38. Jason
38
JASON
“ W ow,” Mel said as she walked into the tiny studio apartment over the office at the airfield. “This is…”
I held my hands out to stave off her having an overreaction.
Or an underreaction.
Honestly, I didn’t really know what kind of reaction I was hoping for. The space was small and dusty. I had come up here during a break in my day to take off the sheets that kept the unused furniture from getting dirty.
Pops hadn’t been up here in years. The stairs were too hard on his knees, so he had gotten a little place not too far from the airfield. The loft was a little… little.
The only interior walls and doors were to give the tiny bathroom a little privacy from the rest of the space. There was a bed and a dresser. A small closet also housed the water heater. The kitchen was minuscule, but we could make it work for a few months. At least the refrigerator and stovetop worked.
We’d bring over some of the furniture from Mel’s apartment to make the place comfortable and put the rest in my storage unit when her lease ended.
To make it feel a little less like a mausoleum I dusted the old furniture, bought some new sheets and satin pillowcases in emerald green, and made the bed.
Mel was particular about the squish of her pillow, so I held off on picking new ones up.
A vase of fresh-cut flowers sat on the small kitchen table, brightening up the place. I’d snagged a few of Mel’s favorite candles from her place and had been burning them over here all day. I wanted to give her the cozy vibe she had carefully perfected.
It needed to feel like home.
“I know it’s small,” I began. “But I’ve been talking to the contractor who did Will and Luca’s houses, and they can break ground for us at the end of the month.”
Without saying a word, she brushed past me and walked through the apartment, trailing her fingertips over the surface as she went. I lingered behind her, staring at her ass because damn.
She came straight from the hospital and was still in her scrubs. It must not have been a messy shift because she didn’t object to me grabbing the waistband of her pants and pulling her in for a long kiss the minute she popped into the office. My office.
I had her straddling me in my desk chair, rocking against my erection as we made out like a couple of horny teenagers. I was one lucky son of a bitch.
Mel circled the kitchen and stared out of one of the many windows.
The upside to it being the size of a shoebox was that the light was great. We had an unobstructed view of Beaufort from all sides. Sure, we’d have to get some blackout curtains so she could sleep if she went back on the night shift, but that was a small price to pay.
“What do you think?” I asked when she stalled at the window beside the two-seater kitchen table that overlooked the runway. I stood behind her, bracing my arms on either side of hers.
The sun was low in the sky. Orange, red, and pink were splashed across the horizon like watercolors. Soon, fireflies would make their appearance, dancing as they glowed in the warm night air.
I leaned down, pressing a kiss behind her ear. “Too soon to move in with your boyfriend?”
She let out a melodic giggle, her bright smile flashing like lightning. “My parents got married when they were twenty years old. They went to Vegas after only knowing each other for a month. Tied the knot there.”
I laughed as I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her back to my front. Nuzzling the crook of her neck, I said, “Bullshit.”
“It’s the truth!” Mel squealed. “I have pictures to prove it! They went to a Vegas chapel and had an Elvis wedding right before my dad deployed.” She turned and wrapped her arms around my neck. “And now they’ve been married for fifty-one years.”
“Do you think we’ll get as many years together as they have?” I asked.
Mel smiled wistfully. I knew what she was thinking. Hell—I was thinking the same thing, too.
You never know how long you’ll get with someone.
Even though Steve was happily remarried and had a growing family, he had lost his first love. Mel had lost her friend.
“I don’t care how many years I get with you,” she said as she clasped her hands behind my neck and played with the back of my hair. “The quantity of days we get with those we love is out of our hands. But the quality of those days—that’s up to us.”
“C’mon,” I said, pulling her away from the window. “There’s one more thing I want to show you.”
We walked hand-in-hand along the rows and rows of airplane hangars. Some of the bay doors were open as owners did run-ups or tinkered with their planes. A few of the hangars were empty. I had worked with Pop to clean them out and get them ready to be leased.
We passed the last hangar and made our way across a stretch of gravel that would be our future driveway. Short wooden stakes and orange flags on metal picks outlined the perimeter of the house. Spray-painted lines slashed across the grass, warning the construction crew where underground power lines were.
“It feels like a dream,” she said as I pulled back a section of orange fencing and let us into the property.
I was sitting pretty with my Navy pension, but not paying for the plot of land was a big fucking money saver. Property taxes on the coast were obscene and I wanted to be able to invest capital in the airfield.
