My Best Friend's Navy SEAL Dad: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Read online

  “I love you too,” I gasp, grabbing onto the solid mass of his arms, feeling the protective strength of his muscles. “I didn’t want to be the first to say it. I was so freaking nervous. I love you so, so much, Trent.”

  “Good,” he says, taking a step back. “Because it’d make this pretty awkward otherwise.”

  “Make what awkward…”

  My sentence cuts off with an emotional choking noise when he falls fluidly to one knee.

  He smiles up at me, really smiles, in the way he has a few times since Angie gave us her blessing. It’s a smile I’m still getting used to seeing and which floods me with so much light I feel like I might burst.

  He takes my hand in his, moving his thumb over my ring finger, sensation dancing, and teasing and making me want to let out a song of bursting joy.

  “I love you, Tessa Jacobs. I want – I need – to spend the rest of my life with you. I need to be the father of your children. I need to own you, and I need you to own me for the rest of our lives. We belong together.”

  “Oh, Trent,” I say, voice cracking.

  “Will you marry me?” he says, reaching into his suit jacket and taking out a ring box.

  He opens it with a fluid flick of this thumb, displaying a sizable diamond set within an elegant silver band, winking in the morning sunlight.

  I stare as my chest feels like it’s going to burst.

  I’ve imagined this moment so many times, Trent Tanner offering me a ring and a wonderful life to go along with it, but this is so much better than I ever could’ve imagined.

  “Yes,” I whimper, and then make my voice loud and ecstatic and love-filled. “Yes, yes, yes.”

  He slides the ring onto my finger and leaps to his feet, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close to him. I gasp as our lips meet in a conflagration of lust, love, belonging, and closeness.

  “I love you so damn much,” I whimper when the kiss comes to an end and we hold our lips close together, our breath painting the other.

  “I love you more,” he growls. “I’m so happy you said yes.”

  “Is that why you were acting weird last night?” I tease lightly, my voice love-filled and shimmery with tears of pure euphoria.

  “Yeah.”

  He smiles brightly, warmly, lovingly.

  He smiles like I never imagined Tanner Trent could.

  But here he is, the man I’ve crushed on for most of my life, smiling at me in a way only I can make him.

  “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you could tell,” he goes on. “You can read me as easily as I can read you.”

  “That’s love, Trent,” I whisper.

  “Forever, Snapshot,” he says, leaning in for another kiss.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Trent

  I like the feeling of a tool in my hand, on my knees in our living room as I sand the floor. I don’t use an electric sander. I like to work my muscles, to feel my body straining with the effort of making our house even more beautiful.

  The house was in good shape when I purchased it, but a man’s nothing if he can’t find ways to improve his woman’s world.

  And, fuck, I can’t deny that I love the way it turns my woman on when she catches me like this. She’ll stand in the doorway and watch me, and I’ll let her pretend she’s being sneaky when we both know she’s not.

  Then she’ll let out a shivering sigh and I know how badly she needs it, how achingly her body is screaming out to be touched and pleased and captivated.

  I take a break from my work, letting a smile move across my face, bright and happy and still partly unbelievable.

  It’s been a couple of weeks since I proposed and she said yes, and life just keeps getting better and better.

  Angela has booked more acting work. Tessa’s mom, Caitlin, has gotten engaged to her boyfriend Liam. And my woman has set up a freelance photography service that’s keeping her busy in Youngtone and all throughout Maine.

  Helping her to quit that diner job filled me with so much joy, a whole mass of it clashing through me like lightning.

  Now she can spend all her time on her talent, the way it should’ve been all along.

  She is my Snapshot, after all.

  She should be, well, snapping some shots.

  I run the sander along the floor again, sitting up to appraise my work. It’s been a long hard day, starting at six in the morning to get some business stuff sorted, and then heading down to the gym to coach the children’s kickboxing class, and then coming home to work on our house.

  My woman has been out with a client all day, taking family photographs, and then heading to the neighboring town to sort some wedding stuff with her mom. I love how seriously my angel is taking the wedding preparations, approaching it with the same enthusiasm that ignited my desire for her during our first hike.

  That hike…

  I dream about it sometimes, wondering how it’s possible to fall in love in a single morning.

  But it is. I’m proof of it.

  “Trent.”

  I look up to find my fiancé standing in the doorway.

  My insides stir and my cock gives a jerk. I know I’ll never stop feeling this soul-crushing need for her no matter how long I live, no matter how many moments we share.

  My eyes flit over her summer dress and her curvaceous body before settling on her face, on her pursed lips, and her narrowed eyes.

  I rise to my feet.

  “Tessa, what’s wrong?” I growl.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” she says, walking slowly into the room, her lips shaking like she’s going to burst into tears any second.

