To Claim Her by Renee Burke

sleep through until morning.  Instead, she climbed into a chair to wait for Laura’s call that Eddie was coming.  She and Sebastian had told him about his Dad.  Maybe that would help.  She closed her eyes to breathe a little prayer that everything would turn out all right.
     
    Mark held his finger to his lips.  He stood at the top of the stairs with Eddie beside him.   The boy lifted his shoulders in an excited shrug and grinned. 
    “Let her sleep.  I’ll get you settled downstairs.”  He led his son down to the extra bedroom next to Sebastian’s and pulled back the covers.   When Laura had arrived with Eddie a while earlier, Mark had been speechless.  The boy was a little shy to start but quickly became a whirlwind of energy in the house.  He had questions.  Lots of them. 
                  Mark felt as if he’d been through an interview rivaling one for a high level security clearance.  His thoughts about how he would tell this four year old who he was were dashed clear out of his mind when Eddie recognized him and began the inquisition.  His tough attitude about keeping Gretchen out of their initial meeting had melted away when he realized what she had done.  She had made him a hero.  Between Gretchen and Sebastian, Eddie had acquired enough information to give him an ego twice the size of any normal man.  Questions Mark had dreaded about his absence had never come.  Instead, a small hand had crept into his larger one to lead him to his suitcase and pull out his treasured stuff animal and tell him about the trip to the zoo.
                  No matter how much the boy was new to him, he was no stranger to his son.  He repeated back stories about his military service, stories about growing up that Sebastian loved to tell, even bragged about the missions he had survived. Missions, for goodness sake .   Mark felt a smile creep across his face.  He definitely had been no secret to Eddie.
                  His heart felt strangely full as he listened to the boy.  His son had his own dark hair, and Gretchen’s eyes, and his sweet mother’s smile, God rest her soul.  The best of both of them.  His connection to boy was immediate.  It was hard not to feel it with the innocent trust he showed.  How had Gretchen instilled this in Eddie?  Especially when he knew she felt so little trust for him after he’d deserted her years before.  True, he hadn’t known she was pregnant, but he wasn’t entirely blameless in her thinking he had no interest in the baby.  It was something he planned to rectify shortly. 
                  Mark tucked in his son, promising he would still be waiting come morning.  Knowing Sebastian was next door and seeing the light spill in through the open doorway was enough for Eddie to fall asleep quickly.  Mark watched his features relax.  An innocent, trusting child.    He smiled. 
    He had missed so much of his life already, but the boy seemed at peace with the circumstances.  He wanted to blame Gretchen for his absence and could lay a lot of this situation at her feet.  He would have returned for leave time to make a relationship with his son.  On the other hand, his position required deployment and time away.  A lot.  Knowing the details would have made no difference in that.  
    Either way, the choice should have been his.  She’d taken that right away without a word.
                  The house was quiet as he stepped out of the shower and pulled on a pair of shorts.  He flipped off lights as he double checked the locks.  He didn’t even pause in the kitchen.  He headed up the stairs and stood before the chair where Gretchen slept.  Her brow was puckered.  Fretting.  
    She had eaten very little at dinner and wore the expression of an unforgiven convict heading for the gallows as she cleaned up.   No doubt she would have made a run for it if Eddie weren’t the issue.  She never had been great