The Marine's Secret Daughter. Carrie Nichols

He playfully bumped shoulders.

      “If you ask me, he had a few stars in his eyes when he looked at you.” She grinned.

      “Seems like a decent kid,” Riley remarked as he flipped open the pizza box, filling the air with the scent of warm dough and pepperoni.

      “He is. Kevin’s had it rough, but I think he’s on the right path.”

      “Bad home life?” After Riley’s parents split, each had used him as a weapon against the other. He’d hated getting shuttled from one to the other, hated new people coming into his life for short periods of time, then disappearing as each parent dated and, most of all, he’d hated the emotional void he’d had to endure as they got so caught up in their own pain and they’d ignored his. The marines had given him the structure and the sense of belonging he’d craved as a child.

      “Kevin’s mom left when he was young. His dad is rarely sober and often out of work.” Meg rubbed a finger across one eyebrow. “Kevin was left to his own devices.”

      “That’s gotta be rough. He’s lucky he has you to look out for him.” He set a pizza slice on a napkin and pushed it toward her before taking one for himself.

      Imagine, his little Meggie an authority figure to teenagers. His chest tightened. What else had he missed? “Looks like you’ve made a place for yourself in the Loon Lake community.”

      “And all the stuff that goes with it.” She heaved a sigh and sank into the wooden chair at the small round table, reaching for one of the sodas he’d bought.

      He frowned. “Problem?”

      “Between the ER and now the motel, gossip will be circling around Loon Lake like Martin Evers’s homing pigeons.” She pulled the soda can tab with a sharp snap and laughed. “I wish my real life was as interesting as the one everyone will be talking about.”

      He settled into the seat opposite her. “I don’t see the harm, you’re an adult. And Kevin proved it by calling you Ms. McBride.”

      “Yeah, still getting used to that part.” She shook her head. “Still, I would prefer not to be the subject of gossip.”

      “It’s pretty harmless.” He folded his slice in half lengthwise and took a bite.

      “I... I have more than myself to think of.” She ran her fingertip along the ridge of the soda can.

      Riley chewed and set the rest of the slice on the napkin. Was there someone—someone special—she didn’t want to hear the gossip? “Maybe you’d like to explain that.”

      She stared at her hands for a moment before looking up, meeting his gaze. “I guess it’s going to come out anyway... I have a daughter. Her name’s Fiona.”

      “Oh...huh.” Well, that explained who Fiona was. But...Meg was a mother? He hadn’t seen that coming. He recalled Meg as a little girl with that mass of red hair, freckles and those beautiful eyes. Did her daughter look like her? His throat tightened with longing for something he couldn’t—or wouldn’t—name. He’d made his choice six years ago and now he had no right to any possessiveness or room for regrets.

      After Meg’s first letter, he’d received orders to report to a marine expeditionary unit and spent months deep in Afghanistan’s desolate countryside. Due to a snafu, he hadn’t received the rest of her letters until getting back to a forward operating base. Someone had bundled the letters as if preparing to return them. Before he could open them, fate had intervened in the form of an IED, killing and maiming his fellow marines, and he’d decided to set Meg free without ever reading the letters, afraid he’d change his mind if he did.

      “Are you and the child’s father still—” he cleared his throat before continuing “—involved?”

       Chapter Three

      “No, he hasn’t been a part of our lives for a long time.” Meg chewed on a pepperoni slice she’d picked off her pizza, but had trouble swallowing past the tightness in her throat. He didn’t even ask if he was Fiona’s father. Evidently, the thought never occurred to him. If he’d asked, hopped up on asthma meds or not, she would’ve confessed. But he hadn’t. She picked another pepperoni off the pizza but put it back. They were her favorite part, but that last one had tasted like cardboard. No, Meg, that was the lie you’ve been telling.

      “Do you have a picture?” When he opened the soda, the tab snapped off and he tossed it aside.

      Digging into her pocket, Meg pulled out her cell phone and thumbed through her photos. She found one her dad had sent a few days ago: a wide shot another tourist must’ve taken. It was a smiling Fiona standing between Mac and Doris in front of the Grand Canyon. The photo was close enough to see Fiona but not so close as to show her facial features clearly...especially her gray eyes. Riley’s eyes.

      Her heart pounding, she handed him the phone. And this was a picture. What would she do when Fiona arrived in person? She was simultaneously too tired and wired from the asthma meds to think about that now.

      Riley stared at the screen, a slight frown puckering his brow. Using his thumb and index finger he enlarged the image, and Meg’s fingers clenched against the urge to snatch the phone back. What was he thinking? Could he see himself like she did each time she looked at her precious daughter? Sure, everyone said Fiona looked like her, but Meg saw Riley in everything Fiona did or said.

      Finally, he lifted his head and handed the phone back; an expression that looked a lot like longing crossed his face. But that was crazy. He’d chosen the marines over settling down. Did he now regret it? She pushed those dangerous thoughts aside.

      “Except for the glasses, she looks just like you.”

      Her short laugh was a mixture of relief and regret. “Liam says it’s like growing up with me all over again.”

      Laughing, he shook his head. “I can’t imagine Liam as an uncle.”

      “Yeah, and Fiona loves it when he babysits because she has him wrapped around her little finger.”

      “You let Liam babysit?”

      She stiffened for a moment but his lopsided grin proved he was teasing. “Pfft, yeah, he fools us sometimes by acting like a responsible adult.”

      “Huh... Liam babysitting his niece... I have been gone a long time.” One side of his mouth lifted in a half smile.

      “He’s twenty-nine, same as you.” She licked her bottom lip. “And you’re a responsible adult... Haven’t you ever thought about settling down?”