Chapter 21
On a blustery Saturday afternoon in late March, Kaci took her Physics Club kids back out to the fairgrounds to test their improvements to Ichabod. After her last disaster with launching pumpkins, she’d called in advance to make sure the field was open and that they could use it for test-firing.
She’d also asked Tara to pass along to Lance’s roommate that she was firing pumpkins, just in case she aimed the wrong way and put their squadron bar in danger again.
Tara had found it hilarious. Apparently Nikki and Devon-slash-Juice Box had too. And so the message had been passed along, and Kaci had asked Zada to take the lead in making sure they were aiming away from the houses when they arrived at the field this morning.
A small cluster of Civil War reenactors were also set up on the firing line. And instead of a catapult, they had a cannon.
Her redneck heart gave an indignant squeak. She’d always wanted to fire a cannon.
“Aren’t they a little far south?” Zada whispered. “I didn’t think there were any Civil War battles in this part of the state.”
“Love of the Confederacy isn’t always tied to a battleground,” Kaci murmured back.
Her six students went to work setting up Ichabod.
Kaci willfully ignored the cannon dudes.
She’d had a lot of practice at willfully ignoring things in the past few months.
Willfully ignoring that she’d committed to getting on two more airplanes to speak at two more conferences.
Willfully ignoring that she still had two more years of teaching before she could go before the tenure board, and that she still hadn’t made friends with the old cronies who would decide her fate.
She kept half hoping at least one or two would retire before then.
Willfully ignoring that Lance’s squadron was supposed to be home sometime today since Devon-slash-Juice Box had left earlier this week.
Not straining for sounds of cargo planes or casting glances at the sky every few minutes.
She pinched her lips together and resisted stomping.
He’d kept emailing—short notes every few days to every few weeks, which she responded to in equally short terms—but that didn’t change anything.
He was still a military pilot first and foremost, and she was still a physics professor who needed job stability.
Zada jogged past. “I’ll grab the vegetables,” she called behind her.
Pumpkins were scarce, and the imported watermelons Kaci had found were expensive, so her students were using cloth bags stuffed with potatoes for a few test runs on Ichabod. She wrenched her eyes away from the sky and stepped over to watch the girls load the catapult.
“That potato’s face looks like Zada’s ex-boyfriend.”
“Let’s crush him.”
“Smashed potato face, coming up. Hey, anybody want to go to the movies tonight?”
“Excuse me. Is one of you Dr. Boudreaux?” A rotund gentleman whose Confederacy uniform was bursting at the buttons stopped at the edge of their group.
“That’s me, sugar. What can we do for you?”
“We got word you might could help us fire our cannon.”
She swiveled her attention between the man and his cannon, but her gaze snagged on something else at the edge of the cluster of Civil War reenactors.
A tall, lanky, dark-haired captain in a flight suit and aviator sunglasses.
Her heart skipped a beat.
No, it skipped about six beats, and then it tripped over itself catching back up.
“I’ve always wanted to fire a cannon,” she whispered.
The Civil War soldier grinned. “That’s what that young feller over there said when he asked us to come out and practice today.”
No.
Oh, no no no.
He was not using her redneck nature to get to her heart.
She’d kill him. She’d stuff him in that cannon and see how far he could fly.
Why couldn’t he just let her go?
“Man just got back from war,” the soldier said. “Can’t leave him hanging, miss.”
Whispers went up among her students. “Is that your boyfriend, Dr. Boudreaux?”
“Are you dating one of the cheaters?”
“Oh, wow, military guys are seriously hot.”
Kaci shushed them. “What’s it matter to him if I fire your cannon?” she asked the Confederate soldier.
“Man seems to have his heart tied up in it, miss.”
Lance stood at parade rest, legs spread, hands tucked behind his back, straight-faced. A well-trained specimen waiting.
Waiting for what?
For her to kick a boot up his rear end?
Or for her to launch herself at him and never let go?
Because if her heart could’ve laid out her future and written her destiny, she’d be in his arms, breathing him in, touching him, tasting him, never letting him go again.
But he was still in that danged flight suit, still in his military uniform, still acting every bit the military man.
She was stuck in a tug-of-war between her heart and her self-preservation. And by the way that swollen organ was knocking around her chest, she was pretty sure her heart was winning.
“I’ll fire it for you, Dr. Boudreaux,” Zada whispered.
Kaci’s legs moved on their own. She wasn’t marching—no, this time, she was wobbling.
He wasn’t here just to torture her.
Was he?
The closer she got, the more clearly she could see that Lance wasn’t in his military best. His blue hat was crooked. Out-of-regs stubble dotted his cheeks and chin. And his uniform wasn’t entirely right—was it his rank? Or was he missing a patch somewhere?
He pressed his lips together.
She couldn’t see his eyes, but she felt his gaze.
Oh, she felt his gaze. Seeking her. Demanding she come closer. Pulling her in.
