Forget Me Not (Love in the Fleet) (5 page)

“Got it!” they screamed back.

“Good. Okay, like I said, I’m Lieutenant Crawford and I’m in the United States Navy. I fly Seahawk helicopters out of Naval Station Mayport, right down the road. Raise your hand if you’ve ever seen a gray Navy helicopter flying over your house or school.” Hands flew up in the air. “When you see us flying, you should know we’re watching over you and making sure you’re safe from bad guys. We look for foreign ships or submarines that might bring danger to our country and for bad people who try to bring bad drugs here as well.”

“Hey,” he called to two boys on the top row of bleachers. “Leave her alone.” They dropped the girl’s pigtails like they’d burned themselves and assumed the angel position. “Don’t look at me like that. I saw you pulling her hair. Now tell her you’re sorry.” Their eyes darted around. “And that’s an order,” Sky added in his best drill sergeant voice.

“Sorry,” they both said. The girl turned around and made a face at them.

“Okay, where was I?” Sky continued. “Our helicopters do something called SAR which stands for Search and Rescue. Just like Dr. Daisy’s dogs searched for Cory and then rescued him, we do the same kind of thing at sea. Like if somebody falls off a Navy ship or ejects from a combat jet. And occasionally we do search and rescue on land in an emergency, like after Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti.”

The little girl in pink who had held his hand walking to the gym was squirming in the front row. She tentatively raised her hand, then pulled it back down, as if she was afraid to ask a question.

Sky paused and called on her. “Did you have a question about hurricanes or earthquakes, young lady?”

She looked like she was about to cry. “No, I gotta go potty,” she said. All the children burst out laughing.

“Hey,” Sky called. “That’s not funny.” But he was working overtime not to laugh too.

He looked up and noticed Daisy was biting back a smile too. One of the counselors climbed down and led the little girl out of the gym. Sky was rapidly developing a whole new respect for elementary school teachers and camp counselors.

“All right, I’m almost done. Now, helicopters can hover pretty low over the water.” He squatted down and waved his hand over the gym floor. “And then we drop rescue swimmers down a cable. They put a harness on the person in the water, and my helo, which has a really powerful winch, pulls that person up into the helicopter. Then we fly them back to our ship or to shore so they can see a doctor to make sure they’re okay.” He glanced at Daisy. “The next time I come here, I’ll bring a Power Point and some models, okay?” The hell with the Power Point and models. He wanted to know if it was okay to come back with her. Daisy nodded affirmatively.

Yesss.

“Now I’ll take questions, but you have to raise your hand. Get it?”

“Got it!” they yelled in unison.

“Good.”

Hands waved in the air, begging to be called on. Sky added, “I’m only going to call on you if you’re sitting quietly. Okay, Cory. What’s your question?”

“You ever kill anybody?” Some children laughed, as if it was funny. The boys sat on the edge of their seats, eyes wide, waiting for his answer. He knew it was probably every boy’s question. Would have been his question at that age too. But not anymore.

“When everybody does what they’re supposed to do, nobody ever needs to kill anybody,” Sky replied and moved on to another question. “Little boy in the third row with the green shirt.”

“You ever crash your helicopter?”

“No,” he lied. “Next question.” He better stick with the girls. An older girl in a Florida Gators T-shirt was waving her hand wildly. “Yes, ma’am. What’s your question?”

“Why does your shirt say Skylark?”

Finally a safe one. “Well, first of all, this is a flight suit. Pilots wear them so they can carry all necessary items should they have to bail from an aircraft.” He leaned down and zipped and unzipped a variety of pockets up and down the sleeves and legs of the suit. “Let’s say my helo was hit and it caught on fire. My crew and I might have to ditch, or land it in the water. Since we could be way out in the ocean, we have to be prepared to take care of ourselves until help arrived
.
So we carry all kinds of things, like extra oxygen, a survival knife, and drinking water in our flight suits when we fly.”

He walked over and let the child unzip a pocket on the leg of his uniform. Several boys scrambled down to do it too. “No, guys. Remember, you have to sit still.”

“Now this,” Sky said as he patted his name patch, “is my call sign. All pilots have a nickname they use when they’re flying. Mine is ‘Skylark’ and, um, I’m a little embarrassed to tell you how I got my nickname.” He glanced up at Daisy. Her eyes sparkled in anticipation and a smile played around the corners of her mouth. “Okay,” he mumbled, “I guess there’s a lesson in everything in life.

“In the Navy, to
skylark
means to not pay attention.” He demonstrated by waving his head around with his most ADHD-totally-off-task-look, his mouth open wide with his tongue hanging out. The kids went wild. He leaned in conspiratorially and asked, “Have you ever gotten in trouble for not paying attention?”

They went berserk again, giggling and calling out, “Yes!”

“Well, I used to be that way. When I was at Navy school, I always got in trouble for
skylarking.
And my friends started calling me the Skylark, or Sky, for short. Then everyone called me that…” he looked up and caught Daisy
laughing right along with the children, so he
laughed too. “And when I became a pilot, they decided my nickname should be my call sign.” Then he put on a look of pretended confusion, scratched his head, and added, “Gee, I’ve been Sky for so long, I can’t remember my real name.” The children dissolved into laughter all over again.

