Airman to the Rescue

by Heatherly Bell

  “Do you have your plane ticket yet?”

  “Well, no. But I was waiting until I’m six weeks out. That’s when you get the best prices.”

  “By my calculations you should buy your ticket any day now.”

  Dammit, she was right. It was time. “All right. I’ll do that. Talk later.”

  Sarah hung up and the glass door to the parlor dinged behind her. Matt stood just outside the entrance, hands shoved in his pockets, that ready-for-anything grin on his face.

  “We all set?”

  “Yep,” she said, moving toward his truck.

  Sandy beaches. Mountains. Wine. Her brother. Emily. Cassie. Her father’s house.

  But if she were being honest, there was only one reason why she’d find a way to stay. He was a little over six feet tall, made love to her as if he’d like to make a career out of it and kicked her heart into overdrive every time he smiled.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  HUNTER HAD HIS phone back and life was almost back to normal.

  That was the good news. The bad news was that he still couldn’t use his phone to go online. Couldn’t play “Call of Duty” or “Halo” online, tweet or Instagram. And in a bizarre twist of fate, it wasn’t because of Joanne this time.

  He’d spent the past week with Megan, meeting at The Drip for a few hours every day, walking to the nearby park where they each challenged themselves to all of the exercises listed on the exercise station, and then ran three laps around the empty baseball diamond. Because she wasn’t giving up on this “go dark” challenge, he couldn’t give it up, either.

  He didn’t lose to anyone, much less someone he wanted to impress.

  Plus, he still didn’t have any idea why she’d voluntarily taken this “go dark” challenge. And his curiosity was getting the best of him. He’d been digging all week and had come up with nothing. At first, Hunter thought maybe Megan had been cyberbullied. But he’d asked her and she’d denied it, unless she was lying. Then he’d asked his friends, lied to them and said he was still grounded, and wanted to know if anyone had been bullying Megan.

  Nothing. No one was teasing or bullying her, or if they were none of his friends knew about it.

  He was into the second week of this challenge—he was for sure counting the days it hadn’t been his choice—when Megan suggested they ride bikes to Lake Anderson in town.

  There were bicycle trails that led to one end of the lake, and Hunter led the way. He’d grown up here and knew the area well. Lake Anderson was a man-made lake connected to one of the largest dams in the country. He had friends with parents who had houses on the dock, and boats. Boats they couldn’t use anymore since the lake had been closed off to boating because of the drought.

  After a few miles, he walked his bicycle to the side of the lake shoreline and laid it down. Megan followed and did the same. For a while Hunter just stood there staring at the water. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d even been here. Probably with Matt a few years ago. Joanne wasn’t much into lakes.

  “I have to go back to my father’s house this weekend,” Hunter said.

  “Are you giving up?”

  When she smiled like that at him, her long blond hair all shiny and her face all pretty, he wanted to give up the stupid challenge if it would make her happy to win.

  Almost. “Why would I do that? So you can win?”

  She laughed. “So what’s your dad like? Why do you live with your mom? Did you get to choose?”

  Whoa. So many questions all hitting him at once. Megan had probably never asked him that many. And anyway, she sort of knew about Matt. It was a small enough community that people all around here had heard about Matt. He was kind of one of their “native sons” and everyone acted like he was some sort of hero.

  “I didn’t get to choose.” Maybe she’d stop at one question.

  “Do you like living with your mom?”

  No such luck. “It’s okay.”

  “Would it be better to live with your dad?”

  “It would be better to be on my own.”

  “You don’t mean that. Who would cook you dinner?”

  “I know how to cook my own dinner, genius. Don’t you?”

  She shrugged. “My mom likes to cook dinner every night.”

  “That sounds bomb.”

  “Yeah. She’s a good little wifey.”

  Somehow Megan made that sound like a bad thing, the way she said it between her teeth.

  “I don’t really care. When I’m a Marine I’ll have to live off bugs and stuff.”

