First Class Hero (First Class Novels)

  First Class Hero

  by AJ Harmon

  http://www.firstclassnovels.com

  Second eBook Edition, April 2013

  Copyright 2013 by ABCs Legacy, LLC

  All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without written permission from the author.

  Lieutenant Commander Paul Lathem has served his country proudly for eleven years as a navy Seal. He has risked life and limb to preserve freedom and has loved every minute of it, but having entered his thirties, he realizes he’s looking for more. He wants the wife and the kids and the life he sees his older brother Matt enjoying. And he is sure he wants it with Nic, but she isn’t convinced.

  Born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, Nic Stewart has had a difficult childhood, with scars burned deep in her heart. Recently fired from her job as a kindergarten teacher, Nic increases her employment search radius and ends up in Manhattan, just blocks from the Lathems…and Paul.

  Will Paul be able to soften Nic’s heart and rescue her from the demons of her childhood? Can he convince her she deserves a love story?

  First Class Hero is the fifth book in the ‘First Class’ contemporary romance series.

  More Top Rated Romance Novels by AJ Harmon:

  First Class to New York (Book 1)

  First Class to Portland (Book 2)

  First Class Justice (Book 3)

  First Class Voyage (Book 4)

  First Class Menu (Book 6) Coming in Summer 2013

  What readers are saying about the ‘First Class’ novels:

  “I think the First Class Novels would make fantastic films.” Victoria, Facebook Fan Page

  “I’m loving this journey with the Lathem family. I like the fact that whilst you get a glimpse at all of the family members and are given a bit of the background for each character, A J Harmon has not forgotten the two main characters who started the series, Matt (who I fell in love with-move over Christian Grey!!) and Janie and we see more of how there lives have changed as well!!” cj on Amazon UK

  “Absolutely love this series, can't wait for the next one.” SaraLou on Amazon UK

  “Have read all 4 of the books and will defiantly read all 8 cannot wait for the next one, have really enjoyed following the lives of the Latham clan.” C Crook on Amazon UK

  “I so enjoyed this author and this series. I highly recommend buying all four as you will be looking for the next one so after finishing the previous one I can't wait for the next series!” Kerry on Amazon

  Dedication

  I have always held a deep respect for those selfless men and women who serve in the military to defend the freedoms many of us take for granted. I had to stop watching the news for a while because it broke my heart to hear of more soldiers dying in the Middle East.

  Corby, my soon-to-be son-in-law, serves in the U.S. Navy and I am incredibly grateful to him for his willingness to sacrifice his life if necessary to defend his country. What a brave and admirable young man he is! I think that when I wrote Paul for the first time I made him a Navy Seal because not only do we think of the Seals as strong and hunky, they also represent everything that is good about men in general. And while Corby isn’t a Seal, he represents everything that is good; courageous, selfless, strong, and intelligent – a real-life hero.

  This book is dedicated to all the men and women who put their lives in danger protecting me and you. And this book is dedicated to Corby, a hero in my eyes.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter:

  1.

  2.

  3.

  4.

  5.

  6.

  7.

  8.

  9.

  10.

  11.

  12.

  13.

  14.

  15.

  16.

  17.

  18.

  19.

  20.

  21.

  About the Author

  1.

  With his duffle bag slung over his shoulder, Paul Lathem exited the Norfolk, Virginia airport and searched through the maze of cars for his ride. Ed was always punctual so he was sure to be there and Paul didn’t want to keep him waiting.

  After several seconds of scanning the crowd, Paul spotted him about twenty-five yards down. Their eyes locked and Ed nodded. It had been a couple of years since Paul had seen his former Seal Commander, but the buzz cut and big grin were difficult to miss. He jogged to the Volvo station wagon and dropped his bag at the curb as Ed threw his arms around him.

  “So good to see you, Paul. I’m really glad you called.”

  “Me too,” Paul smiled. “I feel better already.”

  “Something wrong?” Ed’s demeanor immediately changed and concern was written all over his face.

  “No,” Paul shook his head. “I’ve just missed you.”

  “Aw, shucks,” Ed teased. “I’ve missed you too!”

  Paul grabbed his bag and threw it in the back seat of Ed’s car.

  “Um, got enough car seats back here?” Paul asked.

  Ed chuckled. “Three is plenty.” He started the car and maneuvered through the traffic to get out of the airport.

  “I’ve got a reservation at the Marriott,” Paul said.

  “Nonsense!” Ed blurted. “You’ll stay with us. Mariah wouldn’t have it any other way. And neither would I.”

  *****

  Mariah Branson sat in the backyard watching her two oldest children play; Ava was four and Chloe two. They laughed and ran as they blew bubbles. When they saw their dad walk through the sliding glass door, they screamed “Daddy” and ran to him. Ed scooped them up into his arms and kissed them both as they eagerly asked him to come and push them on the swing. He stepped onto the lawn to fulfill their request.

  Mariah stood and took two steps to Paul and hugged him tightly. “It’s so good to see you,” she smiled. “It’s been far too long.”

