towel.
She laughed and hurried into the kitchen where the girls were pulling Styrofoam containers out of the bags, a steady stream of conversation between them.
“Thanks so much, girls. Alex rescued a Barbie that decided to go swimming. I’m afraid to tell you… she didn’t make it.”
“Boomer,” Lizzie and Mariana said at the same time.
The three of them turned to the pooch in his crate, his head resting on his paws, his eyes begging for forgiveness. He could just stay in there a little longer and think about what he had done.
Alex stepped into the kitchen, his sleeves still rolled up as she carried the last plate to the table.
The four of them sat down and the girls immediately picked up where they had left off when Cameron had joined them. Alex smiled like a kid in a candy store.
“You’re in a good mood today. Even after unclogging my toilet.”
“I am. During our team’s video chat today, we talked about the early test results. I was able to see some of the simulations t
he team ran in the field and it was almost as though I was wearing the headset myself. It was so cool.”
“Sounds like you’re playing video games.” She could almost picture Alex as a child, his eyes gleaming as he talked about scaling buildings and jumping over barricades.
“I used to love video games as a kid. I never thought I’d get to play them as an adult. At the same time, I’m making our soldiers safer out there.” The glimmer in his eye dimmed briefly. If Cameron hadn’t gotten to know him so well, she might not have noticed. But then he screwed on a smile and dug into his pasta like nothing had happened.
She studied this little family they had created, their two girls who were as close as sisters, shoving bites of food into their mouths between thoughts. And Alex, by her side, like a partner should be. The situation felt perfect. Well, almost perfect, because beneath his happy exterior, she suspected that Alex wished he were overseas with his deployment team.
What if that happened? What if Alex were deployed again? Could she handle sitting at home, waiting for the man she loved to return from wherever he had globetrotted off to?
As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she realized it wasn’t fair. As a member of the military, Alex wasn’t in control of his assignments. He was doing his duty.
And who said anything about love?
* * *
Alex hoped that he’d covered in front of Cameron. It was true that early test results on the VR system were positive. But others weren’t. He was fixing what he could from here and testing in their simulation lab, but Major Williamson had hinted that Alex should oversee the final implementation on site.
“Alex?” Concern flooded Cameron’s gaze.
He tilted his head toward Mariana and Lizzie, and Cameron nodded. They had developed this easy, silent communication and were able to let each other know when there was a topic that should be saved for later. Much like a married couple.
Neither of them had said the words, but each day he spent with Cameron brought him closer to knowing for sure that he was in love with her. Their date to the country club might have been their first official “call up and ask” date, but they had been seeing each other for weeks by that point. Nobody said their courtship had to be traditional—how could it be with two ten-year-olds in the mix?
