Running Fire (29 page)

“Oh, quit, you two,” Cody growled. He stepped around them, threw his arms open to Leah and said, “I get a hug, too.”

Leah knew Cody well. He was a brazen, in-your-face Special Forces weapons sergeant, and so confident in himself. Leah eagerly stepped forward and he leaned down and chastely kissed her cheek.

“See? I warned you, didn't I?” Cody whispered loudly so everyone could hear him, releasing Leah. “That it's crazy when all three of us get together?”

“You warned me,” Leah agreed, laughing. Cody hung his arm around Leah's shoulders watching Tyler trying to out-wrestle Kell. The two brothers were playing, but they were highly competitive.

“Boys.” Mary's lilting voice rang out in warning. “Not here! You want to go roughhouse? You go outside. I'm not having you break any of my furniture with your antics.”

Kell laughed and released his little brother. “Okay, Ma, we'll be good.” He slapped Tyler on the back, giving his younger brother a friendly look.

Tyler grinned and said, “Ma, we haven't seen each other in a long time. This is how we show our love for one another.”

“I don't care. You can show one another in a lot of different ways. If you insist upon wrestling, then take it outside.”

Moving his hand through his mussed-up, longish hair that fell almost to his shoulders, Tyler turned to Kell and said, “Later. We're just getting started.”

Leah saw the spirited competitiveness among the three brothers. She was glad to have hung out with Cody earlier in the year. He had warmed to her like a long-lost sister the first time he met her at Kell's condo.

“See, Ma?” Cody said smugly, coaxing Leah over to her chair to sit down. “Didn't I tell you how beautiful Leah was? I didn't exaggerate one bit, did I?”

Mary nodded, watching her two sons, who were still eyeing one another as if they wanted to tussle some more. “Yes, you did. And you were absolutely right.”

Cody took his coffee and sat down at the end of the table facing all of them. “Leah, Ma was saying that she was happy to have another woman around here. More estrogen to offset all this testosterone she's had to put up with all these years.”

Leah laughed and felt Kell's hand on her arm as he sat down next to her.

“Can you blame your poor mother who has had to live in a house full of males for so long?” Mary shot back, tittering.

Tyler eased into a chair next to Cody's elbow. “Tell me something, Kell. Did Leah know what she was getting into when she said yes to you?”

“I warned her,” Kell said, giving Tyler a grin. “I spared nothing about you two birds to her.”

“Leah, you're a strong woman to take on this guy,” Cody said, gesturing toward Kell.

“Wonder Woman,” Tyler added, drinking his coffee, a sly grin pulling at the corners of his mouth

“He's a very sweet man,” Leah murmured.

Cody and Tyler groaned and rolled their eyes.

“Sweet?” Cody cried out, appearing completely wounded and taken aback by the word. He dramatically slapped his chest. “My God, she's calling a SEAL sweet?”

Tyler shook his head and laughed. “Don't
ever
use that word to describe Kell. Okay?” His smile widened.

Kell shrugged. “Sweet is better than vinegar,” he told his two brothers.

“Yeah,” Cody grumbled. “But sweet?” He cut Leah a glance. “I can think of many, many words to describe this guy of yours, but
sweet
ain't one of 'em.”

“That's because you're not a woman, Cody,” Leah shot back, smiling. That brought more roars of laughter and teasing. She saw Mary get up.

“Can I help you, Mary?” she asked.

“No, not unless you want to help me get these birds gutted and then thrown into a hot kettle of water in order to pull their feathers.”

“You stay sitting,” Kell told her, rising. “I'll go help Ma clean the birds.”

“Yeah,” Cody jeered. “We killed 'em, and now you guys have to clean 'em.”

Leah glanced over at Orin. “Is it like this all the time?”

His mouth pulled into a faint smile as he finished off his mug of tea. “Actually, this is mild in comparison. I think they're all being sweet because you're here.”

That brought collective groans, laughter and more raucous teasing between the three brothers. Leah found herself happier than she could ever recall being. Her own family was a cold, lifeless shadow compared to this one. She watched as Kell did all the work while his mother poured water in a large steel pot. There was love in this house.