  I wrap my arms around her and pull her against my chest. She doesn’t care about the sweat coating me. She grips onto my side, digging her fingernails in as though she never wants to let go.

  I rest my face against the top of her head, inhaling the scent of her hair. It always brings me back to our first kiss, to the way she shivered and blossomed for me.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I say, even as an instinct rises inside of me, roaring at me that I know.

  But I don’t dare let my imagination run wild on this.

  What if I’m wrong?

  “I was with Mom sorting wedding stuff,” she says, disentangling herself and pacing up and down the room.

  She waves her hands as she talks, as though she’s got too much energy and doesn’t know what to do with it.

  “And I felt really sick,” she goes on. “Mom joked that maybe I was pregnant, and I said no, I’ve had my… and then it hit me. I haven’t had my period. So we stopped on the way back and got a test, and then another test, and another. I’ve done three tests, three different brands.”

  “Baby, Snapshot,” I say, my lips spreading into a smile so wide and filled with happiness my goddamn jaw starts to ache.

  I stride over to her and grab her hands, stopping them from worrying at each other, and then slide my hands up her arms and cup her face.

  “Slow down and tell me. Just… just tell me.”

  I can barely keep the emotion out of my voice.

  If I didn’t know myself better, I think I might cry.

  I feel choked with emotion.

  “All three were positive,” she whispers, tears sliding down her cheeks. “We’re pregnant, Trent. We’re pregnant.”

  She yells the last sentence and throws herself at me, leaping into my arms. I hold her close, grabbing her ass in big greedy handfuls as our lips clash in a fusion of lust and love and the future opening itself up before us, like a book, the best damn book in the world, filled with so much happiness it’s a wonder the pages don’t jump around in joy.

  I spin her around and around, both of us laughing like lunatics.

  “Trent, I’m dizzy,” she giggles.

  I put her down, smoothing her hair from her face, leaning down to kiss the warm tears from her cheeks.

  “You’re going to make the best mother,” I tell her.

  “You’re going
to make the best father,” she says.

  I smile and she smiles wider like we’re looking into a mirror, our bliss reflected in each other.

  EPILOGUE

  ONE YEAR LATER

  Tess

  I sit on the back porch with Henrietta in my arms, rocking her softly as she smiles up at me. I’ve heard people say that three month olds can’t smile, but even with her eyes closed and her breathing sleepy and wonderful, I know she’s smiling.

  I have no idea how long I’ve been sitting here, with the sun dappling us, coming to rest on the garden. It lights up the swimming pool, making the water shimmer, and dances over Trent’s gym equipment and the remains of yesterday’s photoshoot.

  I staged a special scene just for Henrietta, sitting her next to our cherry blossom tree, catching beautiful snapshots of her as petals danced around her.

  This past year has been better than my wildest fantasies. The wedding was like something out of a fairytale, held near the cabin where we had our first date, with a section of the forest cleared away and a rose-petal aisle laid out for me to walk down.

  When I saw Trent standing up there in his suit I almost burst into tears, but I didn’t want to ruin the makeup the artist had spent so long applying. My hair was in expert weaves and I felt truly, amazingly, astonishingly beautiful despite my bump making my belly big and round.

  If pregnancy taught me anything, it’s that there are more important things than my body’s shape.

  Not that Trent has been put off by how pregnancy has changed me.

  Last night as I was chopping some tomatoes for dinner he stalked up behind me, his hands roaming all over my body, driving me to hormone-infused hysteria as he explored me lustfully.

  He doesn’t care if I’m sweaty, tired-looking, or that I haven’t lost the pregnancy weight.

  We did it right there on the counter, writhing together wildly, my fingernails dragging down his back as we bucked to a shared end.

  I close my eyes and let out a contented sigh, listening to Henrietta’s calm breaths.

  Trent should be home any minute now.

  His management consultant business has exploded over this past year, the same way my freelance photographer career has, both of us marching side by side into a sun-bright future.

  Mom is getting married to Liam in a few months.

  Angela has booked three more TV gigs since the advertisement.

  Life just keeps getting brighter, more wonderful, and sometimes that scares me. Sometimes my old doubts creep into my mind and tell me it’s all going to go wrong.

  But all I have to do in those moments is look down at my daughter, at the soft smile on her lips, listen to the happiness in her every breath.

  And I know everything is going to be okay.

  No…

  Much, much better than okay.

  Forever.

  Trent walks onto the porch, moving with his characteristic quietness, a trait he’s cultivated ever since I gave birth to our daughter.

  I look up and he smiles at me, silhouetted in the sun. His hair glimmers silver and he looks like a knight in shining armor in his iron-colored suit, which is fitting.

  He saved me after all.

  He saved me from self-doubt and self-consciousness and self-hate.

  He walks across the porch and leans down, kissing me softly on the forehead and then bringing his lips to our daughter’s forehead, giving her a soft kiss of her own.

