“I wish,” Brody muttered before commanding softly, “Eat your soup first and then you can have a cookie.”
There was something there, the happiness and light left his eyes for an instant and dark clouds seem to overtake him. Marie sipped her soup silently before saying, “Tell me about your mom and dad.” Brody gave a sarcastic laugh. “Now there’s a story meant for cable.” Marie downed the last spoonful of her soup and picked up the square-covered Tupperware that held the cookies. She reached out her hand to him. “Come on to bed and we’ll get settled and you tell me all about it.” Brody took her hand and followed her. “I don’t think this is a bedtime tale you want to hear.”
“If you’re going to be in my life and we’re going to give this a go, we have to trust each other,” Marie said firmly. “Now, I’m going to take a shower and then we’re going to bed and there we’ll show each other our baggage and get it right out. Understood, Marine?” Brody grinned. “Ma’am, yes, ma’am.”
She smiled. “Good, now get down to your skivvies and I’ll meet you in the sack. No hanky-panky because right now I have the energy of a single-cell organism. So for the first time we will talk instead of have sex.” Marie placed the Tupperware container full of cookies on the bedside table.
“I really like the sex,” Brody teased.
“I do too. It’s totally…” Marie pointed her finger at him. “No, bad Marine, we’re doing this right.”
Brody grinned. “Fine, I’ll be waiting.”
Marie took a hot shower and the water coursing down her skin made her feel much better. That, combined with the soup that Brody brought, gave her the sense she may survive the first trimester after all. She came out of the shower wrapped in her fluffy bathrobe and she found a nightshirt in the drawer. She felt Brody’s eyes on her and saw his gaze darken as she dropped her bathrobe and slipped into her nightshirt. She opened another drawer and pulled out undies and put them on. It was more for her than him. She usually slept without undies, but with him in her bed she couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t try to make love with him. Marie slipped underneath the covers and snuggled into his arms. He was shirtless and his skin was warm beneath her cheek. He leaned over and kissed her gently and then with more passion. Their tongues twined and danced until she pulled away gasping for breath.
No, Marie, no
, she chastised herself. It wasn’t fair to set a stipulation on him that she could not follow herself.
They had chemistry, of that there was no doubt, but for this to work, their relationship had to be built on something other than the physical.
“Tell me about your mom and dad,” Marie encouraged.
“Where to start.” Brody sighed. “My mom is a gem. She is strong, hardworking, and doesn’t see anything but the person you really are. My father, or the man that created me, doesn’t deserve to be called a parent.
He is a mean, racist pig who tried to break me from the beginning and when he couldn’t, he tried to berate me into submission. But I was a husky lad, and one day he came at me and I’d had enough and I hit back. That was the last of it. I left soon after and joined the Marines and never looked back.”
“Don’t you see your mother?” Marie asked.
“She comes and visits. My dad won’t stop her, and she wouldn’t let him,” Brody replied. “She is as tough as steel when it comes to seeing her only son. But I cannot understand why she stays with that evil man that thinks he’s the second coming. Did I mention he is a minister and preaches fire and brimstone to his very small congregation?”
“He will hate me then, seeing as, in his eyes, I’m the wrong color,” Marie said mildly. She’d dealt with hate before especially in an interracial relationship. There was a lot she had kept secret about her life with Charlie, a lot she wasn’t willing to share even with Ivy.
“I called my mom to share the news. She is thrilled, and that is all that matters,” Brody said. “That man can rot in hell for all I care. There is no love lost between us.”
“It must be hard knowing that you can’t share with your father.” Marie rubbed her hand across his chest comfortingly.
“But that won’t happen to me and this baby.” He rested his hand on her lower stomach. “My son is in there, all warm and snug.”
“You’re so sure it’s a boy, huh? It could be a girl,” Marie said with a smile.
“A little girl would be great, but then when she becomes a teenager I’ll start cleaning my gun at the dinner table,” Brody said casually.
“You won’t do that if we have a boy?” Marie laughed. “He could be a real heartbreaker and have girls lining up outside our door.”
“That’s my boy,” Brody said proudly.
His words made the smile fall from her lips and sent her careening into the past where men cheated and the feelings of the women who loved them didn’t matter. The closeness she was feeling to him fell away and anger rose up.
