Chapter 22
22
OWEN
Wrapped in a thin white sheet, Jade and I are lying face to face in bed as the sun welcomes the new day.
“What happens if your dad shows up here?” Nervously, she nibbles on her bottom lip.
“What can he do? Blindfold me, tie me up, and fling me into the back of a plane to fly me home?” Not likely. And we no longer have the private family jet. Out of the blue, he sold that last year.
“I don’t know what he is capable of.” She looks at me with those big, innocent doe eyes.
She’s right, she doesn’t know him, but I do, and although he’s an ass, I don’t believe he has it in him to be so bold. He’s comfortable in his own surroundings in Scotland and barely leaves the country. He’s far from the man about town he thinks he is.
“Positive. He may have tracked me, but we leave here in five days, and I have no intention of returning to Scotland.” He can’t make me .
“We have so much to pack before then.” Jade groans at the enormity of it all.
I moved in with her and Poppy the day after Mari’s accident, and we’ve grown into this villa, accumulating things as if we were already a little family.
“You focus on refining your choreography. Is today the last run-through?”
She’s glowing with happiness when she nods. “Yes, and Families Day is on Friday to say thank you to the base for hosting and show them the entire display from start to finish.” She pulls the covers up to her mouth with excitement.
“Then home on Saturday,” I confirm.
Then back to the cold weather of England. I shiver at the thought.
With only one suitcase and a passport to my name, I never in a million years thought I would move to England.
Although—I stare at Jade—I’ve got her and my lovely little Pop-a-doodle and they are more than enough to stoke the fire in my belly to find a job and make some money so I can look after them. I’ll do whatever it takes to make this work. I’ll even take a job in finance if I have to. I’ve already been looking and there are plenty of options. I’ll not struggle to get work.
“My choreography worked out perfectly.” She sighs.
“Your display is jaw-dropping.” And stomach-dropping. Poppy and I have made our way up the cliffs several times to watch them practicing and every time I spot something different, and now they’ve added in flying with colored smoke, it gives the stunts that extra wow factor. I especially love the giant love heart two of the jets perform. The precision and shape of two planes drawing a heart shape in the sky with red smoke while only feet away from each other blows my tiny brain. I do not know how they do it. The risky maneuver is performed perfectly every time.
I bop the end of her nose. “So, you concentrate on being awesome, and I’ll pack. It won’t take long.” I’ve already packed most of Poppy’s toys ready for the plane.
While Jade is flying her jet back to England, Poppy and I are returning on a flight from Larnaca airport to Manchester, where we’ll be greeted by a driver to take us on to camp to meet Jade. Without check-ins and transfers, she’ll be back before us, but not soon enough to meet us at the airport.
Having never flown with a baby before, I’m unsure of what I’m doing, so I’m winging it. I’m a little worried, but I’m sure we’ll be fine.
Jade nibbles on her thumbnail. “Can I ask you something?” Her voice sounds a pitch higher than normal.
“It’s at least ten inches, Hotshot,” I answer cheekily, making her chest shake with laughter. “Ask away. What do you want to know, Jade?”
“If… What… Oh, I can’t ask you. Forget it.” She rolls onto her back and stares at the ceiling.
I roll on top of her, pressing our bodies together, and lean my forearms on either side of her head.
“Talk to me.”
Her eyes bounce back and forth between mine. “Have you started looking for a job?”
“I have.”
“In finance?”
“Yeah.”
“Is that what you want to do?”
“No.”
I wanted you to ask me to look after Poppy full-time, but I know you’re looking for a nanny .
I continue. “But I need to pay my own way and eat. And if I am moving in with Gregor, then I will need money to contribute toward the household bills.”
“Okay. But would you be open to offers?”
I widen my eyes in anticipation. “Spill.”
“I can’t find a nanny,” she blurts.
I open then close my mouth, then eye her suspiciously, pulling my brows together. “Wait, I thought you’d had over twenty resumes from the agency and you were interviewing the shortlist when we got back?” Which I was disappointed about.
She groans. “None of them are suitable. Some can’t stay over. Some need every weekend off; others need every Thursday off. What the hell happens on a Thursday?” She’s sounding stressed, and her voice goes all squeaky. “One of them wants more than fifty days’ vacation a year because she likes to travel for a month every year. I don’t even get fifty vacation days a year.”
“Right.” I draw out the word, hoping she’ll get to the point soon. I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out what she wants from me though, and I am so fucking excited I can’t contain my smile. “So why haven’t you told me this sooner? We go home in five days.” I taunt her, hoping she’ll ask me the question.
Ask me to take care of Poppy.
