The Marine's Red Hot Homecoming Read Online Free PDF

for you when you return.” But not her. She was through with waiting for dreams and wishes and unspoken desires to come true.

Chapter Three
    Mid afternoon sun slanted through the stand of oak, maple and crepe myrtle trees that filled Sweetbriar Springs’ town square park. Hannah pushed Jason’s stroller along the center path toward a picnic table where she had agreed to meet Caleb to sign the new paperwork he had drawn up after his first meeting with their son.
    “Down. Momma.” He strained against the belts holding him secure in his seat.
    She looked at Jason, then through the dappled leaves and branches of the trees. Her stomach did a little drop and roll. Oh, she knew exactly why he was in a hurry to run. Across the way, Caleb walked along the same path with long, easy strides, his suit coat open and his dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar. He radiated power and strength, and tamping down her reaction to his appeal grew more difficult with every moment she spent with him.
    “As soon as we reach Daddy,” she promised, gripping the handles and moving faster.
    A flash of light flared at the base of Caleb’s neck. Even now, though he’d assumed his family’s business conglomerate’s top position, he wore his military dog tags. Yet another reminder of the temporary exclamation mark punctuating his short term return.
    He caught sight of them and waved, quickening his pace until they reached a vacant picnic table tucked beneath a towering, aged oak tree. “This place is perfect,” she said. It had ample space for Jason to play in the grass that blanketed the ground and enough shade to protect them from the sun’s rays.
    “I brought lunch.” He put a sturdy paper bag filled with goodies from Sweetbriar Springs Sweet Eats Delicatessen onto the table, then plunked his Italian leather briefcase beside the food.
    Jason strained harder. “Down,” he wailed.
    “He really hates this thing.”
    “He’s like me. Doesn’t like to be stuck in one place.” Caleb knelt in front of the stroller, his indigo eyes full of pride and love for their son. “Hold on, little buddy.” He unsnapped the belt and lifted him out, swinging him high.
    Her heart skipped several beats. Not for fear of Jason falling, but for the way Caleb’s gray pinstriped dress shirt molded to his chest. Not only that, but his charcoal suit coat hugged his broad shoulders to perfection. Sure, he’d always been a female magnet in his leathers, jeans, and bad-boy black T-shirts. But he was devastatingly drop-dead gorgeous in his black tie suit. Beyond drool worthy. And definitely super sexy in all caps.
    She willed her rebellious heartbeat and hormones to quit jigging like a silly school girl with a crush, breathing in through her nose and slowly out of her mouth until every internal dancing woman part slowed to an easy rhythm.
    “Did you get everything squared away with your lawyer?” she asked.
    Caleb tossed Jason up in the air, then caught him. “Sure thing. You?”
    “Yes. Once you sign the contract, we’ll file the agreement and the shared custody will be a done deal.”
    “Wish dealing with Gibson Technology’s employees was this easy. So many endless meetings and everyone’s afraid to make a decision. That would be deadly out in the field.”
    Jason giggled. “More Daddy... more!”
    Caleb complied again and again while she retrieved her lawyer’s custody agreement from the stroller’s under seat storage bin along with a tablecloth. Her heart squeezed a little tighter as she set the table, pulling the contents of their lunch from the bag along with paper plates, napkins, and plastic cutlery. How quickly he had taken to his father, but then she had always wanted them to have this relationship.
    “Gibson Technology isn’t like dealing with the military. Things work different in the civilian world,” she said.
    “Which is why I can’t wait to get back overseas.” Caleb tossed Jason again. “No second guessing the leader’s