The Navy SEAL's Bride (12 page)

“I’m not convinced this was a good…”

The door swung open and Caitlin swallowed her words.

“Tommy!” Gabby stood on the other side of the door, a huge smile lighting her face.

He bent to scoop her up for a quick cuddle and a kiss, before putting her back down and reaching for Caitlin instead.

“Look who I brought with me, kiddo.” He waited for Caitlin to brace her arm around his shoulder so he could help her inside and she obliged. “Injured but okay.”

Gabby’s head was on an angle as she looked at the pair of them. “Why is Miss Rose here for dinner?” She didn’t even ask about the fact Caitlin’s ankle was bandaged or that she was only wearing one shoe.

Caitlin gave her a grin, relieved that she hadn’t met Tom’s mom yet. “Because you have the best uncle in the world and he wanted me to join you.”

Tom gave her a strange look and she wished she hadn’t said anything.

“What happened to you?” Gabby asked, as though she’d finally noticed.

“Tom, is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me, Mom.”

Caitlin gulped, back in panic mode again. Tom turned his head and looked at her, his gentle smile and quick wink making her nerves rattle for a completely different reason.

She could stare at him all day and not tire. His dark brown eyes, the way his gaze had the power to put her at ease and excite her at the same time… She looked down at Gabby again, needing to break the connection. Her being here didn’t mean anything. It was just dinner between friends, and Tom had been kind enough to ask her to join his family so she wasn’t in pain and alone. But still, maybe she should have declined.

“Tom, I was wondering…”

His mom was calling out, talking to him as they followed Gabby down the short hall and into the open-plan living and kitchen area.

“Oh!” The words died on his mom’s lips. “I see we have company.”

Caitlin’s face flushed warm and she was as nervous as a teenager meeting her boyfriend’s parents for the first time. Tom’s mother’s expression went from surprised to happy all at once.

“Hey, Mom.” Tom let go of Caitlin briefly to envelop his mom in a hug and kiss her on the cheek. He waved to an equally surprised-looking woman sitting at the table, chair pushed back and Gabby tugging at her arm. Caitlin recognized her instantly.

“Everyone, this is…”

“Miss Rose,” announced Gabby.

It made them all laugh, Caitlin included. Tom stood beside her again and took her arm, helping her forward.

“Yes,
Miss Rose.
Otherwise known as Caitlin,” Tom corrected.

“How lovely of you to join us,” his mom said, holding both hands out to clasp one of Caitlin’s. She kept herself steady by holding on to Tom still, letting her hand be squeezed by his mom’s warm palms. “I’m Vicki.”

“Nice to meet you,” Caitlin said back, not having to force her smile. She’d gone from nervous to welcome within seconds. “I’d let go of your son but I’m not exactly capable of standing on my own right now.”

His mom looked surprised and Gabby’s mom frowned before pushing her chair back to walk toward them.

“Please don’t tell me that Tom had something to do with this,” Vicki said, shaking her head at her son. “It looks like a Tom kind of accident. Please don’t tell me he made you go hiking?”

Caitlin laughed. “Does he take every girl he meets hiking?”

“Every woman? I doubt it. I’ve never met anyone who’s said yes to one of his expeditions yet!”

Caitlin let her hand be squeezed again. “We have met before. I’m Penny, Gabby’s mom. You must meet so many parents that I’m sure it’s hard to keep track.”

“I remember you. We don’t have any other moms who are soldiers, so you’re kind of hard to forget.” Caitlin relaxed as Penny took her by the elbow, ushering her away from Tom.

“Come and sit down,” Penny said, giving Tom a nudge. “You can pull her chair out. Make Caitlin comfortable,” she bossed.

Tom jumped to attention, and Caitlin couldn’t hold back her laugh.

“What?” Tom asked.

“I’m just realizing that maybe if I’d been a bit more bossy with you I could have avoided this sprained ankle completely!” That made the other two women in the room laugh, too. “I was intimidated by the whole Navy thing when I should have stuck to my guns.”

Tom didn’t look impressed as he glared at his sister-in-law before looking back at her. “I thought you wanted to go?”

She reached out a hand to touch his arm, smiling up at him. Instead of worrying, of feeling out of place, Caitlin was relaxed. Content with being at his family dinner, at being around a family again after so long on her own. It was comforting even though they were strangers.

