“Well, that’s good to hear,” Shay told the SEAL as the maroon sedan kept searching for a parking spot. “But I’m going through a severely mistrustful phase, and it would be irresponsible of me to not verify that you are, in fact, as great of a guy as you appear to be. I have to admit, I’m still struggling withWhy on earth haven’t you called her mother?”
“Maddie’s mom is dead,” the SEAL told her. “She was killed in a car accident, three months ago.”
Peter knew that he’d screwed up, the moment the too-blunt words left his mouth.
“Oh, no,” Shayla-his-neighbor’s soft brown eyes widened with shock as she gazed at him from behind the wheel of her progressive-mom-mobile. “Oh my God, Peter, I’msosorry!”
At least she’d finally called himPeterinstead ofLieutenant, but she’d definitely gotten the wrong idea.
He sat there in the front seat of her functional, fuel-efficient little car and realized that he was going to have to explain. And Jesus, he’d already told her so much—things he would never have discussed with a stranger under any other circumstances. He hadn’t even told his closest teammates more than a small fraction of the shit that was going down these days with Maddie.
Most of them were still agog at the fact that he had a daughter in the first place.
But this woman—Shayla Whitman, his across-the-street neighbor—had taken a risk not just by stopping for him but by chasing the car he was certain he’d seen Maddie climb into. She deserved honest answers, regardless of how hard it was to talk about this.
“No,I’msorry, I really should’ve said that earlier,” Pete started, “but—”
“Oh my God,” Shayla cut him off. “No, Lieutenant, please, I’m the one…I didn’t even consider…I didn’t mean to be so freaking insensitive.” She was really upset, and he was back toLieutenant. Damn it.
“It’s okay, really, you didn’t know. I should’ve said something when you first asked if I’d called her but…” He tried to explain. “It just…it defines us, you know. Maddie and me. It’s exhausting, and I was trying not to let that into the car—if that makes any sense at all.”
She reached for his hand, nodding as if she actually understood what he meant. It was weird, because as a general rule, people didn’t dare touch him. Well, women sometimes did, but only when he was hanging out in a bar, clearly welcoming an intimate connection.
But Shayla didn’t squeeze his hand for very long—there was definitely no sexual subtext in her comfort-from-mommy contact. She even patted him a little as she let him go, saying, “I’m so,sosorry for your loss.” Her sincerity was off the charts and he found himself not just needing to explain, but actuallywantingto.
What was up with that?
It was probably because he found her mindblowingly refreshing. When was the last time he’d met a woman who was so honest and real—and not already engaged or married to one of his teammates?
Shayla didn’t justdrivea mom-mobile, she actuallywasa mom, with her curly black hair worn naturally and super-short in—what was it called?—a pixie cut, and a sweet face that was almost completely devoid of makeup. Probably because she was too busy with her crazy mom-life to take the time to put it on.
Not that she wasn’t pretty enough without it. She was—in a very G-rated, Disney-movie way. She was wearing jeans and a yellow T-shirt that were meant neither to feature nor conceal her curves. But she hadn’t simply dressed for comfort. With her gorgeously rich brown skin, bold colors looked good on her and she obviously knew it—no one wore something in that bright of a hue by accident.
She had lively dark brown eyes and a quick, warm smile in an expressive heart-shaped face. It was the kind of face that gave away everything she was feeling, even when she tried to hide it.
In fact, earlier, she’d shot him one powerful look of vaguely comical disapproval that had amused the crap out of him, mostly due to the fact that in his job not just as a SEAL officer but as a BUD/S instructor, he rarely received that kind of judgment and attitude from anyone.
But he dished it out, all the time.
So yes, even though they’d just met, he already liked her—and that was saying something, since it usually took him years of acquaintanceship before he even considered calling someone a friend.
But right now she was imagining he was recently widowed, and that was far from the case.
“It’s really Maddie’s loss,” Pete told her as the car they were following finally signaled its intention to park.
He scrunched down in his seat, again using his hands to shield his face, because the driver was clearly intending to back into the narrow spot. “I came to terms with mine a long time ago,” he said. “Lisa—Maddie’s mom—and I split up for good when Maddie was about a year old. Thirteen months and four days and…” He’d been at sea for most of those months, and home on leave for less than a week when Lisa had packed the car and left before breakfast, but Shayla really didn’t need to know that much detail. “Anyway, it’s not like my wife just died. I mean, she’s not even my ex-wife, because I could never get her to marry me.”
Andthatwas TMI.
He peeked out at her from behind his hand-shield, but instead of looking like she wanted to jump out of the car, Shayla was nodding as if she appreciated what he’d shared. “You both must’ve been young when you had Maddie.”
“Yeah,” Pete said. “Very.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, they moved out of state and lived, well, pretty much anywhere that wasn’t San Diego because Lisa grew up here and hated it. That plus my deployments made it hard for Maddie and me to have any kind of real relationship, so here we are. Suddenly Lisa’s gone, and I have full custody of my kid, but we’re strangers. I’m clueless and Maddie’s miserable—apparently enough to run away.”
“She’s still grieving,” Shayla said as the enormous car continued its ponderous twenty-thousand-point turn. “And of course, you are, too. I mean, it’s only natural, regardless of how long it’s been since you and Lisa broke up. Is Maddie going to counseling?”
“We both are,” he said. “Separately and together.”
“Wow,” she said. She was genuinely impressed. “That’s great.”
