Cole reached for her hand and pulled her into his lap. “Settle down.” He nodded when she relaxed against him. “We are SEALs, baby, and yes, sometimes we have to be mean, but we’re also regular people, and we can be nice.”
“Will you ever be mean to me?”
He cupped the side of her face. “I will never be mean toyou. I might tease you, but I would never hurt you, and I’d kill anyone who tried to hurt you.”
“I don’t think that helped, man,” Blake said.
Cole could see the worry on her face again. “Jade, I shouldn’t have said that. It was a figure of speech.”
She started biting her thumbnail again, and he pulled it out of her mouth.
Jade looked at Blake. “He won’t kill anyone, right?”
Cole narrowed his eyes at his friend behind her back.
“No, honey. He really is a nice guy,” Blake said.
Cole almost snorted.
Jade relaxed against him and tilted her head up. “Kiss, Daddy.”
He leaned down and took her lips. It quickly heated, and they both went after each other with undisguised hunger.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, you two. Knock it off,” Blake said.
Cole raised his head and stared down at her. Her lips were puffy, and her eyes were still closed. “Hey, let’s clean the kitchen so we can go to the rehab center. I already talked to them, so they’re expecting me.”
“You want me to go with you?” she asked.
“Yes, I want you both with me.”
The more support he had, the better.
Chapter Thirteen
Two hours later, Cole had sweat dripping down his back and face as he struggled to use the prosthetic while gripping the bars to take his weight. A therapist tried to hold him up at first, but he was over two hundred pounds, so Blake was behind him, helping him along.
The woman had tried to stop him a few times, telling him it was enough, but he knew how much his body could take. When his hand slipped off the bar because of sweat, he decided to call it a day.
“Come back in a few days, and we’ll try again.”
“Would it hurt anything to come back tomorrow?” Cole asked as he wiped the sweat from his face.
“Most people are sore after their first day.”
“I’m not most people. I’ll be here tomorrow.”
“All right,” the therapist said. “I’ll put you down for tomorrow.”
He looked around and saw Jade sitting on the floor, playing with a three-year-old child. The kid had a brace on his leg, and it looked like the mom was talking to another therapist and was trying to hide her tears.
Blake nudged him with his elbow. “She had her eyes stuck on you the whole time. It was like she was trying to give you strength.”
“Was it a good idea bringing her here with us?” Cole asked.
“I doubt you’ll be able to keep her away.”
The mom thanked Jade, took the child’s hand, and walked off. Jade turned to find him, then jumped up and ran to him, stopped a foot away, and bounced on her tiptoes.