Chapter 13
The day had seemed to last forever. Doc kept looking at his watch, hoping time had moved faster than it seemed. He’d been getting update texts from Ember that made him smile.
Holy crap, this airport is tiny compared to LAX!
I found a spot right near the stairwell! It’s a miracle.
Got Julio and Marie, headed back to Killeen now.
They love the gym! I’m so relieved.
Thanks for recommending the Mexican restaurant. It was delicious!
I talked a little to them about why they wanted to move to Texas, will tell you about it later.
The apartments were fine, move-in day is scheduled for Friday.
Is this day moving really slowly, or is it just me? :)
I just dropped J and M off at the hotel. J’s gonna rent a car. His and M’s cars are being brought over from CA.
Do we need anything from the store? I can stop if we do.
I’m more than ready for this, Craig. See you soon.
He was thrilled she was anticipating their night together as much as he was.
He’d remade the bed, cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed, had three boxes of condoms stashed around the house…
which was overkill, but he didn’t want to have to stop and go hunt down a box if things progressed somewhere other than the bedroom.
He’d decided on stuffed green peppers for dinner; they were easy to make and already in the oven. They’d be ready when Ember arrived. If he could keep himself from attacking her the second she walked in, they’d be good.
Grinning, Doc couldn’t help but wonder if Ember would be doing the attacking.
He loved that she wasn’t shy to tell him what she wanted.
That she was independent. That she was working as hard as she could to make her dream a reality.
He’d once thought that he wanted a woman who wouldn’t mind staying at home more often than not… but he’d been an idiot.
Ember was perfect. Ambitious and not content to let him make all the decisions.
She liked to call the shots, at least when it came to her life, and he was more than all right with that.
He’d gladly let her take control in the bedroom as well—but not tonight.
Tonight, he was in charge. He was going to show her how much she meant to him and how much he adored her.
“Honey! I’m home!” she quipped as she walked into his house.
Doc had unlocked his front door after he’d received the last text, telling her to just come on in when she got there.
His heart yearned to hear those words for real, for this to be her home, but he’d take things one day at a time.
A woman like Ember wouldn’t want to be rushed into making any kind of decision.
She relished making her own choices about her life for the first time ever.
He’d make it clear she was welcome here anytime, but when she knew down to her very bones that this was where she was meant to be, she’d make that decision.
It didn’t mean Doc wouldn’t try to convince her. He’d already planned on giving her a key.
Smiling, he walked toward Ember with his arms open. To his surprise, she jumped at him when he got close.
Laughing, he caught her and spun her in a circle. “Have a good day?” he asked.
“Yeah. Although it was loooong. The next time you want to tease me with a night of debauchery…don’t.”
“It was long and hard for me too,” Doc teased.
Ember rolled her eyes. “Oh, man, that was bad.”
“You hungry?” he asked, wanting nothing more than to strip her shirt over her head and go down on her right then and there.
“For food? Not really. But it smells delicious in here, and I’d hate to have your dinner go to waste.”
Doc seriously contemplated heading into the kitchen, turning off the oven, and carrying her up the stairs as he’d done last night, but then he forced himself to drop his arms from around her.
As much as he wanted Ember, he wanted to give her a perfect night that she’d hopefully remember the rest of her life.
“I feel like the traditional roles are reversed,” he said as he took hold of her hand and led her into the kitchen.
“You’re the bread winner coming home from a long day of work and I’m the spouse slaving over the housework all day.
Making sure a hot dinner is ready for you when you walk in the door. ”
Ember put her hand on his arm. “You don’t expect me to be that kind of woman, do you?”
“Hell no!” Doc said. “I want you to be exactly who you are. If that means I do all the cooking and cleaning, so be it. I just want you to be happy, Em.”
“I am. I know everything in my life has been turned upside down lately, and my parents—and probably much of the world—think I’ve rushed into this thing, but I’ve wanted to do something like this for so long.
I’ve wanted to give back, to be more than a pretty face on the computer.
I suck at housecleaning, and I’ll probably work really long hours and you’ll have to force me to take time off. But I’ll do my best to do my part.”
