Chapter 14 Em
Em
“Jude? Is that you?” Rhys says. A huge smile takes over my pilot’s face as he makes a beeline for my husband and the two men hug, leaving me standing there looking very confused. “How on earth do you know this guy, Em?”
Jude chuckles. “Funny story there. Rhys Cooper, meet my wife, Em Wilson.”
I almost laugh at how Rhys’s eyes jump out of his head. “You’re what now? Did I miss an invite in the mail?”
Jude wraps his arm around my waist. “It’s a long story, but Em here is my One.”
Recognition hits Rhys’s expression and it warms as he turns my way, holding his arm out for me. “Well, then. I guess I should be welcoming you to the family.”
“It’s not—” I say at the same time Jude blurts out, “not yet.” Not yet?
Jude’s head swings toward me in slow motion, reminding me of those clown sideshow games at the State Fair. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I said that. It’s just—”
“Hey,” I say, stepping close and resting my hand on his shoulder as soon as I see the panic written all over his face. “It’s OK. You didn’t say anythin’ wrong. You’re right. We’re not there, yet. Doesn’t mean we’re not well on our way. I don’t think so, anyway.”
I must say the right thing because his panic vanishes and a slow growing smile appears, his gaze melting in front of my eyes. “Yeah, wifey. We’re definitely on our way…”
It’s not until Rhys clears his throat that I remember where we are. Work trip. Second date with your husband but still a work trip, Em.
“Lucky we’ve got a good lot of time before our first stop. Enough to fill me in on whatever this is,” Rhys waves his hand between us, “but we really should get going. I’ve just finished all my pre-flight checks so we’ll just do a quick safety briefing then hop onboard. Sound good?”
I glance at Jude, happily seeing that his nerves have disappeared and all that’s left is an excited man ready to live out a childhood dream of flying in a helicopter.
And I, for one, can’t wait to be there to witness it.
After loading up my two backpacks into the chopper, Rhys confirms the flight plan and stops with me before the three of us do a quick headset check to make sure we can hear each other.
Rhys flicks a bunch of switches, the engine noise transforming from a high-pitched whine to a loud and thumping mechanical roar as the rotor blades start slicing through the air. I smile over at Jude when he reaches out his hand for mine.
“You OK over there, hubby?” I ask into the microphone.
“Yep. Just tryin’ not to pee my pants.”
I burst out laughing as does Rhys who grins from the pilot’s seat. “I’d recommend you don’t do that, cousin,” he chuckles. “We’re not comin’ back to base for at least seven hours and that’s a long time between changing pants. Besides, that’s not the way to charm your wife.”
“I meant from excitement,” Jude implores, “I’m livin’ out my boyhood dreams right now.”
“I hear you,” Rhys replies. “I still get giddy every time I get to fly.”
“It’s your job though.”
Rhys smirks. “Doesn’t mean I don’t love coming to work every day.”
Soon enough, we reach altitude and head in the direction of our first location, a seismic station in the Talkeetna Foothills. Thirty minutes after take-off, Rhys is bringing the chopper down in a big clear field near some campgrounds.
“Where to from here?” Jude asks, carrying a backpack over each shoulder as we walk away from the chopper toward the USGS marked pickup truck that’s parked up waiting for us.
Once we’re packed up inside the truck, I drive us to the highway that heads north.
“In five miles, there’ll be an access road on the right-hand side.
That’ll take us up the ridge where the monitorin’ station is.
We’ll only be able to drive halfway up, then we’ll need to hike the rest of the way.
It usually takes about twenty minutes to get to the summit. ”
“Lucky you’ve got me to carry the gear then.”
“You know you don’t have to do that.”
He pins me with a look that leaves no room for argument. It’s a look Dad used to give my mom all the time. “OK. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me for doin’ what any decent human bein’ would do. Especially what this husband wants to do for his wife.”
“You’re not just any decent human bein’ though. You’re mine.”
The only things in my life that have ever been mine and mine alone are my house, my SUV, and my job. And now, Jude.
His mouth drops open before heat fills his eyes and a wry grin curves his lips. “You know that means you’re mine too.”
“I better be. I don’t just take anyone on my helicopter flights,” I tease.
We park up at the end of the mountain access road when we get there and use my handheld GPS unit to hike up the slightly overgrown trail that winds its way through the woods to the top of the ridge where the remote monitoring station is.