  “Ew.” She threw a rock in the lake. “Why would you want to eat bugs?”

  “I figure I’m ahead of the game if I can learn to live on that.”

  “Don’t they give you those MREs to eat?” Her nose wrinkled like she smelled something gross.

  “Sure, but what if I run out on a mission? Then I’m ahead of the game. I can eat bugs. And bugs are everywhere.”

  “You think of everything.” Megan laughed a real nice belly laugh, like she thought Hunter was super funny. So he laughed, too.

  “You’re really cute, you know that?” Megan said.

  “Yeah?” It’s the first time a girl had ever come right out and said that to him.

  At school, some girls followed him around and when he’d turn to say something, they’d run and hide in the girl’s restroom. He didn’t get it. Was he good-looking or not?

  “You’re better-looking than Justin Bieber, even.”

  Oh crap, he was going to throw up. All the girls loved the shit out of that dude. It was supposed to be a compliment, and maybe if he’d wanted to be a model it would have been. He sure hoped he looked tougher than the Biebs.

  “Yeah. Thanks.” What else could he say?

  “Why don’t you ever talk to me at school?”

  “What?”

  “When you see me at school, you never talk to me.”

  “I hardly ever see you.”

  “I’m always with Julie. She used to follow you around until you turn and then she run into the closest classroom or bathroom. She’d pull me in with her.”

  “Why did she do that, anyway?”

  “Duh. She had a humongous crush on you. But now she’s dating Sam.”

  “I didn’t know.” Because, hello? He wasn’t a freaking mind reader. Though he was beginning to wish he was, at least when it came to girls.

  “Do you like her?”

  “Not really.” He shrugged. Julie was all right, he guessed, but he was beginning to like Megan. A lot. He didn’t know why exactly, except that she was hella pretty and she talked to him. Most girls just stared at him, giggled and made him feel like a total weirdo.

  “We better get back,” Megan said, and picked up her bike.

  They started the ride back to town but ten minutes into it Megan’s tire blew. Hunter could have fixed it if he’d had a patch kit because Matt had taught him how one summer and he still remembered. But without a patch kit, he didn’t know what to do.

  “You can ride on my handlebars,” he offered.

  “No way. Call your mom for a ride back.”

  “She’s at work.”

  “I don’t want to call my mom. She’s too busy.”

  “I thought she didn’t work.”

  “She doesn’t, but believe me, she’s busy.”

  Hunter figured he was dealing with a language barrier again, also known as “girl speak,” so he thought of the one person he knew who would come and not ask either one of them many questions.

  Sarah picked up after the second ring. As Hunter expected, she agreed to come and pick him and Megan up and didn’t ask him anything beyond where to find them. Not that he had anything to hide, but he didn’t want any dumb questions lat
er like whether Megan was his girlfriend and whether they’d thought about protection. Joanne was always jumping to conclusions that way, if she even so much as saw him standing within a foot of a girl.

  He hung up. “Okay, so my dad’s girlfriend is picking us up.”

  “Your dad has a girlfriend?”

  “I’m not supposed to know that, so don’t say anything when she comes. They don’t want me to know they’re banging.”

  “Parents are so stupid.”

  “Word.”

  “How did you find out about them?”

  “I just know from hanging out with them last week when I was grounded from my life. I heard them talking, too, one night, and my dad sounds all soft and shit when he talks to her. It’s not like he usually sounds.”

  “I hope you didn’t hear any other sounds.” Megan made a face.

  “Nah, but I always turn the music way up in my earbuds at night just to be on the safe side.” He’d freaking die if he heard Matt and Sarah moaning. Just tear out his eardrums and feed them to her dog.

  “Smart.”

  “Anyway, Sarah’s cool. You’ll like her.”

  He liked Sarah, just not as much as he liked Megan.