  Paul kissed her cheek. His decision to come to Virginia was confirmed as he sat on the deck and watched Ed play with his girls.

  “Let me grab you a beer,” she said and stepped inside the house.

  Paul leaned back in the chair and took a deep breath. How does he do it? he wondered. Ed had been his superior and his Commanding Officer for four years. Paul learned almost everything he knew about being a Navy Seal from him. He’d put his life in Ed’s hands on many occasions and had never regretted the decision. Ed had been his boss, his mentor, and his friend. Ed was a Seal, and he was a husband and father and Paul needed to understand how he was able to do it all without one getting short-changed.

  Mariah returned with two bottles and handed one to Paul, the other she sat on the table.

  “I’ve made up the baby’s room for you. Alex still sleeps in our room, so it works out perfectly.”

  “I don’t want you to go to any trouble, Mariah. I can easily stay in a hotel,” Paul said.

  “Nonsense!” she scoffed. “You’ll stay here. I won’t hear anymore.”

  Paul chuckled. “That’s exactly what Ed said.”

  Mariah grinned. “Sometimes he’s a smart man.”

  “Me?” asked Ed, as he lifted the bottle from the table and kissed Mariah’s cheek. “Thanks, hon.” He popped the top and took a gulp.

  “Yes, you,” Mariah laughed. “But only sometimes.” She stood and turned to go back into the house. “Dinner’s in twenty.”

  *****

  Nic stood in front of the bar and waited for her table’s drink order. It was Thursday and it wouldn’t get very busy tonight. Not much in tips again, she thought as she watched Brian, the bartender, fill the glasses. It had been almost a year since sh
e’d been laid off from her job. Being a kindergarten teacher was her dream and she’d had it pulled out from under her last June. At the end of the school year she’d been called into the principal’s office and told that due to budget cuts she would no longer be employed. Jenny, her boss, had said it wasn’t personal, but Nic knew better…or at least assumed. Jenny was a spiteful, petty woman who had come to River Grove Elementary two years after Nic had started working there. None of the faculty knew how she’d gotten the job as principal, let alone kept it. It seemed to Nic that all she ever did was whine to her small group of friends about the teachers she didn’t like, and Nic, for whatever reason, was at the top of the list. Nic had been the last kindergarten teacher hired so Jenny said she would be the first to be laid off. Two days later, Jenny had hired a new P.E. teacher. Nic got the message loud and clear.

  The long summer had been spent applying for jobs in Virginia. When nothing panned out, she expanded the search to the Carolinas, Maryland and Pennsylvania. She had gotten an interview in Baltimore but didn’t get the job so her friend April had introduced her to the owner of ‘Hank’s Bar & Grill’ and he hired her on the spot. While grateful for a job, her college degree would be put to better use in an elementary school. Yet here she was eight months later still serving drinks to men she would cross the street to avoid if given a choice. She didn’t like Navy men and the bar was always full of them.

  *****

  Ed and Mariah were already up and in the kitchen when Paul crept downstairs.

  “Did we wake you? Sorry,” Mariah frowned.

  “Nope, not at all. You guys are up early though,” Paul replied.

  “I’m a Navy wife with three kids…I don’t sleep much,” she chuckled.

  Ed sat at the breakfast bar and sipped on his coffee. He was in running shorts but his feet were bare.

  “Just got back or just about to go?” asked Paul.

  “Leaving in five.”

  “May I join you?”

  “Absolutely,” nodded Ed.

  Paul ran back up to his room and grabbed his sports watch. As he re-entered the kitchen Ed was tying his laces and was ready to leave. He kissed his wife on the cheek and slapped Paul on the back. “Let’s go.”

  The spring morning air was crisp and the sun was shining. It was going to be a beautiful day. Paul had run track in high school, and as far back as he could remember he’d started his day with a run. Being a Seal he needed to keep his body in prime condition; he lifted weights, swam, and used kettle bells, but running also helped to keep his mind clear.

  “You up for eight miles?” Ed asked.

  “For sure,” Paul smiled. Eight miles was easy.

  The men stretched in the driveway for a couple of minutes and then walked to the street.

  “Lead the way,” Paul said.

  They started slowly, giving their bodies an opportunity to warm up and get the blood pumping. At this pace, conversation was still possible.

  “So, I’m curious what brings you here,” Ed began. “When is your leave up? When do you head back to Coronado?”

  Paul had been based in Coronado, California, for the past twenty months. He was the Operations Officer with Seal Team Seven.

  “I have just over a week.”

  “So what’s on your mind?” Ed asked.

  Paul looked at his friend.

  “I can see it,” Ed chuckled. “You forget I know you like I know myself.”

  Paul grinned. Ed was right. They were like brothers and Ed could read him just like his older brothers Matt and Mark. There was no way to try to hide anything from any of them.

  “I’m almost thirty-three. I think I want more.”

  “So have more,” Ed replied matter-of-factly.

  “It’s not that easy,” frowned Paul.

  “Why?”

  “I can’t leave a wife behind and not tell her where I’m going, what I’m doing or when I’ll be home. It’s not fair.”

