RYDER: A Standalone Military Romance (Blake Security Book 1) (15 page)

ALICIA

              Getting reacquainted with your own child is a strange thing. At first Natalia was excited that she had a new “friend”—but it seemed like as time went on she sensed I was trying to take her away from the only family she’d ever known and she was pulling away from me. It’s been a month since we began this process. The Slades have been incredible, and I don’t let a day go by that I don’t thank God for putting them in our lives. For the first week, I kept her for one overnight. The second week was three, and I was in heaven. By the third week, we were ready to try four, but on the fourth night Natalia wouldn’t stop crying for her “Grammy,” what she calls Mrs. Slade. I took her “home” that night and I wasn’t too discouraged until this past week. It was already Friday, and she’d only made it through one night with me this week. We had spent the day at the zoo, and it was wonderful, and although Friday was supposed to be the Slades’ night because they did family dinners on Fridays, Mrs. Slade suggested I take Natalia home with me. I was ecstatic until she began screaming when I tried to put her in my car. I didn’t make her go, but I’d come home and cried for almost an hour until Ryder showed up with the bicycles.

              I was in a horrible mood and to top it off I was embarrassed to tell him I couldn’t ride a bike. Somehow he could always manage to make me feel better even when I didn’t deserve his patience. He’d suggested the Harley ride down to the lake for a picnic, and my mood had instantly elevated. I was on the back of his bike now watching the scenery as it passed by and holding onto the handsomest, sweetest man in the world. I’d never be safer than I was with him, and he was proving on a daily basis that I’d never be happier either. I needed to stop and remind myself more often just how rich my life was. I have Natalia back, and it doesn’t matter how long it takes, someday she’ll understand that I’m her mother and I love her. I have Ryder, and although I hadn’t said it to him yet, I love him too.

              He drove into the community park and found a spot to leave the bike. After helping me off the bike, he grabbed the picnic basket and a soft-looking blanket with one hand and my hand with the other. He led me down a cobblestone path lined with trees that seemed to be reaching up for the clouds. Delicate beams of sun poured down from underneath the lazy clouds and tried to force their way through the openings in the trees. We passed the playground, and the sounds of the children playing once again reminded me of Natalia and that she didn’t want to be with me tonight. I tried to swallow my self-pity and concentrate on the beauty of the colorful swings and slides and the laughing little children running back and forth. There was a time in the days that I’d bring Celia to the park when I could hardly look at them without tearing up. I had to remind myself that things were so much better now, mostly thanks to the incredible man holding my hand.

We walked until we were near the lake and Ryder found a place where the grass looked like a soft green blanket and the big trees provided a canopy of both shade and privacy. He spread out the blanket, and we sat down. I watched as he took fresh bread, cheese, and salami out of the basket—along with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

              “Wow, you went all out.”

              “There’s fruit, too.” He pulled out a basket of strawberries and two bunches of grapes.

              Once again, I had tears in my eyes. “I’m sorry. I promise I don’t usually cry about everything. Lately I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

              He smiled gently and said, “There is nothing wrong with you. You’ve had a lot of changes in your life lately. You’re just adjusting.”

              “No one has ever made a picnic for me.” The truth be told I’d never even really been out on a date. Sometimes I wondered if a man like Ryder would eventually get tired of a woman like me. I’m sure he’s used to being with classy women and women that couldn’t wait to get him into bed. It wasn’t that I didn’t think about that…a lot. I just wanted to straighten out my life first, and that was proving to take longer than I had imagined it would when I first got Natalia back in it.

              “Well, from now on someone is going to do a lot of things for you that no one has ever done.”

              “Why?”

              He grinned. “Because I love you, Alicia.”

That wasn’t the response I was expecting or even hoping for. But as soon as the words were out of his mouth, I knew for sure that it was exactly what I wanted to hear. I threw my arms around him so hard that I knocked him back on the blanket. He was laughing as I brought my mouth down on his. I’d never been the aggressor before. I liked it. Ryder stopped laughing right away, and one of his hands came up to rest on the side of my face. The other one rested against the small of my back and held me against him. He opened his mouth, and this time I let my tongue explore his. He completely relaxed and let me kiss him the way I wanted to, long and deep. When I finally broke the kiss, I let my tongue slide out of his mouth, and I used it to trace the gentle outline of his sensuous lips. Once again, I could feel his desire for me pressing into me, and suddenly I realized how unfair to him I was being. I pushed against his chest and sat up quickly.

