To Claim Her by Renee Burke Page A

at confrontation.  He turned off the overhead light, leaving the room bathed in dim lamplight. 
    He scooped her up and sat down with her in his arms.  Her weight rested against his chest and felt good. 
    She stirred, nuzzling her face into his neck.  Her breath stroked the skin at his throat and made him warm all over, but his mind was on other things.  He waited as she came awake slowly.
    “You missed the big reveal.” 
    Her eyes widened.  “Eddie’s home?  I fell asleep.  What time is it?”  She glanced around the room.
    “Little after eleven.  Laura said to apologize.  She couldn’t call ahead.  Her phone went dead on the drive back.”  No doubt that call had been part of the plan to catch Eddie before he entered the house for a quick chat.
    She stiffened and tried to sit but shifting her hips across his lap just put her more solidly in his arms.  Not a bad place for her to be. 
    He looked more closely at her then.  She was wearing a gown, not a sexy one either.   She looked tired and very much like he remembered his own mom looking at the end of the day.  Spent.  Might as well put her out of her misery.
    “He’s fine.  Had a good time.  Knew who I was.”
    She blew out a small breath and nodded.  “You were never a secret, Mark.  He’s seen pictures, stayed with your dad, heard stories.  You just weren’t around.”
    He rolled that thought around with a shift of his jaw and squinted at her before responding.  “My being here or not wouldn’t have changed entirely if I had known about him.  I still would have fulfilled my responsibility to the military.”
    She was obviously surprised he admitted that.  Shouldn’t be.  He was nothing if not honest.  Painfully so sometimes.  She should have learned that five years ago. 
    “I’m trying not to be angry, but I have to tell you it’s not easy.  I’ve missed everything.”  He gritted his jaw for a moment, trying to reign in his anger.  He thought about the way Eddie had opened up about the upcoming ball season and his interest in doing things together.  The kid had never played a game in his life and might not be ready.  Mark would get him ready. 
    He lifted and carried Gretchen to the bed where he laid down beside her, propped his head on his crooked arm, and demanded to hear it all. 
“Don’t leave anything out.  Not. One. Thing.”
     
    The combination of vulnerability and anger in Mark’s expression touched Gretchen.  She cherished every face of her life with Eddie.  She had robbed Mark of the few experiences he could have had in these four short years.  It was time to make up for that. 
    She could either try to shield Eddie and distance him from Mark, or she could let him know what a great kid Eddie was.  Maybe he would stick around, take a genuine interest, and be a great father.  Either way, she had to be strong for Eddie.  This was about his needs, not hers.  Her heartbreak didn’t matter anymore.
    So she settled in, turning to face him on the bed, and she began from the beginning, with her pregnancy and the initial sadness about having a baby without a father.  But there were worse things.  She had lived through worse with a dad who would rather be anywhere else.  All of their lives would have been better if he had taken off after her sister had been born and stayed gone rather than returning whenever the mood struck him.               
    Mark didn’t say what he must be thinking.   That he was better than her deadbeat father.  Sebastian had been a great example of fatherhood by giving Mark the space he needed when his mother had died and pulling Gretchen in close when he had found her raising his grandson alone.
                  “I made sure he knew you left with honorable goals.”
                  He snorted.  “Yeah, I got that.”
                  She smiled ruefully.  “There were a few times he watched spy movies with your dad.