Expecting the SEAL’s Baby by Katie Knight
Eight
Gina woke up feeling lousy. Before she opened her eyes, she evaluated her physical condition. Her stomach wasn’t rolling, so whatever she was feeling was not morning sickness. No, what had her down was emotional. She hated the way things had ended with Jeremy the night before. Everything she’d tried to say to him came out wrong. He probably thought she had no faith in him, which wasn’t true. She just didn’t have expectations of him, and she didn’t want him to feel trapped.
She opened her eyes, taking in the soft glow of dawn. It had been late before she slept. She’d heard Jeremy tossing and turning as well. This was no way to start the search for her brother. They were at odds with each other and exhausted. She looked toward his bed. It was empty. He was up and gone from the room already.
She got out of bed and saw that his bags were packed. A note on the dresser declared coffee. Not a love note by any stretch of the imagination, but at least he’d left something for her. She quickly showered and dressed, pulling her damp hair back in a ponytail. Gina was repacking her suitcase when the motel door opened.
Jeremy entered, balancing two large cups of coffee in one hand.
“Hi,” she said, making the first overture, but he barely made eye contact with her.
“I got you a coffee,” he said, “but then I realized…you don’t have to drink it—you know, with the baby and all.”
“Thanks, but I can drink coffee,” she said, “just not too much of it.” Since she worked for a family practice that treated all age groups, she was very familiar with the guidelines regarding pregnancy and the amount of caffeine that was safe.
“If you say so,” he said and turned away.
They spent a few more minutes in the motel room, drinking coffee and packing up in an awkward silence. She didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing. He seemed to be at a similar loss, or maybe he was hurt by what she’d implied the night before. That hadn’t been her intention at all.
“Breakfast place down the street,” Jeremy said when they’d loaded their vehicle. “We could go on our way out of town. It might be our last real meal for a while.”
“Sure,” she readily agreed. A few minutes later, they sat across from each other in a booth with their menus held in front of them like defensive shields. “I’m going to have an omelet,” Gina broke the silence. “How about you?”
“Breakfast burritos.” Jeremy laid his menu on the table and glanced at her face expectantly.
She was on the verge of bringing up the baby when the server came to take their orders. Afterwards, it felt as though the moment was lost, but they couldn’t sit there in silence.
“What course will we take today?” she asked, avoiding the elephant in the room. “Do you have the images and maps with you?” She knew he did. She’d seen him roll them and put them in a tube that sat next to him on the seat.
“Yeah, we could take a look while we wait.” He unrolled the papers and placed them on the table between them, pointing to a particular spot. “I think we should go here first. I need to do some recon work to see what these guys are made of before I go after your brother directly. And anyway, we’re not sure yet exactly where he’s being held.”
She noted his use of the singular pronoun, but let it pass for now. She had no intention of being left behind, but they’d battle that out when they needed to.
“I’ve been in this region.” She put her finger on an area. “On my second trip with Doctors Without Borders, we went to several villages there, so I’m familiar with the lay of the land.”
“That could be helpful. I’ve been in Peru and Ecuador, but never here,” he said. He was likely referring to SEAL missions. She could guess that Blake had been with him, not that he’d talked about it. She missed her brother so much. And she needed him now, too. He’d be excited about the baby for her, excited to be an uncle, but she wasn’t sure what his reaction would be to finding out that Jeremy was the father.
She’d cross that bridge when they found Blake and got him away from his captors safely. In the many sleepless hours of the night, she’d come to some truths about the child. She was keeping the baby, no matter what. Single motherhood was hard, but not impossible. And she was in a lucky position compared to other women. She had a good job and the love and support of her family. The unknown factor was how Jeremy would fit into that picture, but she wouldn’t pressure him.
Jeremy rolled up the papers as their meals came. She saw him cast glances toward a diner at another table. Was there something suspicious about the man? She wouldn’t let herself turn to look, and she didn’t want to ask, so they ate in an uncomfortable silence with so many unanswered questions hanging between them.
She’d eaten half her meal when she realized that Jeremy was staring at her. She met his eyes, and that seemed to open the floodgates.
“I don’t want you to think you have to do this alone,” he said with no context.
“What?” Gina dropped her fork. What did he mean? Do what alone?
“The baby,” he clarified. “I want to be part of his or her life. I want to be there for you—to support you both.”
“Oh,” she murmured, shocked into near silence for a moment. “That’s good to hear.” She smiled, a warm feeling blooming inside her. Since she’d already decided to keep the baby, this was definitely welcome. “I would love that.”
“You can rely on me. I just want to make sure you know that,” he added, his expression serious.
“Thanks,” she said. She wasn’t naïve enough to think that Jeremy would stick around for the long haul and they’d all live happily ever after, but she appreciated his good intentions. For now, that was enough.
