The SEAL's Surprise Son (The Admiral's Seals, #1) - Leslie North Page 0,8

at night, but she hadn’t let him. By the time Carolyn came down the stairs, his anger simmered just below the surface.

She’d changed into snug-fitting jeans and a flowy purple top. He couldn’t help noticing that her curvy figure was enhanced by having had a baby. Somehow, his attraction to her irritated him even further.

“Is he mine?” he asked before she could say anything.

Her eyes flashed. “I think you know the answer.”

“So he is.” He’d known it since he saw Austin at the jewelry store, but it still hit him hard, and the dam inside him broke. Words poured out, but he didn’t shout. “God, Carolyn, did you hate me so much that you didn’t want to tell me? What were you going to do, pretend he didn’t have a father? Erase me from his life?”

“I never hated you,” she hissed, then glanced up the stairs as if she was afraid Austin might have heard.

“You did,” he countered.

“I hated what you did. I hated that you were gone so much.” She spoke quietly but vehemently. “I never hated you. Even when I should have.”

“If that’s true, you would have told me about him.” He scrubbed his hand over his face in frustration. “Come on, Carolyn, you’re one of the few people in the world who knows the truth about my parents. Do you think I wouldn’t want to be here for my own kid after what I went through? After what you went through?” He and Carolyn had both been abandoned by a parent. They had that very sorry fact in common.

She flinched at his words, but her chin was up, and she pressed her lips together, making her dimples pop out. “Use your common sense, Zach. Would I let a child feel abandoned by either parent? I can’t believe you’d think that of me.”

“Then why didn’t I know about him?” He was struggling to understand the situation and getting nowhere.

“Are you really going to claim that none of my messages reached you? Really?” she shot at him as she dropped onto the couch’s center cushion.

He took a breath, trying to get his raging emotions under control. She’d had an awful day, too. He should be more sympathetic since she’d been held hostage just hours earlier. From what he understood from the cops on the scene, Carolyn had saved the day, catching the criminal and probably saving lives. She’d always been smart and tough, qualities he’d loved about her. He sat on a wing chair facing her and tried to control his tone. “What messages?”

“The twenty I sent,” she stated, the pitch of her voice rising. “I wrote letters, I called and texted, and when I got no response, I went through naval channels to contact you. I never heard a word in reply. Nothing even acknowledging that you knew I was pregnant.”

The months when she would have been pregnant, he was on a black ops mission with his unit. No message could have gotten through. “And after he was born?”

“I tried to contact you again to let you know he was healthy. After that, I gave up.” She looked frustrated and defeated.

“When’s his birthday?” He had a son whose birth and first birthday he’d missed.

“June fourth. He was born at three in the morning, if you want to know.”

He’d still been out of the country at the time of the birth. The mission had stretched longer than anticipated, and he hadn’t returned to the States until nearly Christmas, months after Austin entered the world. But Zach had been stateside since before leaving the Navy earlier in the summer. He could have met his son long before today if she had reached him.

“I never got any of those messages, Carolyn. The mission I was on…” He trailed off when he saw the pain on her face. It was exactly that type of mission that had caused her to end their engagement. “We had no contact with anyone, including other military units or the usual channels of communication.” He wanted to apologize, but he couldn’t be sorry for having done his job and done it well.

Silence fell between them as he watched her. Her brown eyes, large and expressive, were focused on him as if trying to determine if he was telling the truth.

“Not one message got through to you? Not one?” She sounded incredulous.

“If I’d known we had a baby, I’d have been here for him and you. You’ve got to believe that about me.” He hoped she did, but