Besides, Matt might want to fall in love again, but he wouldn’t fall for Sarah.
Because you’re the one who told him you wouldn’t fall in love. Didn’t believe in love. Why would he hitch his wagon to your star?
“And also, we live in different states.” Sarah was reaching now for excuses.
“The different-states thing could be remedied easily enough. You already have the house here. You could move.”
“My mother...she’s a little too dependent on me. I’ve told her I’m coming back, and she’s been waiting.”
“You and Matt could try the long-distance thing. He is a pilot.”
“A relationship is complicated enough without adding in making it part of his job to come and see me.”
Emily sighed. “It sounds like you know what you want, but I hate that you’re leaving. We haven’t had much of a chance to get to know each other, and I know that Stone would like that, too.”
“So would I. But I have a life back in Fort Collins. A job and friends. I’ve dropped out of that for too long.”
“Of course. I’m sure they miss you.”
Sarah nodded. So much so that she’d only had two phone calls from her coworkers—one asking when she’d be back and the next to ask for a referral to another forensic artist. She’d bitten her tongue and given a referral to the best artist she knew, hoping she’d still have work when she got home. But the more time that passed, the less likely it became. On some level, she wondered if she were quietly burning bridges behind her so that she couldn’t ever get back to that old life.
Sure, she loved Fort Collins. Loved the handful of friends she’d collected over the years, many of whom texted every other week and kept in touch. Loved her mother. She wasn’t certain she loved the job any longer, or if she ever had. Life back home seemed set in stone whereas in Fortune it felt as though she could go in any direction. Start over. Starting over was scary, but at least here she had a start. A beginning.
“But we’ll all miss you here, too.”
“That’s nice of you to say.”
“It’s true. And I don’t only mean Matt. Stone and I will miss you. But as long as you come back for the wedding we can forgive you. And don’t worry. I’ll pick elegant bridesmaids dresses. I won’t let Molly have any say at all.”
“If you do, you’ll have an interesting wedding. And I don’t think the men would mind much, either.”
“Right. And Molly would love to see Dylan salivating over her in a sexy dress. She was too pregnant when they got married to wear anything revealing.”
“Frankly, I would even get a kick out of seeing my mother’s face. She’s always been pretty conservative.”
“I’m glad she’s coming. Stone wanted her to attend.”
“She wouldn’t miss Stone getting married and it’s good to know he wants her there.”
“You’re both lucky to have your mother, and I totally get wanting to be close to her. I’m sure I’d be the same. I don’t ever want to move away from Fortune and Granny. I’m so glad Stone decided to stay, because of course I would have gone anywhere with him.”
Sarah patted Emily’s hand instinctively. She’d lost her mother to cancer at age ten and been raised by her father and her grandmother, Jean. “What about your father?”
“What about him?”
“Wouldn’t you miss him, too?”
“Daddy?” Emily grinned. “I would now. Miss him sitting next to me on the trips back and forth to the Texas cattle ranch, asking me if I’m sure I know what I’m doing. But you know, for a long time we didn’t get along too well.”
“Why not?”
She took a sip of her coffee and set it down. “He much preferred Molly over me.”
Sarah nearly spit her coffee out. To say something so matter-of-fact, and yet so obviously painful, threw her for a loop. “I’m sure that’s not true.”
Emily laughed. “It’s not that weird. He loves me the same, of course. But those two have a lot more in common. Wild, funny and unpredictable. Loud. I’m a lot more like Granny. Levelheaded. Grounded. I used to think that was boring, but it’s just who I am.”
Sarah respected Emily’s grown-up attitude, and guessed that she didn’t get there overnight. Sarah’s attitude most of her life hadn’t been so much grounded and levelheaded as angry and hostile. Most of her life she’d been in the same position as Emily, with an absentee father. She’d taken the attitude straight into her life and work, resulting in being thought of as a difficult person. Her coworkers and few girlfriends had advised her to loosen up, lose the bun and trade the glasses for contacts. Trade the pantsuits for dresses, and she might get asked out on a date sometime—even laid. She’d been told by her friends that she was pretty but unapproachable. Perhaps she’d even orchestrated that on purpose.
Her psychology textbooks would agree.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
MATT HADN’T EXPECTED a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, but he also hadn’t thought his father would order enough Chinese food to feed a party of ten. Joanne had agreed to let him bring Hunter over for dinner the day after Father’s Day, to spend some time with Dad.
“I could have cooked,” Matt said. “You didn’t have to order all this food.”
“This is great,” Hunter said, in between bouts of shoveling food into his mouth. “Thanks, Grandpa.”
It shouldn’t surprise Matt that his son could eat in such large quantities. It seemed to be a Conner family trait. That and the brown eyes.
“So how have my boys been?” Matt’s father asked, helping himself to fried rice. “And thank you for leaving me in peace on my day. I had a great time.”
“That’s so weird,” Hunter said. “My mom makes a huge deal out of Mother’s Day. I have to spend all day with her or I’m a bad son.”
“Hunter, there’s one thing I need to tell you right now about men and women. We’re different.”
“Gee, dad,” Matt said. “That’s a great help.”
