SEAL of Approval Read online

  “She already knows them, Your Honor.”

  “My decision is final.” Picking up his gavel, he tapped the wooden block and rose to his feet.

  Kristen sat transfixed to her seat. What she just heard was surreal. It didn’t quite sink in just yet. Her husband was only six months dead and now a judge was ordering her to get married within three months. How was she supposed to just move on? Her marriage had been complicated, but to the outside world, they were the perfect couple. Helen was right. Andrew had been unhappy, but not for the reason everyone thought. There were things his parents didn’t know about him. But she would make sure to protect his secrets, that’s how much she respected him. And she’d made one promise to herself: that if anything should happen to Andrew, she would give herself time to grieve and not give anyone reason to question their union for at least three years. Now, Helen was pushing her into a situation for which she wasn’t ready.

  “I can’t do this,” she mumbled.

  “You have to,” Mark replied.

  Surprised that Mark heard her, she flinched. “You don’t understand. I promised Andrew I wouldn’t for three years.”

  “Kristen, Andrew is gone and I think he would understand you are doing this to save his child.”

  Oh my God.

  Mark’s words echoed in her mind. No one understood or knew anything about her and her late husband. They knew nothing about their marriage… and it was the best for all if it stayed like this. Not only for her but for her daughter’s sake and believe it or not, for the sake of the Broderick family.

  Kristen closed her eyes, wishing her best friend Camila was there. Camila left for a job in New York two years ago and hadn’t returned. She was the only one to whom Kristen could tell her troubles. They communicated by emails at least twice per week, but it wasn’t the same as having her there. Kristen missed her terribly.

  Chapter 2

  The hearing left her drained and frazzled. Kristen pulled a bottle of mineral water from the fridge and unscrewed the cap. As she guzzled the cold liquid, she realized just how fucked up everything was.

  Hailey was seven. The child wouldn’t understand why she had to remain in the custody of her grandmother. Her daughter was going to think that her mother didn’t love her anymore. A heaviness settled in her chest from unshed tears. However, she would not give Helen the satisfaction of crying, whether on public or private.

  She’d felt her eyes burn while in the courtroom and had fought to control bursting into tears. Now that she was alone, she wanted to let it rip, but she shoved down the feeling along with the water.

  Tossing the empty bottle in the recycle bin, she kicked off her three-inch heels and picked them up. She was heading to the stairs when the doorbell rang. Dropping the shoes by the banister, she went to open the door. Standing there was Ethan with a motorcycle helmet under his arm, his large frame filling the doorway.

  Him and that darn death contraption was what immediately came to Kristen’s mind. Glancing behind him, she noted the silver Harley parked on the concrete driveway.

  “What do you want?” she asked in a sour tone.

  His full lips curled in a cocky smile, irritating her. “Is that any way to greet your long-lost brother-in-law?”

  Brushing past her, he stepped into the living room, dropping a duffel bag on the floor. Kristen’s eyes moved over him carefully, wondering what he was doing in her house. She took in the scruffy beard, the shoulder length hair, and the dark circles under his eyes. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in days.

  His dog tags hung loosely from a chain around his neck, resting in the center of his chest. Her eyes paused for a few seconds on the pendants. Beneath that were the muscled pectorals she knew existed there. His white t-shirt stretched across those muscles like a second skin and his jeans hugged his narrow waist.

  Looking away from the distraction, she inquired once more, “What are you doing here?”

  “I need a place to crash.”

  She walked to the side table near the mantle where the phone sat and picked up the yellow pages, returning to stand before him and shove the book at him.

  “What’s that for?”

  “Find a hotel,” she retorted.

  Ethan ignored her and began walking towards the kitchen. Kristen followed him and watched as he pulled the refrigerator door open.

  “I don’t have any beer if that’s what you’re looking for,” she said.

  He pulled a bottle of water and unscrewed it. He downed the liquid in one go and tossed the container in the wrong trash. Silently, she picked out the plastic bottle and placed it in the recycle bin.

  Ethan strolled back to the living room, picked up his bag and started towards the staircase.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Kristen asked, one brow raised.

  Ethan paused and turned. “I’ll be taking the guest room.”

  “No!”

  “Why not? Will you turn away family? I’m the only one on your side, like it or not.”

  Kristen knew she was going to regret this but she couldn’t help but ask, “How long?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied before moving.

  As though he remembered something, he paused on the second step up and dropped the bag before turning and coming back to stand a foot away.

  “There’s something else,” he told her, looking at her with a smirk.

  “What?” her voice came out sharp.

  “We’re getting married.”

  “Are you out of your freaking mind?”

  “You need me and I need you, so why not?”

  “I don’t need you!”

  “Right.”

  “I’ll find someone else.”

  “Who you gonna marry, your lawyer?” he queried and Kristen gave him a sharp look. “I see the way he looks at you. The guy has the hots for you.”

  “And how is that any of your damn business?”

  “Why do you hate me so? I remember a time when you would have jumped at the chance to get into the sack with me.”