When she stopped in front of him, she could barely breathe. Her chest was tight, her heart defying some laws of physics, her eyes hot and wet.
He’d left.
Miss Higgs had died, he’d left, and she’d had to get on that airplane by herself.
And she’d survived all of it.
But she wasn’t sure she could survive finding out why he was here.
He licked his lips. Ducked his head. Looked at her again. “Don’t think the cannon can put them into orbit, but I was hoping you’d help me chuck some MREs anyway.”
Her pulse tripped. If he wanted to chuck military rations out of a cannon, did he mean he wanted to get out of the military? Or just that he was tired of eating bad food while he was gone?
“Don’t play with me,” she whispered.
“Volunteered to be an IP. Here. Got three years without deployments while I teach new officers to fly 130s, and I can ask to stay another four back in the 946th after that.”
Seven years.
He could stay here, at Gellings, right down the road from James Robert College, for the next seven years.
She curled her arms around herself. “And then?”
“Then you name it, Kace. Anything.” He started to reach for her.
She veered back. He yanked his sunglasses off and dropped his hands.
“You want me to get out, I’ll get out. You want me to pull strings and get us to Germany so you can go teach and research over there, I’ll pull every damn string I can.
I’ll take a year remote in Korea so I can come back here to Gellings again.
Anything. I just—I miss you. I want you. God, Kaci, I need you.”
He needed her? “Nobody needs me,” she whispered.
Suddenly she was wrapped up in him, a capable hand cradling her head against his shoulder, his viselike grip a steel beam holding her against his hot, hard body while his voice resonated in her ears.
“Kaci, so many people need you. Your friends need you. Your students need you. I need you. You’re everything missing in my life.
You’re my light. You’re my laughter. You’re my love.
You’re my home. I didn’t want to be in the sandbox.
I didn’t want to be at my house. I didn’t want to be back here at the squadron.
I wanted to be with you. The last four months, all I’ve wanted is to be with you.
Wherever you are. I want to be with you. ”
This. This was everything she’d ever wanted. Everything she’d ever needed. She couldn’t have let him go if her life depended on it. “Did you fall and hit your head over there?”
His chuckle rumbled against her body, and her long-dormant feminine parts stirred to life.
“God, I’ve missed you,” he whispered into her hair.
“Maybe I’m still mad at you.”
His fingers trailed down her neck. “I hope so. I have a lot of groveling and apologizing and making amends to do. I should’ve told you I was leaving. I should’ve told you how much I cared. I’ll make it all up to you though. Please, Kaci. Please let me love you.”
As if she could tell him no for anything. He could’ve asked her to go with him to the moon.
He was here.
He’d missed her.
He knew her, and he still wanted her.
He loved her.
“Is this good quiet or bad quiet?” he whispered.
“I missed you too.” She lifted her face to his. The worry and vulnerability and just plain exhaustion etched in his expression tugged at her soul. “Oh, Lance.” She cupped his cheeks, went up on tiptoe, and pressed her lips to his.
She couldn’t not kiss him.
A low groan rumbled out of his chest. He sucked her lower lip into his mouth, and she forgot where she was, forgot what day it was, forgot her own name.
Her name didn’t matter.
All that mattered was that she was his. And time and distance and airplanes couldn’t change that.
Cheers went up all around them.
She reluctantly pulled out of his kiss. “My students,” she whispered.
He grinned, then pressed another kiss to her cheek. “And the cannon.”
She laughed and wiped her eyes.
He knew her too well.
She might not have wanted another military man in her life, but she was keeping this one.
And she wouldn’t want him any other way.
Six months ago, the last place Lance would’ve expected to find true contentment was on his couch with a fully clothed woman talking his ear off. But tonight, despite his body being tired from the long flight home, he couldn’t stop smiling, and that sassy twang was utter music to his ears.
“And when we landed in Germany, that pilot had the nerve to ask everyone to come back and fly their airline again. Like the dang man thought we all should’ve liked it as much as you crazy people do.”
He slid his fingers through her silky hair and lost himself in her unique Kaci scent. “Can I go with you in May?”
She arched a brow at him. “Oh, I see what’s going on. You’re thinking you found yourself an easy way to go on fancy vacations.”
“I see right through you, Dr. Boudreaux.”
Her blue eyes sparkled, and she leaned up to nuzzle his cheek. “Don’t go telling anybody else,” she whispered.
“I’ll keep your secret,” he whispered back, “but it might cost you.”
She wasn’t an easy woman by any stretch of the imagination, but she was his woman. She’d keep him on his toes. She’d pull crazy shit. She’d probably frustrate the hell out of him some days.
But this woman had more love hidden in that big ol’ heart of hers than the world would ever know.
And when she shifted on the couch to straddle him, that beautiful smile glowing, her eyes full of mischief, her fingers igniting a trail of anticipation across his skin, he knew he was the luckiest man in the world to have all of her love.