“No wonder they’re called remote. It feels like we're in the middle of nowhere,” he says as I put my backpack on the ground and grab what I need to get started.
There’s my tablet to run diagnostics and download data and my curated fix-it tool bag that I’ve been adding to for over five years now.
I’ve got cables, tools, spare storage cards and drives, a radio telemetry tester, a multimeter, my trusty headlamp, and a multitude of other things in there that have helped before.
When I straighten and turn around, I’m surprised to find Jude watching me instead of the amazing view. “What?”
“Never knew seein’ my wife in her element on top of an Alaskan mountain would do it for me.”
I bark out a startled laugh. “You’re crazy, hubby.”
“Crazy about you, maybe,” he mutters under his breath.
I toy with letting it go but decide that honesty has—and always will be—the best policy. Especially when it comes to the two of us. Start the way you intend to continue, Em. “Glad the feelin’s mutual.”
Jude tilts his head to the side, his sexy half-lidded gaze roaming over my face. When his eyes drop to my lips, I know I need to delay the inevitable—despite wanting it just as much as he does—otherwise I’ll never get my work done.
“Right. I better get started.” I shake my tool bag. “Did you want to stand back and watch? Or are you more of a hands-on kind of guy?”
That earns me a pointed look. “Definitely the second one.” His voice is low and deep, and just this side of rough and sexy.
“Great,” I reply quickly, hurriedly. Mostly to distract myself. “Do you want to be my assistant? Promise I won’t boss you around too much.”
That’s when he leans in so that his breath is washing over my cheek. “Do your worst, wifey,” he rasps before brushing his lips over my jaw.
Torture. This is going to be torture.
After the first stop, Rhys takes us 50 minutes south-west this time, landing the chopper in a clearing close to the slopes of Mount Spurr. This time there was no driving required, just a thirty-minute hike halfway up the side of the mountain.
I knew this site would need more repairs than the last one, so planned accordingly to give us the most time here.
This also needed me to download a week’s worth of data that hadn’t been transmitted to the satellite.
Having set that up to start, Jude helps me pack everything up so we can leave when the backup is completed.
“This one looked trickier than the last one,” Jude says, closing the zip on the large backpack.
While he does that, I set out the packed lunch I brought for us on a picnic blanket. It’s my favorite one, and not just because I stole it from home before I left Timber Falls for college.
“Sometimes I can check one and it just has a loose connection or a screw that needs tightenin’.”
“Or straighten an antenna that has been knocked over by a wild animal,” he says, like what he had to do at our first stop.
“Yep. They can also be broken and need a technician with more expertise than me to visit or—worse case—we need to replace major parts of the unit—sometimes the whole thing,” I explain, loving the way Jude watches me intently as I speak.
Something I’ve quickly learned about my husband is he listens when someone talks.
More importantly, he makes sure when I talk, that I know he’s listening. And frankly, it’s just one of the things about him that I find hot as hell.
I knew Jude would enjoy this trip because he has a thirst for knowledge and a fascination with learning anything and everything he can. That’s how I knew he wouldn’t just tag along and be a bystander but fully commit himself to the whole experience.
I also wanted to share something with him that I haven’t shared with anyone else close to me but also show him the one thing—other than him—that has been like an anchor for me since Dad passed.
It’s a bonus that the same thing is also one of my proudest achievements and something I’ve worked damn hard for.
There have been moments in between Jude’s visits where I’m struck with self-doubt.
Not in myself, but when I wonder if he’ll get sick of driving across the state every weekend just for a date or two.
It’s not every day that you find out you're legally married to a woman who lives hours away from you, and who isn’t in the mental place to share the traveling load right now.
Or cut the need for traveling altogether and move back home where she belongs.
Whenever that happens though, all I have to do is text or call Jude and just hearing from him silences my doubts.
He’s never hidden his feelings or where he’s at with me and him.
He’s also repeatedly told me that he’s in no rush.
“We have time,” he has said more than once.
Just thinking those three words and his confidence behind them gets me smiling again.
Ugh. Have I become one of those women who gets giddy thinking about their partner… husband… boyfriend?
“Are you my boyfriend?” I blurt out just as Jude goes to sit down, he stops mid-bend before straightening and staring at me with a puzzled look on his handsome face.