Page 124 of Rescuing Mary

“No,” Hollywood admitted. “I already knew she was the most beautiful girl in all the world…second only to her mom. But I am just realizing that it’s a problem. The boys are gonna be all over her.”

“Look at me,” Kassie ordered.

Hollywood continued to stare at his baby girl—who wasn’t so much a baby anymore—as she played with Ethan. When he felt Kassie’s fingers on his cheek, he tore his eyes away from the child who meant so much to him.

She’d been sickly as an infant, and when she was two, they’d found out she had sickle cell anemia. The doctors had been surprised, as it mainly affected African-American children in the United States, but somehow Kate had inherited the sickle cell gene from each of her parents, resulting in the anemia.

It had been a tough road for a while, with tons of doctors’ appointments and trying to get her medicine right. But today she was a happy and beautiful child. As a result of everything they’d been through with Kate, Hollywood and Kassie had decided to not have any more children. They didn’t want to risk passing on the disease to another child.

Hollywood wasn’t sorry. He loved Kate with all his heart, but it wasn’t easy being a parent. He was more than okay with only having one kid.

“She’s smart,” Kassie told him. “I have a feeling you’re right, and in a few years she’s going to be fighting off boys with a stick…”

Hollywood growled, but Kassie ignored him and continued. “But by then, she’ll have learned from observing her dad how a man is supposed to treat a woman, because she watches you with me. She sees how your teammates treat their women. She’s gonna want that for herself. She’s not going to put up with anyone treating her badly.”

“She’s not allowed to date until she’s eighteen,” Hollywood said with a frown. “I know how boys are…I was one, you know. They’re gonna want to get in her pants and they don’t like hearing no.”

“So we’ll teach her how to protect herself if there’s a boy who doesn’t take no for an answer.”

Hollywood growled. “If anyone touches my little girl, they’re gonna wish they hadn’t.”

“I love you,” Kassie said with a smile.

“I love you too,” Hollywood said immediately. “But I don’t know why you’re smiling like that.”

“Fifteen,” his wife told him. “And only if she’s at either our house or his when adults are home. When she’s sixteen, she can start going on dates.”

Hollywood closed his eyes. “Why can’t she stay this age forever?” he whined.

Kassie turned in his arms until her back was against his front and Hollywood interlaced his fingers together over her stomach.

“Because as much as we want to stop time, we can’t. She’s going to grow up and be a beautiful woman. I wouldn’t be surprised if she got into modeling, she’s literally that pretty. But she could also decide to go into construction and I’d be just as happy if she wore a hard hat every day and was covered in dirt.”

Hollywood lowered his head until his lips were next to Kassie’s ear. “Thank you, sweetheart.”

“For what?” she asked.

“For loving me. For being amazing. For just being you.”

Kassie chuckled, and Hollywood knew he’d never get tired of hearing that laugh. “It’s not a hardship loving you…except when you come back from a mission and smell like you’ve been crawling through shit for a month.”

Hollywood huffed out a laugh…she wasn’t exactly wrong. Some of the places he’d been and some of the things he’d had to do weren’t far from what she’d described.

“I talked to Karina this afternoon,” Kassie told him.

“Yeah?”

“Uh-huh. She’s dating a new guy.”

Hollywood rolled his eyes, knowing Kassie couldn’t see him. His sister-in-law was a serial dater. He knew Kassie worried about her, but she was still young. She had plenty of time to settle down. Better she figure out what she really wanted in a partner now than regret a hasty decision later. “When is she coming to visit? Kate was saying the other day that she missed her aunt Karina.”

“I’m not sure. She loves it out there in California. I told her that maybe she’d meet some hunky Navy SEAL and could bring him home for you to check out.”

Hollywood grunted. “You better believe she’s bringing home any man she wants to marry for me to check out. I’ll call Tex and make him do the complete workup on him.”

Kassie turned in his hold again and laughed. She ran her fingers up his chest suggestively, and licked her lips as she looked at him. “Think we can talk Emily and Fletch into keeping Kate for a sleepover tonight?”

“You have something you need to do tonight?” Hollywood asked, knowing exactly what his wife was thinking.