Chapter 13
The park was packed.
Aspen hadn’t been to an organizational day in a very long time. Since she didn’t have kids, and none of the teams she’d been on had attended together, she’d just never gone.
But walking around with Kane and their friends was a blast. She especially loved holding Kane’s hand.
Since this was a social event and they were in civilian clothes, public displays of affection weren’t frowned upon.
Kane had grabbed ahold of her hand as soon as they’d gotten out of his car and hadn’t let go once.
They’d met up with his team and had wandered around the park, getting the lay of the land. Kane said hello to what seemed like almost everyone. Sometimes he stopped to chat for a minute or two; other times he gave a simple chin lift in greeting.
“You know a lot of people,” she observed after he’d greeted what seemed like the hundredth person.
He shrugged. “Been stationed here a while, and the team and I try to stay busy when we’re in town, volunteering and helping out.”
“How come we never met before that night at the bar?” Aspen asked.
Kane looked at her. “Don’t take this the wrong way, okay?”
Aspen couldn’t help but tense.
“Breathe, dar. And before you ask, that was Kurdish.”
Aspen let out a breath. “Right. I asked. Hit me.”
“Never,” he muttered. Then said in a more normal tone, “I’m guessing your team doesn’t do a lot of volunteering on the base?”
He stated it as a question, but it was obvious he already knew the answer. Aspen shook her head.
“Right. So before we met, your days consisted of going to work, then going home and decompressing.”
Aspen thought about it, then nodded.
“You didn’t have much of a chance to run across me or my team,” Kane said. “And don’t think I’m judging you. I’m not. You needed the time away from post for your own sanity. I get it. With the way you’ve been treated, I can’t blame you for wanting to go home and not hang around anyone from work.”
“I still feel stupid for dating Derek,” Aspen muttered.
“Don’t. Guys like him are good at only letting women see what he wants them to. He only showed who he really was after you rejected him,” Kane said easily.
“It doesn’t bother you to talk about my past boyfriends?” Aspen asked, genuinely curious as to his answer.
Kane stopped and put his free hand on the side of her neck, his thumb rubbing along the underside of her jaw. It felt good. Really good.
“No,” Kane said simply. “I’m not saying I want you to go into a blow-by-blow, no pun intended, of your history, but you’re thirty-one years old and gorgeous. I know you’ve had plenty of boyfriends.”
“Not that many,” she told him.
But Kane just grinned. “I like having an older and wiser girlfriend.”
“I’m only a year older than you, Kane, let’s not get crazy.”
His smile widened. “You’re a cougar. Grrrrrr.”
Aspen burst out laughing and playfully shoved his shoulder. “Shut up.”
Kane caught her around the waist and pulled her into him. He leaned in and kissed her, a hard and fast meeting of their lips that was over way too soon.
And in that moment, Aspen realized that she was done waiting for him to make the first move.
She hadn’t pushed to go further than they had as far as their physical relationship went.
But feeling his hard body against hers in the middle of a family friendly carnival made a bolt of lust shoot through her. She wanted him. Bad.
“What was that thought?” he asked.
Licking her lips, Aspen leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She nuzzled his ear for a moment, then whispered, “I loved sleeping with you last night.”
She heard a contented rumble deep in his throat as he agreed.
Feeling daring, Aspen nipped his earlobe, loving the shiver that ran through Kane. “Can I stay with you again tonight?” she asked.
“You’re welcome anytime,” he said quietly. His hands had moved to her waist, and she felt one slip under her T-shirt. How she wanted that hand to do more than just gently caress her lower back. She wanted to feel his hands all over her.
“I want you,” she admitted softly in his ear.
Every muscle in Kane’s body stiffened. She felt his cock harden against her…and smiled.
He pulled back, but kept her plastered to his front, studying her for a long moment. “You sure?” he finally asked.
“Yes,” Aspen told him simply.
Then the most beautiful smile formed on his lips.
She could stare at his smile all day, but they were interrupted by shouting from nearby. They both turned to see a group of boys on the obstacle course equipment that had been set up on one side of the park. They were facing a girl, who was standing in front of them with her hands on her hips.
“Shit, that’s Annie,” Kane said, looking around. “I don’t see Fletch or Emily. Come on,” he said, pulling away and heading for the kids.
