Chapter 2
JAXON
Clear blue skies met us as we made our approach into Houston. The city spread out down below like it was one of those toy miniatures at the mall.
Joe, the co-pilot, grinned at me. “I don’t know why it’s always such a rush coming home, but it really is.”
“Yeah, always.” It used to be more of a rush back in the day when I was coming home after fighting and flying in a different country for months at a time, but he wasn’t wrong. “Funny thing is, I only left two days ago.”
“You do the run to the Pacific Islands often?” he asked while checking his dials.
I shook my head. “I’ve only been flying commercial for a few years. They started me out on shorter-haul flights. Once I started long haul, I was on the Europe track for a long time.”
He laughed. “If they’ve got someone like you paying your dues first, it’s no wonder it’s taken me so long to get on the international track.”
“You’re here now.” Joe and I had gotten to know each other a little earlier on in the flight, but then we’d switched out for naps, and this was my first real chance to speak to the kid properly without pleasantries and basics being in the way.
“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, flying international, but it pays the bills. ”
“I’d say.” He smiled but returned his attention to the controls while we were landing. When we were safely on the ground, he stuck his hand out to me. “It was an honor flying with you, sir. I have to say, you’re nowhere near as intimidating as I thought you were going to be.”
“Why would you think I was going to be intimidating?” I unbuckled my seatbelt. “I have the next few days off and I’m planning on seeing my mother. What’s intimidating about that?”
“I didn’t know that.” He undid the latch on his own belt and darted his gaze out the window. “Your reputation precedes you, Jaxon. I know there are a lot of you former Air Force guys flying for us now, but it never makes it any easier to actually meet any of you.”
“You did a great job.” I clapped him on the shoulder after I got up, grabbing my suitcase as I opened the door. “I’ll see you around, Joe. Stop being so afraid of people just because of what they did in a previous life.”
I tipped my hat, which I was contractually obliged to wear outside of the cockpit. Then I left the kid to his own devices and made my way into the terminal.
As soon as I stepped out, I was surprised to see a familiar face waving at me. “Jaxon! Oh, my baby boy. I’ve missed you.”
My mother flung her arms around me like it’d been weeks since she’d last seen me, but I dropped my case and hugged her back. “What are you doing here, Mom? I thought we were having dinner at your place.”
“We were, but this way, I didn’t have to wait until then to see you.” She let go of me and stepped back. “It feels like you’re always away these days.”
“We have our weekly dinner most weeks,” I said, picking up my suitcase again before wrapping my arm around her shoulders. “We had our dinner last week. What gives?”
She shrugged, glancing up at me with laughter dancing in her eyes. “Maybe I got tired of cooking and wanted my son to buy me dinner for a change.”
I laughed and hugged her closer to my side. “I knew there had to be a reason you came to the airport when you knew I was going to come see you anyway.”
Batting her eyelashes at me, she pointed at a steakhouse I knew she loved near the end of the terminal. “AJ’s never hurt anybody and that place is as good of a reason to drive out here as anything.”
“Really? As good of a reason to drive out here as your own son?” I gave her a little shake and she laughed again.
“With the amount of hours I’ve spent waiting for you to come home in this wretched place, those people have become my family just as much as you are.”
“You’ll have your steak medium-rare with a baked potato and veggies then, huh?” I couldn’t even argue with her about the hours she’d spent waiting there for me. The staff there knew her order as well as I did by now.
Even though it’d been a few years since my last deployment, they’d never forgotten her. She smiled up at me and wedged herself out of my grip. “Actually, I’m on a diet now. I’ll have the grilled chicken breast and a salad.”
I eyed her scrawny figure. “No one even knows how you ever gave birth to someone the size of me. You don’t need a diet. You need a steak or four.”
“Mrs. Scott, it’s so good to see you,” the hostess said when we walked up to her stand, cutting off whatever retort Mom had been about to come up with. She turned her attention on me, and her cheeks grew red. “Hey, Jaxon. We haven’t seen you for a while.”
I shrugged. “I’ve been in and out. You got a table for us?”
“For you? Always.” She took my mother’s arm and led her to a table near the bar but kept sneaking glances at me over her shoulder.
I wasn’t being immodest when I said Tiffany was always like that. Rumor had it that she and a few of her pals had a thing for ex-military guys.
Well, it wasn’t really a rumor. I’d heard it from some guys I knew personally.
