The Marine's Red Hot Homecoming Read Free

his father’s approval, but he couldn’t let her go without trying to convince her that they could have a future together. He gripped the cylinder’s handle and cleared his throat. “Absolutely,” he said.
    “I’ll have my lawyer, Everest, draw up an agreement this afternoon.”
    “Besides child support and equal billing in the parenting department, is there anything you do want?” Like a different kind of reunion? One where the fact that he’d chosen to remain a Marine didn’t overshadow her opinion of him?
    “Actually, yes.”
    He ignored his randy hormones’ booyahs and ordered his current state of arousal to stand down. Hannah had every right to wait for the kind of man who would be there for her no matter how much he wanted her again. He had to respect her for taking such a strong position.
    “Name them,” he said. Because he’d do anything to make sure his son grew up with the knowledge that his father loved him even if he couldn’t convince Hannah to marry him.
    “You have to maintain a residence in Sweetbriar Springs that you’ll use between your tours of duty instead of living like a nomad on a motorcycle and crashing anywhere but in your family’s home.”
    “Done.” He had already rented a mountain house north of Sweetbriar Springs. No way was he staying in that mausoleum his parents lived in. The wealth that had built that place had never been able to make it a home. Not when his father continuously screwed around on his mother. But then his folks would never have gotten hitched if not for Caleb’s conception.
    Something his father liked to rub in his face every chance he got, and something Caleb blamed himself for whenever he heard his mother crying behind her closed bedroom door. The marriage had been empty from the get-go. Which gave Hannah ample reason to say no to him beyond her personal experience with her ex boyfriend.
    She had seen firsthand how his father’s absences, cruel words, and constant demands for perfection from his first born, unwanted son had driven Caleb to act out. Until he’d finally hooked up with the Marines.
    “I also expect us to have family time,” she said. “Jason’s got a lot of people who care about him, including his grandparents.”
    If only the family time included some couple time. But he simply nodded. “Sure, your...”
    She raised her palm to stop him from speaking. “Both sets. Yourparents love our son. If Steven hadn’t had the stroke, he’d be the one playing at the park with him instead of my babysitter, Lori.”
    Shock reverberated against his breastbone and he rolled back on his heels. “You’ve got to be kidding.” Steven Gibson had always loomed larger than life to Caleb. Constantly traveling, relentlessly brusque when he had returned home from his business trips, and tireless in his pursuit of the almighty dollar along with all the sexy side perks that being on the road had brought him. “My dad only knows one speed. Work.”
    “You’d be surprised what a grandchild can do to change a person.” Hannah touched his arm. “Now that he’s had this scare he might slow down even more. You’ll have a tough choice to make.”
    A new zip of awareness zinged through him. She was way too close for comfort. “First off. Nothing scares my father.” Though Steven lay half paralyzed in a rehab center in Asheville, and unable to speak a coherent sentence, one thing about his dear old dad hadn’t changed. When He’d visited his father two days ago the glint of steel in Steven’s clear blue eyes challenged Caleb, which brought out the irrational urge to rebel again.
    But rebellion was for kids. Caleb had long ago given up acting like a prick to get the old man’s attention. He broke away from her reassuring hand. “Second of all. I don’t plan on staying longer than it takes to get him back into the CEO’s chair where he belongs.” He’d come home to run Gibson Technologies for his mother. And to preserve the company’s vast