Tank (Moonshine Task Force Book 2)(40)
He shrugs. “I babysat as a teenager. Not really the coolest thing for a guy to do, but there was a family that lived about five miles from us with three kids and they couldn’t afford a daycare. I started watching them the year I turned thirteen,” he repositions her on his legs and continues giving her the bottle. “Ya know back then there wasn’t this call to arms about everyone being trained in CPR and all of that before you could watch kids. All of them were boys, so we basically spent our summers playing kickball and baseball. The youngest was two and he still took a bottle and had diapers. Not to stay I changed and fed him all the time. His brothers helped a lot, but I learned the basics and they kind of stuck with me.”
He hands her to me as she gets done with the bottle, letting me burp her as he goes and takes care of what we’ve dirtied up. “You never cease to amaze me, Trevor. I mean, I think I know everything about you, and you surprise me with something like this.”
He comes back into the living room holding a piece of chocolate cake with ice cream on it. “Our dessert,” he sets it down on the TV tray in between us. “And I hope I never stop surprising you. I love surprising you. There’s something I never told you, but when we met, I was on a dark path. I didn’t necessarily do things for the right reasons. I joined the military and the Moonshine Task Force because of Renegade. I never wanted him to move on without me, but that night I met you, I started really think about my life,” he grabs Stella from me before feeding me a piece of the cake.
It’s the best kind of cake, full of flavor with just the right amount of moisture. “What did you start to think about?”
“How to get you to go out with me. Some of the stuff I was doing, I knew you wouldn’t have anything to do with me.”
Stella grabs for his fork, but he keeps it out of her reach. “What exactly were you doing?”
Now I’m curious. It occurs to me I don’t know a ton about Trevor’s past, and while that’s okay, I’m interested now.
“Drinkin’ too much, staying out too late, seeing multiple women at once, and then not calling back the ones who would have been good for me after I got what I wanted. I went a little crazy after I came back from overseas. It’s a shock to reacclimate,” he feeds me another piece of cake.
I speak around the food, “I imagine, and it must be difficult when not everyone comes back with you.”
I remember one of our units lost a couple of men on the last tour Trevor and Ryan had done together.
“Yeah,” he gets a faraway look in his eyes. “You wonder what they would be doing today. Would they be married to the girls they were dating? Would they be dads? Hell, one of them might have my spot on the Moonshine Task Force. There’s so many unknowns, and it’s hard to live with. At least for me it was. Renegade didn’t have the problems I had, probably because he had such a shitty childhood.”
“What changed?” I grab Stella, snuggling her close to me. The innocent scent of talcum powder and formula is one of my favorites. It grounds me in this conversation we’re having.
“I met you,” he reaches out, rubbing Stella’s back. “I met you by chance at that damn cookout Holden dragged us to so we could meet our EMT counterparts,” he rolls his eyes. “Holden still tells me how much I owe him, he probably will until the end of time. Even when we’d broken up, he would leave little notes in the squad car about how I should tell him thank you. Without him, I’d never have at least known the love of a good woman.”
I laugh as he makes a face. “Remind me to thank Holden next time I see him.”
“Oh hell no, he’ll keep at it.” He stops laughing along with me, before he reaches over and grabs my hand. “Truthfully, when I met you, things didn’t look so bleak anymore. I felt like I had a purpose. I wanted a date with you, even though it took six weeks.”
“I thought you were joking with me, I mean look at you.”
He blushes a bright red. “Babe, look at you. You’re totally outta my league.”
“Somehow we both managed to compromise our values and find one another,” I move a now sleeping Stella back into her seat. “Amazing how that works, isn’t it?”
Trevor moves quickly and before I know it, I’m on my back on the couch, his big body has covered mine, and he’s dipping his lips down to capture mine. “What do you say we do exactly what Renegade would do?”
“Right here?” I smirk, keeping my voice low as not to wake up the baby we just put down. “This is kinda low-key teenage making out.”
“Baby, I’ll show you just how much I’m a man. Lay on back and relax.”
My belly clenches as I feel his palm moving up, pushing my shirt to bare my flesh. He places a soft kiss on my skin, before he starts pulling the skirt I’m wearing down. I hadn’t really been thinking easy access when I’d put it on, I’d been thinking comfort, but now I’m totally glad I decided to wear it.
“Happy Valentine’s Day to me,” I moan as I feel his fingers slip beneath the lace of my panties.
He glances up at me, our eyes meeting. “Nah babe, Happy Valentine’s Day to us.”
Considering a few months ago I worried we’d never have one again. I’m going to do everything I can to be present and enjoy the hell out of this.