* * *

K
ELL
TOOK
L
EAH
for a walk near dusk down a wooded trail. The temperature was in the high thirties and Leah had bundled up. Kell walked with her on the flat, muddy trail, arm across her shoulders, holding her close. The limestone hills above were clothed with hundreds of naked trees devoid of leaves. Many of them had caves beneath them. The trail was covered with a thick layer of brown leaves. It was a bit slippery and Leah was glad to have her arm around his waist. He seemed impervious to the weather, wearing a denim jacket and no gloves, hat or muffler, unlike her.

“What do you think of my family?” Kell asked as he led her down a slight curve.

“I love them.” And then Leah added more softly, “Right or wrong, I was comparing your family to mine.”

Kell nodded. “Two very different worlds, Leah.”

Her throat tightened. “Your parents' kitchen felt so warm and inviting. I loved looking at your father because he just watched you three and you could see the love shining in his eyes for all of you. He was present. He cared. And—” Leah shrugged “—I found myself wishing my father had looked like that at me. But he never did. He looked at Evan and then Hayden like that.”

His heart contracted with her pain and Kell leaned over and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “My family loves you. You know that? They will all look at you with that same warmth and love in their eyes. You're one of us now. You have a new family, Leah.”

She rallied and smiled up at him, her eyes moist. “Yes. I knew when Cody came for a visit, after getting off that op in Afghanistan, that he was so much like you.”

He laughed. “Cody is the extrovert. Tyler and I are the introverts.”

“He was kind and thoughtful toward me, Kell. It's the way your parents raised you. Even though Cody is full of himself, and he teased me horrendously about falling in love with you, he was never mean to me. He even brought me flowers and a box of chocolates as a gift and told me that if you'd been home, you'd have done the same for me. That told me so much about him, about how your parents raised all of you. He's a decent guy.”

Kell grew quiet. “We were raised a certain way. My ma drilled it into us boys to treat women right. Respect them. That they were our equals, never beneath us.”

“Your mother is terrific. And Cody is so sweet. He insisted on cleaning up the kitchen after I made him a meal. Told me to go sit down and get my beauty sleep.” She smiled fondly.

“We had my pa as our role model,” Kell told her, leading her down another trail that sloped out into a meadow combed with yellowed grass. There was a spring-fed pond about an acre in size and a couple of red wooden benches sitting near the bank. “Pa and Ma adore each other. We grew up watching him love her in so many small but important ways. He works hard as a dairy farmer, but when she'd come home some nights after a long day at the hospital, he'd cook everyone dinner and let her get a bit of rest. He was always bringing her flowers. Sometimes he'd pull them from the pasture, or from along the roadside, for her. And when they had a little money left over, which wasn't often, he'd buy her some flowers from the florist in town.”

“You brought me flowers,” she reminded him, gazing up in his face, the shadows emphasizing his large, warm gray eyes. “The second day you were home, you brought me flowers and chocolates.”

“I couldn't let Cody outdo me,” Kell provided, grinning.

Lean smiled and shook her head. “You guys are so competitive with one another. It's got to be your black ops background?”

Kell chuckled. “No, we were born that way. Probably why we went into black ops.”

Laugher bubbled up through her throat and she nodded. “You three must have been a handful growing up.”

“Ma says we gave her all the gray hair she's sporting now,” Kell said, a smile lurking across his mouth. He eased his arm off her shoulders and picked up Leah's mittened hand. The sun had set in the west and there was a dark blue sky above and a gold strip along the horizon as he guided her to one of the wooden benches. He sat down with her. “The three of us boys always came here to fish. Pa didn't make a lot of money, so we grew up living off the land. The three of us learned to shoot and bring down game from the time we were twelve years old. And if we weren't eating venison, we were eating duck or the fish we caught out of here.” He gestured toward the pond.

“You were poor but happy.”

“We never knew we were poor,” Kell murmured, pulling out a small box from his pocket. “Raising three boys, providing them with the things they needed, left our parents with no savings. That's why now the three of us send them money for their retirement years savings account.”

“That's so wonderful of you,” Leah said, looking at the small dark blue box he had in his hand.

