Chapter 5
What, exactly, was she doing?
Jett had never been so bold in her life. Clueless sometimes, but never outright audacious.
Did her big mouth, when her guard was down, tend to get her in hot water every now and then? Absolutely. But in the past, she’d done a pretty good job curbing her wayward tongue when it came to superiors, men in general, and dating.
Nobody—she’d come to find out after alienating a number of her “meh” past partners—liked a mouthy woman. At least in her experience.
And now…
Her haphazard filters had completely disintegrated, and she was in danger of, God forbid, being her real self with a man she’d quickly decided she didn’t want to send running.
Not that the reason for her unleashed tongue escaped her.
It was at first his attitude, and then that kiss.
It had been so easy to decide that by poking at Trask, the big old grumpy bear’s hard edges would eventually blur. And Jett was loving the challenge. The man had initially come off as so buttoned-up and tight-assed, that Jett could tell he was a rule follower, a neatnik, and a ball-buster.
So, she thought she’d have some fun and let her devilishness, shine.
Not for an instant had she thought that would be a hardship. But she also hadn’t known how it would affect her. Like she’d been smacked with a brick.
Trask was, for sure, a gorgeous specimen of maleness, and she’d figured that stealing a kiss from him would not only be amusing for whatever reaction she gleaned, but a pleasure.
What she hadn’t known was that it would shake her very foundations.
The demanding hardness of his lips. The feel of his packed muscles under her hands. His intoxicating smell. It was a trifecta that had combined to blow her mind.
What had started out as a romp and a tease, had quickly escalated into something much more for Jett. She’d known she was in serious trouble when she’d immediately wished they weren’t standing out in the freezing cold weather where shedding clothes would be an extremely unwise decision.
And she’d thought that Trask was on the very same page as they’d canoodled, which had added a spring to her step as she’d gone to retrieve the dogs.
So, who could blame her for letting her disappointment show when Trask had subsequently tried to speed up their business interaction, briskly attempting to get the transferring of diving equipment done, so he could forget about their kiss, and leave?
What she’d thought had been an epic connection, had seemed like not that big of a deal to Trask. And that had hurt.
Jet had been caught out, or course, pouting—damn him for being so observant—and now he was driving her to a pity-meal because…
…he was a gentleman?
Yeah. That seemed likely. He was interacting with her like he’d been brought up by a mom or dad who’d look at him askance if he left a lady hanging. Especially a lady with whom he’d shared an impromptu kiss.
Which only meant one thing.
Instead of backing down and making things easy on him, Jett would have to up her game, stop dialing things back so she appeared to be someone she wasn’t, and flirt with him even more outrageously, if that’s what the situation called for.
She’d probably and eventually make this whole interaction so over-the-top, that the pair of them would end up laughing about it as she made no excuses for her behavior, and waved goodbye.
Not that she’d forget about that kiss once she was shed of him. The man really knew how to use his lips. Uh, huh. She’d be loading that into her silo of a brain as fodder for some highly erotic dreams in the future.
Mentally sighing, she wished they had time for…more.
She wondered briefly if Trask’s lip-skills extended to any other interesting parts she might have rubbed up against during their full-body-press, but quickly shut that down.
There was no need to think about anything in the future regarding Trask Sothard, not even how big the bulge had been that had burgeoned up between them.
The man, she was sure, would be long gone, truck tires squealing before she was even cleared for take-off.
Still, since he was being a really good sport right now, she’d relent; take it easy on him for a bit and act like a normal human being. Until she could blindside him.
“Tell me about yourself, and what made you leave the Marines?” she questioned, sitting back against the leather upholstery. Because of course he’d have leather seats in his brand-new truck. Had he washed the thing just before he’d arrived at the airport? The chassis was amazingly shiny.
Huh. Maybe he hadn’t hit the carwash at all. Jett suppressed a snicker. Perhaps Trask was so commanding, he’d scared the road into not spewing salt onto his precious baby.
The farm vehicles at her Dad’s home, in contrast, were always mud-caked, and held together by spit and bailing wire. She was going to have to do something about that equipment, sooner, rather than later, in order to sell them. It was just another bullshit thing on her list.
