The SEAL's Valentine (Operation: Family) (8 page)

* * *

S
OMETHING
WAS
WRONG
.

Waiting in the truck for Cayden and Tristan, Brynn knew the pain shooting through her was too intense for early stage labor. Could her constant backaches have been labor pains and she’d been too wrapped up in baseball and the garden club to notice?

Stupid. Had she stuck to her plan of keeping to herself, her mind may have been wholly focused on her health, rather than trying to meet friends who would no doubt leave her. As for that call from the commissioner? That’d been stupid, too. The kinds of things she’d been through, what’d been done to Mack’s formerly sterling reputation, they couldn’t be taken back.

Biting her lower lip to keep from crying out, she instead tried shifting to a more comfortable position, gripping the dash for all she was worth.

After riding out the next wave of contractions, she was relieved to see her son running toward her. Cayden held Tristan’s hand and the sweetness brought on emotional tears.

“How are you?” Tristan asked, hefting Cayden into the back, then fastening the boy’s seat belt.

“I—I’m good,” she lied. “But if you think you can find an E.R., I’d appreciate it. I—I’m pretty sure this baby isn’t waiting to make it back to Ruin Bayou.”

“Mom?” Cayden asked, “you’re not dying, are you?”

“Not even close,” she said with a forced smile, trying to breathe through pain so intense perspiration dotted her forehead and upper lip.

“Promise?” While Tristan searched for the nearest hospital on his phone, Brynn nodded to her son.

In under ten minutes, Tristan squealed to a stop beneath an emergency room canopy. “Hold tight,” he said to Cayden. “Let me get your mom settled and I’ll be right back.”

“Okay...” Cayden sounded as if he was trying awfully hard not to cry.

After killing the engine, Tristan hopped out from behind the wheel, charging around the front of the truck to unfasten Brynn’s safety belt and scoop her into his arms.

“I’m too heavy,” she protested.

“How about letting me be the judge of that?”

Beyond thankful for his help, she rested her head against his chest.

Inside, nurses scrambled to get Brynn into a wheelchair, though she’d much preferred being held securely in Tristan’s strong arms.

“Do you have your insurance information?” an admissions clerk asked.

“I-in my purse,” Brynn managed.

“I’ll get it,” Tristan said. “I’ll handle everything. You just focus on you.”

Everything was happening too fast. The pain was too strong. Tears had started and showed no sign of letting up. The nurses wheeled her down an endless hall, farther and farther from Tristan and her son. The lights were too bright. The antiseptic smell too potent. “I—I’m going to be—”

A nurse fished a plastic bag from her pocket, holding it under Brynn’s mouth. “There you go.” She smoothed her hand up and down Brynn’s back. “Try calming down. Everything’s going to be okay.”

“E-easy for you to say,” Brynn muttered from between chattering teeth.

The nurse laughed and just kept on rolling to the maternity ward. “Hold on to that spunk, girl. You’re going to need it.”

* * *

C
AYDEN
FOUND
A
HIDING
SPOT
between a pop machine and wall. He sat there hugging his knees to his chest, wishing
really
hard his mom wasn’t going to die. Coach Tristan kept promising she was gonna be okay, but Cayden was a first-grader and not stupid like a
littler
kid. All the grown-ups who’d come to the hospital—like their neighbor who’d told him to call her Miss Georgia, and Tristan’s mom, Miss Donna—told him what his mom was going through was natural. But just like he wasn’t stupid, he wasn’t dumb, either, and all that screaming and crying coming from his mom’s room couldn’t be normal.

If his mom did die, then what? Was he supposed to run away? Or start looking for a new mom and dad?

Coach Tristan sat on the end of a sofa near Cayden’s hiding spot. “Doing okay, bud?”

“No.”

Tristan laughed, but instead of it sounding funny, like when he cracked jokes, it sounded kinda sad. “Me, neither.”

He stood, stretched, then headed to the vending machines. “I need coffee and M&M’s. Want anything?”

“Yeah. I want that, too.”

Eyeing him funny, Tristan asked, “Your mom lets you drink coffee?”

“Yeah...” Cayden knew he wasn’t supposed to, but he lied. Just this once, if he drank grown-up coffee, maybe it’d make him feel more like a man. Because if he’d been a man when his dad died, maybe he could’ve done something to keep him alive. “I drink it
all
the time. Mom lets me have Snickers bars, too.”

