24. Melissa
24
MELISSA
“ Y ou ready, Goose?” Garcia said through the radio. The engine roared in my ears as we sat, ready for takeoff.
“I think so!” I yelled.
His laughter crackled over the comms system. “You don’t have to shout,” he said casually. “I can hear you just fine.”
“Oops, sorry.”
I tried to calm my nerves by looking back at Jase, but he was too far in the distance.
“Ready to make your boy jealous?” Garcia laughed.
“Ready as I’ll ever be!”
“Here comes the afterburner.”
The roar in my ears became deafening. The plane buzzed with energy. Every atom in my body was on a hair trigger. Adrenaline pumped fast and hard through my veins. It was like the moment before an orgasm when there are no thoughts. No words. Just feeling.
Like a bullet out of a gun, Garcia had the fighter jet speeding down the runway, full throttle. “That’s one hundred miles an hour.” He buckled down and made the aircraft work for him. Man and machine. “There’s one-fifty, one-sixty… And we’re taking off.”
The base grew smaller and smaller as we rose off the ground, graceful like a bird.
“We’re at two-fifty. Take a big breath.”
I sucked in a gulp of air as I felt the pressure on my chest increase. Slowly, I exhaled, letting it out as calmly as I could. Garcia leveled the plane as he circled Havelock. The pressure on my chest decreased, and I relaxed, reeling in the absurdity of it all.
I was flying in a fighter jet with one of the freaking Blue Angels.
One passing comment to Jase about how a ride-along was on my bucket list, and he made it happen.
Hell, I’d even forgotten about that conversation until we were getting out of the truck this morning, and he made a cryptic comment about always listening to me.
And that was the other thing. He was completely right. This was a first date that would never be beaten.
Part of me hoped there would be no other comers.
“You good back there, Goose?” Garcia clipped.
“All good!”
“Alright. Let’s pull some Gs.”
The moment my feet were back on the ground, I was running full speed toward Jase. It was more of a lumbering shuffle since I was wrapped up like a military green Michelin Man, but he caught me around the waist, spinning as he hugged me.
“How was it?” he asked, breathless in my ear.
“Is that really how it feels to kiss me?”
A slow smile spread across his face as he set me down on my feet. My legs were shaky, and every muscle in my body hurt, but I had never felt so alive.
I was still shaking, buzzing with energy and excitement as Jase cupped my cheeks and kissed me. It was quick and modest, but it had my body electrified more than any of the maneuvers Garcia took us through in the air.
“Every time,” he whispered. “Every damn time.”
Garcia came over and shook Jason’s hand, then pulled him into a quick bro hug. He had to keep the physical contact to a minimum since he was in uniform.
“I think your girl missed her calling,” he said to Jase as he clapped a hand onto the back of my shoulder. “She should’ve been a pilot. You did great up there, Goose.” He and I fist-bumped. “She went through the whole profile. I even through a few extras in there to see if I could actually scare her, but your girl was a fucking rock.”
Jase’s eyebrows darted up. “No shit?”
“We’ve got video to prove it,” I said with a grin.
“You guys sticking around for the day?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Jase said. “We’re gonna hang out, grab some food and watch the show.”
“Cool deal. Hey, it was great to see you, man. If we come back here while I’m still with the Angels, give me a ring. ‘Aight?”
“Absolutely,” Jason said as he shook Garcia’s hand.
“Hey!” I piped up as Garcia turned to leave. “You told me if I made it through the full profile that you’d tell me where your call sign came from.”
Behind me, Jase was already cackling. For being such a badass, Garcia blushed.
“Fair’s fair!” I argued.
“Alright, alright,” Garcia chuckled. “Bugs is short for Bugs Bunny. I’m a vegetarian and all the carnivores I trained with gave me shit for it. Said I ate like a rabbit, so they made my call sign Bugs.”
Jase grinned. “Bugs Bunny was too much of a mouthful.”
I laughed. “That’s it?”
“That’s it, Goose,” Garcia said. He shook my hand. “You did great. I gotta run, but y’all enjoy the show, alright?”
After stripping out of my gear and changing back into my street clothes, we made our way to the area of the base opened to the public for the Cherry Point Air Show.
Jase and I walked hand-in-hand, looking at each of the planes on display. Some old, some new. There were Vietnam-era choppers, all different kinds of fighter jets, a cargo plane, and a massive Harrier.
Jase entertained me with stories of his deployments. The places he’d been. Conflicts he had engaged in. Never once did he let go of my hand. We ate corn dogs and funnel cakes from the food vendors and sipped on lemonade as the summer sun beat down on us.
Halfway through the day, we ran into Steve and Erica. They had brought their two kids, Aly and Eli, to see the show. Jason and Steve took a kid each so Erica could have a break.
I tried to ignore the way my ovaries started line dancing the moment Jase had Aly on his shoulders. Erica gave me a look, letting me know she knew exactly where my mind had gone.
He would make such a good partner. Such a good dad.
Jason was steady and reliable, but he still had that crazy streak that whispered, “Go defy gravity.”
I loved that streak of insanity. I wanted my life to be full of crazy, spur-of-the-moment adventures. I didn’t want to lose that part of myself when I settled down or started a family. I wanted someone to push me into new adventures I wouldn’t have dared myself to try .
I loved being around him. I loved… Shit.
I loved him.
Part of me always had, even when I didn’t understand it.
“Talk to me, Goose,” Jason said as he slid behind me on the metal bleachers. His thighs bracketed my shoulders, and I relaxed in the cozy cocoon.
The base was packed to the brim as everyone waited for the fireworks show. But at that moment, it felt like we were the only two people on earth.