Aspen wasn’t sure who Fletch and Emily were, but she recognized the name Annie.
She was the little girl who Gillian had watched compete in an obstacle course race a while ago.
She was the daughter of one of the Deltas on another team.
Looking around as they headed for the confrontation, Aspen didn’t see the guys from Kane’s team either.
They must’ve been lost in each other for longer than she’d thought, and his team had gotten ahead of them as they continued to wander the park.
“You’re a girl,” one of the boys sneered. “You can’t play with us.”
“Why not?” Annie demanded, sounding irritated.
“Because,” another boy said. “You’re slower and weaker.”
“I am not!” Annie protested.
“Are so!”
“My dad says girls should stay in their lane and do things like ballet and cheerleading and leave the dangerous stuff to guys.”
Aspen frowned at that. She hated knowing there were still men who thought that shit. Was even more irritated that they were teaching their sons to be discriminatory as well.
“That’s stupid,” Annie said, but her tone lacked the self-confidence it had a moment ago.
“Why don’t you go over to the arts and crafts tent where you can make something you can use in the kitchen?” one of the boys taunted.
Before Aspen and Kane could reach them, Annie rushed forward, kicked the boy who’d just spoken in the shin, then stalked toward the obstacle course, ignoring the other boys, who were now yelling at her.
“I’ve got Annie, if you take care of the boys,” Aspen told Kane.
He nodded, and she saw a muscle in his jaw ticking.
Squeezing Kane’s hand before she dropped it, Aspen jogged over to where Annie was on her belly crawling under a set of ropes strung across the ground.
“Hey,” she said as she approached.
Annie looked up, but didn’t say anything.
“I’m Aspen. You’re Annie, right?”
“How do you know my name? I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” she said sulkily.
“My boyfriend is friends with your dad,” Aspen told her. She wasn’t sure exactly how well Kane knew Fletch, but she figured that didn’t matter at the moment.
Annie merely shrugged.
“I heard what those boys said to you. I hope you aren’t taking their words to heart.”
The little girl pulled herself out from under the ropes, but didn’t stand. She stayed on her belly and looked up at Aspen. “What’s it to you?”
The teenage attitude wasn’t exactly unexpected, and Aspen gave the girl a pass since she was obviously upset. “I hate when boys say stuff that’s so blatantly untrue. It’s true that some girls are weaker than boys, but a blanket statement like that is just stupid.”
She saw that Annie seemed a little more interested in listening to what she had to say, so Aspen kept going.
“I mean, look at me. I’m not as tall as some men are, but I’m also not exactly short. I might not be able to do as many pullups as the men on my team, but I can do way more sit-ups than them.”
“What kind of team are you on?” Annie asked, sitting up and crossing her legs.
Aspen sat on the ground next to her and said, “A Ranger team.”
At the look on the little girl’s face, Aspen smirked. She had her attention now.
“You’re a Ranger?” she asked, the awe easy to hear in her tone.
“Well, not technically. I’m a combat medic attached to a Ranger unit.
So that means that wherever they go, I go.
Whatever they do, I do. I have to be in just as good shape as they are in order to keep up with them.
It wouldn’t do for me to fall behind, especially if a firefight broke out and someone got hurt.
I need to be there to help patch them up. ”
“Do you have to kill people?”
Aspen winced at the question, but did her best to answer honestly.
“My main job is making sure the guys on my team are healthy. But yes, sometimes I have to engage in combat alongside my team. I protect them, just as they protect me. But my primary job is to be a doctor for them, not to kill people.”
“I want to do that,” Annie whispered.
Aspen felt more proud at that moment than she could remember being in a very long time. If she could inspire a girl like Annie, then it felt as if she was doing something right. “It’s not an easy job,” she warned.
“I know. But you get to do all the cool stuff without having to shoot people all the time. That’s what I want to do.
I know girls aren’t allowed in the Deltas, like what my dad is, but he told me that there are women in the Rangers now.
I read about the Rangers online, and while I know I can make it through the training, because I’m tough, I don’t really want to have to shoot people.
But maybe I can be a combat medic like you and still do what the Rangers do. ”
Aspen smiled. “I have a feeling you can do anything you set your mind to. But…one thing you’re going to have to do is control your temper. You can’t go around kicking people if you’re going to be a combat medic.”
Annie frowned. “Mikey’s a poophole.”