  Not even close.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  ON SUNDAY, MATT, Hunter and Sarah were invited to the Parker family ranch for a big outdoor barbecue. It was Father’s Day, and Matt had never been much for the Hallmark holiday. And not only because for many years he’d been away for the celebration. Matt’s father always said Father’s Day was his day, and therefore a day he should be left alone to his own devices. Matt, who hadn’t always been stateside anyway, usually humored him after a quick phone call to check in, even if he realized that his Father’s Day probably meant a full day of TV sports interspersed with Oreo-cookie shoveling.

  Emily and her family owned Fortune Valley Ranch. It was no longer a working ranch, its glory days forever ended when a freeway and eminent domain took much of their sprawling acres of land. Mr. Parker, CEO of Parker, Inc. and cattle rancher, had regrouped and taken the money to buy a working cattle ranch in Texas. Jean Parker, his mother and the family matriarch, an ever-resourceful spitfire of a woman, had made lemonade from lemons. With Emily’s help, the family had created a place to hold town events, company parties, weddings and huge receptions. They had twenty acres of land left and put each one to good use. The family home, a sprawling Victorian, sat at the top of the hill. A red barn had been cleaned out and become a gift shop selling local arts and crafts. They still maintained a small petting zoo.

  Matt drove his truck up to the main Victorian house sitting on the hill. He’d been here a couple of times in the recent past with Stone and knew that Sarah had, too.

  “This is where we had our Sadie Hawkins Dance,” Hunter said from the back passenger seat.

  “How was it?” Sarah asked.

  “So stupid. The girl who asked me bought us matching T-shirts that were pink. I had to wear it the rest of the night. Sucked.”

  Matt snorted. “Real men wear pink.”

  Sarah smiled and squeezed his hand.

  The Parkers had several tables set up outside under a large canopied area. A little red-headed girl ran from table to table squealing with laughter. That would be Sierra, Emily’s two-year-old niece and her sister Molly and Dylan’s daughter. Dylan was helping Mr. Parker to man the grill while Molly chased her little girl around.

  “Hey, you guys!” Emily met them at the crest of the hill. “Thanks for coming. Happy Father’s Day, Matt.”

  Hugs followed because that was how Emily rolled. Matt introduced Hunter, and Emily even hugged him. “So great that you get to spend the day with your dad!”

  “Yeah,” Hunter said, shuffling his feet and looking at the ground. “I’ve been here before.”

  “Sadie Hawkins Dance, right?” Emily winked. “Have a seat, guys. We’re almost ready to eat.”

  Matt found a place for him and Sarah at a table with Stone and Emily, but Hunter joined Molly and Dylan at their table. Their little girl, Sierra, appeared fascinated with Hunter. She wouldn’t let him out of her sight, following him wherever he went. Eventually she tugged Hunter to the petting zoo nearby. Mr. Parker was talking cattle with his mother and her new boyfriend and old family friend, George Carver.

  A versatile man, to be sure.

  Toward the end of dinner, Emily crawled into Stone’s lap. “Baby, we’ll be married soon. When are you going to let me fly the Bonanza?”

  Matt smirked. Stone wouldn’t let anyone fly the Bonanza. It was his “pet” plane. The man was protective about his planes, and Matt could completely relate.

  “We’ll talk about it,” Stone said.

  “We sure will,” Emily said with the smile of a woman who realized she had a man over a barrel.

  “Great party, Em.” Matt understood that second to Stone, this ranch was her heart.

  Emily grinned. “Thanks. I love doing it. And the next family party I want to have here is a going-away one for you, Sarah.”

  Sarah cleared her throat. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “I want to. Summers are busy here, but we can always fit family in. When are you leaving, anyway?”

  Matt assumed Emily thought the question was an innocent one. She didn’t realize that the question was loaded with meaning for him. He’d been wondering the same thing. Wondering if he had the right to ask. Wondering if he even wanted to know.

  She squirmed visibly in her seat. “I’ve been waiting for fares to get lower before I buy my ticket.”

  “Wait,” Stone interrupted. “Why would you fly commercial? We can get you there.”

