“So we meet again,” Jared said when he walked into the car dealership a few blocks away. Kevin had dropped him off, but he saw the woman and her daughter sitting in the waiting room he’d just entered. They had a few small bags in their hands. He guessed they walked over. It wasn’t really far.
“Hi,” she said, then turned to her daughter. “Not Daddy. Remember I told you he’s a sailor like Daddy used to be. You are a sailor, right? I mean you aren’t in a sailor uniform, but you’re definitely military with your camo pants and Navy shirt.”
“Navy, yes. Sailor, no. Not for a long time.” He hadn’t been on a boat in years. He was used to the field. War. He was more a soldier than a sailor, or he used to be. The title of SEAL he’d always carry, but would never use again the way he’d want to.
Now that he wasn’t in the busy restaurant, he could hear a soft twang in the young woman’s voice. She was cute. Long straight hair, light brown like her daughter’s. Though her daughter’s hair just touched her shoulders with a blue headband keeping it away from her face.
“I’m Jared,” he said, reaching his hand out. “Maybe if she knew my name that would help distinguish it for her?”
“Shelby,” she said, putting her small hand in his. Soft. He hadn’t felt a soft hand in a long time. Was it supposed to make his heart race like this? Had it ever before? He couldn’t remember. “This is Kayla.”
Jared squatted down. “Hi, Kayla. I’m Jared.”
The little girl looked at him curiously, then smiled and said what he thought might be “Jared.”
“We’re working on words,” Shelby said. “Some are easy, some more complex.”
“Sounded fine to me.”
“I really am sorry about Kayla in the restaurant. That was so embarrassing.”
“Don’t be sorry. I wasn’t embarrassed at all.”
“McDonald,” he heard and turned to the right when she did.
“That’s me.”
He shifted so he could hear the conversation more, but didn’t want to look like he was. Especially when he recognized the woman that’d come out. “Your car is on the recall list for an airbag malfunction. We don’t have one in stock but will have it first thing in the morning. Until then we can’t let you take it out. If you got into an accident, it would come back to us if it doesn’t deploy.”
Shelby looked flustered. “When tomorrow? I need to be to work by ten.”
“I should have it here by seven and done no later than nine.”
“Okay. Ah, do you have a number to a taxi or something I could call? I need to get my daughter’s car seat out of the back too.”
“I can bring you home,” Jared heard himself say before he could stop himself.
“No, that’s fine. I don’t want you to go out of your way.”
“It’s not out of my way,” he said.
“You don’t even know where I live. Maybe I’m in Baltimore,” she said, smiling at him.
Her eyes were a light brown and almost sparkling. If he wasn’t mistaken she might be flirting with him. Or maybe teasing.
“Not a problem if you are.”
“Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?”
He looked at his watch. Crap, he had a class in an hour. “Where do you live?”
She laughed. “A few miles from here. In Annapolis. I’m assuming you’re at the Academy?” she asked.
“Yeah. I’ve got time then.” She seemed to hesitate, so he added, “I know you just met me. But you said your husband was a sailor. I might have known him.”
“I doubt it. We moved here a few months before he died, and he was shipped out almost immediately after the move. But I guess it wouldn’t hurt to go with you. If I can’t trust someone from the Academy over a strange cab driver, then that’d make me pretty crazy. Besides, I did recognize your lunch companion.”
“Admiral Anderson?” he asked. Kevin hadn’t said a word.
“Yes. We’ve never met. I just knew of him. I’ve seen his picture a few times. I’m going to go with my gut. Besides, I’ve got a witness right here, right?” she said, turning to the employee who’d come out to tell Shelby about her car. “If I don’t come back tomorrow for my car, then you’ll know I was last seen with this gentleman.”
Jared laughed. So did the employee. “Jay Bird is very trustworthy,” Brittany, the employee, said.
He’d come in with his buddy Garrett when he test drove his SUV. Everyone called him Jay Bird. Or they used to. Brittany worked at the desk filling in and she’d talked and flirted with him and Garrett. This was his second oil change and she wasn’t taking the hint he wasn’t interested.
“Jay Bird?” Shelby said, lifting an eyebrow and fighting a grin.
“Hawk. My last name is Hawk.”
“Oh,” Shelby said. “Guess that makes sense for a nickname.”
“Jay,” Kayla said.
“That seemed much easier for her,” Jared said. He looked down and addressed Kayla. “You can call me Jay if you want.”
She smiled at him, two little dimples and there went the racing of his heart again. This was crazy.
***
Shelby was sitting in Jared’s 4Runner with him. Kayla in the back swinging her feet around with all the space. More space than Shelby’s little Corolla. But it was a good reliable car and all she needed. She lived a simple life and liked it that way. It was still much better than what she came from.