“Let me finish, wiseass,” Dad continued. “As the French say, vive la différence. You’ll be glad someday, too. Do you have a girlfriend yet?”
Matt braced himself for the pants talk. If Dad started with Hunter keeping “it” in his pants, not only would he be embarrassed but so would Matt. “Dad,” he warned.
Hunter stopped shoveling in the beef broccoli long enough to answer. “Nah, but my dad does.”
Fantastic. Both sets of brown eyes turned on him.
Dad gave the biggest grin Matt had seen on him in some time. “Is that right?”
“No, that’s not right.” Matt shoveled in some Kung Pao chicken. If his mouth was full he didn’t have to talk.
“If Sarah’s not his girlfriend yet, he wants her to be,” Hunter added helpfully. When Matt slid him a death stare, he lifted a shoulder.
“So there’s a woman,” Dad said.
“There’s a woman.” Hunter nodded.
Matt, mouth full, shook his head. This conversation would not happen. He hadn’t talked to his father about a woman in roughly... Take Hunter’s age and tack on another nine months. Now was not the time to try to explain what he felt for a certain long-legged brunette when he could hardly explain it to himself.
“I might have suspected it.” Dad directed the comment to Hunter, ignoring Matt. “What’s she like?”
“Super hot.” And then, possibly at the frozen look Matt felt forming on his face, Hunter burst into peals of laughter.
Matt choked down his food. Coughed. Hit his chest. And also remembered not to speak on the basis of the whole Fifth Amendment thing. He now wondered how much Hunter had noticed. When it came to Sarah, it couldn’t be about what Matt wanted. Even if he’d like her to stay and give them a real shot, there was the whole “I’m never falling in love with you�
� thing. Yeah, he hadn’t forgotten. And he was not about to discuss his unique relationship with Sarah with either his teenage son or his father.
“Your dad has always been quite the ladies’ man,” his father added.
Now Matt would have to speak up. “Not true.”
“The hell it isn’t. We used to have the girls calling all the time. Your mother included,” he said to Hunter.
Hunter smiled and kept on chewing.
“Dammit, Dad.”
Matt didn’t want to go there, back in time to when Joanne had called him incessantly after their one date. She’d had something important to tell him and it had to be in person. Matt had thought it could wait a week, since he’d been in the middle of finals with a heavy AP and honors course load. Turned out it couldn’t wait. That significant, life-changing “thing” Joanne had to tell him about now sat across his Dad’s kitchen table, eating Chinese food. Matt’s mini-me.
“There’s nothing wrong with that. You’re lucky.” Dad leaned over and spooned some more chow mein on his paper plate.
Cue one for the books. First time he’d ever heard his father talk about how lucky Matt was a ladies’ man, or label Matt as one. He glanced over at Hunter and realized again how fortunate he’d actually been. Lucky that he had a son at all. Lucky that the kid didn’t hate his guts after all the time he’d spent away from him. Lucky that maybe he didn’t know, and hopefully he’d never know, that at one time Matt had been a scared-shitless teenager who didn’t want a kid. Who wasn’t ready for him.
On the way back to drop Hunter off at Joanne’s, Matt used the car time to clear things up.
“Hey, thanks for putting up with Grandpa.”
There was a small silence and then Matt spoke again. “And by the way, I’m not a ladies’ man, no matter what he says.”
“Grandpa’s a funny guy. But I know you’re not a ladies’ man. Sarah wouldn’t go for that type.”
Matt had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. “Think so?”
“She’s too smart for that.”
Leave it to his son to realize that. Matt would have to agree. “You’re pretty smart yourself.”
“I do okay.”
“Still thinking the Marines?”
Hunter nodded.
“I’ll put you in touch with a buddy of mine.”
Hunter’s body actually swiveled in Matt’s direction. “Yeah? Joanne won’t like it. She’ll probably give you a hard time.”
“She doesn’t have to know for now. But you need to promise me you won’t enlist until you graduate. And until you, personally, are the one to tell your mother.”
Hunter nodded.
“If the Marines are what you really want, I’ll be the last person to discourage you. But make sure you’re not joining up because you’re running away from your life.”
“I’m not.”
Matt swallowed hard, not at all sure he wanted to ask the next question. “Is there really not...a girl?”
Hunter swiveled back to face the windshield. “No.”
Or in other words: yes.
“Because if there was, that would be okay. I would just want to talk to you about some...some things you should know.”
Hunter sighed. “I had this talk in the fifth grade. From my teachers, from my mom and from you, too.”
“This is like phase two of the talk.”
Matt gripped the steering wheel tighter. He didn’t have anything prepared, but Hunter had made male appreciation comments about Sarah. His son was a man-child, with all the physical equipment he’d ever need but not the fully matured brain he’d eventually have. The brain he would need to make life-changing decisions. Matt would have to wing it. He pulled up to Joanne’s curbside and turned to give Hunter his full attention.
Hunter rolled his eyes. “I’ll let you know when I need the next phase.”
“It kind of sounds like you already do. You noticed Sarah.”
“Take it easy. She’s too old for me.”
