Redwood Bend

They’d been married a whole month when he left for two weeks. When he returned he walked into their small apartment, dropped his duffel and yelled for her. Bellowed for her, which was what he typically did. Katie, baby, come get all over your man! He could be such a caveman. There was a part of her that craved that kind of attention, a part of her that wished he could be a little more civilized. She was so in love she ran to him. He smelled to high heaven, of stale perspiration, mud, two weeks in the field, God knew what all.
She flung herself into his arms, then flung herself out of his arms and ran for the bathroom where she proceeded to hover over the commode, really on the verge.
“I know I smell bad, but that’s a little melodramatic, don’t you think,” he said, standing in the bathroom doorway, unlacing his boots and stripping off his BDU. “Take it easy, I’ll get right in the shower.”
He was down to his fatigue pants, stinky bare feet and broad, delicious, tattooed chest, when she turned watering eyes up to him. “Charlie, I’m pregnant.”
“Oh, baby!” he said, falling to his knees to take her into his arms. “Baby…”
“Charlie!” she yelled. “Shower, for God’s sake! Please!”
“Yeah,” he said, rising and getting rid of what remained of his clothes. “You bet, baby. Then we’ll celebrate! Do pregnant women have sex?” he wanted to know as he turned on the shower.
He was one of a kind, that was for sure. It took a special woman to be married to Charlie Malone and his lifestyle. And it was going to take a lot of patience to make peace with Dylan Childress and draw him safely into her heart. She wondered if she had the time or the faith.
With her eyes closed, she thought about the differences between Charlie and Dylan…and their similarities. Both shockingly handsome, smart and confident men, at first glance you’d think they were alike. Beyond those obvious similarities they were opposites. Charlie was bold while Dylan was more reserved. Charlie grabbed what he wanted without the slightest hesitation while there were lots of emotional connections that still terrified Dylan. Charlie had waited a long time to really fall in love but once he recognized it, he was all in. Dylan had too many childhood ghosts to make that leap of faith.
Both men were phenomenal lovers; she could never have resisted either one of them.
She must have nodded off in the warm, beach sunshine because she felt Dylan curve around her. He was lying on his side, his arm casually crossing over her waist. His breath was warm on her ear and inhaled her scent, exhaling slowly. He nuzzled her softly. “Don’t fall asleep, honey,” he said. “We have to watch the time. The boys…”
She smiled and snuggled a little closer. He remembered they had to pick up the twins. And stop by her brother’s house.
Yes, it was going to take a special kind of patience to let him know he’d be safe with her. And she would require a special kind of courage to take a chance on him. Green Berets were a piece of cake compared to movie stars.
Dylan sensed a sort of peacefulness about Katie as they left the beach and drove back to Virgin River. Or maybe it was just that she wasn’t as uptight about this peacemaking confrontation with Conner as he was. He remained quiet while Katie talked about Dylan’s mysterious special pizza for dinner, about how to make peace with her bear, about how the sound of the waves had been so relaxing she’d fallen asleep, but then she was so sleepy these days she could fall asleep standing up.
“I know I’m not very talkative right now, Katie, but it’s not you,” he said.
“I don’t care, Dylan, because my mind is made up about how I’m moving forward. I’m sure when you work out a few things in your head, you’ll talk a little more.”
He turned toward her. “Exactly,” he said.
When they pulled up to the little prefab schoolhouse, the boys were busy on the play set that Dylan had helped to erect. “Katie, when we get to Conner’s house, can you get the boys occupied with something so I can talk to your brother without the boys around?”
“If you promise you’re not using that as an excuse to get into a fistfight…”
“Look at my eye. You think I want to sacrifice the other one? I just want to talk to him, but if he gets angry the boys shouldn’t be there. If you want to, I can take you and the guys home and come back by myself for this talk.”
“No—I’ll find them