A Curvy Girl for the Cadet: A Perfect Fit Novella (10 page)

“I’m wondering what took you so long. You can’t be happy making chump change and doing construction. You’re educated. You’re talented. You’re skilled.”

“And you’re blowing smoke up my ass. I’m actually running things at the construction company and I’m making good money.”

“But I know you. You’re like me. You want more. You need more action. You are one of the best snipers the army has ever seen. And you’re a leader. Tough. Fair. Level headed. You’re exactly what we need over there.”

“I’ve heard this pitch before. I’m here to talk details.”

“We provide private security in highly sensitive areas, which sometimes involves training the local police forces and some other things. We’re our own private military force. You’ll never be doing the same thing every day and there are very few people you’ll have to answer to. Unlike your time in the Rangers. Plus you’ll be making six figures. You will not regret taking this job.”

“If it’s so good, why are you sitting behind a desk instead of back there doing the job you’re offering me?”

“I’m a recruiter. I use my reconnaissance skills to track down the best ex-military in the country and put them to work. Plus you’re just a better solider than I am. You’re exactly who we’re looking for to take over. So let’s talk about when you’re ready to leave.”

Chapter 10

Two days later Daisy was bent over in her garden pulling weeds. Aubrey was by her side. She was supposed to be weeding too, but she was sitting there twirling what they pulled between her fingers. She was more company for Daisy than help, but Daisy was glad that Aubrey had volunteered to assist her that day. School had just ended and they had a little free time before camp started. Daisy wanted to use this short vacation to spend as much time with Aubrey as possible. She still hadn’t wanted her to go to sleepaway camp, but she couldn’t think of a good reason to keep her home. Except that she would miss her. But she didn’t want to be one of those mothers who clipped her kid’s wings.

Her parents may have been inattentive and permissive, but they never denied Daisy the opportunity to try new things. They let her spend six months in Argentina when she was in high school, and take guitar, drum, and saxophone lessons. They hadn’t been close, but sometimes she really missed them. Just having parents. Someone to call mom and dad and spend holidays with. Right now it was just she and Aubrey. They had Loretta, of course, and the rest of Danny’s family, but she had felt odd at their family functions these past few times. They looked at her with sadness in their eyes. She was there. Danny wasn’t. She served as a reminder to them each time she showed up.

“Mama?”

“Yes, Cookie?”

“This is a flower, right?”

Daisy looked over to see Aubrey studying a sprig of white alyssum. “Yes, baby, it is.”

“It’s pretty. Why is it a weed? Why do some flowers get to be flowers and others weeds?”

Daisy suppressed a smile. Sweet Aubrey. So thoughtful. So sensitive. She seemed sad that they had to pull all those flowers up. That’s where she differed from Jane. Jane wasn’t as sweet. She wasn’t so sensitive or thoughtful. She had very little time to stop and appreciate the beauty around her. Daisy was glad she was raising Aubrey to see all that. Because life was much sadder without beautiful things. “Weeds are flowers you didn’t plant. We have to pull these or they’ll take over the garden.”

They didn’t have a garden at their old place with Danny. They lived in a townhouse that was landscaped once a week. Danny didn’t want her to have to worry about the upkeep of a house while he was away. She hadn’t minded, but she agreed to make him happy. She had compromised so much to make him happy. She had been thinking about him a lot lately. More than usual. She blamed Clayton. She wanted to put both men in the same category. Both injured veterans. Both with demons. Both good men in different ways.

It wasn’t fair to compare them. And she had been doing that. She felt very different about each of them. Danny was her friend. A man who it took a long time to fall in love with. No major heat. No crazy passion. More fond of each other than anything.

Then there was Clay… She didn’t want to say she was in love with him. It was too soon. He was too temporary, but she felt that rush when he came by. She felt excited to see him and eager to touch him. She wanted to be near him all the time, even when she knew it was better for her heart to stay away.

“Mama, there’s a car pulling into the driveway.”

She looked up and saw a black BWM. The car was so quiet she hadn’t heard it. She had also been so deep into her thoughts that she might not have noticed it even if the engine was roaring.

