“No, it’s not that.” He was gone for long periods of time, and usually even his family didn’t know where he was.
“My daughter needs my name.”
“But her mother doesn’t.”
“Dammit.”
Juliana fussed and Jack stood. “I’ll put her down,” he said when she reached for the baby. “At least give me that.” She nodded. He was gone for only a few minutes and Melanie sipped her wine. She could hear him and was tempted to go look, to check if he’d covered the baby, then somehow she knew he would. She just knew. Jack wasn’t a man who did things halfway.
When he came back she was exactly as he’d left her, twiddling, moving food around her plate. He was pushing her and couldn’t help it. The longer his daughter didn’t have his name, the angrier he grew. He tried to see reason but one look at his child, he couldn’t. Juliana would suffer for being illegitimate, even if her mother wouldn’t. Juliana would know what it was like to be ridiculed through no fault of her own. She would be on the receiving end of the judging looks. Jack recalled one day when he was about seven and how he’d hitched a ride with a neighbor to his baseball game, and while all the other boys had dads cheering them on, he’d been alone because his mother was working her tail off to provide him with food, clothes and a decent place to live.
Other kids came from single parents and did fine, but it was the stigma of being a bastard that stung. Kids teased and often were ugly about it.
He refused to put his own child through that.
Jack went to the stereo and pushed in a CD, then came back to the table. He didn’t say anything as he let the music soothe the rough edges.
“I’ll back off, if that’s what you want,” he said.
Melanie’s head jerked up.
“I’ll stop pestering you to marry me.” For now, he thought, since they were butting heads like two bulls. “But I want to be in Juliana’s life and on that I’m not budging.”
Melanie’s gaze locked with his. She nodded. “Okay.”
“Good.”
“Why don’t you come over during the day?”
He was well aware of the ploy. Be here when the sitter was and not when Melanie was. “You’re setting limits?”
“No, it’s just that—”
“Can’t handle being me near, Melanie?” he interrupted. “Afraid you’ll like it?”
“Of course I can handle it,” she said.
“Outstanding. Because I have two months’ leave and this is the only place I plan to be.”
Two months, she thought. Oh, no.
He leaned back in the chair, chewing his dinner, and then grinned. Melanie looked nervous already. This was going to be interesting, he thought, and poured her more wine.
Jack was true to his word. He didn’t mention marriage again. But he was being a nuisance. Melanie couldn’t turn a corner and not find him near. And now this was going too far. He was at the doctor’s office when she’d arrived, waiting for her. He wanted to see who was caring for his daughter and butted into the examination, asking a dozen questions. That was fine. He was Juliana’s father.
But Juliana had to have one of her regular shots, and when the baby cried, Melanie cried, too. The nurse left them and Jack slipped his arms around her, holding both of them close.
“She’s so little and I’m letting them hurt her,” Melanie said.
His smile was filled with tender humor. “No, darlin’,” he said softly. “She has to have them, you know that.”
“I know, I know. I just don’t want to cause her any pain.”
The baby still cried and Jack lifted her from her mother’s arms, holding her tightly and rubbing her tender thigh. He murmured to his daughter, his voice a soft drone of tenderness. When the baby quieted, he handed her back to Melanie.
“Well, I feel foolish,” Melanie said, sniffling.
“Hey, I wanted to cry for her, too,” he said, walking with Melanie to the front desk. “Navy SEALs don’t cry—ruins the image.”
“Ahh, my hero,” she said.
He stilled, meeting her gaze, and sudden heat rippled between them. She’d said that to him once before when they were making love, and the memory of it flooded between them. Warm, wicked. Greedy. The softness in her green eyes said she remembered, too.
The nurse at the desk cleared her throat.
Jack dragged his gaze from Melanie. “I’m Juliana’s father,” he said to the nurse. “And her medical bills are insured by TriCare.” He handed over a temporary card, his ID card, and Melanie frowned.
“What are you doing?” she said.