Black and White Flowers (The Real SEAL Series Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  BLACK AND WHITE FLOWERS

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Epilogue

  Why The Real SEAL Series?

  THANK YOU

  International Bestselling Author, Rachel Robinson

  Copyright © 2015 Rachel Robinson

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Allison Martin at MakeReady Designs

  Cover Images by Lindee Robinson at Lindee Robinson Photography

  Edited by Emily A. Lawrence at Lawrence Editing

  Formatted by CP Smith

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the above author of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

  Dedication

  For anyone who has risen above their past.

  Chapter One

  Carina

  Ten years old

  THE LINES AND IMPERFECTIONS in the wood surrounding me are my closest companions. There’s a big black swirl directly over my head—right in the center of the roof. It’s a long oval and solid black, with tiny lines that splinter away from it. The shape reminds me of a screaming mouth. I’ve told that mark since I was five years old, screaming doesn’t work. We’ll never escape. Not until he’s ready to release us. I’ve dreamed about it, though—fleeing, running, finding something new outside of these all too familiar wooden walls.

  The shed is nice compared to the dilapidated shed my friend Jenna has in her backyard. My stepfather, Greg, says I should be thankful. He’s made it nice for me. He locks me in here when I’m bad, or so he says. I was a good girl today, but he still dragged me out of the warm house, through the yard, and sealed me in my playhouse. I asked for another cookie. One is always my limit when I’m lucky, but the house smelled so good, like sugar and chocolate, and my mouth was watering. I wanted one more small taste. My mother hushed me, but Greg still heard.

  “She’s fine, Greg. Leave her be. No need to bring her out there,” Mama says, slurring. She takes a sip out of the straw dangling out of her Big Gulp cup. She won’t say anything else to Greg. That’s her fourth cup this afternoon. I start to cry, wrapping my arms around my body.

  He doesn’t say anything while he leads me out the back door. The long grass is still wet and it gets the ruffles on my white socks damp. My tears don’t stop, and my quiet sobs make me hiccup and lose my breath. It’s uncomfortable. I wish I had my teddy bear to hug.

  “Shut your sniveling pie hole, Carina. Maybe next time you’ll be happy with one cookie. You’re such a disgraceful, disobedient child. It’s no wonder your mother is so depressed. She has you as her daughter. I’m so sick of your shit. You’re just like your deadbeat father.” He tosses me in using one arm.

  I try not to think about the words he says. I try to think about how it will be better once he leaves. Who will stop Mama from filling her cup again if I’m not there?

  “Please!” I beg. Greg’s smile is cruel. “I’ll be good. I want Mama. Please. Let me be inside. I won’t talk for the rest of the day. I’ll stay out of your way. I’ll be good. I’m good. Please. I’m sorry.” I hug my knees against me. The pretty dress I picked out this morning will have black grease on the back. It has tiny pink and yellow flowers and green leaves. My grandma sewed it for me when I visited last summer. I went with her to the shop and picked the fabric out myself. It barely fits now. The arms are tight and the hem is a touch too short, but it’s my favorite.

  Greg shifts his weight from one foot to the other and shakes his head. I pray he doesn’t come in here with me. I can tell he’s thinking about it. Not again. I’ve been a good girl. I back myself into the corner next to the bucket that I use for my bathroom. It smells, but I won’t ask him to empty it. Greg will get upset. Like last time.

  I pull my dress down as far as it will go, tucking it under my legs. I look down at the pretty pattern on the fabric and a tear falls against one of the pink, round flowers. It turns it a different shade of pink. A hot pink—like my Barbie doll’s dress. I wish I had her right now. I could braid her hair and tell her a story. I hear Greg’s breath. He’s still standing on the step. He’s not inside my playhouse. Moving my head to the left a tiny bit, I let another tear fall off my nose onto a yellow flower. The wetness doesn’t change the color as much as it did the pink. Please. I think. Just leave me. Leave me. Please. All of the muscles in my body stiffen, and I can’t count my heartbeats anymore. It’s beating too fast.

  With a sigh, he slams the door, and I hear him lock it. He keeps the key in his pocket. I breathe out a big, long sigh and let a few more tears fall. Happy tears, though. It’s over now. I lick my finger because it still shines from the oily cookie and I hum when the sugar hits my tongue. Crawling over to the loose wooden floorboard, I pull out my book. I could read it when I was six, so it’s meant for children younger than I am, but it’s the only one I’ve been able to sneak in. It’s about a dirty, white kitten that no one wants. He lives in a beautiful candy shop. All of his siblings get adopted, but not him. One day, a sad girl enters the shop and the candy man gives the dirty, white kitten to her. It cheers her up. You know what happens when she takes the kitten home? Her mama accidently dyes his hair blue! It washes out, of course, but that kitten is the talk of the town. The girl isn’t sad anymore, and the white kitten looks beautiful.