She scowls hard. “Because for the first time in my life, I feel out of control. My job requires me to be organized, focused, responsible at all times. I’ve flown thousands of hours at Mach speed. I’m a leader, a great one. I’m motivated and I motivate others. I’ve completed front line tours, lived in tents under the blazing heat of the desert, completed assault courses, then walked for ten kilometers, then completed another assault course right after which made me vomit my lungs up. I even survived on only a couple of hours’ sleep a night for the first weeks of officer training. I’ve done all of that, and yet, finding someone I trust who can look after the most precious thing in my life seems an impossible task.” She pauses. “I can’t do it. And—” She looks angry at herself for admitting how she’s feeling. “I’m scared to leave her with anyone I don’t know, and even more petrified that if I don’t find someone, I will probably get kicked off the team. Although maybe that would be easier; I wouldn’t have a crazy schedule, except then I will have to return to my fast jet squadron, and I know I will have to go on deployment for six months somewhere which leaves me in the same position I’m in now.” Her eyes dart from mine to the ceiling and I watch as her panicked mind takes hold. “Oh my God, I need help, and fast.”
And a paper bag to blow into.
Her heart is beating like a set of bongo drums.
“Hey, hey. Just breathe, Hotshot,” I say, using a soothing voice to calm her. “They can’t and won’t do that. There are strict employment laws.” She’s overthinking it, but we need to solve the nanny, or lack of, situation.
Her voice sounds hopeless as she tells me everything she should have told me days ago. “I’ve barely been back at work two months and I’m already failing at this mom and work thing. I have hundreds of displays to perform from the beginning of June through to the end of September. And we still have more shows to be confirmed overseas and in the UK. I haven’t found anyone who can even nearly accommodate my ridiculous schedule.” A tear runs down her temple and I brush it away, my heart spiking with pain for her. “I thought I had this all figured out, but I don’t. I didn’t account for Mom having an accident. And I now know why the other female pilots with children don’t apply for aerobatic selection because I failed the team as soon as I got pregnant and now that I can’t find a nanny, I’m going to fail them all over again. And I am failing Poppy too. I can’t do this.”
She squeezes her eyes shut. “I’m a failure.” She covers her face with her hands, then muffles into them. “I’m too ashamed to look at you.”
“Jade,” I coax. “You are not a failure, far from it. But you keep mentioning losing your job. Legally, that can’t happen, unless there is something you’re not telling me. What is really going on, Hotshot?” I can feel there is more to this than she’s letting on.
Eventually, she whispers into her cupped hands on her face so quietly I don’t catch her words.
She’s scared or hiding something, or both.
“Jade, baby. Look at me.”
Holding her hands in place, she doesn’t move.
“Please.” She’s worrying me now. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”
She spreads her fingers to peek through. “It’s Cobra.” Her voice is small.
My body goes rigid, the timbre in my voice dropping. “What about Cobra?”
She moves her hands away from her face and then worries her bottom lip. “If I don’t find a nanny, Cobra will kick me off the team. He’s been threatening to do so since I returned from maternity leave. He… makes me feel uncomfortable.” She sucks in a breath as if gearing up to make a confession, then she does. “I haven’t told anyone, and I lied to you when you asked if he’d ever made other advances toward me, but he has, and I couldn’t say anything because he said he would shorten my time with the display team and send me back to my squadron. This is an opportunity of a lifetime and my dream job. I don’t want to have my term with the display team shortened. ”
That motherfucker. I knew it. My blood takes on its own heat as my body temperature rises.
“I want to know everything. No stone left unturned, Jade; I want complete honesty from you.”
And then she lets it all out. She tells me about an incident in the break room, him whistling at her, comments about returning favors. She lists a series of offensive comments, asking her about her sex life, offensive gestures, unwanted touching, using his rank to not only sexually harass her but emotionally and physically harass her as well.
“This stops right now.” I kiss her on the lips, roll off her, and pull her up out of bed. “Jump in the shower. I’m calling Gregor.”
“No, don’t,” she exclaims as she tries to grab the phone that I now have in my hand.
“Do you want my help?” She wouldn’t have told me if she didn’t, and I think secretly she knew I wouldn’t keep this from Gregor. It’s too big not to act on.
“Yes, but?—”
“But nothing, Jade. How do you know he isn’t doing this to other women? And what about before you? Where was he based before this posting? We have to stop him. Now. He knows what he’s been doing. He’s been misusing his power to harass you and not just once or twice, it’s dozens of times, before and after having Poppy. You said you kept a diary of events, yes?”
When she nods, standing in front of me naked, my heart aches in my chest at how my usually confident girl looks completely lost and vulnerable.