* * *
Jeremy felt better for having said it. He hadn’t made a huge commitment—he didn’t think that she’d want that from him—but he’d offered her what he felt he could. She needed to know that he wouldn’t leave her abandoned with a kid to raise, never that. He just didn’t know how it would all fit together. Not yet.
They finished eating and he cast his eyes to the man who sat a few tables away. He’d seemed a little too interested in what Jeremy and Gina were discussing, especially when they had the maps out. Jeremy had been careful not to say Blake’s name, and he and Gina had spoken in low tones, so he doubted that the man could have heard their conversation.
Still, he had a weird feeling, and he’d learned long ago to trust those feelings. Jeremy stood and counted out money to pay their bill, aware of the man’s eyes on him. It could be nothing, but Jeremy needed to be sure.
“Let’s check out that gift shop before we go,” he suggested. Gina gave him a surprised look but led the way across the restaurant to the connected shop.
“Were you looking for something?” she asked when they were inside the cramped store full of souvenir merchandise.
“Yeah.” Jeremy reached for the closest item as he looked back to where the man still sat in the restaurant. Their eyes locked for a second, but Jeremy couldn’t tell if it was coincidence or not. “I think we should get this.” He looked at what was in his hand. It was a one-piece item that infants wore. That hadn’t been his intention, but he was going with it.
“A onesie?” Gina said, her mouth dropping open in surprise. “For the baby?”
The printing on the shirt read Discover Colombia in Spanish. “Look,” Jeremy said. “I don’t know how this is all gonna shake out, but I want you to know that I’m definitely in.” Despite his own surprise at what was in his hand, he realized that he meant what he said.
She laughed softly. “Buying a souvenir for a yet-to-be-born child while on a rescue mission to save his or her uncle is a bit…strange, but sweet.”
“No matter what happens, I don’t regret a second I’ve spent with you,” he said, his own honesty catching him off guard.
She blinked, and her cheeks turned rosy with a blush. “Thanks. Let’s get it. It’ll make a great story when the baby wears the onesie.”
“When will that be?” he asked, trying to imagine their baby in the item of clothing.
She checked the size tag. “About a year from now.”
He had no idea what a year would bring, but he was starting to feel like an expectant father. It was an odd sensation and not one he’d ever expected to experience. Jeremy paid for the onesie.
When he was done, he looked back into the restaurant before leaving the store with Gina. The man he’d been concerned about was gone, which might mean that he was just another patron who’d finished his breakfast—or it might mean that he was out on the street watching to see when they got in their vehicle to head out. Either way, he didn’t want to keep secrets from Gina.
“I think we were under surveillance back there,” he said when they were driving out of Bogota.
“I wondered,” she said, as she studied the map she held. “I noticed you were keeping an eye on someone in the restaurant.”
“You did?” he asked. She was even more perceptive than he realized. Before she answered, the satellite phone he’d brought with him chirped. Only Mason and Percy had the number, so he figured they had intel for him. “Quinn here.”
“Hey, man,” Mason’s voice said. “I’ve got news to share. Are you in Colombia?”
“Arrived yesterday. What do you know?”
“It’s not good. Your informant in Afghanistan is dead. From what I can tell he’s been gone for weeks, so they probably took him out before that last transmission. My guess is that someone got to him, killed him, and used the secure message system that you two had established to fake the message that included those coordinates that led us into the firefight.”
The firefight that saw five of Jeremy’s men injured and Blake taken. Jeremy felt bad for his contact. He’d been a good man, a father. Jeremy wished he could do something for his family. Maybe he’d figure out a way.
“There’s more,” Mason continued. “SUVs and transport trucks have been seen moving in your area in the general vicinity of the airstrip. My sense is that they’re moving big loads of weapons, but it’s easy to lose sight of them in the jungle. The satellite imagery can’t penetrate the tree canopy.”
“Can you give me anything definite?”
“Percy and I have been working on it. We’ve pinpointed several compounds that we think belong to them. Our best bet says that Blake’s in one of those.”
“Gives us a place to start. Send me the coordinates.” Jeremy said. “Anything else?”
There was a slight hesitation before Mason spoke again. “Just that these guys might be even bigger players on the weapons smuggling scene than we thought. They’ve got a lot on the line—and I don’t think they’d hesitate to kill to protect it. You need to be careful.”
“Will do,” Jeremy said and hung up.
“What did he say?” Gina asked and Jeremy conveyed the gist of the conversation.
“We’re close,” Jeremy said when he’d finished. Not much more than a hundred miles separated them from the nearest compound where Blake might be—but getting him out wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. He just hoped he was up to the challenge.