  “I missed you today, Snapshot,” he whispers.

  “I missed you too,” I whisper back.

  We stay like that, with his arm around me and both of us looking down at this beautiful amazing little person we made together until the sun begins to set.

  EXTENDED EPILOGUE

  TEN YEARS LATER

  Trent

  “Daddy, you have to stay still,” Henrietta says, peering at me over the top of her mom’s camera.

  I grin at her, jiggling from side to side. “I am staying still.”

  Behind her, Russ and Jacob laugh and shake their heads.

  “Silly Daddy,” Jacob says.

  “Silliest Daddy ever,” Russ says.

  The twins are going through a phase of following their big sister wherever she goes, so it’s only natural that they trailed us into the garden and over to the cherry blossom when Henrietta suddenly decided she wanted to take my photo.

  My wife sits on the back porch with Lila in her arms, rocking our baby softly from side to side, smiling down with so much radiance in her expression I almost shed a tear. I used to fight that instinct sometimes, that whelming of emotion inside of me, but somewhere along the way – as the delight in my life grew bigger and bigger – I knew I could never fight it.

  I’m a man who sometimes, not very often but sometimes sheds a single tear of gratitude at how amazing his life has turned out.

  Jackie is in the swimming pool, as she is every day. Our eight year old loves swimming more than anything else, and that fills me with so much pride I want to clap my hands together and roar and run crazy circles around the garden.

  She loves water as much as any SEAL I ever met.

  “You are not,” Henrietta says, pouting at me.

  She’s got her mother’s hair but my eyes, glimmering with the same playfulness Tessa says sometimes fills my expression.

  “Okay. Try now.”

  I jiggle from side to side and she groans, but she’s giggling. She can’t stop herself from laughing when I act silly like this, even if sometimes she says she’s getting too old for my dad games.

  Finally, I settle down, posing for her photograph, but then the twins come barreling over to me. They are two little terrors and I love wrestling with them, rolling around among the leaves and the grass as Henrietta snaps away.

  I lift Russ over my head with one hand and tickle Jacob with the other, causing his infectious laughter to rise higher and higher in the air.

  Blessed doesn’t come close to describing how I feel.

  My wife won an award for photography last month and my daughter won an Oscar last year. My mother-in-law is happily married to Liam and they live on the west coast and visit often, and their visits always fill our lives with even more brightness.

  My business is flourishing, with east and west coast offices.

  But I’d trade everything we’ve worked for over the years for these moments, wrestling with my sons as my daughter makes laps around the pool and my other daughter snaps photographs and my other daughter lies content in my wife’s arms.

  “Daddy, do the monster,” Russ giggles when I put him down.

  I sit up, tapping my chin, pulling the silly face they all like. “What monster?”

  “Mommy,” Russ calls. “Tell Daddy to do the monster.”

  Tessa smiles, lighting me up inside, tapping her chin in the same way I just did. This is all part of the game, both of us pretending to have no clue what they’re talking about until I finally unleash the monster…

  And then I spring to my feet and snap my arms together like a crocodile.

  “Nom-nom-nom,” I roar, chasing them around the garden.

  I catch Jacob and we fall to the ground in a fit of laughter, and then Russ walks to the edge of the pool. Little Jackie stops swimming, grinning up at us with her mother’s eyes and Angela’s smile.

  “I bet you won’t follow me in here,” Russ yells, laughing as he leaps into the pool in his T-shirt and his shorts.

  “Wanna bet?” I chuckle, sprinting to the water, not giving a damn that I’m still wearing my suit from work.

  I dive in after him.

  From the porch my wife laughs and then there’s another splash as Jacob joins us. Jackie giggles and leaps at me, getting involved in the fun, as Henrietta snaps photographs that will fill us with even more happiness in the years to come.

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  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS

  Book 1: Baby Lust

  Book 2: Veteran

  Book 3: Built

  Book 4: Bambino

  Book 5: Rescued

  Book 6: Leader

  Book 7: Professor

  Book 8: Burned

  Book 9: Worldly

  Book 10: Pistol

  Book 11: Policed

  Book 12: Driven

  Book 13: Lucky 13

  Book 14: Lumberjacked

  Book 15: Protector

  Book 16: Carpenter

  Book 17: Italian Stallion

  Book 18: Gardener

  Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin

  Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 21: Cocky CFO

  Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th

  Book 23: Mechanic

  Book 24: SEAL’s Secret

  Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch

  Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina

  Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy

  Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol

  Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess

  Book 32: Statham

  Book 33: Bodyguard

  Book 34: Greek God

  Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter

  Book 36: Mountain Man

  Book 37: SEAL’s Justice

  Book 38: Royal Romance

  Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery

  Book 40: Crocodile Dan D

  Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby

  Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby

  Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter

  Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door

  Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace

  Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée