Patrick.
Reality splashed over Zach like the ice-cold shower he would be taking in a few short minutes. He pulled back. What the hell had he been thinking? He hadn't been thinking at all. One kiss from Julia, and he'd forgotten about the sleeping baby in the back and the other two children inside the house liable to burst out at any moment. Not to mention an entire neighborhood full of people.
No ma'am, he hadn't been thinking of anything except Julia.
Zach rested his forehead against hers. Their ragged breaths battered the air between them.
He'd made thousands of snap decisions in the air as well as on the ground and never once doubted his judgment.
Until tonight.
She'd been dead-on correct that he should have kissed her before proposing, because now he knew a marriage between them could never work. If one kiss from Julia could so shake his focus, months of her in his bed—should he be so lucky as to lure her there—
would blast away any hope of control over himself, his feelings and his life.
There had to be another option. And he would find one as soon as he could breathe right again.
He pumped air into his lungs until lights sparked in front of his eyes. Lights? Zach frowned, turned, finding...
Car lights swept across him as the base security police idled into his driveway. Not just any cop, but the chief raster sergeant in charge of security sat behind the wheel.
Not good.
Zach glanced at the silent radio perched on his motorcycle and wondered what could have gone wrong if he hadn't been called. No matter what the chief had to say, it wouldn't be positive for him to have driven over.
Then he saw the huddled figure in the back seat and his mind exploded with the worst possible scenario, one he never would have expected.
He stared through the windshield at his daughter.
Disbelief stunned him for half a second before anger ripped him, which he allowed for a satisfying three seconds then shoved it aside and stood. He wouldn't be like his father.
He'd worked too long to offer his girls a childhood different from his own. No raging scenes. No alcoholic outbursts. His girls would have as much stability as he could give them.
And still he stood in his driveway with the cops bringing his kid home.
Again that persistent anger clawed at him, anger at Pam for leaving, anger at himself for not being able to make her stay. Damned useless since that wouldn't have solved the problem in front of him. He shoved aside his own needs. His first instinct to marry Julia had been right and he needed to stick to his course.
Control never more important, he shut down his emotions, prepping himself for whatever Shelby had to dish out this time.
Oh, God. Julia sank into the bucket seat. She'd forgotten to tell Zach about Shelby's pierced eyebrow.
Julia stifled the hysterical urge to laugh.
A pierced eyebrow was the least of her worries, but she wouldn't wrap her mind around rational thoughts just yet thanks to a kiss that fired so hot it threatened to melt her toenail polish.
Marry me.
She pressed trembling fingers to her lips. She might want to jump the man's bones, but no way did she ever want to remarry. So she'd better dump all those feelings and focus on the mess at hand.
Stepping from the car, Julia gasped in night air, stalling by studying the nightmare-in-the-making unfolding in the Dawson driveway. The corded muscles along Zach's neck broadcast restrained anger. Shelby angled out of the back seat to stand beside a cop wearing BDUs and a blue beret.
As if that wasn't enough, a door opened across the street. Tanner Bennett trotted out of his house carrying a garbage bag. Shorn blond hair shining under his porch light, stumbled to a stop for a telling three seconds before hustling to dump the trash pronto.
The pulse in Zach's temple double-timed.
The situation threatened to explode into an argument that could permanently damage an already faltering father daughter relationship. No time to think about her own screwed-up life, she had to do something. As Zach had said, the children came first.
Julia started toward the car. "Shelby, hon, what's going on?"