Anything would be.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Shelby said. “It was really nice of you to do this.”
“I feel like a broken record saying not a problem, but it really isn’t.”
“What do you do at the Academy?” she asked.
“I’m a professor.”
“Really?” That surprised her. He was big. Much bigger than Ethan was and built more solid too. She didn’t expect him to be in academics at all. “What do you teach?”
“Engineering,” he said, without looking at her.
“You must be really smart then.”
He laughed. “If I say I am then I’ll sound like I’m full of myself.”
“Aren’t most people in the military?” She’d always thought so. Ethan never was. He was so sweet and considerate, but most of the other sailors she’d met were more full of themselves. More condescending too. She wouldn’t have liked that trait at all.
“They can be. I might have been accused of it from time to time too.”
“I’m sure you have. But I’d bet you aren’t mean about it.”
She knew enough about mean men in her life. She could spot them a mile away. And there was nothing about Jared that gave her any reason to be scared. She learned early on to judge people well. Just because she was a hick from Kentucky didn’t mean she was stupid.
“Not unless forced,” he said, turning his head and winking at her.
He was sexy. Really sexy. She’d always been turned on by a man in uniform, but she hadn’t had a whisper of a man in her life since Ethan died. Nor had she wanted one. The no-nookie sign she’d shown to everyone seemed to be flying away in the wind right now. Not only that, she was shocked to find she was attracted to someone else in uniform.
Shocked that she hadn’t shut herself off to the possibility of even considering another person in the service. She hadn’t thought one way or another until now. And now it seemed her body was telling her to open the door and take a peek.
Here she was, her mind running away with something it had no business doing. She’d stopped doing that a long time ago too.
He was giving them a lift home.
He was being nice.
He wasn’t interested in her and another man’s child.
She was nuts. “Do you have a class this afternoon you need to get back to?” she asked, trying to take her mind off the fact that this big strong sexy soldier was sitting next to her. Yeah, not helping. She needed to look away from him.
“I do. One more today. I’ve got plenty of time to get to class. What do you do? You said you need to be to work at ten tomorrow?”
“I’m a Medical Aesthetician.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“I work at a rejuvenation center. A spa,” she clarified. “I give different types of facials, laser treatments, laser hair removal. Things like that.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“It can be. I’ve met some really nice people doing it. It’s a good career for a military wife.”
“How’s that?” he asked.
“We’d moved a few times. It’s easy enough to find another job. I can work in spas or a doctor’s office. Though I’ve only worked in spas. I could go out on my own too, if I wanted to, but it’s not something I’m interested in.”
She couldn’t afford it. A steady income was what she needed for her and her daughter. Maybe she’d make more if she opened her own business, but it was a risk she couldn’t afford to take.
“So you’ve been here about three years?” he asked.
“Yeah. After my husband Ethan died, I just decided to stay. It was too hard to pick up and move when we just got here. I liked my job. I needed roots knowing I had a baby on the way. It was stable and sometimes that is what you need to focus on in life.”
She knew she did. Something stable had always been her dream. Not big. Not flashy or fancy. Just stable and secure. Good enough for her.
“Where are you from?” he asked. “I hear an accent.”
“Kentucky.”
He nodded. “Which one is yours?” he asked when they turned on her street.
“The little yellow one.”
He pulled into the driveway of her small two-bedroom ranch. Nothing glamorous. Nothing high end. Clean, safe and secure. Everything a mother could ask for. Or at least she wanted.
Once the car was parked, she hopped out and he did too. “No, don’t worry, I’ve got it.”
“I’ll carry the car seat in for you.”
She opened the back passenger door and he opened the other side. She got Kayla out while he was trying to unhook the car seat. “That button sticks,” she said. He kept pushing it like he didn’t hear her. She reached over and put her hand on his, and he turned to look at her. “It sticks. You’ve got to wiggle it like this.”
It came undone, and he pulled it out, shut the door, then walked around to her front door. “Sorry,” he said. “I wasn’t paying attention. My mind was wandering.”
“Oh,” she said, smiling. “On what?”
“Do you need a ride to get your car tomorrow?” he asked.
“I can call a cab,” she said.
“Or I can come get you. I don’t have a class until eleven. Plenty of time if it’s done by nine.”
She was going to say no but found she wanted to see him again. That she enjoyed the little time they’d had together. Yep, there went the no-nookie sign, floating away in the wind.
“Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“I’m positive. I’ll give you my number and just send me a text when you’re ready.”
She unlocked her front door, let Kayla in and watched as she went to her toys in the corner. It wasn’t as if she could go too far in the house without Shelby seeing her.
They exchanged numbers fast and Shelby watched as he jogged back down her walkway and to his SUV. He sure did have a mighty fine body to go with that jog.