“Oh, no, you are not raising my child to be a playboy man-whore like you are.” Marie felt her irritation rise even higher. “If it’s a girl, she’s to be protected, yet the boy gets to have no morals and be the slut of his high school?”
“Whoa, who said that? And, by the way, I’m not a playboy, my mom raised me right,” Brody retorted.
“Says the man who planned every party at Rafe’s house.” Marie sat up. “Oh, I heard that your name is on every party roster in Quantico and beyond.”
“Jesus, how did we go from having a nice moment to you thinking I’ve been in every bed on the East Coast?” Brody asked.
“Because you are a leopard who cannot change his spots and proved it by actually saying that if this baby is a boy he could slut around,” Marie snapped. “You should go home. This wasn’t a good idea.”
“Marie, there hasn’t been anyone else in my life since we got together the day of the wedding,” Brody said calmly. “And while I may have coordinated those parties, I never slept with any of the girls there. It was all for a good time, a way for our guys to de-stress after all they go through. Me? I run the grill, keep the bar stocked, and handle the music and the clean up. I’m not saying that I haven’t had dates, girlfriends, and even a committed relationship once. But for the love of God, my past is not the thing that should dictate my future with you and my child.”
“That’s what they all say,” she muttered.
“Don’t let what happened to you with your ex-husband ruin what we could have,” Brody insisted.
“You don’t know anything about that,” Marie said and shook her head while tears started to fall down her cheeks.
“Oh, baby, don’t cry,” he said in a gentle voice and tried to pull her into his arms.
Marie shook her head again and pushed him away, wiping her tears away furiously. “I’m not crying because I’m hurt. I’m angry. These are tears of anger, and don’t you dare blame it on hormones!”
Brody pulled her against him and settled back into bed. “I wouldn’t think of it, honey, you have every right to be angry. Do you want a cookie?”
“No,” she mumbled.
“All right. Then how about you go to sleep and I’ll hold you all night?” he crooned.
“I told you to go home.” She yawned.
“I know you did, baby, and I will as soon as you fall asleep.” Brody ran his fingers through her hair and she felt herself drifting off and barely heard him say, “Eventually you’ll have to let me in and tell me how he hurt you so very badly.”
“Okay,” Marie said. She had told herself she would relax just for a minute and then kick him out. That wasn’t the case because she ended up sleeping in his arms all night. In the morning he was sitting on the side of the bed with a hot cup of tea and mint gingersnaps for her.
It was the first morning in weeks where she didn’t throw up her breakfast, and they ended up watching TV in bed whiling away the Saturday afternoon. She remembered his words as he dozed on the pillow next to her. She wasn’t ready to let him in, but she wasn’t willing to give him up either. So they would stay the course the best they could and she hoped to hell she was making the right choices.
“I don’t know what to do, Rafe. I’m half scared to go to her house lately,” Brody said helplessly. “Yesterday, I show up with all the ingredients ready to make her dinner. She asked for mashed potatoes and Salisbury steak. So I start cooking, and then halfway through she changes her mind and says that the smell is making her sick and she couldn’t possibly eat what I was making. Then, she is crying and I go to see why, afraid it is somehow my fault again, but she’s sitting in front of the TV, crying at a fabric softener commercial. Why? Because the baby on the commercial put its finger in its mother’s mouth and she thought it was cute.” Brody looked at Rafe. “Then, wasting all the food that was half made, she ended up wanting cheese pizza. So I order pizza. Then, when the pizza arrives, she tops it with catsup and pickles.” They were sitting in the office they shared. Since Rafe took over command of the new elite unit out of Quantico, the commute was brutal but well worth it for all of them. Ivy and Marie loved their jobs at Walter Reed while Rafe and Brody loved their careers in the Marines. Somehow, they made it all work and that was what mattered in the long run. While people shattered and fell, either on the field or at the hospital, they managed to stay a tight unit. They were friends who were so close they were more like family.
Rafe looked at Brody with sympathy in his eyes. “Ivy said it’s Marie’s second trimester and her hormones are completely out of whack.”
“Did I mention one minute she is rubbing against me like a kitten and the next she shuts down cold and I go to sleep with my boys aching,” Brody said. “I don’t know if I’m walking into a minefield or into a meadow filled with daffodils.”