  “It’s better than her knowing. Believe me.”

  “So what do you tell Mariah?”

  “It’s different now. She knows what base I’m going to and when I’m coming home. I lead the missions but I don’t leave the base. She knows I’m no longer directly in harm’s way. She handles it very well.”

  “And before?” Paul asked.

  Ed paused. “Yeah. Before it was much harder. It’s why I became an Instructor at BUDS.”

  BUDS, Basic Underwater Demolition Seal, was in Coronado. It was where all the Seals did their training and there wasn’t anyone more qualified to teach how to be a Seal than Ed. It had been a hard decision for Ed to leave BUDS and relocate to Virginia to accept his current assignment.

  “So you did that for Mariah?”

  “For Mariah and Ava. She was still a baby but I wanted to make sure that she knew her dad. My priorities changed the second she was born.”

  “Do you regret it?”

  “Not for one second!” His reply was swift and definite. “Not one second!”

  *****

  Nic sat at the kitchen table staring at the screen of her laptop. She was in the ‘Classifieds’ section of the NY Times. Sadly, her job search was expanding to several hundred miles away now, there just wasn’t anything close to home. She printed out a couple of postings and closed her laptop a little harder than she should.

  “You mad?” Evelyn asked as she walked into the kitchen.

  Evelyn was her roommate. Nic had tried to make ends meet on her waitress salary but couldn’t do it. She could have moved out of the small house she rented, but she’d been there for five years and couldn’t bear the thought of having her home changed as well as her job. She needed some stability and continuity in her life. She had met Evelyn at work and while they would never become great friends, as roommates they did just fine.

  “There’s just no teaching jobs here. If I want to teach I’m gonna have to go somewhere else.”

  “Bummer,” Evelyn said as she left the kitchen, probably going back to bed.

  Nic sat at the table and drank her orange juice. She didn’t want to move, especially to New York, but she was a good teacher and she knew she had something to offer if she got the chance again. She needed to find a job that she loved and being a waitress just wasn’t it.

  She grabbed the job listings off the printer and read them again. One was in Harlem at a public school and one was at a private Catholic school in upper Manhattan. She had told herself that she would apply for any job on the east coast and then just see if anything was offered to her. So, she grabbed two large envelopes and began addressing them; one to Harlem and one to Manhattan.

  *****

  Maureen Lathem sat at the table in the conference room listening to Father Todd. They were discussing the faculty openings for the following school year. Maureen had been on the school board for over ten years now and even though her children no longer attended St. Luke’s she took her appointment very seriously. She had been a teacher before her sons were born and felt that she had something to contribute to the running of the school. She sat quietly and listened as Father Todd explained that with the higher numbers of kindergartners registered in the fall they would need to add an additional class. Fortunately, there were fewer students in the upper grades so the extra space needed would not be an issue.

  “The budget isn’t the issue,” Father Todd continued. “We have standards here at St. Luke’s that we will not compromise and the last time we advertised for a new teacher, we got a couple right out of college that had never taught before and the rest were not Catholic. Now before you interrupt me, I know that we do not require our teachers to be of the same faith, BUT we do require them to uphold our principles and values and respect our religious beliefs. It is of the utmost importance.”

  Maureen nodded in agreement and looked down at the packet in front of her. The current applicants were not at all acceptable.

  “I think we should hold out for another week to see if we receive any new applications and the
n, if necessary, repost the positions.”

  “I agree,” Maureen added. “We should not settle for anything but the best for our children. My granddaughter will be attending St Luke’s in a couple of years and I would not want a second-rate teacher for her. So we need to make sure we get the best.”

  The board was in agreement that they would reconvene in another week if new applications were received. As they made their way out, Father Todd stopped Maureen and thanked her for her support.

  “Of course,” she smiled. “My granddaughter Ella will have the best kindergarten teacher here. On that there is no further discussion.”

  2.

  Paul joined Ed on base. He had spent some time at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Norfolk, but it was many years ago. He enjoyed watching Ed command his team as they went through drills and training. Ed’s leadership hadn’t changed at all since Paul was on his team.

  In the midafternoon, Paul left the base and walked along the harbor. His mind had shifted from his job to the woman whom he’d met just a few weeks ago while with his family on vacation. She really hadn’t wanted much to do with him, so why his mind kept wandering to her he didn’t quite understand.

  Nic was quiet, reserved, unreadable at times, and serious. He had only seen her smile on a few occasions, but when she did, it lit up her whole face. He was attracted to her. He felt drawn to her and the feeling was obviously not mutual. He had all but asked her if he could see her again and she had ignored him. It stung a little.

  Paul knew he was attractive. He had great genes and he looked just like his brothers, and they were all good looking men. You could definitely tell they were brothers and came from their mother. All seven boys had inherited her thick dark hair and big blue eyes. Their height came from their father, Peter, although Paul was the tallest of all the boys at six foot three. He was also the biggest, but that came from years of intense training. None of the brothers would ever compete with him in a weightlifting competition; Paul would kick their asses, no question.