Matt laughed. “Yeah. I know. It doesn’t mean you’re not looking at girls your own age that way. Wondering what you can get away with.”
“You’re wrong. I don’t even know how to get a girl to like me.”
That single heartbreakingly vulnerable statement hit Matt hard. Hunter might not have even realized that he was reaching out to Matt.
“Just be yourself.”
“Everybody says that. What does that even mean?”
Matt took a deep breath. He didn’t want to screw this up. “It means there’s no ‘getting’ anyone to like you. It just happens. All you can do is talk to a girl. Get to know her. Be yourself, like you would be with any friend.”
“Yeah? I fart in front of my friends.”
“Okay, not exactly like when you’re with your friends. And granted, a friendship with a girl is different. But it’s also the same. In more ways than you would ever realize.”
“Wait. So are you and Sarah still just friends?”
“No.” Matt cleared his throat. “We’re more than friends. I’d do anything for her.”
“Yeah,” Hunter said with a sharp nod. “That’s how I am with my best friends.”
“That’s how it is with a girl. You have to respect and treat her right. Have your girl’s back like you would your best buddy. Don’t assume they’re a different species just because...because sometimes it feels like they are.”
“Yeah. Girls talk weird.”
Joanne had now opened the front door of her home and stood waiting, arms folded across her chest.
“The talking thing. A subject for another time. We’ll call that phase three, which, by the way, I’m still learning.”
Hunter jumped out of the car and slammed the door. Shoulders hunched and hands shoved in his jeans pockets, he lumbered up the walkway to his home. He was probably six inches taller than the last time Matt had seen him and even all these months later, he was still getting used to the fact. Hunter towered over Joanne as he stepped past her.
Not a kid anymore, his son. In fact, he was only a year younger than Matt when his entire life shifted off course.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
TODAY’S ASS-CRACK-OF-THE-MORNING flight to Lake Tahoe wasn’t the norm, and Matt settled into the copilot’s chair already resenting Stone.
“Move. Let me take over.”
“Hell if I will.” Stone adjusted his headset.
“Let’s talk about your flight record versus mine.”
“Never mind, Boy Wonder. Let’s talk about the fact that I own this company.”
“So it’s like that,” Matt grumbled, putting on his headset. Copiloting it would be.
This morning’s chartered flight was for a larger passenger group than normal, and so, more for their image than anything else, Stone had decided they’d all put on a good show and both he and Matt would be the flight “crew.”
Meaning Matt would mostly sit next to Stone and basically twiddle his thumbs, which pissed him off. “Is this necessary?”
“Just sit back and enjoy the ride,” Stone said and communicated his position and plans for takeoff.
“Watch the mountains. You don’t see those every day,” Matt said. “Make sure you clear them.”
“Yeah, thanks, genius.”
Once they were airborne, Matt considered a short catnap. Closing his eyes for a few seconds couldn’t hurt. He hadn’t slept well the previous night. Again. Even if he was fully aware that Sarah didn’t owe him a thing just because they’d had one weekend of mind-blowing sex, he couldn’t help but want her in his bed every night.
And it was more than a little strange not dating a woman he was living with. A woman who made his eyes roll to the back of his head.
“So. You and Sarah,�
� Stone said.
“Next subject.”
Stone snorted. “Try again.”
“Thought you didn’t want to hear it.”
“I don’t,” Stone said. “But Emily asked. Can you give me the G-rated version?”
“Let me help you out,” Matt said. “There is no G-rated version.”
Stone scowled. “Man, remind me to let you pilot next time we do this. You make one pissy copilot and a real pain in my ass.”
“Remember that.” Matt’s conscience got the better of him and he relented. Sighed. “Okay, what do you want to know?”
“What Emily wants to know is if you’re seriously interested in Sarah.”
“Tell Emily I’m interested.”
“Really?”
“Not that it matters. You know my track record with relationships.”
Alexis had dropped him when he’d moved to Fortune from Texas to be closer to Hunter. What he’d thought was a fairly solid relationship with plenty of possibilities had turned out to be nothing at all. Frankly, he was sick of failure with the opposite sex and it had been easy enough to abstain because he hadn’t been excited about anyone for months. And then he’d met Sarah. His best friend’s sister. A woman with plans to leave, when long-distance had worked so well for him in the past. Another recipe for certain disaster and still he couldn’t stay away.
After they’d arrived, disembarked all their passengers and wished them a pleasant day, Stone was forced to wait in another long queue to taxi down the runway.
“Man, I’m so fucking bored!” Stone yelled.
“Because you have the patience of a gnat.”
Stone grunted and whipped out his phone. He cursed under his breath, then looked at Matt. “This isn’t me saying this, but Emily says you need to tell Sarah you’re interested and ask her to stay.”
Matt counted to ten and chose his words carefully. “Tell your fiancée that I can handle my own love life.”
Stone threw the phone at him. “You tell her.”
Matt laughed and caught the phone. “I appreciate all the love-line help, but this is your sister we’re talking about. My good friend, too. Maybe I’m not going to take a chance on losing our friendship.”
Airman to the Rescue Page 20
