A Marine for Christmas (Hearts Ablaze: Men in Uniform) by Makenna Jameison Page A

Amy glanced over in their direction, her brown ponytail bobbing with the turn of her head.  She had dark sunglasses on, so Jason couldn’t see her eyes, and her mouth was set in a tight line.  She nodded ever so slightly at him as she went to the back of her SUV to retrieve her grocery bags from the trunk.  If she hadn’t needed to walk in that direction, Jason had a feeling she wouldn’t have even acknowledged him at all.  Not that he deserved any different.
    “Why didn’t she say anything?  I saw her looking at us.”
    “Doesn’t matter,” he said, putting a hand on Brian’s back to guide him inside.
    “Why?”
    “It’s just grown-up stuff.”
    “Like what?”
    “She’s mad at me right now.  Now come on.”
    “Are you mad at my Dad?” Brian shouted across the street.
    “Brian,” he said firmly, giving him a stern look.
    Amy looked back at them, startled, her red lips forming a perfect “o.”
    “Sorry,” Jason called over, his voice gruff.  He was still holding Brian’s suitcase, and Amy had two bags of groceries in her arms.  He knew Amy wouldn’t yell or get mad at him in front of his child, but this wasn’t exactly the way he planned to smooth things over.
    “I have to put my groceries away,” she said, her voice halting.  She bit her lip and turned, walking quickly toward her front door.  Jason felt his heart breaking all over again.
    “Let’s go inside, buddy,” he said, looking down at Brian.
    “I don’t think she likes you,” he said in his little four-year-old voice.
    “You know what?  I think you’re right.”

Chapter 20
     
    Amy felt the tears welling in her eyes as she hastily shoved her keys in the front lock.  She jiggled them around while balancing the groceries in her arms, and the n nudged the door open with her knee when the doorknob finally turned.  She’d been expecting to run into Jason at some point but hadn’t considered she’d be forced to get out of the car and unload her things while he and his son stood there and watched.  It was humiliating, really.  He had a life already, filled with plenty of people and plans for the future, and there was certainly no room for her in it.
    Carrying her groceries into the kitchen, Amy thought back to the summer, when she and Ben had just begun dating.  God, she had noticed Ben for years, always wanting to be around him with his charisma, good looks, and charm.  After just watching from the sidelines as he dated girl after girl, he’d taken notice in her when he returned to town last spring.  When they’d finally gotten together it had been like a dream come true.  Then out of nowhere, she’d discovered she was pregnant.  She and Ben both had been nervously excited.  She was on birth control pills but there’d been that one time she’d forgotten to bring them on a weekend away, and they hadn’t been able to stop themselves.  That was all it had taken, and in an instant she’d been planning a life revolving around her child.
    When she’d lost the baby a month later and found out she could never have children, it had been devastating.  They hadn’t told anyone that she was pregnant, and just like that they’d kept the loss a secret as well.  She’d broken up with Ben shortly after that, unable to deal with the heartache.  Ben moved on with his new girlfriend, perhaps trying to heal in his own way.
    That Jason had a son didn’t bother her as much as that he’d kept it a secret.  And then when he’d said she wouldn’t understand until she had a child of her own was like a dagger straight through the heart.   She sighed, tossing some of the pre-packaged cookies she’d bought onto the counter.  She hadn’t meant to blurt out that particular piece of knowledge to Jason.  Hell, even her best friends didn’t know.  But there had been such a raw anger rushing through her at the moment, she’d wanted to say something, anything, to make him understand the hurt.
    And now i t looked like Jason