Jett turned her attention to Trask, and admired his strong hands on the wheel as he maneuvered them onto the main road outside the airport and answered her query.
“Nothing momentous,” he told her, but…
Not true, she immediately ascertained. He looked pained
“I’d been in for nearly thirty years, my brothers were opening their dive venture, and I needed a change.” He shrugged. “So here I am, running logistics and errands for Diver Downeast until we get up to speed and my daily routine is more defined.”
There was something he wasn’t telling her, but she’d get to the bottom of it if she could.
“I feel that,” Jett responded agreeably.
“I already told you I had twenty years in. I was stationed at MacDill in Florida for a lot of it, then got sent…elsewhere for various missions. About three months ago I decided I’d had enough.
I felt it was time to go home. My dad’s not getting any younger, and I wanted to reconnect with him, then determine where I’d fit in with him and the outside world before I was too old to enjoy civilian life. ”
Trask scoffed. “Because you’re ancient,” he teased. “I have ten years on you,” he offered up.
She’d done the math when he said he’d been in for thirty years, but it was nice to know he wasn’t too uptight to admit their age difference considering they’d already had some physical knowledge of each other.
“Ten years looks good on you,” she complimented. Hell, the man was in such awesome shape, nobody would take him for being in his late forties.
He chose to ignore the kudos. “So, have you? Settled in at home and found your niche?”
Jett laughed wryly. She’d gotten one surprise after another in the six weeks since she’d been back.
“Actually, I found that my ‘old’ dad had some shockers up his sleeve. Not only had he found himself a live-in girlfriend named Bunny, but the two of them have discovered a mutual penchant for travel. They’ve apparently taken up cruising, and have decided to make it a habitual thing; booking passage on big-ass ships where they can gorge themselves on buffet food and faux-Vegas shows several times a year. ”
Trask chuckled, and Jett loved it.
She could see him starting to relax, which is just what she’d wanted; easing him off his guard before she began letting her rapscallion mouth take over again.
He cleared his throat. “Good for your dad. But he’s got a girlfriend? I, uh, might have heard from my brother that your father has an…onion problem.”
Jett laughed delightedly. Everyone who ran into Randal DeLuca knew that he practically bathed in the things.
“He did,” she emphasized. “But Bunny let him know pretty early on that it was either the allium or her. Smart woman. He chose her, and the rest is history.”
“Except that you’re now a third wheel at the family homestead.”
“Not for long.”
Jett’s mood changed from playful to troubled as she explained.
“Dad decided a few months ago—without telling me, because I hadn’t informed him I was coming home—to sell the house, the barn, and the ten acres where I grew up.
He felt bad, once I told him I was separating from the Air Force, but he said that unless I wanted the place, he was ditching it.
He had no need for such a big spread, because he and Bunny would be traveling a lot.
” Jett recalled trying to stay upbeat for that game-changer of a conversation.
“I agreed that it was way too much property even for me in my single state, so the house is currently on the market.”
“Hence, the clean-out, and the offering up of his diving equipment to us,” Trask finished up for her.
“Exactly,” she answered with a sigh. “With my help, he’s jettisoning everything that I don’t want, but that’s difficult, as well. Since I haven’t found a place to live yet, I have no idea what I’ll want to keep.”
He looked at her, slightly puzzled. “You’ve had… how many weeks to establish a new situation for yourself? Six did you say?”
Jett pursed her lips. There was that get-‘er-done, no nonsense, always have a plan thing coming from him again. The man must have been a Boy Scout before he went into the service.
Still, he had a point. Jett had been putting things off, much to her detriment.
“I know. I know,” she finally answered, gruffly. “But I’m picky. Alright?”
Yeah. That was a good enough excuse.
He relented. “I am, too. I’ve seen more houses than I care to in the past couple months, and nothing has called to me yet.”
Jett could see that. Trask probably had the exact thing he wanted in mind, and wasn’t about to settle. She felt sheepish, but she wasn’t about to reveal that she hadn’t actually started looking yet.
“So where are your father and Bunny going to live?” Trask asked, taking her silence to mean she was having the same problem. He pulled into a diner that looked like it had been transported right out of the fifties.