Nodding, Tristan said, “That’s what I figured. Lots of cream and sugar in your coffee?”

“Uh-huh.” Cayden wasn’t really sure what that did to the coffee, but he’d heard people say it on TV, so it had to be good.

Once they had their food and shared the waiting room sofa, Tristan said, “I got a text a little while ago from Dominic’s dad. They’ll be here soon.”

“That’s good—I guess.”

Helping Cayden unwrap his candy bar, Coach Tristan asked, “I thought you liked Dom?”

“I do.”
But with Mom almost dying, I’d rather just sit here with you
.

Chapter Eight

Above all else, Tristan hated losing control.

Hours had passed since Cayden and Dominic had fallen asleep, folded like human origami into armchairs.

Sean had grabbed a Sudoku puzzle book before the gift shop closed, and seemed content enough. His pencil scratching against paper was the room’s only sound outside of the occasional hospital PA announcement.

“How are you standing this?” Tristan asked, up on his feet to pace the same course he had all night.

Shrugging, Sean didn’t look up from his page. “What are you keyed up about? Brynn’s a great gal and all, but it’s not like you really know her.”

Not sure how to take his friend’s casual assessment, Tristan said, “Guess you’re right.”

But was he? For whatever reason, however illogical it may be, Tristan did feel a certain closeness to Brynn. Whether it was the bond they’d formed during their trek through Lee Bayou or the fact that they’d both seen the end of their marriages, he couldn’t deny caring.

Since both kids were zoned out, Tristan said, “I know you graduated a couple classes behind me and Jason and the rest of my crew, but you remember Mack, don’t you?”

“How could I not?” He set down his puzzle. “The guy was only the greatest thing to come from this town, like, ever—well, until the scandal.”

“Keep this on the DL, but I’m guessing the whole reason Brynn went into labor early is due to a call she had yesterday afternoon from Ted Stevens, and—”

“Whoa—as in the baseball commissioner?”

“That’s the one.”

“Sorry.” Sean shook his head. “Gonna take a sec to wrap my head around that one. Anyway, please continue.”

Tristan explained how Mack had been on the good guy side of a sting operation, and now that all of the bad guys had finally been indicted, the commission was restoring Mack’s halo. “The news hit her hard. Like the whole reason she ended up here was not only for the free house—but to escape the hatred of Mack’s fans and their former friends. After weathering practically being run out of town by a lynch mob, owning nothing but a car and the clothes on her back, the commissioner now wants to host a special game in Mack’s honor—with Cayden tossing a ceremonial first pitch.”

“Wow...”

“Exactly. I don’t even know what to say to her.” Tristan resumed his pacing.

Glancing down the hall at Donna carrying a pink bundle, he said, “For the time being, looks like all topics are tabled. Our new friend Brynn had a beautiful baby girl.”

* * *

C
AYDEN
STOOD
IN
THE
CORNER
of his mom’s hospital room with his arms tightly folded, refusing to even look at the stupid baby everyone was freaking out about. She wasn’t even cute, but all the grown-ups were talking in soft cootchie-coo voices and kept going on about her adorable tiny fingers and toes.

Dominic and his parents had left a long time ago, since his lawyer dad had to be at work today and Dominic had baseball practice. Cayden wished he could be at practice instead of in this stupid hospital with his stupid baby sister.

He snuck a look at her, cuddled in his mom’s arms.

Coach Tristan stood at the head of his mom’s bed, and he kept giving his mom and the baby a goofy smile—like he’d had too much beer or something. Miss Donna and Miss Georgia had gone home for a little while, but now they were back, along with a whole bunch of other ladies Cayden didn’t know.

Nobody even looked at him.

He could just stand in the corner for the rest of his life, starving to death, and no one would even notice—especially not his mom who’d never once loved him as much as she now loved his stupid sister.

“Cayden,” Tristan said, “how about me and you head down to the cafeteria for some scrambled eggs and bacon.”

“I’m not hungry.” Cayden refused to even look that way. He hated all of them for loving that baby and not him.

“Honey,” his mom said, “please get something to eat. I know you had one of the cookies Miss Georgia brought, but I’d feel better if you at least had a little healthy protein.”

“I don’t even know what that is and anyway, even if I did, I don’t want it!” He stormed past all the stupid ladies to go stand in the hall.

