Page 103 of The Moments You Were Mine

THERE YOU ARE

Performed by Martina McBride

ONE YEAR AGO

HER: I need the sea and air and a moment of freedom. Pick me up at five a.m. tomorrow so we can hit the waves?

HIM: What’s wrong?

HER: I just need to get out of my own head for a while.

HIM: It’ll be just the two of us?

HER: Just the two of us.

PRESENT DAY

When I risked looking into Parker’sface, his lips were tight, and his eyes raged. He started to roll away, as if he was going to leave.

“I’ll fucking kill him.”

I grabbed his arm, and he stilled, turning back to me with a face I barely recognized as his.

This was not the emotionless Navy SEAL I saw so often but an enraged one. The man who did what had to be done to defend a country he believed could still be righted, no matter how bad our government got. This was the man who did the worst out of duty. He would end JJ’s life if I whispered I wanted it done.

He’d protect me. He’d protect the baby.

My chest squeezed tight at those words. How long had I wanted that? For Parker to be mine? For us to have a futuretogether that ended with marriage and children?

He’d said he wanted me. He’d finally admitted it.

But would it change now that he knew I was having another man’s baby? Would he look at me differently? Would he close down once he realized being with me meant yet another child he hadn’t asked to have or raise?

What would happen if I offered up the wild idea Maisey had placed in my head that I hadn’t stopped thinking about since? Not even everything that had happened on the ranch, not even the thought of Ace or the Puzos sending someone here to hurt me, had stopped the idea from spinning around inside my brain all weekend.

“You’re pregnant?” he said, glancing down to where my hand rested on my stomach.

Those stupid, useless tears that had been with me for a month now rushed in. I barely caught them, holding them back by closing my eyes as I simply nodded.

A warm hand cupped my cheek, fingers stroking. My body ignited as it always had when we touched, and when I opened my lids, it was to find dark, stormy grays burning into me.

“Who have you told?” Parker asked.

“Only Maisey.”

He didn’t say anything else. He just stared at me as if he could pull every thought from my brain with just his gaze, all while he caressed my cheek with a gentleness that would be my undoing.

I pulled his hand into mine, setting them on my chest.

“Maisey suggested something pretty outlandish,” I told him. “A way I might be able to keep JJ from finding out about the baby—or at least, putting him off it if he ever finds out I have one.”

Parker shifted our hands so our fingers twined together, linking us, merging us. It made those damn tears prick again.

“A bullet in his head will make sure of it.” He said it calmly. Matter-of-factly. No debate.

My lips twitched upward. “Thanks for offering, but I think we already have enough going on without a murder rap adding to it.”

“No one will know, Fallon. It’s my job to get in and outwithout anyone being the wiser.”