  Before she knew it, her hand came up and her open palm landed flat on his cheek. They eyed each other hotly for a few seconds and she raised her hand to repeat her assault, but he grabbed her wrist before it reached his cheek. There was a silent struggle as she tried to pull away, her amber eyes ablaze with fury. Ethan yanked and she found herself slamming hard against his chest. She fought against his grip.

  “What did I do to deserve this hatred you have of me?” he asked once more.

  “If you don’t remember, then you don’t deserve to know,” she spat, wrenching her hand away.

  Sidestepping him, she picked up her shoes and headed up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door when she got there. The heat of anger and whatever other emotions she’d bottled up over the years seemed to want to devour her. Her skin burned as though she’d been baked in a furnace.

  Peeling off her clothes, she headed to the shower and stood under the water. To cool her heated temperature, she ran the water on cold for about a minute. It was late spring, but seemed more like summer. The cold shower calmed her, but her teeth soon started chattering that she had to turn on the hot water faucet.

  “What’s come over me?” she mumbled. “I’ve got to control myself.”

  *

  Ethan watched Kristen stomp up the stairs and his heart skipped a beat. She’d had that effect on him since the moment they laid eyes on each other ten years ago. The thought that she still affected him this way irritated him. However, things were different now. His brother wasn’t around to witness the tension between them or make sarcastic remarks about him lusting after his wife.

  Andrew wasn’t the saint everyone made him out to be and Ethan wondered if Kristen knew who her late husband really was. His parents were certainly ignorant of the real Andrew Broderick, so much they placed him on a pedestal that no one could reach.

  They were so blind to everything about Andrew that they hated Kristen for no apparent reason. Krist
en marrying Andrew was the best thing she could have done for him. Yet Ethan felt a deep gutted envy of that very fact.

  Now here he was. His attraction to her had turned into bitterness. Even through his resentment, Ethan wanted to protect her from his mother. He knew that his mother was trying to take Kristen’s daughter just to spite her. He also knew that Andrew would not have agreed to that.

  After she entered her bedroom and slammed the door, he picked up his duffle bag and headed up the stairs to one of the three other bedrooms. Without thinking, he chose the one facing hers. As he entered and pushed the door shut, he wondered what she was doing.

  Chapter 3

  The smell of coffee wafted through the gap under the bedroom door. Kristen’s nose twitched as she cracked open one eye. At first, she thought she was dreaming, but as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and yawned, the sweet aroma penetrated her senses. For a moment, she thought that Andrew had made the coffee. Then a small twinge of grief hit her chest. Her eyes unwittingly strayed to his side of the bed, where she refused to sleep since he’d been gone.

  It was then that she recalled she was not alone in the house. Ethan. The name alone caused her anguish. She wanted him gone from her house, from her life, but here he was suggesting they get married.

  “Get married my ass,” she sighed, pushing back the covers.

  Kristen eased herself from the bed and put on her robe, which she picked up from the armchair. Pulling it tightly around her, she knotted the string at the waist and slipped into her bed slippers. She didn’t want to face anyone, not after what her mother-in-law was trying to do. However, she needed coffee to keep her sane and one of her enemies was making it difficult to resist.

  As she left her bedroom, her thoughts strayed to Camila. Kristen had spent the evening locked in her room. She’d emailed Camila around seven and had expected a reply.

  It was strange. Usually, she would reply to her messages within fifteen minutes or less. The email remained unopened. She told herself that if her friend didn’t reply by morning she’d have to make the rare phone call. After coffee, she’d check the email messages and do what she needed to do. With that settled, she descended the stairs.

  With much reluctance to see Ethan, she entered the kitchen. He was sitting at the breakfast table with a pile of pancakes, bacon, and eggs set out in the center. His own plate was empty and she looked curiously at him.

  “Good morning,” he greeted when she ignored him and headed for the coffee.

  “Is it?” was her sarcastic reply.

  “It could be if you lose the attitude.”

  Whirling to face him, she gave him a scorching look. “Maybe it would have been a good morning if I didn’t have an intruder in my house!”

  “Like it or not, I’m not going anywhere,” he replied quite easily. “Now join me. I put a lot of effort into making breakfast.”

  “No, thank you.” She reached for a cup and poured coffee in it, then turned to go back out.

  Ethan scraped his chair back and stood, looking at her with displeasure on his face. “You are going to sit, whether you like it or not and you’re going to listen to me for once.”

  He hadn’t raised his voice but his steel-like tone made Kristen stare for a moment. “I am not one of your Navy subordinates who you can order around Mr. Broderick…” she started to say.

  “Sit!”

  Gritting her teeth, she complied, telling herself she was only doing so because she hated confrontation. Ethan sat down once more and reached for his coffee. Taking a gulp of hers, she waited for his next words.

  “About what we discussed last night,” he began.

  “Pray tell, what did we discuss?” she asked sweetly.

  With a smile, he continued, “About us getting married.”

  “I’m not marrying you,” she said.

  “And I don’t want to marry you either, but you don’t have a choice.”

