Page 12 of Married to a SEAL

Chapter 4

Patrick tossed the football to Evan on the beach that afternoon, watching it spiral through the air. The kids ran and shrieked in the surf beside him, the sun beating down on the sand and glistening off the sparkling water. A gust of wind blew in from the ocean, and he grinned, enjoying the spray of salt water as another wave crashed onto the shore. His gaze drifted toward the dry sand fifty feet away, landing on Rebecca and Alison resting on beach chairs under a striped beach umbrella.

Rebecca waved when she spotted him watching her and blew him a kiss.

“You’re in a damn good mood,” Evan commented.

Patrick’s gaze flicked back toward his buddy. “Hell of a day,” he said as he easily caught the pass Evan tossed back at him. He gripped the football, lining up his fingers on the laces without a second thought and spiraling it back toward his teammate.

“You tell the kids?” Evan asked as he caught Patrick’s pass.

“Nah. Too soon.”

“Dad!” Logan shrieked from the water a few feet away as he jumped up and down. “I saw a fish! A fish!”

Patrick chuckled at the tiny school of fish jumping out of the water as another wave rolled in, glistening in the sunlight. He’d have to take Logan fishing again soon. Abby, too, although she hadn’t seemed interested at all whenever he’d mentioned the idea.

The sand shifted beneath his feet as the cool water rushed back out into the ocean, and he squinted up at the afternoon sun. Nothing better than an afternoon at the beach, enjoying the salt water, sand, and sun.

The team would probably be deploying again soon. Their CO had contacted him after lunch to let him know he had an important briefing to update the team on first thing Monday morning. It felt different knowing he’d have to leave Rebecca and the kids now that she was pregnant.

It was a bigger deal now. Harder to go.

He’d given his life to the Navy, but that didn’t mean his own family didn’t come first. And hell, Rebecca was family now. They hadn’t been in a rush before, but he needed to get down on one knee. Get things settled and taken care of before the baby arrived. Move Rebecca and Abby into the house with him and Logan—and most importantly?

Make her his wife.

Evan jogged over to him as Patrick abandoned their game and helped the kids haul heavy pails of water toward the sand castles they were building.

“Mine needs a moat around it,” Abby said, admiring her crumbling castle.

“A moat, huh?”

“Yes. To protect the princess inside.”

“One moat coming up,” Patrick said with sideways glance at Evan.

“I can do it! I’ll get more water,” Logan said, grabbing a pail and running back down to the ocean.

Patrick stood there, arms crossed as he watched the kids. “I’m thinking of buying a ring,” he said quietly to Evan.

“A ring as in an engagement ring?”

“Yep,” Patrick affirmed. “That’s the one.”

Evan let out a low whistle. “Because of the baby? I gotta tell you, Ali was shocked as hell when you texted me this morning. I sure wasn’t exactly expecting to run out and pick up pregnancy tests either, truth be told.”

Patrick chuffed out a laugh. “I suppose not since you already have a kid on the way. It wasn’t exactly in the plans at the moment, but life happens. As soon as Rebecca got sick this morning, it’s like she knew right away what was going on. It took me a few minutes to catch up, but hell. After that I wanted to know as badly as she did.”

“Is she feeling any better?” Evan glanced toward Rebecca and Alison on the beach, who were currently laughing over a magazine they were holding.

“For the moment. Although she assures me morning sickness can happen any time, not just in the morning. Apparently, it wasn’t too bad when she was pregnant with Abby, so she’s hoping this pregnancy will be easy as well. I imagine it’ll be hard to be arguing in court with a trash can in one hand.”

“Yeah, Ali had a hell of a time at work for a while. When patients arrive in the ER, they don’t expect the nurses to be sick.”

“I can imagine.”

“Does Rebecca know you’re planning to propose?”

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