“I did like it, Tom. If this hadn’t happened,” she gestured to her ankle, “it would have been the perfect afternoon.”

His mom appeared across the table, leaning forward on the back of a chair. “Well, let’s make this the perfect evening,” she suggested, smiling with a warmth that instantly reminded Caitlin of Tom. “Let’s get Caitlin a drink, Tom, and then you can help me in the kitchen.”

He looked down at Caitlin, and she grinned up at him, propping her leg up on the chair he’d shuffled closer for her. “You okay for a minute?”

“I’m fine. Absolutely fine,” she replied. And she was. It had been a long time since she’d been relaxed around a man, but for once, she wasn’t lying.

Tom brushed his hand against her hair, barely connecting with her cheek beneath, but Caitlin felt it. It almost took her breath away, the casual way his fingers skimmed against her, reminding her that he was there. That he was aware of her and wasn’t going to leave her for long.

She looked up to see Penny watching. Smiling, but watching.

“I think I’m starting to see why Tom was so keen to look after Gabby while we were away.”

Caitlin met Penny’s gaze, pleased to see only kindness there instead of any animosity.

“I promise I’d never even seen Tom before,” Caitlin confessed. “But he did make quite a first impression on me when he visited my classroom.”

“To collect Gabby?” Penny asked.

“Ah, I’m guessing your daughter hasn’t told you that she dragged Tom to school for show-and-tell, then?”

Penny roared with laughter. “Are you serious? Tom actually did that?”

Caitlin had liked Penny the moment she’d met her at a parent-teacher meeting, but now she was convinced about the other woman. “I think you’re underestimating the effect that little girl has on her uncle.”

Penny held up her hands. “You’re right, Gabby could get any of the men in her life to do anything for her.”

“Who’re you talking about?”

Caitlin looked up at the same time as Penny to see Tom and another man standing together, side by side. There was no mistaking they were brothers, all dark hair and even darker colored eyes, both close to filling the doorway they’d just passed through.

“Hi, I’m Daniel,” the man announced, walking closer and standing behind his wife. “And I know
exactly
who you are.” He grinned at his brother, and Caitlin watched as Tom scowled back.

“Play nicely, boys.” Tom’s mom came back into the room, carrying a huge dish of food.

Caitlin watched as both men moved toward their mom, Tom getting there a step before his brother and ferrying the dish the rest of the way to the table. Daniel followed her back into the kitchen and came back out with another huge plate. It was nice seeing grown men so eager to assist the woman who’d raised them.

“This looks delicious.” Just as she’d imagined it would be.

“So Caitlin, I think I missed the part about how you and Tom met, and how he’s going to make it up to you for getting that ankle sprained,” Daniel asked.

Caitlin grinned at Tom as he carved the huge roast chicken on the table. “Funnily enough, we met in my classroom, and given that he carried me a mile or so back to the car today, I think we’re about even.”

“Why, what did you have to get even over?”

Caitlin felt the flush hit her cheeks, but she wasn’t about to share stories from her drunken night out. “Ah…”

“Caitlin teaches ballet, too, and I helped her out with collecting some stage sets for her class’s next performance the other day.” Tom’s lie rolled easily off his tongue and she was grateful.

“Ballet?” His mom asked. “Do you teach Gabby’s class?”

“Yes,” Caitlin replied, pleased to busy herself with the food before them. Everyone was helping themselves and she was happy not to be the complete center of attention. “Gabby’s one of my favorite little students at ballet and at school,” she praised.

Gabby wriggled in her chair, clearly excited. “Do you want to see what we learned last week?”

Caitlin watched as all the other adults nodded their heads, clearly used to Gabby’s enthusiasm, liking to watch and praise her.

While they sat, dinner getting cold in front of them, Gabby twirled and danced and giggled until they were all laughing. But it felt right. It didn’t matter that they were sitting there watching a child instead of eating, because to Caitlin it felt like being part of a real family. If only for a moment in time.

And she loved it.

Caitlin looked over at Tom and quickly lowered her gaze when he grinned at her. His smile was genuine but it held more than just happiness. It was a smile filled with meaning, and it sent a shiver down the length of her spine.