“Up there.” I point to the sky. “You are the one in control. You are the brave leader that turns me on so fucking bad. I want to jump in your plane and write across the sky how badass I think you are. But sometimes, Hotshot, like now, you need to let go of the control and let others lead. Let Gregor help you, because this has to stop. For you, for others he may have done it to previously, and for anyone else that comes after you.” I close the distance between us and kiss the shell of her ear. “You didn’t ask for this. You don’t deserve it, and I will not let this go on for another minute.”
I wrap her up in a warm embrace. “We’ll fight this together, Jade. I can be your witness. I saw everything at the hospital. They will believe you.”
“They will.” It’s not a question. She sounds more confident now.
“And Gregor saw the break room incident, plus he saw and heard him wolf whistling at you,” I say, confirming more of her evidence against Cobra.
“He did.”
“Then you have enough evidence for a team to investigate. And when they find what they’re looking for, because they will”—I squeeze her tight—“then and only then will they take administrative action. But we need to follow your chain of command or whatever procedure the Air Force follows. They’ll have a strict zero-tolerance policy. It may be a drawn-out and lengthy procedure, but I’ll stand by you every step of the way. We all will.”
“Thank you.” Her tone is laced with heavy worry. “I don’t want to be a burden or be the woman who won the world’s first aerobatic pilot title to have it overshadowed with a sexual harassment accusation. I don’t feel in control of this.”
“It’s not an accusation, Jade. These are facts and they will uncover the truth with a thorough investigation.”
“What if I lose my job?” she questions, sounding pained.
“By law, they can’t do that. Cobra, though, will most likely be dismissed.” I lean out of our embrace and, with a firm voice, say, “You’re the victim, Jade. He’s the perpetrator. He made some terrible decisions and now he has to face the consequences.”
“Okay,” she whispers, finally agreeing that we are doing the right thing.
Keen to call Gregor, because I want to strike before Cobra gets the chance to, I move out of our embrace. “First things first. Shower.” I point at the bedroom door. “Second thing, I am calling Gregor while you’re in there. I’ll tell him everything, and thirdly”—I kiss her on the lips—“yes, I’ll be your nanny.”
She looks astonished and confused, her eyes wide.
“That’s what you were going to ask me, right?”
“Yeah, sort of. You know what? Forget I mentioned it, it’s fine.” She wafts her hand through the air as if she’s swatting flies off her face as she tries to renege on the offer she never made me in the first place.
I smile, enjoying how uneasy she is when she needs to ask for help. I listen to her listing shitty excuses as to why it would never work, and when she’s almost out of breath, I speak. “It’s a great idea. I can keep Poppy at Gregor’s when you’re overnighting. I can look after her during the day at your house.”
“Unless you move in with me?” she blurts out, then covers her mouth with her hand.
My brows dip in confusion. “I didn’t think partners were permitted to live in quarters unless you were married?”
Her hand drops from her mouth. “You’re not, but if I employ you as the nanny, you can live in with me. I would fill out the correct paperwork to make that happen and get you a pass to get on and off camp. You’d have to have a security check.” The solution to all our problems falls into place; she needs a nanny and I need a job. It’s a win-win situation.
I let out a half chuckle, half exhale, letting the plan simmer. “I’m gonna be the nanny with benefits. ”
She scrunches up her face, making all her freckles join together. “That sounds terrible.”
“It sounds amazing.”
Then she makes me an offer. “I will pay you.”
“So I’m the gigolo, now?” I joke.
She drops her chin to her chest. “Oh, my God. That’s not what I meant.”
I sweep her into my arms because she feels too far away from me, and I always want to be touching her, then crash land us on top of the bed, making her squeal. Her warm laughter is muffled against my skin.
My large hand takes her face as I plant a kiss on her lips. “Let’s not talk about any of the details. Just do what you need to do to get me on to camp and if I have to stay with Gregor in the interim, that’s fine, too. Just know this: I will take care of Poppy. Whatever you need me to do, for however many days and nights, to give Poppy consistency, the care she needs, and to make your life and job seamless, I’m the man for the job.”
Relaxing in my arms, contented, she sighs. “I have a nanny.”
“I’m going to be the best goddamn nanny there ever was.”
Kissing me deeply, she hums, “You already are.”
Then it’s all systems go, and while Jade gets ready for work, I call Gregor and fill him in about Cobra. He’s not surprised when I confirm his suspicions. He then tells me exactly what Jade needs to do to file a complaint, reassuring me that he, along with the entire team, will support her.
But it sounds like there is a long list of protocol to follow first.
Let’s hope that Jade’s lucky stone she wears in her bra brings us lots of luck because, from the looks of it, we’re going to need it.
Fuck, could anything else happen to me this year?
Apparently, it could.