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there? Mike waited with his laptop sitting on his bed table, holding his breath occasionally and running his hands through his hair. He needed a haircut. He needed a break. He needed a friend. He needed to get laid.
    Mike scoffed. Like that was going to happen. The only woman he was interested in was the mother of his child, and there was very little chance of a romance there. If she was even still single, she’d probably never have anything to do with him again. Mike was resigned to forming a friendship with her for Madelynn. His daughter. It felt good to acknowledge that he had a daughter. Better than that, it felt good to know he was going to meet her and possibly make up for the mistakes in his past.
    Mike couldn’t really count the entire time with Tara as a mistake since Madelynn was the result. But he’d been unimaginably cruel to a woman he’d been head-over-heels in love with. And for what? To impress a bunch of guys he thought were his friends. He’d been new to the SEALs then, and hadn’t chosen his friends as wisely as he should have. Tara hadn’t been conventionally attractive to the degenerates he partied with, and he’d been ashamed that his girlfriend wasn’t model-thin, model-pretty. Tara was a real woman, with curves and spunk and attitude. He smiled at the memory. Even at what was probably the worst moment in her life, she took no crap from anyone. Even him.
    Mike hadn’t seen her since the night she’d told him about the baby. The closest he’d come was the night he stood outside the hospital, trying to work up the balls to go inside. Mike had realized deep down, but hadn’t admitted until recently, that walking away from Tara was the dumbest thing he’d ever done, hands down. And beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was the hardest.
    Not long after that, Lieutenant Paulson had helped Mike realign his focus, and Mike had put the whole issue behind him. But he’d never forgotten. Shame and regret had eaten away at him, and he’d convinced himself that they were better off without him. And maybe they were. But he still had a responsibility to Madelynn and Tara—and he was finally going to own up to it.
    That was why he sat in front of a computer, logged on and ready to webcam with no one on the other end. It was why he’d given her most of the money he had in savings and was going to give her damn near every dime of his disability check every month. He’d screwed up. Big time. Mike didn’t blame her for not wanting to give him the time of day. But he at least had to try. He’d checked the package tracking online today, and he knew the laptop had been delivered. He would sit and wait as long as he had to.
    A pop-up box suddenly appeared, alerting him that he had a request for a video chat from a Marshmallow101. His heart skipped a beat. Mike accepted the request and waited for someone, anyone, to show up on the screen.
    After what seemed like an eternity, Tara’s face appeared on his monitor. Mike’s heart stuttered in his chest before resuming a somewhat faster than normal rhythm. Dear God, she was just as gorgeous as he remembered. More so, actually. Her adorably round face was perfected by a full lower lip and a perfectly shaped upper lip. Big brown eyes without the slightest tilt to them lent her an All-American look, and her nose turned up into a ski slope. She’d cut her light brown hair to just above shoulder length so that it framed her face. The ends were wet. She’d been in the bath. Mike was astonished to feel his body stir at the thought. He shouldn’t have been surprised since it had been more than six months since he’d touched a woman.
    Mike slipped his headset on and spoke his first words to her in over five years, the first words since the night she’d told him she was pregnant.
    “Hi, Tara. It’s good to see you.”
    She hesitated a moment and then said, “Hi, Michael. It’s been a while.”
    Mike noticed she didn’t say it was nice to see him too.
    “Where’s,