We walked onto the grass that would soon be bulldozed and leveled. “Floyd stopped by this morning and showed me the blueprints,” I began as I led her through the maze of little orange flags.
Mel had known exactly what she wanted in a house, and there was no way in hell I wasn’t saying yes to all of it.
“This is gonna be the dream kitchen that you are under no circumstances allowed to cook in.”
She shoved me playfully and rolled her eyes.
I led her a little farther. “This is the living room.” I pointed to the side that faced an empty field. “There will be a big row of windows on that wall… A fireplace over there. I’m thinking your record player and your vinyl collection can go over here.”
Mel laughed. “You’ve got this all planned out, don’t you, flyboy?”
“Hey, you picked out the floor plan,” I countered.
She snickered under her breath. “I know. I’m just giving you a hard time. ”
We walked across the grass to the other side of the still-invisible house. “And now we’re standing in our bedroom,” I said as I turned her to face me and rested my hands on her hips. “Well. It’ll be about ten feet above us on the second floor.”
Mel stepped closer, her stomach pressing against my dick. I was always fucking hard around her. I was starting to think that maybe I needed to see a doctor. Wasn’t there a warning about erections lasting this long?
“And what are your plans for our bedroom?” she asked, skating her palms up my chest.
“To make love to you every chance I get. To kiss you good morning and good night. To hold you on the bad days and revel in the good days. To start a family to raise and send into the world being the best of both of us. To give you a peaceful place to rest or fall apart when you come home from being Wonder Woman.”
She opened her mouth to say something—probably an argument—but I wasn’t finished.
“One more spot I want to show you.” I tugged on her hand and dragged her across the property. We stood on a grassy spot that faced the end of the runway.
“What’s this going to be?” she asked, looking around at the property markers, trying to figure out which part of the house it was.
When she turned back to face me, I was already down on my knee. “This is the place where I ask you to be my wife.”
I cracked the ring box open and smiled like a goddamn fool as I pulled the ring out. I had picked it up from the jeweler this morning and knew I wasn’t going to waste one more second. I was going to ask her to marry me the first chance I got.
Tears flooded her eyes, and she cupped her hands around her mouth as she stumbled back. “Jase?—”
“I’ve loved you since we were kids,” I said as I stood up and peeled her left hand away from her face. “You were my girl long ago, and it’s about damn time that everyone else knows it, too.”
Tears were rolling down her cheeks. I held her hand and stroked my thumb across the top. It didn’t help calm her in the slightest. She was shaking like a leaf.
“I love you, baby girl,” I said as I placed a soft kiss on her lips. “Marry me.”
It wasn’t exactly a question. It was more of a demand. Either way, it did the trick because Mel was jumping into me, shrieking like a banshee and wrapping her arms and legs around me like a koala bear.
“Talk to me, Goose,” I laughed as I caught her and spun around. “Is that a yes ?”
“Yes!” she cried. “A million times, yes!”
We collected ourselves enough to drive back to Morehead to load some essentials into my truck. Essentials being the paddleboards, a change of clothes, towels, and toilet paper.
Mel wanted to spend our first night as an engaged couple in the airfield loft. She had the day off tomorrow and was more excited than I would have been to make our temporary digs as cozy as possible.
I wasn’t complaining. I quite liked the idea of being able to slip upstairs for a midday quickie.
Besides, we had christened every possible spot in her apartment. This gave us new square footage to fornicate on.
“You hungry?” I asked as we headed back to the airfield. After a long day at the hospital, Mel was usually in bed by now, dead to the world.
“Wanna swing by the bar?” she asked as she fiddled with the diamond on her hand. She hadn’t stopped looking at the ring—only peeling her eyes away to pack up what she wanted to take to the airfield .
I’d perused what felt like hundreds of rings, but the moment I saw that ring—Melissa’s ring—I knew it was the one. An emerald-cut diamond with a frame of smaller diamonds on a thin rose-gold band. It was beautiful, vintage, and one of a kind.
Mel.
I draped my arm across her shoulders. She had changed out of her scrubs when we stopped by her place. Now, she was back in that little orange romper she’d worn when she invited me to Jokers after treating me at the hospital on my first day back.
Sometimes accidents are fate in disguise.
“You just want to show Bridget, don’t you?” I guessed.
Mel giggled as she studied her ring in the fleeting light of the street lamps. “Pretty much. But also, onion rings.”
My stomach growled in approval. “I’m on board with onion rings.” Our haul of home goods slid in the bed of the truck as I turned into the bar’s parking lot. It actually wasn’t too busy tonight, but I spotted Kyle Kingsley’s vehicle beside Bridget’s.