A well-dressed couple looking to be in their sixties got out of the car and started towards her. Daisy looked down at herself feeling really grubby covered in dirt and in a halter top, cutoff shorts and her gardening clogs while the couple’s clothing was pristine.

She slipped off her gloves and tucked them beneath her arm as she walked towards them. “Can I help you?”

“Yes,” the man spoke. His eyes traveled to Aubrey. Both their eyes traveled to her and immediately Daisy knew something was up. “Are you Daisy Gracen?”

“I am.” She looked at Aubrey. “Why don’t you head inside and wash up, Cookie?”

Aubrey looked up at her. There was a little wariness in her eyes, but she nodded. “Okay, Mama. Are we still going to out to the diner for dinner?”

“Of course.” She waited for Aubrey to close the door behind her before she turned her attention back to the well-dressed couple before her. “How can I help you?”

“I’m Warren Scott. This is my wife Miranda.”

“You’re the senator from Maryland?”

“You know me?”

“I grew up there. You’ve been the senator forever.”

“Yes. Thirty-four years. Is that all you know about me? About us?” He looked at his wife.

“Is there something I should know? Why are you here? I’m a little far outside of your constituency.”

“I guess there is no easy way to say this. Your sister was involved with my son who recently passed away after a long battle of cancer.”

“Oh. I’m sorry for your loss,” she said, as her heart started to race.

“And we are sorry for yours. My son told us on his deathbed that he had produced a daughter with your sister.”

“Oh,” was all she could say. She was stunned. For so long Aubrey’s father had been a complete mystery, a secret that Jane never wanted to reveal. Daisy hadn’t even known if the father knew about Aubrey, but it appeared that he had. It appeared that he had and he made no efforts to see her.

“Robert asked us to find her and take care of her.”

“Why didn’t he take care of her? Why didn’t he step forward five years ago when she was a baby and needed a parent?” She was angry she realized. Pissed actually. How could anybody walk around knowing they made a life and not acknowledge it? Not want to know the precious thing they made.

“Robert had issues. But he cared for his daughter.”

“Did he? Not one visit. Not one phone call. Not even a damn birthday card. I’m sorry but Aubrey has faced a lot of loss in her young life. It hurts me to know that there could have been one more person to love her and he didn’t even bother to try.”

“We’re here now. We will love her,” the woman, Miranda, spoke up for the first time. “He wanted us to give her everything. Private schooling, a home with people to serve her. A horse.” Her eyes filled with tears. “He wants us to buy her a horse so she can ride like he did when he was a child.”

“Those are nice things, but Aubrey doesn’t need them. I provide her with everything that she needs.”

“We beg to differ. We can provide her with a stable two parent environment.”

Daisy froze. Her knees locked. Her heart smashed against her chest. “You aren’t suggesting that she come to live with you?” She shook her head. “How do I even know you are related to her? There’s no proof. No name on the birth certificate. Besides I’m her legal guardian. I adopted her. She’s my child.”

“Only because we didn’t know about her,” Warren said. “We looked into your background. You’ve been arrested.”

“At a protest. When I was eighteen and my record was supposed to be scrubbed.”

“Nothing is ever scrubbed. I have pull. I can find out anything about a person.”

“I have nothing to hide.”

“No. It’s common knowledge that your husband suffered from PTSD and was killed in a drunk driving accident. And though he was brave, he was far from a model marine.”

“Don’t you talk about my husband! You get to sit on your ass in Washington while he was fighting for this country. Model marine or not. Drunk or not, don’t you ever disparage his service to this country. He would still be here if it weren’t for the helicopter crash that almost killed him.”

“We’re sorry.” Miranda stepped forward and touched Daisy’s arm. “I know things must have been tough for you. We don’t mean to upset you, but it is very important to us that our only grandchild have the best that life can offer her and we think we can give her the best. And that includes a stable two parent home with a mother and father and we’re willing to fight for it. You’re single. You work full time. I can give her all the time that she deserves.”

“I’m her mother. You actually think some judge is going to take her from me and give her to two strangers whose own son wouldn’t even step forward and acknowledge her? If you would have raised him correctly he would have been man enough to step up. You think I’ll just give her up?”

“I’m a senator. I have many resources at my disposal and I’m sure things will go in our favor eventually.”