“How’s my date living up to your expectations?” He leaned down and dropped a kiss onto my shoulder. “Best first date you’ve ever been on?”
I reached up and tangled my fingers in the short hairs at the nape of his neck. “Best date I’ve ever been on.” I tipped my chin up, our noses brushing against each other. “No contest.”
“And to think,” Jason said as he trailed his fingers up and down my biceps. “I get to take you home and go inside with you.”
“Oh yeah?” I giggled. “You think I’m gonna let you in my bed?”
Jase tilted my chin up with a crooked finger and kissed me. Intentional, yet leisurely. His lips were soft and warm, working against mine like a slow, sensual massage.
Someone beside me cleared their throat, and we broke apart. There were kids around, and that kiss wasn’t exactly PG.
Jase tucked a loose hair behind my ear and murmured, “I can be very persuasive.”
I licked my lips. “Consider me persuaded.”
A sharp whistle pierced through the air and exploded into a blaze of light. The crowds’ oohs and ahhs drowned out my nerves.
Was I seriously going to have sex with Jason? Were we dating? Not that I needed to have labels with a guy in order to take things to the bedroom, but with Jase…
I didn’t want to ruin us .
I cared about him more than I cared about scratching an itch.
I could do without sex for a while. But I finally got the boy next door back after twenty years—I didn’t know if I was ready to risk losing him again.
And Bridget…
I knew I was lying to Jase by not saying anything. And if he found out what she was going through—what she was trying to leave—he would be devastated. Whatever sparks were flying between us would be snuffed out like a match dropped into the ocean.
I would lose everyone.
“Mel,” Jason’s rumble overshadowed the boom of the fireworks cracking overhead.
I tilted my head back and looked at him upside down. “Hmm?”
A million colors flashed through the sky, but the only one I cared about was the mossy green of Jason’s eyes.
Without warning, he wrapped his arms around my waist and hauled me up onto his lap. “Come here, beautiful,” he growled. Jason captured my lips again, not caring who was around. He found the elastic tie that held my hair back in a bun and tugged it free. Tangling his fingers in my hair, he held my head steady as he stole the breath right out of my lungs.
My lips were swollen and heavy, but he didn’t relent. He wasn’t just giving me a kiss to make me forget every kiss before that; he was taking everything I had to give.
Twenty years ago, Jason invaded my life. Now, he was stealing my heart.
Kissing him was better than the rush I felt hurtling through the air at Mach speeds. He made my heart pound like the supersonic crack when you break the sound barrier.
I couldn’t think. Couldn’t get my bearings straight. All I could do was feel as he slipped his hands under the hem of my tank top and dug his fingers into my waist.
I moaned against his lips, but he swallowed it down. When we finally broke apart, we were chest-to-chest.
Hearts raced, pulses pounded, lungs gasped for oxygen. Jase’s eyes locked on mine, and our foreheads pressed together.
“You are everything I’ve ever wanted, Mel. You’ve got me wrapped around your finger, and you don’t even know it. You walk around without even realizing how goddamn powerful you are. I would follow you on my hands and knees if it meant I got to be with you.”
I swallowed, my lips parting in shock at his confession. “Jase?—”
“This has been a long time coming, baby girl.”
I closed my eyes as fireworks exploded overhead.
“Ask me,” Jase demanded.
“Ask you what?”
“Ask me what you were wearing the first time we met.”
I laughed because I couldn’t even remember the first time we met, much less the clothes I had worn that day. Even though we didn’t meet until high school, in my mind, Jason had always been in my life. There was no beginning or end to us.
We just were .
“What was I wearing?” I whispered.
“Your dad’s new orders made you move from Germany to Beaufort. I came home from school and saw the moving truck at the house next door. You were sitting on the swing set that the last family who lived there had left behind. You were in little green shorts. Like, military green. You were wearing an oversized Bayern Munchen FC jersey. You’d tied the bottom of the jersey off with a hair elastic, so it wasn’t so big, but it showed a little bit of the skin between your shirt and shorts. Your hair was in braids down to the middle of your back. Light brown flip-flops. Two friendship bracelets tied around your ankle. One was light blue. The other was yellow.” He reached down and squeezed the top of my Chuck Taylors. “You were really into toe rings back then, and you wore a silver one on your right foot.”
My jaw dropped, mouth gaping open as he left a trail of warm, sloppy kisses down the side of my neck.
I arched into him. “How do you remember all that?”
Jason wasn’t finished, though. “I lied to Bee and told her that Mom wanted us to go over and introduce ourselves to the new neighbors while she was at work just so I could talk to you.” He kissed across my shoulder. “Your dad answered the door, still in uniform since he had just gotten back from the base. Scared the shit out of me.”
I giggled because he wasn’t wrong. My dad was intimidating as hell when he wanted to be. Sure, he was a big ol’ teddy bear inside, but people were too scared of his rank and his frown to find that out.
“It’s always been you, Mel.” Jase wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a more modest than our X-rated kiss hug. “And it’s always going to be.”
I didn’t want to ask him about all the women I assumed he had dated or fooled around with while he was in the Navy. I didn’t want to talk about why he hadn’t told me he had feelings for me before he left. I didn’t want to think about whether I was betraying him by keeping his sister’s secret.
The one thing I craved more than adrenaline was control.
The thing about adrenaline junkies is that we’re rarely out of control. Rather, we crave control. We crave it so much that we push our minds and bodies to the limit to feel a rush.
But for once, I wanted to let go. I wanted to hand over the control.
All I wanted was to feel limitless.