Kell turned to her and pulled her mitten off and laid it across his thigh. “I wanted to come here, Leah, because this has always been a favorite place of mine.” He lifted his chin, holding her gaze. “I want to marry you. I want to see you laugh again, know love, and watch you blossom.” He placed the small box in her palm. “Open it,” he rasped, his large hand cupping hers.

Shaken, Leah pulled off her other mitten. Prying the box open, she whispered, “Oh, Kell...” There in white satin was a green diamond engagement ring set in gold. Next to it was a simple gold wedding band.

Kell gently pulled the engagement ring free and set the box aside. He held her left hand out and said, “Now, let's see if I guessed the size right.” He grinned sheepishly and eased the ring onto Leah's finger. It fit perfectly.

“It's so beautiful,” Leah breathed, holding it up to the fading light.

“Like you, Sugar. It's a green diamond,” Kell told her. “I wanted something to remind me of your beautiful eyes.” He slid his hand along her jaw, drawing her forward, their mouths meeting and melting against one another. She was warm, tasted of chocolate chip cookies and coffee, plus her own sweetness. Warm tears met and flowed between their lips. Kell realized these were tears of happiness, not of pain.

Sliding his fingers through her hair, he held her glistening gaze. “Marry me, Leah?”

Never in his life had Kell wanted anything more than her. Her lower lip trembled, those soft corners of her wide mouth drew upward, and he saw the gold flecks dancing deep in her green eyes.

“You know I will...” Leah slid her arms around his shoulders and felt him drag her as close as he could to himself. Closing her eyes, she nestled her face against his jaw and neck, her pulse pounding in joy, a flood of happiness moving through her. Kell held her tight. Held her safe. Held her with a promise of a rich, happy life with him.

* * *

K
ELL
LAY
QUIETLY
with Leah in his arms. Her breath was moist against his naked shoulder, her fingers languidly skimming his chest in the aftermath of their loving one another. They were in his old room on the third floor. He'd claimed the attic as his bedroom as soon as Cody was born and his parents had turned it into a haven for him. The house was quiet, and it was nearly 1:00 a.m. in the morning. His bed faced the only window, and outside he could see the stars glimmering in the black ink of the sky.

“Happy?” he asked, turning and kissing her lips. Inhaling her scent was like inhaling life. Kell felt Leah stir against him, a satisfied sound vibrating in her slender throat. He smiled and gazed into her drowsy eyes. “I love you,” he whispered, lifting strands away from her brow.

Leah nuzzled against Kell's hard jawline, closing her eyes, her body satiated, her heart light with joy. “I never thought I'd ever fall in love,” she admitted huskily, her fingers curving around his shoulder.

“Makes two of us.” Kell laughed quietly. He got serious and lifted her chin, holding her gaze. “I know you're going to resign your commission when we get back to Coronado. I wanted to talk to you about my new career.”

His grave manner made Leah more alert. His eyes glinted in the darkness, like warm, black coals of smoldering heat and desire for her. When her gaze dropped to his mouth, she realized this was a serious discussion.

“A new career, Kell?” There were a lot of feelings in his eyes and Leah sensed his concern over a decision he had made, but hadn't shared with her yet.

Trailing his finger along the slope of her cheek, Kell murmured, “I've been in the SEALs since I was eighteen. I'm thirty now and considered an old man in the ranks.” One corner of his mouth lifted over that admission. “Until you dropped into my life, I was going to re-up, but things have changed. I have you.” He looked deeply into her eyes. “I don't want to be away for weeks or months at a time from you, Leah. When you see the life my parents have, I want one similar to theirs. And I know from seeing your face, watching you with my family, that you want the same thing. Am I wrong?”

Leah swallowed hard and shook her head. “I wish I could clone what's here, Kell. I know I can't, but I crave this...this sense of family, of belonging...being loved and caring for one another.”

Kell understood because Leah had never had it in her family. “There's a lot I haven't told you yet, mainly because time wasn't on our side in Afghanistan. I started back to college when I was twenty. An old senior chief told me to get a degree. Even if I didn't use it to go on and become a Navy officer, I would have a skill when I left the SEALs. And he was right. He was my sea daddy, the man who molded me into becoming a damn good operator. And he pushed me into going to college. It was a patchwork affair, Leah. I didn't graduate with a degree until I was twenty-five because of the rotation and deployment cycles.”