  “I’ll find someone else… and no, it’s not my lawyer.”

  “Who you’re gonna find at this short notice? Some stranger you know nothing about?”

  “Everybody is a stranger until you get to know them,” she ventured.

  “At least you know me.”

  “All too well,” she replied in an undertone.

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing, but my answer is still no.” She stood. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to charge myself for the day and I like doing it alone.”

  Before he could stop her, she picked up her coffee mug and headed for the door. She passed the living room, heading down a passage. At the end of the passage was a door, which she pushed. This was her studio, a place that belonged to her alone. Andrew had given her the small room where she was free to dabble in her hobby as a painter. She was terrible at it and kept her artwork hidden, but here she felt like she belonged.

  Once inside, Kristen locked the door and plopped herself on the sofa by the window. Coffee in hand, she recalled spending many mornings like this after what she discovered about her husband. There was no other way to put it. His secret had shattered her and would have shattered his parents had they known.

  She was packed and ready to walk out when he begged her to stay. They reached a compromise in their relationship. Admittedly, sometimes she questioned her decision to stay. However, their friendship became stronger because of it and she found she could trust him.

  She saw him through the roughest period of his life and stood by him because she felt he needed her. He’d deceived her, but she knew he wasn’t to blame. It wasn’t something he could help.

  Now she was alone and about to lose her daughter. If she’d left him all those years ago, none of this would be happening. Then again, she probably wouldn’t have had her daughter. Hailey was the bright spark in all this and Kristen did not regret her decision to have her despite the circumstances.

  It was unfortunate that she could not reveal the truth to Andrew’s parents, per the promise she made to him. She just had to find a way out of this mess Helen dragged her into.

  Once she was finished with her coffee she returned to the kitchen. Ethan was not there. She refilled her coffee and eyed the food. She was hungry, having not eaten the day before. She’d missed all three meals and now her stomach was reminding her of that fact. She took two pancakes, some eggs, topped that up with a pile of bacon and drowned it in syrup.

  She was gustily digging into the breakfast when the door pushed open and Ethan entered. Apparently, he’d just taken a shower. He was dressed in a pair of shorts and an undershirt, showing off those darn bulgy biceps and pectoral muscles she hated. His hair, which had grown past his shoulders, was still damp and hanging loose. The beard was gone, revealing his strong angular jaw and full fleshy lips.

  With the entry of her brother-in-law, her appetite departed. She dropped the fork and picked up her coffee.

  “No need to leave,” he said. “I just came to get my cell phone.”

  He picked up the device from the counter and headed to the door. As he turned his back, she noticed a scar on his left shoulder. It was new and seemed almost freshly healed. Before she knew what she was thinking, she heard herself asking about it. “Where’d you get that?”

  Ethan turned. “I bought it yesterday.”

  “I’m not talking about the cell phone,” she replied.

  “Oh. It’s nothing.”

  “It can’t be nothing. It looks almost fresh.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “So now you care about me?”

  “I’ve always…” she trailed off. “No, I don’t care about you. You could get mauled by a bear for all I care!” Getting up from the table, Kristen dumped the rest of her food into the trash and set the plate into the sink. Her coffee she took with her and brushed passed him on her way out.

  What did she care anyway? He meant nothing to her. Kristen pushed Ethan to the back of her mind as she went to her room.

  Within the next hour, she’d showered, changed and was back downstairs
on the phone with her lawyer. Their conversation started the same as always him pleading with her to try and reach a resolution with her mother-in-law out of court.

  “What am I paying you for?” she asked when he suggested she meet with Helen. “Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?”

  “I’m on your side, always. But where are you going to find a husband at this short notice?”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, I am not that ugly…”

  “You are beautiful,” he said.

  She ignored him and continued. “Men find me quite attractive.”

  “I know,” he interrupted her again. “If you weren’t my client…”

  “What?”

  “It would be inappropriate…”

  Kristen heard what he said and was reminded of Ethan’s remark the day before. Was her lawyer attracted to her? Suddenly, she was tempted to marry him just to spite Ethan and Helen. But marriage was a serious matter, not something she took lightly.

  Since the death of her husband, she hadn’t even gone on a coffee date, let alone think about getting married. Until yesterday.

  Coming back to the present, she listened to the lawyer urging her to either get married quickly to convince the judge she was serious, or ask Helen to make the judge reconsider.

  “I’d rather marry a homeless man than beg Helen for anything,” Kristen said.

  “Then find someone fast, get married, and start making the marriage work. The court is going to send someone to check the home to make sure it’s a real marriage.”

  “A real marriage? How does he expect a real marriage in three months? I think he is not expecting a marriage at all. I bet Helen put him up to this and they are expecting me to lose. Well, over my dead body!”

  “Well, Kristen, you have little time. Do you want me to contact a matchmaking service for you? There are plenty of eligible bachelors out there. It’s the easiest way to find a husband.”

  That didn’t sound too bad. “Can you do that?”

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “A matchmaking service. Is that legitimate? It’s not like one of those dating sites now, is it?”