  Ever since I read the story, I’ve wanted my very own white kitten. A kitten no one loves. I would love that kitten more than any kitten on the planet. The edges of the book are folded and the pages are turning brown from being in here. I try to smooth the bends down and place it back in its hiding spot. Greg would be angry if he knew it was in here. He says I don’t deserve anything. I guess I am a bad girl.

  This is the part I hate the most. I don’t have anyone to talk to. All my toys are inside.

  There’s a tiny window in the corner of my playhouse. I slide a wooden apple crate over and stand on my tiptoes to see outside. I watch and watch. There’s an oversized gardenia bush that covers half of the rectangular window. If I press my nose close to the glass I can almost smell the sweet flowers. Sometimes I’ll pretend I’m a florist and my specialty is gardenias. I spread them around the wooden playhouse and the scent fills the air. My bathroom doesn’t smell bad when I play that game.

  I’m not scared when the sun goes down. I know what to expect. He never comes back at nighttime. He’ll fall asleep in the living room, on his reclining chair, a cigarette
in between his fingers and a brown bottle between his legs. He won’t come back until morning, and Mama will be happy then. Her Big Gulp cup will still be in the dishwasher. No fills yet.

  I smile at the white flowers scraping against my window as the world darkens. The back of my dress isn’t too dirty. I scrub some of the black off of my dress using spit. I’m clean. The lines and swirls in the natural wood change now. They turn into different characters. I can stay up as late as I want, talking to them. I lie right in the center of the floor, folding the dark gray sheet in half twice so it’s thick enough to keep me warm. I like to wait for the world to turn black and white before finally closing my eyes.

  Black and white is safe.

  Chapter Two

  Smith

  “BABY GIRL, I TOLD you I had training this weekend. It’s not a surprise. We wrote it on the calendar together. Remember that?” I grab Megan’s soft hand in mine. Her nails are always manicured perfectly. White tips and this soft pink base on the bottom. She doesn’t call it a French manicure, though. She calls it a classy, natural mani, because trashy women get French nails. Everything about Megan is sophisticated. She’s a southern stunner—Miss Georgia back in her day, and as sweet as a juicy, ripe peach. Her drawl is equal parts sexy and charming. She’s a catch by any man’s standards. I don’t care who you are.

  Her blue eyes turn down in the corner as she brushes wayward hair off my forehead. “I’m not sure you’re ready for trips and real life stuff yet, sugar,” she says. I take her other hand in mine. She clutches me tightly, and I see her bottom lip tremble. “You’re not ready yet. They should give you more time.”

  I’ve had almost two years off. Slowly but surely, I’ve worked my way back into the teams. Proving my worth was more difficult than Hell Week and initial training combined. After my accident I lost everything to a hospital bed. Lying there for days and months on end while my body caught up to my mind. The blast that killed one of my comrades spared my life. I lived when someone else did not, and I plan to make sure the second life I was granted makes a difference. “I am a Navy SEAL, Megs. This is my job. You knew I would eventually go back to it. I’m recovered fully.” I flex my bicep and flash her a grin.

  Leaning over, she kisses the muscle I’m showing her. “It feels rushed,” she replies.

  Taking her chin in my hand, I bring her gaze to mine. Her perfection never ceases to amaze me. She doesn’t have pores on her skin or a mean bone in her body. I’m still not sure how I got this lucky. I’ll never be sure, honestly. “Nothing is going to happen to me, Megs. God isn’t going to punish me twice. I think I have a better chance of being struck by lightning or winning the lottery than dying on a training trip.”

  A tear rolls down her face, cutting a path through her powdered makeup. “I lost you once, Smith.” She did. So completely and utterly that it should be labeled as death. Sometimes in my dreams I write my own eulogy and say goodbye to the man I was before the mortar careened into my sleeping quarters on a base in Iraq.

  I fold my arms around her tiny frame and pull her into me as she cries. I pretend less and less every single day. I love Megan. She is my fiancée. I’ve loved her my entire adult life. I cheered her on when she won Miss Georgia. I held her hand as we walked into a candlelit bed and breakfast to make love. I took her virginity, and she stole my entire heart. Megan is the woman who spreads a blanket on the hood of her car and stargazes, picking out the constellations with one pretty tipped finger. I lie next to her, and we drink sweet wine out of red Dixie cups. I danced with Megan at our senior prom. I kissed her for the first time at the fifty-yard line on the high school football field. She wore a red cheerleading uniform. I was sweaty and victorious after the football game. Megan and Smith are a real-life fairy tale. Or so she’s told me.

  She wears strawberry body spray. She’s always worn it, but I don’t like the scent. It reminds me of children. I’d never tell her that. I suck in a breath by her ear. “Calm it down, baby. I’ll be gone a week. Then when I get back you’ll see I’m perfectly okay. I’ll always come back to you. You’re my Ophiuchus.” A rare constellation.

  Megan smiles and presses her glossed lips against mine. Pulling away, she says, “Your mama agrees with me. She thinks you need more time.”

  I loathe and love that she’s so close to my family.