Because, after all this time of turning down almost every man who had asked her out, after years of focusing on herself and building a life as a single person, being happy on her own, she was starting to wonder if she could build a different kind of something with Tom. If she could open up to him, if they could slowly build on what they had, maybe, just maybe, she could figure out how to trust again.

* * *

Tom reached out and brushed a hand over Caitlin’s. He’d been wanting to do it all night, had been watching her, smiling at the way she interacted with his family. And he couldn’t stop thinking how sad it was that she didn’t have one of her own.

“You okay?” he asked her.

He liked the way Caitlin tipped her head back and met his gaze. “Yeah, I am. Better than okay, actually.”

He didn’t know if he’d ever seen her looking so relaxed.

Tom ran his fingers carefully up her arm before standing. “I’m going to help with the dishes. I don’t want Daniel showing me up in there.”

“Always competing. Trying to outdo one another,” Penny said, leaning back in her chair with an almost empty glass of wine resting in her hand.

Tom looked down at Caitlin one last time before joining his brother and mom in the kitchen. He didn’t want to leave her, had a feeling that he should stay by her side, but he ignored it. She was sitting with his sister-in-law and he needed to stamp out his sudden urge to protect her, because Caitlin wasn’t his to protect.

“So,” he asked his brother once they were both in the kitchen. “What do you think?”

Daniel shrugged, not bothering to turn from his position at the sink. “I have no idea how you convinced such a beautiful woman to go out with you. No idea at all.”

Tom grabbed the tea towel and flicked Daniel hard around the back of the legs. “Like I’ve always wondered how you managed to convince a girl like Penny to marry you.” He went to do a lock-hold around the neck, to hold Daniel until he begged for release. He didn’t bother to tell his brother that he wasn’t actually “seeing” Caitlin. That they weren’t technically more than just friends.

“Boys!” Their mom’s call made Tom step back, stop instantly. “You can leave the fighting until you’re alone. We have a guest and I don’t need any blood to clean up off the floor.”

Tom blew his mom a kiss from across the room before he slapped his brother on the back. They’d always rough-and-tumbled, fought hard and fast, tousled whenever they could. And their mom had always joked about having to clean up after them if things got nasty. Like the time he’d accidentally broken Daniel’s nose, or the time his brother had wrestled him a little too hard and knocked him out cold.

“So how did you ask her out?” Daniel asked, passing him a plate to dry.

“It was more…” Tom stopped, decided not to attempt to explain what it was that was happening between them because he actually had no idea. “Anyway, I’m just glad she said yes.”

His mom smiled at him again from across the kitchen, her eyes showing her happiness. He didn’t want her getting all excited, but he liked that she so obviously approved of Caitlin. He’d never brought a woman home with him before, even after months of dating in the past, yet for some reason he’d wanted to introduce her to his family and he’d never even taken Caitlin on a real date before. The look in his mom’s eyes right now was the same look he’d seen her give Penny, her daughter-in-law, countless times.

Maybe he shouldn’t have brought Caitlin here when he didn’t even know yet if he was capable of letting things go any further between them.

“You know you can’t hurt her, right?”

Tom looked up. He had no intention of hurting her. What the hell was Daniel even talking about? “I’m not planning on it.”

“Good, because if you did you’d have Gabby to contend with. And she’s always telling me how much she loves her teacher.”

* * *

Penny held up the bottle of wine and gestured toward Caitlin. She shook her head no and Penny set it back down on the table. The other woman looked at her, head to the side slightly, a friendly expression on her face.

“I have to ask you, Caitlin,” she said, making it sound more like an apology than a question. “Do you
really
like Tom?”

Caitlin couldn’t help the surprised expression she was sure took over her entire face.

“I’m sorry, that was rude of me,” blurted Penny before Caitlin had time to answer. “Don’t feel like you have to answer that. I tell Gabby off all the time for shooting her mouth off, and there I go doing it myself.”

Caitlin sighed. She didn’t mind answering, but… “Can I ask why you want to know?”

That made Penny laugh. “Fair call,” she said, leaning in a little closer. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but in all the years I’ve been part of this family, I don’t recall Tom ever bringing a woman home for dinner.”