Carolina Man by Virginia Kantra Read Free Book Online

family hasn’t let Taylor have any contact with the Simpsons.”
    Instant denial seized him. He shook his head. “My parents wouldn’t do that.”
    “The Simpsons kept a log. Unreturned phone calls, times Taylor was ‘unavailable’ to speak with them.”
    He struggled to make sense of the unthinkable over the rising buzz of anger in his head. “They want to see the kid more often, let them call me.” Right now he’d rather tell them to pound sand, but . . . “They don’t need to get a damn social worker involved.”
    “Unfortunately, once an allegation is made, social services is required to respond.”
    “What allegation, for Christ’s sake?”
    She shrugged. The angrier he got, the cooler and calmer she became. “I haven’t seen the intake report. Alisha only contacted me because she knew Dawn worked in my office.”
    “Did you tell her Dawn wanted the kid to be with me?”
    Kate gave a little nod. “I did. I also reminded her that the Simpsons had already challenged custody after your mother’s accident and that the judge at the temporary hearing ruled it was in Taylor’s best interests to remain with your family.”
    “Right. Thanks,” he said belatedly.
    She was not the enemy, he told himself. She’d come here tonight as an ally to warn him. To help. He’d worked with allies before in Iraq and Afghanistan. He could trust her . . . at least until her own self-interest was threatened. “So now what?”
    “Alisha will contact you to set up a time for a home visit. She’ll want to talk to Taylor. To everyone. There’s another minor child in the household?”
    His blood went from hot to cold faster than the desert at night. “You mean, Josh?”
    “That’s your nephew? He lives with you?”
    “Out back,” Luke said reluctantly. “My brother has a cottage.”
    “She’ll need to speak with them as well.”
    “Fuck.
” He set down his bottle, reached for his cigarettes. He needed time. He needed . . . “Mind if I smoke?”
    Her nostrils pinched together. “Not at all.”
    He lit up, releasing a long white plume into the cool December air. Met her eyes over the curl of smoke. “I’m quitting,” he said. He quit after every deployment.
    “That would be wise,” she said.
    “You worried about my health? Or Taylor’s?”
    “I’m concerned about your home assessment. Your hearing date is already set. Alisha is motivated to resolve this complaint as quickly as possible. It’s important that she likes you. There’s no reason she
won’t
like you. But you have to be absolutely cooperative. You need to answer everything she asks, even questions you think are none of her business.”
    He stared at her, appalled. Speechless.
    Kate met his gaze, her expression softening. “I’m sorry. I know this is a lot to hit you with your first night home. I’m just trying to prepare you.”
    “Yeah.” He closed his eyes a moment, willing away the headache throbbing against his temples. “Thanks a lot.”
     • • • 
     
    H E LOOKED TIRED, Kate thought with a liquid tug of sympathy. His Captain America face was drawn, his jaw roughened by stubble, his eyes bruised with exhaustion.
    Thirty hours from Kandahar to Lejeune
, he’d told her when she first called to inform him of Dawn’s death.
    But he came.
    Even when Kate had given him reasons not to, he’d come home for Taylor. She still didn’t know why Dawn never told him he was a father. But he was no deadbeat dad.
    She risked a touch on his forearm. His skin, bronzed by the desert sun, felt very warm under her fingertips. He opened his eyes, startlingly blue, and her nerves jumped, low and quick in her stomach.
    Kate swallowed. She was
not
going to be flustered, damn it. This was about Taylor. She would not be distracted from her duty by an inconvenient hormone surge. “Look, the Simpsons’ challenge to the temporary custody order failed. It’s obvious that you provided appropriate care for Taylor while you were