Mom loved AJ’s, though, and she loved Tiffany right along with it. She even gave her a kiss on the cheek before she sat down. Tiffany smiled at her. “I’ll be right back with your menus and Dustin will be your server tonight.”
“Thank you,” Mom said. “You don’t need to bring us menus. Tell Dustin we’ll have our usual.”
She winked at my mother, then at me. “You got it.”
As soon as we were alone, Mom turned her brown eyes to mine. “So, what enchanting tales do you bring me of the great big world this time?”
“I was gone for two days,” I said.
She arched a brow at me. “That doesn’t change the fact that I haven’t seen you in a week. I don’t even know where you’ve been, which is why I’m asking. Tell an old girl some stories about the world outside of Texas.”
“I’ve told you a thousand times I could get you a seat on a plane anywhere you wanted to go.”
She rolled her eyes. “Did I say I wanted to go anywhere? I just want to hear the stories about where you’ve been. Lord knows, you’ve traveled enough for the both of us.”
“I went to Fiji on this last leg,” I said. “Australia before that. Quit making it sound like I’ve seen the world. You know I mostly see the insides of airports and hotels.”
“Only because you’re not making the most of this opportunity.” She made her eyes big as she stared at me. “You’re thirty-eight, Jaxon. Live a little.”
“I’ve lived plenty, thank you very much.”
Sighing as she shook her head, she spread a cloth napkin over her lap, flattening it before bringing her eyes back to mine. “I’ve always tried to teach you to chase the moments, but you’ve forever been too busy trying to catch the next flight instead.”
“If you knew about half the things I’ve done, you definitely wouldn’t be saying that.” I flashed her a teasing smile. “Have I told you about that bar in Singapore—”
She lifted her hands. “I never said I wanted to know about it. I just want you to have some fun while you still can. You’re no spring chicken. One of these days, you’re going to look like me.”
Mom’s face barely had any sign of wrinkles. Her eyes were bright, and even though she’d never dyed her hair, it was still a rich auburn color. “I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
“You will.” She thanked Dustin when he brought our coffees. Then she turned serious again. “When are you going to start exploring these wonderful places you fly to?”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking of doing just that.” It’d only been for the last fourteen hours that I’d been thinking about it, but it was true. “I got to talking with a man in the airport lounge before takeoff. He’d spent the last two months in Fiji. Seemed to think it was the best place on earth.”
“Fiji, huh?” She dipped her head from one side to the other. “That could be nice.”
“Yeah. The guy kept talking about how beautiful it is, and I think it’d be nice to see it. I’ve done the route now so I might stay for a little bit sometime.”
“You should go,” she said. “Didn’t you say you have some days off?”
“Yeah, but to make it worth my while, I’d have to see about getting some extra days off.” Not that I didn’t have vacation days saved up. I had the damn things coming out my ass. “I’ll check with the airline to see when I can take them.”
“As long as you don’t fall in love with somebody over there, I’m all for it. I need you here with me, and I’m not going to Fiji.”
“Well, that escalated fast.” I grinned at her. “I wouldn’t be going to fall in love with a local girl and spend my life sipping out of coconuts while teaching at a flight school. It’s called a vacation. You know how that works, right?”
“Right, but I also know how life works.” She gestured to my phone, lying on the table. “Call the airline. Ask them about some time off. It’ll be good for you to take a breather.”
“I didn’t actually mean I was going to call right this minute.”
She frowned at me. “Why not? You’ve only got a few days off. Optimize them. Adding to them is better than wasting them.”
“Jesus.” I shoved my hand through my hair. “I haven’t even showered since I got off my last flight and you’re already pushing me onto the next one?”
“As if that’s something new to you.” Mom waved a hand at my phone again.
“Go on. Even if they approve your leave, you don’t have to get back on the plane while you’re still in your uniform.
I’m sure they’ll have a flight once you’ve showered and changed.
Just don’t let life wait on you any longer, Jaxon. ”
Relenting with a sigh, I picked up my phone and looked up the number for our HR department. The receptionist was nice, but she couldn’t help me. “I’m afraid the woman who runs that part of the department is out right now. I’ll pass on the message to call you.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I made eye contact with my mother. “I’ll call her back again another time. It’s nothing urgent.”
Mom huffed out a short breath at me, but even she couldn’t bring someone back into the office who was already out for the day.
I shrugged when I hung up. “She’s out. I’ll call her back. I’ll see Fiji one of these days, Mom. It doesn’t need to be today.”