  Matt had been wondering the same thing. He’d fly her himself if she insisted on leaving. Colorado would mean taking the Beechcraft, a bigger plane with more hours of fuel reserves. Emily regularly flew her father in that plane back and forth from Texas.

  “I’m not sure I can afford that. I know chartered flights are more expensive.” Sarah fiddled with her glass of iced tea.

  “Are you kidding me?” Matt said. “I think we can work up a cut rate for you.”

  “Extremely low,” Stone said. “Generous, even.”

  “How did I wind up here?” Sarah laughed. “In a family of pilots.”

  “You’ll never fly commercial again,” Matt said.

  “Are you kidding me? No more waiting in the TSA lines taking off my shoes and occasionally getting a loving pat-down?” Sarah said.

  Matt squeezed her hand under the table. “You’re in the big leagues now.”

  “So when are you leaving?” Stone asked.

  “Does next month work?” Sarah said.

  “I’ll check our schedule but I’m sure it won’t be a problem,” Stone said.

  “You’ll be back for the wedding, right?” Emily climbed off Stone’s lap and went around pouring more tea in everyone’s glasses.

  “Of course I will.”

  “And would you go wedding dress hunting with me tomorrow? I want reinforcements for when Molly tries to get me to buy the sexy bride dress,” Emily said, as she poured more tea in Matt’s glass.

  Matt wondered if Sarah realized that Joanne owned the only bridal shop in town. “Where are you going?”

  “Joanne’s, of course. Mostly because she’ll have the fewest amount of erotic bride dresses. If any.”

  “I don’t know what that is, but it sounds good.” Stone grinned at his fiancée.

  “Sure, I’ll go. We can’t have you dressed like a porno star on your wedding day,” Sarah said, holding her glass out to accept more tea.

  “Will someone please explain to me why that’s a bad thing?” Stone asked as Emily ruffled his hair.

  Then she leaned in and kissed him. When the kiss went on and on
and stretched into next week, then Stone pulled her back into his lap, Matt looked away. He envied what those two had a little more each day. It would be nice to have that kind of trust with a woman, to know that they’d have each other’s back.

  After what he’d been through with Joanne, trust had taken a serious hit.

  She’d once told him that he’d always be a part of Hunter’s life, marriage or not. Military service or not. They’d work it out. But that’s not exactly how it had wound up. There had been many times when he’d been stateside unexpectedly. When he’d tried to make arrangements to see Hunter, Joanne would check to make sure it fit into the carefully planned, intricately arranged schedule she had for their son. No one messed with “the schedule.” His visits had to be booked and planned accordingly, and even though he’d once tried to explain that the United States Air Force did not operate on Hunter’s nap schedule, she wouldn’t listen to reason.

  Of the five times he’d been able to secure a Christmas-time leave, he’d only been able to see Hunter twice. The other times Joanne had plans with friends and family and they didn’t include Matt.

  Maybe it was time to trust someone again.

  His gaze collided with Sarah’s, who was also looking away from the display. She chewed on her lower lip, then licked it. He felt a grin tug at his lips.

  Oh yeah. Do that again. I dare you.

  What would everyone here do if Matt leaned over and kissed Sarah long and deep and hard like he wanted to right now? Stone might have given him the consenting-adults line, but it didn’t mean he wanted to see any groping or fondling. Matt respected that. But maybe then Stone ought to stop with the PG-13 rated scenes because the slow torture was getting to Matt.

  It was true that he had never been much into defining relationships or using labels. Then again, he’d never slept with a buddy’s sister. Not that they’d done much sleeping. He didn’t know how or when it had happened but he’d grown accustomed to having her in his bed every night. A tenderness washed over him every time she nestled her face into his neck and whispered good-night. There hadn’t been many good nights with women in his life. Mostly a whole lot of goodbyes. And in another month, he’d have to say goodbye to Sarah too, whether it was at an airport tarmac in Colorado or one in Fortune.