A few minutes later, Coach Tristan came out of his mom’s room. “Got something on your mind?”

“No.”

The hall was crowded with a bunch of people wearing blue and green doctor-looking suits. Lots of them pushed machines and wheeled carts and stuff.

“Well, that’s good.” Tristan put his hand on Cayden’s shoulder, guiding him through all the crazy machine drivers. “Because I’ve got a ton of stuff I’d like to talk about. Plus, I’m starving. How about you just sit with me—I won’t make you eat anything—and then you can give me advice on a couple things?”

“I s’pose that’d be all right.”

“Cool. Bet you can’t beat me to the elevator!”

* * *

W
ITH
G
EORGIA
AND
D
ONNA
OFF
at a Shreveport nursery they’d both been wanting to visit, and Tristan and Cayden sharing a late breakfast, Brynn finally had a moment alone to gaze at her baby in wonder.

Naming her Mackenzie had been a no-brainer. Even if the commissioner hadn’t called, Brynn had wanted to honor the happy times she remembered with Mack. Now that she knew none of the horrible things she’d believed about him were true, that didn’t mean a magical rewind button could be pressed. Former friends couldn’t take back indescribably hurtful actions and words. Her mind’s eye couldn’t stop seeing the morning she’d woke to get the paper only to have the front yard literally covered in slime from thrown eggs. The entire town of St. Louis had hated her for Mack’s actions and hadn’t hesitated to show that hate in an assortment of creative forms.

The commissioner had seemed to think the fans would instantly forgive and forget, catapulting Mack’s memory to its rightful position in baseball glory.

Brynn wasn’t so sure...

Refusing to cry on this special day, she focused on the positives in her new life. Most especially the baby, her new friends and Tristan. He’d been a rock. Buying her dry clothing at the batting park, then finding her a hospital, always watching after Cayden. Considering the hard-line stance she’d taken on vowing to be independent, in the past few weeks she’d done a one-eighty. There was no way she could’ve pulled off Cayden’s birthday party without help from Tristan and Vivian and Sean and even Miss Georgia. She even owed thanks to Coach Jason for letting Cayden on the team. Most of all, though, Tristan had made the most profound change in her life. How would she ever repay him?

Mackenzie opened her eyes and though Brynn had hoped her baby would have her daddy’s dark hair and brown eyes, she had her mom’s blue-eyes and the red hair to go along with them.

A knock sounded on the door. Tristan poked his head through. “Everyone decent?”

“We sure are.” Her pulse raced just seeing his dear face.

“Cayden and I found a playground we’ll be able to see from here, so I left him down there to work off steam. Hope that’s okay?”

She nodded, guilty to feel oddly relieved. He’d been the only one not happy to meet Mackenzie. “How’s he doing? He’s never made it a secret he wants nothing to do with his baby sister, but the dark look on his face?” She shuddered. “He scared me. In the past year, I thought I’d been through just about everything a woman can, but this...”

“Give him time.” Tristan cautiously approached the bed, skimming his hand over Mackenzie’s red curls. “He’s afraid you don’t have enough love in you for two kids. And since everyone’s making a fuss over the baby, he assumes she wins your heart.”

“That’s crazy.”

“We both know that, but the kid’s only a couple days past seven. Who really knows what’s going through his head?” At the windows, Tristan said, “Seeing him out there playing, he looks like his usual self. With time, he’ll come around.”

“Hope so.” She stared at her baby for a few seconds more, then to Tristan’s strong back. Heat rose in her cheeks at the memory of him so effortlessly lifting her into his arms to set her in an E.R. wheelchair. The more she was around him, the more she really did believe he could do anything. Did that stem from his SEAL training or had he always been that way? Forcing a breath, she said, “I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but I really can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for me and Cayden. Especially last night, you were a godsend in the truest sense of the word.”

He waved off her compliment. “Anyone in my position would’ve done the same. Shoot, the sanest thing for me to do would’ve been calling an ambulance.”

Mackenzie had drifted off to sleep, her impossibly long eyelashes sweeping chubby cheeks. “No. The whole event was unsettling enough. Riding alone in an ambulance would’ve been too much. W-when I had Cayden, once he heard I was in labor, Mack never left my side. This time around, though Georgia and your mom and Vivian were sweet to stay with me, it was hardly the same. As crazy as it sounds, part of me wished for you to be in here, holding my hand for support.”

He again stood beside her. “Why is that crazy?”

