SEALed With a Kiss: Even a Hero Needs Help Sometimes... by Mary Margret Daughtridge Read Free Book Online

said a name like "Jackson Graham the Third" sounded snooty, so he'd dubbed him "Jax" because that sounded like a Jedi knight. But when he wanted to, Jax could keep his face so impassive that the new guys in the platoon sometimes called him Stonewall.
    "What?" Lauren blinked her mascaraed lashes and swiveled her gaze around the room as if she wondered who had spoken. "No. No, you idiot!"
    Good-bye Gracious, hello Nasty.
    "I have to ... I mean ... What are you thinking? There's a hurricane! Tyler has to leave. I care about the welfare of this child even if you don't. I'm the closest thing to a mother he has. You can't take care of him. He has to go with me."
    "I'm his father. He stays with me."
    "Are you telling me you're not going to let me have custody?"
    "No. Nothing has changed. Tyler will still need someone to care for him full time. But dammit, Lauren, this thirty-day leave is the longest continuous time I've ever had with Tyler, and the longest I'm likely to get. I'm not willing to cut it short for a storm that'll be gone in thirty-six hours."
    "But where will you take him? You can't stay on the island."
    "I'll find a hotel room in Wilmington."
    "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard! There won't be a room to be had between here and Raleigh."
    Lauren was way overreacting. Any hurricane had to be taken seriously, but a category one was not a Katrina. Only the beaches and lowlying areas needed to be evacuated, and an hour's drive in any direction would take them out of all danger. He suspected she welcomed an excuse to take Tyler and return home to Raleigh. "I'll find something. We'll be okay. When it's over, we'll come back here."
    "This is insane! You can't do this."
    "I can."
    "But I have to leave! I can't stay here." Lauren's drawl thickened as her voice rose to a hysterical wail. "I have to be home! Don't you care anything about my feelings? I'll be worried to death about Tyler. I'm terrified of storms. I have to get home!"
    It wasn't any ground they hadn't already covered. Jax saw no need to answer.
    "If you don't care anything about me, don't you care about your baby? How can you keep him where a hurricane's going to strike within twenty-four hours? You're putting that child in harm's way!" Lauren snatched up a makeup case and stalked to the door with quick, sharp taps of her sandals and flung it wide. "You're not going to get away with this."

    Jax placed the last of Lauren's Louis Vuitton luggage in the trunk of her silver Lexus and closed it. "I'll call you when I know where Tyler and I will be staying."
    Lauren didn't answer. An improvement, Jax considered. It beat the hell out of the ranting that had gone on as he had carried her suitcases down.
    Now she put her handbag in the car and held out her arms to Tyler.
    "Come give Gan-gan a kiss."
    Tyler went to her with slow steps, his head down.
    She lifted his face in her hands. "You want to go to Gan-gan's house, don't you?" Tyler's eyes never met hers; his headshake was almost imperceptible.
    Lauren made her eyes go big with horror. "You don't want to stay here and let the hurricane get you, do you?" Again, a tiny shake. "Then you make your daddy bring you to Gan-gan's house. You'll be safe there."

    "Gan-gan left me." Tyler gazed at the departing Lexus with a very old look on his smooth little face. This morning Lauren had dressed him in another of his coordinated outfits, a blue polo shirt with sailboat doodads embroidered on the collar and matching sailboats on the legs of the shorts. Under the blue shirt, Tyler's shoulders lifted once, then fell.
    Jax didn't know how to interpret Tyler's expression; still, seeing his son look like that caused something inside him to ache like an old wound.
    "Come on inside." Jax held out his hand to Tyler. Tyler didn't take it, but followed obediently. "Let's finish packing up."

    "Stay close to me, Tyler," Jax snapped, even though Tyler wasn't doing anything wrong. Clutching his red toy sack, he obediently stood beside his