Free The Marine's Red Hot Homecoming by Christine Glover Page A

guy.”
    “What guy?” Caleb asked before Hannah answered.
    She could feel his entire body tensing up behind her though they weren’t touching. Well too damn bad. She needed to find a suitable man. She sat a little straighter in her chair. “I’m listening,” she said. In the distance fireflies lit up the branches of the trees and she heard the lone cry of an owl hooting.
    Kennedy smiled, then tapped her chin with her index finger. “Let’s see. There’s the head of security at Tanner Enterprises. He’s hot. My ob-gyn is single, too. If I weren’t already taken, I’d make a play for him. He’s like Dr. McDreamy and McSteamy rolled into one.”
    “Hey, I heard that,” Zach called from the open patio door.
    “Yeah, he’s definitely in the market,” Michael echoed.
    “Boys. Give a man a break,” Paul teased. “There’s only so much a dad needs to know about what his daughters are doing when it comes to men.”
    “No worries.” Kennedy waved her hand, then smoothed it across her swollen belly. “The father of my children is the only man for me.”
    Candlelight flickered in the lanterns that had been placed along the deck’s railing and a slight breeze rustled the leaves in the trees surrounding the lakefront property. “I heard the new doctor is very sexy,” she said. “Maggie over at the The Book Corner told me that he opened his practice in Sweetbriar Springs because he likes the appeal of small town life. Why don’t we start with him?”
    “Great,” Kennedy said. “You want me to set y’all up?”
    “Sure. I’m game.”
    She heard the clunkety-clunk of a piece of cutlery landing on the deck. She looked at Caleb over her shoulder and saw lines etching grooves in his forehead as he knelt to pick up a knife. Clearly, Caleb didn’t like the idea of her dating, but she refused to say no to the idea. They had a child together, and sure, he’d proposed. But he’d botched that royally. He didn’t want a life here. He wanted one with the Marines. She wouldn’t ask him to choose her over his duty, but she wasn’t going to marry him for all the wrong reasons. No matter how excited he made her hormones. She had first hand experience with PTSD, met other divorced military wives who had to get out before it destroyed them along with their children.
    The idea of putting little Jason through the hell she’d gone through terrified Hannah. She had to say yes to a blind date with someone who held values that matched her own. Though the last guy she’d dated a few months ago hadn’t caused her hormones to sizzle like Caleb, she held out hope that the next man in her life might be the perfect match.
    “You’re sure he wants to settle down?” she asked. “I mean really settle down?” Unlike Caleb who still wore his dog tags like a siren that screamed I’m-so-bugging-out-of-here as soon as his father resumed his place at the helm of Gibson Technologies.
    “Sure, but I wouldn’t bring that up on the first date.” Kennedy glanced at her, assessing her woman-to-woman. “How long has it been since you’ve worn a dress and heels?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    “That brings me to point C. You’ve got to trade in your Mom Gear for something sexy and feminine—you know,” Kennedy lifted a brow at Caleb who hadn’t budged from his spot behind Hannah, “show off your sexy body for a change.”
    “I think she looks good in jeans,” he said.
    “That’s because you only think of her as a mom, not as a woman,” Kennedy said.
    Caleb didn’t answer, but again she heard him suck in a breath. Though she hadn’t thought of herself as all-woman in months, his obvious physical attraction to her had revamped her libido and restored a measure of female pride. Not enough to erase what had happened the last time after she’d been with him that way .
    “You’re right. He doesn’t care about what I’m wearing because we’re just co-parents,” she said. However, by the way he’d botched the