Latched (Coronado Series Book 1) (23 page)

She rested her head against his heart, “Love you more. Happy anniversary, it’s hard to believe that it has been three weeks.
 

“It’s been the best three weeks of my life and I can’t believe I found you.”

“I was wondering if I was becoming,” she leaned down and whispered in his ear, “sex crazed.”

“God I hope so. I hope I drive you half as crazy as you make me.”

“I don’t think you should laugh at my concern. We have been doing it twice a day since we started except when you were gone and I was in the hospital. It’s never been that way for me before.”
 

“This is just how it’s going to be with us. I knew that after the first time we were together, actually I knew we had a ton of chemistry before that. We have to not take it for granted because we are lucky to have it. There are going to be plenty of times in our life when we are not going to be able to act on it. We have to take advantage of the time that we do have together and I don’t just mean sex. I want you to turn to me every day in some way and I will do the same. I want to turn to you and hold your hand and listen to what you have to say. I want to turn to you when I need something and when I kiss you. I want to connect with you in some way every day because when you stop turning towards the person you love, then that becomes the habit. I want our habit to be turning towards each other. You know I’m going to ask you to marry me pretty soon. You don’t have to say anything now, I just want to prepare you.”

“I know,” she took his hand and smiled at him.
 

He looked at their hands, “That’s it. You agree with what I said and not going to voice any objections?”

“Nope, I heard you and I understand.” she leaned over and kissed him, “Do you want pancakes or waffles for breakfast?”

He was stunned, she just agreed with him and didn’t freak out. It was a little too easy, it made him nervous. “Whatever you want babe, take your shower and I will change the bed.”

She got up and kissed him on the way to the bathroom, “Thanks for doing the bed.”

Mark knew it wasn’t going to be that easy, there was something he was missing. He just had to figure out what it was. At least he had made it over the first hurdle, he knew he had several more to go before Birdie became his wife.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Mark walked into the shop around 1:00, Melanie looked up and smiled at him. “Birdie is in her office with the broker, she said to send you back when you got here.”
 

“Thanks Melanie.” He walked back and saw Birdie sitting at her desk looking at a spreadsheet. Her broker was leaning over and pointing to something. He better not be looking down her shirt, otherwise he was going to be in deep shit. She looked up, smiled and pushed back from her desk and the guy straightened up. “Hi Babe, come in and meet Clay. He was just giving me some info on comps in the area.”
 

Mark walked in and put his arm around her and kissed her, he turned to the guy and gave him a hard stare. “Clay, I would like you to meet my boyfriend, Lt. Commander Mark Frazier.”
 

Mark held out his hand and so did Clay, “Nice to meet you, sir. Birdie has told me a lot about you.”
 

“Clay is the husband of Ronnie who is in my knit club. She owns that cute kitchen shop that is in that little shopping center with that statue in the middle.” She could feel him relax, “I have spent way too much money in her shop. I always tell myself that I’m just going to stop in for a visit, but I always walk out with a bag.”

Clay laughed, “When my wife graduated from culinary school, I thought she was going to spend all of our money on kitchen supplies. At least with the shop we’re breaking even. Thank God the catering business is so good. Take your time with the information and let me know if you have any questions. The nail shop is up for lease renewal, so I’ll get in touch with you next week and let you know where we are at.”

“Sounds good, let me walk you out. I will give you some flowers to take home to Ronnie, give her a big kiss for me.”

Clay turned to Mark, “Nice meeting you, thank you for your many years of service to our country.” Mark shook his hand and nodded. Birdie looked over and smiled at him with an, ‘I told you so look.’ She gave Clay a bouquet of flowers for his wife and shook his hand, “Talk to you next week.”

Birdie turned to Melanie, “Do you need anything before I go to lunch?”

“No I think I can handle it, I will make a couple more bouquets for the grocery, they said they sold out.”

“Sounds good, don’t forget there are drinks in the fridge in my office and cookies are in that blue container.” Turning to Mark she said, “Let me go grab my purse and then we can go.”

She headed back to her office and Mark followed, “You knew I was about to go crazy, how could you tell?”

“The determined sound of your feet as you approached me, the dead eye stare you gave Clay, and the shift in your muscles as you got near me. It’s like you’re getting ready to get into a fight. That is how I can tell. That and the stink eye you like to give, you have a very effective stink eye.” She took his hand, “Let’s go, I need a cheeseburger and fries. I’m starving.”

“I do not give a stink eye. I look at my opponent and evaluate…. it’s a Navy skill.”

She patted his arm, “If that’s what you want to think, fine. But you are giving an old fashioned stink eye. I think I want a milk shake to go with my burger, what about you?”

They waved to Melanie as they headed out the door. Mark realized that maybe she was right. He didn’t have a reasonable bone in his body when it came to Birdie. “Why did you introduce me with my full ranking? You have never done that before.”

“Well I thought it showed respect for you and it allowed Clay to acknowledge all that you have done for our country. I didn’t really think about it before I did it. Was it ok?”

“It’s fine, it just surprised me. I wasn’t sure how you felt.”

“I think people would like to acknowledge what you have done for this country and if I introduce you, it gives them the opportunity to do that.”

“I want you to know that we are almost done with our stand down phase and I’m about to go out on deployment. I want to make sure that everything is taken care of at home. So when I’m out on the other side of the world, I won’t worry about you.”

“Well you don’t have to worry about me, I can take care of things here. Just let me know what you need me to do for you while you’re gone.”

“Let’s figure it out over the weekend and then we can go to the bank on Monday.”

“Why do we have to go to the bank? I can set up your bills to be paid and then you just set up an automatic transfer to cover your monthly. You can probably do it online, there’s no need to make a trip to the bank.”

