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Shelby didn’t look the least bit concerned or upset with him about it.
If he read his daughter right, it was easy to see how she felt when she looked at Chase when he wasn’t looking at her. She had real feelings for him.
That could be a problem if Chase got in Kyle’s way.
“Shelby will come around. I know she will. I’m her dad. She just needs a little more time.”
“Stay away from her,” his mom ordered again. “She won’t forgive you.”
“She will! You don’t know anything. We can be happy together!” He slammed the door on them and walked away, knowing he was right.
Shelby had a good heart. She’d see how much he loved her mother, Rebecca, how much he loved her and Eliza, and she’d want them to be a family.
Chapter Six
Chase parked the truck in front of his new house, the headlights spotlighting the front door, emphasizing the loneliness of the place. Out in the middle of nowhere, everything quiet beneath the sparkling night sky, no other lights for miles, and an empty house with no one waiting for him.
But he finally had a place to call home again.
A fresh start, just like he’d wanted coming out of rehab.
He still hadn’t fully processed how Shelby had done this for him, but he owed her big time for finding him a place to live.
Not some barracks or container housing unit in another country. Not some cheap motel room. Not a dingy apartment where you could hear your neighbors’ TV and shouting and smell their cooking.
This was a place you settled down in and made a life.
He understood that was her message to him.
And she was right. He needed to get his shit together.
But it was damn hard to forget what happened last week and really believe that Juliana was gone.
He needed to call his buddy Drake and tell him howsorry he was for the loss. Adria, Juliana’s twin sister, must be devastated.
He needed to thank her for saving his life.
It seemed the women who came into his life took better care of him than his family.
Shelby and Eliza were the best distraction. He’d loved having dinner with them tonight. A simple meal together at the table eased him in a way he hadn’t expected. He’d felt connected to Shelby in a way he’d never felt before. And watching her with Eliza the last two years, knowing she was the mother ofhischild, set off a protective instinct inside him.
Hunt overstepped asking for the DNA test and court-ordered visitation for Chase. Where the hell did he get off interfering in Chase’s relationship and straining an already tenuous agreement he had with Shelby?
Because Chase knew she was watching him. Any wrong move, any sign that he was slipping back into old habits, and she’d cut him off from Eliza again.
He blamed himself for keeping Eliza, not necessarily a secret, but to himself, and not sharing her with his family. Not that he had a relationship with them anymore, but a child was something he should have told them about and at least sent pictures of her to them so they couldn’t deny her.
Finding out about Eliza floored him. But it didn’t necessarily surprise him.
He’d been the one to pull Shelby back into his arms right before dawn broke the night sky and brought on the day he had to return to the military life he hadn’t exactly wanted but embraced. But he found himself hesitant to leave the woman who surprised him with hershyness at the bar, then her easy way of following his lead in bed and giving herself over to the experience, wanting to please him but also discovering she could feel just as good as she made him feel.
And so he said his reluctant goodbye to her without any barriers between them, both of them holding the other close, taking their time to memorize every detail of each other’s body until the magic that happened between them overtook them and they were both lying in each other’s arms in wonder. He saw it in her eyes. He felt it in his heart. And though he never intended to get her pregnant, nine months later that magic came into the world, not crying, but quiet and watchful like her mama, taking everything in with her beautiful gray-blue eyes that over those early months turned greenish-blue, a mix of her mama’s greenish-gold and his blue eyes.
The generous heart Shelby showed him the night they were together continued to shine on him from the day his girl came into this world to today. Shelby made him a part of their lives. And even though he’d let his past, the nightmares he carried, and the pain from his injuries overtake his life and drown him in addiction, she still welcomed him back with an open heart.
He didn’t deserve her. But he was going to work damn hard to be worthy of everything she showered on him while still maintaining the strange cordial we’re-not-exactly-friends-but-have-seen-each-other-naked thing they had going.
Of course, she didn’t look like she used to look. The pregnancy had changed her body and her mindset. She told him over the very healthy dinner of grilled chicken, steamed broccoli, and garlic mashed potatoes that she’dexchanged her bad habits for good ones for Eliza’s sake. She wanted to deliver a healthy baby and be a good example for their daughter. It showed in her leaner body and soft curves.