Doc kissed her. “That’s all I can ask for. I made stuffed peppers tonight. If you like them, I can teach you how to make them later.”
“Awesome.”
“You want to help me make a salad?”
“Sure. Just tell me what to do.”
“Why don’t we start with the lettuce. I’ll chop, you tear.”
“Yes, sir!” Ember teased.
They worked side by side, and Doc loved every second of it. She told him more details about her day and how Julio and Marie seemed happy to be in Texas.
“I asked them why they’d accepted my job offer, and Julio told me that his sister had gotten mixed up in a gang and had been killed.
I didn’t know that at all. I thought he had a normal middle-class upbringing.
Anyway, he said he was really excited about doing something to help kids stay out of that kind of lifestyle.
He had a teacher when he was in elementary school who’d gotten him interested in fencing, and that morphed into getting involved with the pentathlon. He said it literally saved his life.”
“That’s great,” Doc said. And it was. But…
he still couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to it.
He needed to talk to Trigger and see if he would contact their old friend, Tex, to do a background check.
If he wasn’t available, there was a woman down in San Antonio who Ghost and his team of Deltas were close with, who sometimes worked with Tex.
She could probably get it done just as easily.
Doc would call in favors if necessary in order to protect Ember. “What about Marie?”
Ember shrugged. “She didn’t have any kind of story like Julio.
She just said that she wouldn’t mind getting out of California and seeing more of the world.
She apparently doesn’t get along well with her family.
I think she’s just restless and a little lost after the Olympics.
She hasn’t seemed like herself ever since I got back from South Korea, and I think it’s because it hit her that her chances of making the team are pretty slim.
I think it’s good for her to break out of the rut she was in back in California.
Out of the two of them, I think Julio will probably stay with me longer, but that’s okay.
I don’t expect either of them to work for me forever. ”
“That’s a good attitude to have,” Doc agreed. “Although you paying their rent is pretty big.”
“I’m not paying their rent. I just found the apartments and put down the deposits. They know they’re responsible for everything after they move in.”
“Good. I guess I misunderstood,” Doc said.
“I thought about it, but it felt too much like buying their loyalty. I want them to stay because they believe in what they’re doing and have a passion for it. I don’t want to be a free ride for them.”
“That’s smart,” Doc said.
“For someone without a college degree,” she said self-deprecatingly.
“No, it’s smart for a businesswoman,” Doc corrected.
“I’ve known plenty of officers with college degrees who are dumber than a box of rocks.
And I’ve known a ton of enlisted guys who are fucking geniuses, and they have nothing more than a GED or a high school diploma.
Don’t sell yourself short, Em. You’re going to make this idea of yours work, and the kids in this area are going to be better off because of it. ”
“Thanks,” she said softly.
“You’re welcome. Now, do you want me to cut off the seeds on the cucumbers or leave them on?”
“On. Do you have croutons?”
“Is a salad a salad without them?” Doc asked.
She laughed. “I think having you as my chef is going to spoil me.”
“Good,” Doc said, leaning in to kiss her briefly. Anything more and he wouldn’t be able to control himself. His cock was half hard, had been that way all day, anticipating what tonight would bring.
“I’ve also been thinking of your suggestion, and I’m considering asking Samer if he’ll come back and work for me.
I didn’t realize how much time social media takes up.
That, and I really don’t like reading the comments.
I figure if I can convince him to do all that for me, it’ll free me up to do a lot of other things. What do you think?”
“I think it’s a great idea,” Doc said honestly. “As long as you make sure he understands that he isn’t to post anything you don’t approve ahead of time. You don’t want him posting pictures of you again, do you?”
“Oh, hell no. And I don’t think he will. Alexis, on the other hand…he’d probably go right back to what he’d been doing before.”
Doc made a mental note to have Tex look into this Alexis person too.
The name thing was too much of a coincidence to overlook.
If the Alex who was posting such hateful comments on Ember’s social media accounts was actually Alexis…
Tex would get to the bottom of it, and make sure the man stopped his harassment.