“I’m a good mother. And she’s a good kid. You don’t even know her. How could you even want to take her?”

“We want to get to know her. Please,” Miranda said. “I know this is a lot for you to digest. We would like to meet her tomorrow. We want to give you time to prepare her and soak this all in yourself.”

“We’ll come back tomorrow. Around noon,” her husband said. “We’re not doing this to hurt you. We’re doing this to help her. You have to understand, she is the only piece of our son we have left.”

They were gone after that and Daisy stayed rooted to her spot. Too upset to go inside and see Aubrey. Too afraid to move because if she did it would be too real then.

Clayton’s truck pulled up and he jumped out coming to her, his eyes full of concern. “What happened?”

Daisy started to tremble. She hated herself for doing it, but she couldn’t help it.

“What happened? Where’s Aubrey?”

“Inside,” she managed. “They want to take her. They want to take her away from me.”

“Who does?” He grabbed her shoulders. “Tell me what happened.”

“Her grandparents. They just showed up today. I’ve never met them. He’s a senator. They told me they had money. They told me they could take her. I’ll die if they take her. I’ll die.”

“Her grandparents just showed up out of the blue and threatened to take her from you? They can’t do that. You know they can’t just take her.”

“They said that they were rich and could provide a stable two parent home and I couldn’t and that they would fight for her. They know I don’t have the money to fight for her like they can. They don’t even know her! How can they want to take her from me?”

“Hush, honey.” He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. “It won’t happen. I won’t let it happen. I won’t let them take her from you.”

She didn’t know how he could prevent it, but for some reason, in that moment, she believed him.

*

Clayton took one last look in the mirror before he left his house. He almost didn’t recognize the man looking back at him. Only he did. He knew that man all too well. It looked like the man he used to be before the IED took some of his unit and too many innocent kids. He wasn’t sure that he would ever see that man again, but it was time.

Time to start a new chapter in his life.

He walked out the door to see that Daisy’s guests had arrived. Aubrey’s grandparents. The senator and his wife. He had looked up their son. Extremely good looking. Extremely privileged. Spoiled. Never worked a day in his life. He owned a professional fundraising company. But as far as Clayton could tell, it seemed like the only thing he had ever done was throw lavish parties.

And not take care of his kid.

Clayton spotted Daisy and the Scotts sitting on her porch. Daisy was standing, wearing a sweet looking butter yellow sundress. Her long hair was loose down her back and she looked simply pretty today. Part of him just wanted to stand there and take her in for a moment, but she must have felt his eyes on her and she looked away from her guests and directly at him. Her face lit up. She smiled at him in a way that made the blood rush from his head. Only she could manage to smile at him like that when she was going through such a tough time.

She was something else.

She hurried off the stairs and ran towards him. He felt himself smiling back. He couldn’t help it. And even though he only left her a few hours ago, it felt like he hadn’t seen her in weeks.

“Clayton!” She kissed his cheeks a dozen times. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been kissed like that, maybe when he was a very small child, but he knew that Daisy’s kisses made him feel much differently than the ones he received as a child. “I’ve wanted to do that forever.” She slid her hands up to his now bare cheeks and he realized how much he wanted her to touch his face with no barriers, to feel her lips on his skin. “I’m not sure I can take this. You might just be the most beautiful man I have ever seen.”

“I thought you liked my beard.”

“I did.” She ran her fingers through his drastically shorter hair. “But this is going to make kissing you much easier.”

“Excuse me. Who is this man?” They heard the senator ask.

“Oh, that’s Mr. Calhoun,” Aubrey said as Daisy took a step away from him. “He sleeps with Mama sometimes.”

“What?” Both Clayton and Daisy said in the same moment.

“He sleeps with you, Mama. I saw.”

“What do you mean you saw?” Clayton asked, knowing that Aubrey had been away both times they had been together.

“That night we had the bats and you fell asleep on the couch. And then last night when Mama was sad you slept on the couch with her.”

“Oh, you saw us sleeping!”

“Yes, Mama. That’s what I said.”

“I know, Cookie. I’m a little frazzled. It’s Clayton’s haircut.”

“I like it.” Aubrey nodded. “He doesn’t look like a scary man anymore.”