Rafe was roaring with laughter by the time he was finished speaking and Brody looked at him sullenly. “Hey, remember Ivy is pregnant now and soon you will be sitting here instead of me, buddy.” In December Ivy told Rafe she was pregnant, and then called Marie, crying in joy. Brody recalled it vividly because Marie was then crying and when the foursome finally got together to celebrate their growing families, at least ten minutes was spent with weepy eyes and constant hugs.
“Ivy is so thrilled to be carrying that even while she’s feeling crappy she has a smile on her face.” Rafe sighed. “Sometimes she thinks I don’t see her crying, but I do. She is scared that she may miscarry. She is taking a leave of absence from the hospital. Her doctor wants her to be taking it as easy as possible until the birth.”
“I wish Marie would stay home. At night her back aches and her feet swell and, whatever you do, don’t tell her she has started waddling. She has vowed a cruel death to anyone who mentions it.” Brody grinned. “In happier news, we can feel the baby move—little tiny rolls of movement.
She is twenty-six weeks today and I am supposed to meet her for the appointment at the midwife center. We find out if she’s having a boy or girl.”
“Well, then you can see how all the suffering is for the best in the end.” Rafe drummed his fingers on the desk. “Do you want to know the sex of the baby?”
“Hell yeah. We’ve got a nursery to prepare,” Brody replied. “Speaking of which, what would you think of me asking Marie to move in with me?”
“Don’t you mean the other way around? Your bachelor pad of a townhouse is no place to raise a baby,” Rafe commented.
“Good point. If she agrees to moving in together, I could sublet it,” Brody mused.
“That’s certainly better than being in your complex,” Rafe said.
“Marie wouldn’t be too happy with the neighbors you have. You know, the ones with the extra short skirts and the stiletto heels.” Brody rolled his eyes. “Like I knew any of that when I bought the place. Still, you do have a point. Marie has such bad juju about her ex that she won’t talk to me about it.”
Rafe handed him some papers. “Here sign off on these. I’m requisitioning some equipment for training.” He sat back and laced his hands behind his head. “From what I’ve heard from Ivy, the guy came back pretty screwed up from his tour and cheated on her. But that can’t be all there is to it because Marie is as prickly as a pear when she even hears his name. All you can do is wait for her to trust you enough to open up.”
“Have you met Marie?” Brody asked skeptically. “Fort Knox has nothing on her.”
Rafe laughed. “Get out of here and go watch your baby wiggle around.”
Brody handed him the paperwork that he’d signed. “I’ll be back in about two hours.”
“I’ll be on the range if I’m not in here,” Rafe said.
The phone rang as Brody got up to leave so he just raised his hand in goodbye to Rafe. He left the building and got into his car and grimaced.
He loved the low-slung corvette but every time Marie rode in it she complained. He couldn’t blame her since she drove a twenty-twelve Acura. They both needed something bigger that would fit a car seat and baby supplies. Along with baby shopping they definitely needed to vehicle shop or at least he did. At least his corvette was paid off and a family car was now necessary. As he drove he thought of Marie’s fears. The main one being that she thought he wouldn’t stick around. She didn’t say it much, but he saw the skeptical look she had on her face each time he talked about anything permanent.
And then before he could say too much she would quickly changed the subject. He had no intention of losing interest in her or their child. In fact, the more time he spent with her, the more he loved her. But there was no way he could say those words to her and freak her out. Marie didn’t want grand gestures; she had to be coaxed into it slowly. Needless to say, his plan was to be around for a lifetime. He pulled up to the midwife center and went in. Since he’d been going to her prenatal appointments, he’d become a familiar face around the center. They ushered him back to the examination room where Marie was already set up with Jenny. Brody knocked and then stepped quietly inside.
“Hey, Dad, you’re just in time.” Jenny smiled. She was measuring Marie’s burgeoning belly with a tape. “The little peanut is right on schedule with growth.” He sat down next to the exam table and took Marie’s hand and kissed it gently. “Hear that, baby? You are a wonderful cloning cubicle.”
Marie sighed and looked at Jenny’s confused expression. “He’s convinced that the baby is going to be an exact replica of him. Pay him no attention.”