“I hardly know you. Yet, a part of me feels I’ve known you my whole life and...” Emotions got the better of her and silent tears streamed down her cheeks. “I don’t even know what I’m saying. Everything feels out of control. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled Mackenzie’s safe and healthy and I’ll soon be back to my normal energy level, but that call from Ted Stevens threw me off balance. Just when I’d figured out how to live my life without Mack—hating him for all the horrible things he’d done—now I feel like Ted wants me to be the perfect grieving widow for the fans. No, his exact words were, ‘I need you to put on a brave face for all of baseball.’ Like if I could support what happened to my husband, then fans could put aside their disgust over the whole cheating scandal and get back to the business of filling seats. Buying beer and hot dogs.”

Tristan took too long to reply. Was he thinking her a total nutcase? “You’ve said a lot about what this Ted guy wants, but Brynn, what do you want?”

“Honestly?” she laughed. “I just want to raise my kids in peace and never have to think of this whole sordid mess again.”

“Then do it.”

“You make it sound so easy. I thought I hated Mack, but now I’m not sure what I feel.”

Then there’s you.
.. In such a short time, Tristan had done so much for her and Cayden—and now, Mackenzie. If he hadn’t been there to help find her medical care, she hated to think what might’ve happened.

“Look...” His voice softened and he edged closer, as if he wanted to reach out to her, perhaps hold her hand. Instead, he held his respectable distance. Which made her irrationally sad. “Just my opinion, but I think you’re asking an unreasonable amount of strength and mental clarity from yourself. You just had a baby. That’s enough to keep any woman’s emotions in flux for a damned long time. Before that, you lost your husband to a violent death played out in front of you at your own home. Toss in your forced move to Louisiana, all the crap Mack’s sting operation put you through, and I’d say you’re entitled to a nice, long nervous breakdown.”

She laughed through silent tears. “You’re so good to me. I can’t imagine what your wife was thinking to have ever let you go.” The moment the thought left her mouth, Brynn regretted it. “I’m sorry. The reason for your divorce is none of my business.”

Though she’d have understood if he suddenly remembered an appointment for which he was late, Tristan didn’t so much as flinch at her question. “No need for an apology. My divorce was my fault. Andrea couldn’t take my lifestyle. I was never home and when I was, my body might’ve been with her, but my mind was already on my next mission. Back then, the action was like a drug. Only when I came home from a six-month stint in Afghanistan to find my house empty, save for a note on the counter, did I realize how much I’d taken for granted.” Shaking his head, he stared out the window toward Cayden and his newfound playground friends. “Jack had only been two. Where he was concerned, I took Andrea’s leaving as a wake-up call. I started spending a lot of time with him—tried making things right. With Andrea, too. But she wasn’t having it.” He shrugged. “By the time she decided to remarry, Jack and I were tight. Her decision to take him from Baywood—just twenty minutes north of my place in Virginia Beach—to California hurt me worse than her initial leaving. It finally made me understand the two of us never had what it took to go the distance.”

Not knowing what to say, Brynn cast a faint smile. “On the flip side, Mack and I rarely ever argued, but look how that turned out. Maybe the real answer is some things just aren’t meant to be?”

He sighed. “Guess so. Not that it makes any of it easier to bear.” Leaning in close to the baby, he said in a silly voice, “Perfect beauties like you are who make life worth living.”

“You’ve got all this time off,” Brynn said, “why don’t you go to Jack? Set up an official visitation schedule for his school holidays.”

“Think Andrea would go for it?” Brynn hadn’t known Tristan long, but the man she already respected didn’t back down from anything. She hated this look of defeat that’d settled over him in regard to his son.

“Why wouldn’t she? I can’t imagine any mother who loves her child not wanting him to share a meaningful relationship with his father.”

“I don’t know...” He was back to staring out the window at Cayden. “We’ve got a break in the game schedule coming in a few weeks. Maybe I’ll plan something then.”

* * *

“I
HOPE
THIS
ONE
’
S
ALL
RIGHT
.”
Donna checked the buckles on the car seat she and Georgia had selected at a Shreveport baby superstore.

“It’s perfect,” Brynn said, finding herself yet again in the position of being indebted to virtual strangers for their kindness.

Tristan had fastened it into the backseat of his truck for the return trip to Ruin Bayou. Once there, she’d transfer the seat to her own car.