The minute I pressed the brake, Mel was unbuckling her seatbelt and flying out of the truck. I barely caught up with her before she launched herself over the bar to show off her ring.
“Bee!” Mel squealed, drawing the attention of every patron in the joint. She held up her hand, flashing the ring to my sister.
Bridget’s jaw hit the floor. “Oh my God!” She looked over Mel’s head at me. “You—you proposed?”
I stood behind Melissa and rested my chin on top of her head. “Little bit ago.”
Bridget pressed her hands on the oak top and vaulted over the bar. “Jase!” She threw her arms around me when she landed on her feet. “You’re kidding! Oh my God—let me see!” She grabbed Mel’s hand and studied the ring. “Did he do good? Did you cry? I’ll kill him if he didn’t make it perfect. ”
Melissa laughed and looked up at me like I hung the moon and stars. “It was absolutely perfect.”
“What’s going on?” Kyle’s voice bellowed. He abandoned his liquor and sauntered toward us.
Bridget wedged herself between Mel and me. “Jason proposed to Mel.” Her tone threw me for a loop. It sounded almost… victorious. A little haughty. Like a solid Ha! Take that!
Something flashed in Kyle’s eyes. The corner of his lip curled up in disdain. It was so brief that, if I hadn’t been staring straight at him, I would have missed it.
“Well,” he said, head tipping back like he had downed his drink just a little too fast. “Isn’t that something?”
Mel was a coiled spring. I didn’t miss the way she instinctively edged in front of Bridget.
“How about champagne!” Bridget said, clapping her hands. “Y’all are celebrating!” Kyle must have taken that as her request for him to return to his solitary brooding. He turned and went back to his seat at the end of the bar.
“How about dinner?” I asked. If I didn’t get some calories in me soon, I wouldn’t have the energy to fuck my fiancé when we got home. That was a priority.
“The works!” Bridget shouted a dinner order into the kitchen pass-through. “And a salad for Jase.”
Mel snorted as we took our seats at the bar. “That’s what you get for being a health nut. I’m not sharing.”
I leaned over and growled, “Fine. I guess I’ll just have to eat you when we get home.”
She chewed on her lip. “What happens if I share?”
I smirked. “Then I’ll eat you and let you finish.”
Mel clenched her thighs together and wiggled on the barstool. “You’re quite the negotiator, flyboy.”
“I know your weaknesses. ”
“You.” She giggled. “You’re my weakness.”
“I’m the only one who could convince you to sneak out in the middle of the night. Remember that?”
“I don’t think sneaking out just to sit in my backyard actually counts as sneaking out.”
I made a show of mulling it over as Bridget brought over two glasses of champagne. “It counts. For you, at least.”
“I used to think about those nights a lot after you went to Maryland,” she said, trailing her fingertip around the rim of the champagne flute. “I’d wonder if there was some girl at the Naval Academy that you’d spend your late nights talking to.”
“I had the same fear,” I admitted. “That you had replaced me.”
She shook her head. “No one can fill a spot that’s meant for someone else. I was just biding my time. Going on dates to appease Bee.”
I knocked back my champagne. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged. “A while ago… Oh—I don’t know. Maybe when Isaac and Hannah Jane started seeing each other, she got really obsessed with setting me up on dates. Hell, for a while, I thought she had rented a billboard on Highway70 and put my phone number on it. I think she just wanted to help me get over the embarrassment of telling Steve I had a crush on him. The dates were awful, but I promised her I’d keep trying. She’s the one who helped me set up my dating profile.”
“Do you still have your profile up on that app?” I asked.
She laughed, staring at the bottom of her champagne flute. “Nope. I had a few dates lined up before I deleted it. You know—the horrible trilogy of dumpster-fire dates? But…”
“But?”
Mel leaned in and kissed me. “But I deleted it the day I saw you at the hospital after your surfing accident. ”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “What about all those times you made a damn show of swiping left and right in front of me?”
She smirked like the little devil she was. “I had to do something to make you jealous. It was just the free version—the profiles you see on the home page.”
My jaw dropped. “You little?—”
“Order’s up, lovebirds!” Bridget sing-songed as she carried over a mountain of food.
I leaned over and whispered. “Your ass is gonna pay for that little stunt, baby girl.”
She stole an onion ring off the plate and wiggled her eyebrows as she took a bite. “I’m counting on it, flyboy.”