  I clear my throat. “More time to do what? Wish I were the man I was before? I’m healed. I want to get back to my life. I’m ready. I am. I’ve never been more ready.” My scars remain. They mar 60 percent of my face. I have one good eye and one good ear. My hair is still patchy on one side of my head, but it’s coming in fuller every day since Megan took me to a doctor that specializes in hair implants. My arms shouldered most of the damage. The scars ripple up and down both; some of the lines are smooth, others are jagged, sinking deep into my biceps and forearms.

  My hands have had the most work to ensure they work just as well as they did before. They’ll never look the same. I used to have nice fingers. Straight, tan, with square fingernails. You overlook so many things when you’re perfect. I don’t mean perfect in the literal sense. I mean perfect as in whole. Oddly enough my feet weren’t damaged, and looking at them now, I realize how wonderfully made they are. It’s true what they say, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. “This is my life,” I say. Sometimes she forgets I don’t need to be doted on or taken care of anymore.

  She closes down when she sees she’s upsetting me. Drying her tears with her fingertips, she then folds her hands in her lap. “Sometimes I don’t understand why you want to do this. Again. What happens when we have a family, Smith? I’ll have to worry about you and the kids constantly. Do you want that for me? Is that fair?” It’s not fair at all. This is the first time she’s brought it up.

  “You knew this would be the outcome. Being a SEAL is important to me—the only thing I’ve wanted to do my entire life.” I’m sure of this. It’s a sentiment that rings true deep inside my bones. Smith Eppington was born to be a Navy SEAL. The rest of his life falls around it. “This career is what makes me happy.”

  “Are you sure? It’s also what kills you,” Megan sneers. Folding her arms across her chest, she looks to the side. I study her profile. I do it a lot to try to see the things I should know by heart. Her nose is small. It curves up the slightest bit at the tip. I think this is the reason she resonates as cute instead of stunningly beautiful. Her black lashes are long, and she has this perfect chin that pushes out when she’s upset or when she laughs. Right now she’s crying. I can tell she does this when she wants my attention. It comes easy to her. Most things come easy to her.

  Sighing, I stand up and stretch my arms over my head. “Let’s not argue anymore. It’s a week of skydiving. Just a ho-hum trip to Arizona. You have nothing to worry about. Did you still want to go see the movie?” It would be just like her to make us late to something that was initially her idea.

  She stands in one fluid movement, the fruity scent wafting in my face. “You just don’t get it, Smith. You don’t. I’ll get my purse. Go start the truck.”

  I take her orders. Sitting in the driver’s seat with my red hands on the steering wheel, I wait for her. She appears, jaunting down the front steps of our house, a smile on her face. She’s forgiven me. The way she always does. This is why I love Megan. Not because of the million other reasons I’m supposed to.

  She bubbles on about her plans with her friend as we make our way to the theater. I nod at the appropriate times. She grabs my hand and sets in on her thigh. I like doing that, she says. Sometimes, but not often, I wonder if she’s trying to turn me into the man she wants me to be, not the man I was. I usually shut down that line of thought because Megan is not vindictive. She’s not capable of it. Still, it doesn’t stop my mind from wandering.

  Balancing the man I am and the man I was is an everyday battle and Megan is the only one who can guide me in the right direction. The only thing I know how to be without her is a Navy SEAL and I’m sure
that’s the reason she’s fearful of me returning to work. I squeeze her thigh. She laughs. The sound forces my mouth to curve up.

  The theater is dark and busy. The smell of popcorn makes my mouth water. Megan buys the tickets, and I stand in line for the buttery goodness. People bump into me, and teenagers gawk at my face. I’m not self-conscious anymore. Not since I started working out and found my muscles again. Let people stare. This is me. I’m a survivor.

  “I knew it would be busy for the new Marvel movie, but this is insane,” she whispers as we make our way to a pair of empty seats high up in the theater. The screen is playing some advertisement about not drinking and driving. We sit down next to another couple. Megan apologizes for bumping into someone’s knees, and I sit down, taking up more space with my mass than is probably okay. Once we’re settled I hand her the popcorn.

  After a few bites she leans over and asks for a napkin. “I’ll be right back, baby,” I say. She squeaks an annoyed noise and makes a show of her buttery fingers by placing them right in my face. Maneuvering as carefully as I can with my girth, I work my way out of the full aisle and down to the side exit.

  I’m rounding the corner, hurrying because the previews just started, when I run directly into a woman. Her oversized purse hits the floor and the contents spill, rolling everywhere by our feet.

  “I am so sorry, ma’am,” I say, immediately stooping down to help her. I grab a bright neon pink pen and hand it to her. The woman mutters under her breath. Her shoulders are shaking and she seems visibly upset. She makes a reach to grab the pen from me, but I see the moment she sees my scarred hand. Even in the dimly lit hallway it’s obvious I’m not normal.

  She pauses, her unpainted nails hovering inches from her writing device, and then flicks her eyes to my face. “Thank you,” she says, her voice whisper soft, yet clear. “I’m so clumsy.” After she studies my face for a couple seconds, she swallows and quickly looks away.