“No, I want you to have access to my accounts in case you need anything.”

“Mark, you know that I’m financially secure, right? I have taken care of myself for many, many years. If we are ever together on a permanent, legal basis then we can discuss it .I don’t want to have access to anything.”

Mark stopped walking and stared at her, “What are you talking about, if? There is no if, there is only when.”

She pulled his hand, “Let’s go eat and we can talk about it at home tonight, not on the street.”

Mark wasn’t moving, so Birdie stopped and looked back at him. “Did you mean what you said this morning about understanding my intentions? Were you just placating me, to get me off track?”

“I am not discussing this on the street, so you can either take me to lunch or you can leave.” She crossed her arms over her chest and waited, “What is your decision?”

Mark gathered her in his arms and she finally let her arms down and hugged him back. “I will take you to lunch and then I will come and pick you up at the shop and then we can do whatever you want to do.”
 

Birdie hugged him back, “Thank you.”

They made it through lunch without incident and Birdie went back to the shop and finished her work. Mark left and called Sam. He knew what he needed to do and thought Sam could give him an idea where he needed to go.

********

Mark sat in his favorite sports bar watching the game waiting for Sam to show up. It was nice of his teammate to take time out to come meet with him. He looked around and he saw a bunch of familiar faces. They had the baseball game on one TV and a football game on the other.

Sam came over and sat down and Mark signaled to the waitress. “Thanks man. I know you want to spend time with your wife, I won’t take too much of your time.”

“That’s ok, she’s at a water aerobics class, she says it’s the only time she feels weightless now. It’s supposed to help with circulation. What do you need advice on?”

“I’m going to ask Birdie to marry me before we go out on deployment again and I need to go shopping for a ring. I wanted to know where you bought Karen’s ring.”

“Are you serious man? It has only been a couple of weeks, don’t you want to wait and see if you make it out of the happy sex phase?”

“I do not plan on ever leaving that phase with Birdie and I’m sure she’s the one. How long did it take you with your wife?”

“You have a point… I knew within the first month. But it took me a year to talk her into it and then we didn’t get married until a year after that. She made me wait, but she is younger than Birdie and I was her second boyfriend. She didn’t want to rush anything. It just about killed me, I never felt comfortable until she said the ‘I do’s’ at the wedding. In our line of work we deal with the impossible every day and I never sweat it. I know we will find a way to accomplish the goal. Karen gave me a run for my money, but look at us now. We have twins on the way and I am married to the best girl in the world.”

“If Birdie makes me wait two years, I’ll go nuts. I know she is the one for me and I just want to lock her down.”

“Don’t use,
Lock her down
when you ask her. Just a suggestion. Let me give you the name of my cousin who is a jeweler, he helped me out and I trust him.” Sam dug his phone out and gave Mark the information. “Good luck with the ring and the proposal, have you thought about how you are going to do it yet? That stuff is important to them, they want a good story to tell everyone.”

“I think I have an idea. I have a few details to work out though. Thanks for the advice and info.” They finished their beers and watched the game. Mark relaxed after that, nobody was better at making a plan and executing it.
 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

MONDAY AFTERNOON

Birdie walked into her house after she did all of her errands and saw a note that Mark had left. He wanted her to get dressed up and get ready to go out on a date, he was going to pick her up at 6:00. “Well, what a nice surprise, I wonder what he has planned?” She followed orders and got ready for her date with her handsome boyfriend.

She heard the doorbell ring - that was weird, she wasn’t expecting anyone. She went downstairs and opened the door and was stunned. Mark stood in the doorway in his dress whites - everything about him was perfect. His hat sat low on his face and his medals were pinned to his chest and everything was polished and flawless. He held a beautiful bouquet of flowers and was smiling at her, “Hi sweetheart, ready for our date?”

Birdie took in all 6’3” of her handsome, perfect boyfriend in his dress whites and felt like crying. She didn’t know why she was feeling so emotional. Seeing him like this made her realize the full veracity of who he was. She finally moved aside and let him in, he took off his hat as he entered and handed her the flowers. He leaned down and kissed her on her cheek, “You are the prettiest woman I have ever seen.”

“I’m not as pretty as you, my goodness you are so handsome. Thank you for the flowers…. you take my breath away.” She took his hand and led him into the kitchen, “What is the special occasion?”

“We are having a date and I want to make it special for you.” He went over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of champagne that he must have put in there earlier. Veuve Clicquot Rose, her favorite.

“Are you really going to drink pink champagne?”

“Ana told me it was your favorite, so sure, I’ll drink it.” He pulled out glasses and poured champagne into them. “To the best month of my life and to the woman who gave it to me.” They clinked glasses and kissed as they each took a sip. She couldn’t believe that the most handsome man she’d ever met was standing in her kitchen giving her champagne.
 

Mark took her hand and led her outside, somehow he had managed to have speakers installed and twinkle lights. She had been gone most of the day and wasn’t sure when he got it all done. “You made magic Mark, it’s amazing,” she pulled him down and kissed him very slowly.
 

He put his hand on her face and ran his mouth gently over hers as if trying to memorize the feeling. She understood in that moment that Mark felt a great deal for her and he wasn’t taking it for granted. She felt her heart open up to him and knew in that moment that there was never going to be another man for her. Even if they didn’t work out, he was going to always own her heart.

“I want to make magic for you every day from here on out. Let’s sit down and enjoy our champagne.” He led her over and they sat on the couch outside, he picked up a remote and started the music. “Your cousin helped me with the playlist, I hope you like it.” He poured her more champagne as they sat back and listened to the music. The sun was almost gone and the lights made the backyard look magical. She looked over and couldn’t believe this man was in her life.
I guess I just need to love him as hard as I can. Nothing else matters.