“What?” He looked confused, and I felt even worse. I saw him glance down to the front of his jeans. “I’m sorry, baby, it’s just when I’m close to you…”

“No, Ryder, don’t be sorry, please. It’s me. I’m teasing you…”

He laughed softly and brought his hand up to gently smooth my hair. “You’re just not ready—and that’s okay.”

“I want you.”

He nodded. “I know.”

“Pretty full of yourself, huh?” I couldn’t resist teasing him. I often wished that I had his self-confidence.

He leaned down and softly kissed my lips. “Yes,” he admitted. “But that’s not why I know you want me. I can see it when you look at me. Granny used to tell me that the eyes reflected all of our thoughts if you just looked hard enough. I can see how you feel when I look at you.”

I smiled. “So I don’t need to tell you that I love you, too?”

He grinned. “Nope, I knew that already.”

“Okay, I won’t say it then.”

He laughed. “Go ahead and say it.”

“Nope. You don’t need me to say it.”

“Come on, just say it one time.”

“Nope.” He grabbed me then around the waist and started tickling me. I twisted and turned and tried to get away as he said,

“Say it and I’ll stop.”

Finally, breathless and unable to take it any longer, I said, “Okay, okay! I love you, Ryder Grant.”

He stopped tickling me and looked into my eyes. His Granny was right; I could see what he was feeling. “I love you, Alicia, and when you’re ready, I’m going to marry you, and then I’m going to make love to you all night long.”

My heart swelled in my chest so big I feared it would explode. I put my hand on his handsome face and said, “I love you, and I pray every day that you know how much I appreciate you.”

He kissed me again, and I imagined being his wife. I couldn’t wait for us to be a family. Natalia was going to have a mother and a father and maybe someday a sibling or two. I’d never been so happy, or felt as alive as I did at that moment.

********

RYDER

I was lying in bed later that night thinking about Alicia. I smiled as I remembered telling her that I loved her. It was funny to me that I’d said it so easily and that I’d gone from there to talking about getting married. The funniest thing was that I’d meant every word of it. I loved her so much that sometimes I was completely overwhelmed by it. When I thought I couldn’t love her even a little bit more, I’d see her with her daughter or she’d attack me with a kiss and the heart I thought was overflowing swelled just a little bit more.

I closed my eyes, and just as I began to imagine our wedding night, my phone rang. I picked it up and saw that it was Tim from the motor vehicle department. “Tim, it’s late.”

“Sorry, did I wake you?”

“No, not at all. I’m just wondering why you’re still at work at this time of night?”

“Getting slammed this week.”

“I’m sorry to add to your workload.”

“No worries. You have a pen?”

I groped into the nightstand for a pen and a small pad. “Okay, shoot.”

“The car is registered to a business. The business is Stanton Printing—and it’s owned by a Greg Stanton, but even though the car had Louisiana plates, that’s not where the business is located.”

“Where is the business?”

“I get a California address. It’s in Irvine.”

The paperwork I’d done for Blake was an expense report from his trip to California. A lot of receipts for coffee, gas, and meals were from Irvine. “Great, Tim. Thanks so much.”

“Sure thing. You owe me lunch.”

“You let me know when you have some free time.”

He sighed. “The way things are going, I’m going to have to ask if you deliver.”

I laughed. “For you, anytime.” I ended the call and started to dial Blake. I stopped myself. He was just going to be pissed off that I’d lied to him and that I was still looking into his “personal” business. Instead, I took out my notebook and pulled up the website for Stanton Printing in Irvine. It listed the owner as Gregory Stanton as Tim had said. There was an address that I saved and a list of their assets and yearly earnings. From there I did a search on Gregory Stanton’s background. It said he was fifty-four years old and married to an Elaine Stanton. They’d been married for twenty-nine years and had two children…twins. Gregory Stanton had a son named Dawson, who died in 2008, and a daughter named Dana who was listed as his partner in the business. Son of a gun! Someone from Dawson’s family was watching Blake…and maybe breaking into his house…but why?

I closed the notebook more confused than when I opened it. There was something serious going on in my best friend’s life. He knew it… and now so did I. I had a lot of questions, but my first one was whether or not he was in danger. Normal people don’t break into other people’s homes and stalk them at their place of business, did they?

I lay there for a long time ruminating over what was going on with Blake and whether or not I should try and talk to him about it. I wished that he would talk to me, but for some reason he was not able to do that. I finally settled on calling Leif, Abrahem, and Lucy. I arranged a breakfast meeting that they all agreed to show up for. Maybe together we could come up with some ideas. It was how we did our best work anyways. And speaking of together, when I closed my eyes at last, visions of Alicia in a white dress and me in a tux danced through my head. I could hardly wait.

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