Free A Marine's Second Chance: A Marine for You/SEALed for You Crossover Novella by Marissa Dobson

Chapter One
    P regnant ? Wyoming Dorset sat there staring at her husband, waiting for him to say something. Saying anything would be better than silence. This would have been happy news if it was earlier in their marriage, but now…now she didn’t know. Their marriage was on shaky ground, and the wall he threw up between them became thicker with every deployment. How did this happen? They had taken precautions. She was on the pill, never missing a day even when he was gone, because she never knew when he’d return.
    “Damn it, Jeffrey, say something.” She couldn’t take the silence any longer. If he was angry, then she wanted him to rage. If he was happy about the pregnancy, she needed to hear it. Whatever was going through his mind, she needed to know because the silence was torture.
    “I…” He dropped his bag on the bed. “How far along are you?”
    “Don’t you dare, Jeffrey! You might not give a shit about me or this child, but don’t you dare ask me to have—”
    “Is that what you think? That I don’t care about you?” In a quick stride he came around the bed and touched the side of her face, caressing her cheek. “Damn it, Wyoming, that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
    “You have a funny way of showing it.” She fought against the instinct to press against his hand and enjoy the sweet caress. How long had it been since he’d touched her like that? How long had it been since the romance left their relationship? She could pinpoint the date and time she noticed the first change in him, but how had she let it get so bad?
    “Wyoming, I—”
    This time, she cut him off. She couldn’t take one more excuse, or another one of his halfhearted apologies. “It doesn’t matter. Things changed and we’re just too different now. It’s too late, but please don’t ask me to have an abortion. Let me hold on to some respect for you.” She took a deep breath because the moment she feared was there in front of her, and nothing could stop the outcome. “You don’t have to worry about it. We’ll be gone when you get back.”
    “Fuck!” Dropping his hand away from her cheek, he took a step back.
    The absence of his touch made her heart ache. Even after everything, she still loved him. Tears pricked behind her eyelids, and she blinked them away. There was plenty of time for tears later, but she refused to cry in front of him. She didn’t want him to stay out of pity, or because of the pregnancy. Love and romance, that’s what she wanted.
    He stepped back farther until the back of his legs brushed along the edge of the bed and he sat down, letting out a deep sigh. “That’s not what I want. Abortion never crossed my mind.”
    “Then why ask how far along I am?” Maybe she jumped to a conclusion without giving him a chance, but it was the first thing that popped into her thoughts.
    “It’s September. If you conceived six weeks ago, that would be July.” He glanced up at her, the corners of his lips pulling into a smile. “Everyone in my family who got pregnant in July had a girl. But if you’re further along…”
    “Nine weeks, but it will be a few weeks before we know the sex.”
    “Stay.” He shot off the bed and came to stand in front of her. “Don’t leave. This mission shouldn’t take long, and I’ll be back soon.”
    “I don’t know.” She wanted him to wrap his arms around her and tell her that everything would be fine. It wasn’t that simple, especially not between them. She had a stable career, and she could provide for her and the child if he wasn’t in the picture. Would she have considered leaving him if a child wasn’t involved? She wasn’t sure. Their relationship had been shaky for more than a year but she hadn’t thought of divorce until she found out she was pregnant. There was no way she wanted to raise a child in a house filled with the tension that surrounded them. I’m doing this for you, little one. But was it the right thing?
    “Even if you don’t