“So I’ll tell you what. When I come here, you can call me Lieutenant Sky. How does that sound?” They cheered. “Okay, one more question. Someone who hasn’t asked one yet.”

Daisy raised her hand and pointed to the little girl next to her. “Tanya has a question.”

“Ah, yes, my other marching partner. What’s your question, Tanya?”

“Lieutenant Sky, can you bring your helicopter here so we can see it?”

The children started chanting, “Yes, yes, yes!” Daisy leaned over and whispered something to Tanya, probably to let her down easy. Sky whistled for quiet, then focused on Daisy so he wouldn’t miss her reaction. What good was being ADHD if he didn’t use impulsivity and shock and awe to his advantage once in awhile?

“Sure,” he said simply. Daisy’s head jerked up, mouth agape, eyes questioning. The children squealed with excitement.

Sky raised his hand to quiet them and continued. “Would you like me to fly my helicopter here and land right on the soccer field?” Chaos reigned now as the children jumped up and down in the bleachers, screaming and laughing.

He whistled for quiet again. They complied, eager for him to continue. “If you want me to fly my helo here, all of you have to do one thing.” The kids waited spellbound, all eyes glued to him.
“Convince Dr. Daisy to go on a date with me.”

The bleachers exploded as the children leapt on her. Daisy’s face registered shock as the screaming, giggling bodies surrounded her, imploring her to say, “Yes!” Her mouth dropped open as she glared at him.

With murder in those bluey
-
green eyes.

“I still can’t believe you bribed those children to get me to go kayaking with you,” Daisy admonished him in a whisper. They stood at the edge of the exercise mats now, watching the counselor demonstrate tumbling moves.

Sky looked down at their contract. Cory had written it in crayon:

Loo-tenant Sky promises to land his hello-copter on the soccer field if Dr. Daisy goes kayaking with him on Saturday,
October 25.

It was signed by all the kids, Sky, and reluctantly, by Daisy. “Well, I guess it worked, sweetheart.”

“Surely you don’t address females in the military by those degrading terms of endearment.”

“Only when I can get away with it, little girl.” He gave her his best
gap-toothed
grin
.

Daisy looked down her body, then back at him, and replied, “In case you hadn’t noticed, I am
not
a little girl.”

Sky hoped raw desire didn’t smolder in his eyes as his gaze swept over her, then flickered back to her face. “Yeah.” He paused, willing his pulse to slow down. “I noticed.”

“I suppose I should warn you. I know Krav Magda, self-defense of the Israeli Army. If you ever call me ‘little girl’ again, I might have to flatten you,” she hissed at him, careful not to be overheard by the children.

“Is that a threat? Or a promise...little girl?”

Sky wasn’t certain if he saw Daisy smile right before he found himself face down on the mat
with the petite body he’d been ogling seconds before parked
on his back, and his arm bent at an angle an arm was never intended to be bent. What he
was
certain of was the fact that he’d never been quite so turned on in his life.

“Holy shit, woman, what do you call that?” he muttered under his breath, trying to keep a straight face
.
The children squealed at how fun Lieutenant Sky was and gathered around, cheering Daisy on.

She leaned down and whispered in his ear, “And I don’t particularly care for swearing either, especially around children.” She ratcheted his arm back a few more millimeters.

The kids jumped up and down with glee as the counselors gathered around, laughing too.

“Ouch! Uncle! I give!”

She leaned in close one more time and said, “Repeat after me. I will never call a female over the age of five, ‘little girl’ again.”

“I will never call a female over the age of five, ‘little girl’ again.” Sky chuckled as he said the last few words, but no way could he be heard over the giggles of the children.

Daisy let up on his arm, which was a big mistake, because she suddenly found herself flat on her back with all two hundred plus pounds of former Navy
linebacker Sky Crawford straddling her with her wrists pinned to the deck, to the absolute delight of the children.

Now it was his turn to lean down and whisper in her ear. “But I don’t promise not to call them ‘sugar’ now and then. All right, sugar?”

Oh, man. This was a position he could get used to. Until he remembered they were in a freaking gymnasium with a gazillion kids jumping around squealing. So how in the hell was he going to get up and walk away without everyone on God’s green earth knowing that this woman was ringing his chimes like no woman ever had?

In the middle of the YMCA.

If Daisy’s eyes could kill, he would be a dead man. “Let me up,” she spit out through clenched teeth.

“You started it,” he retorted, sounding like one of the kids. Half were now chanting “Doctor Daisy” while the rest chanted, “Lieutenant Sky.” The counselors tried to settle them down, shushing them. Sky turned to them. “It’s okay, kids. Dr. Daisy and I were just showing you some fancy self-defense moves. Thank you for your assistance with that demonstration, Dr. Daisy.”

He let go of her hands, which she immediately used to push at his inner thighs. Yeah, like that was going to help settle down his excitement. She twisted and writhed beneath him—which only served to make things worse.

Sky realized his only avenue for a dignified escape would be to lie down on her and roll away. But dammit all, he was going to take his sweet time because she looked so pissed he doubted he’d ever get in this position with her again.

Sky rolled right. Daisy rolled left. She sprang up into a fighter’s stance, but he wasn’t going anywhere fast. Just propped himself up on his elbows and grinned at her.

“Those were some pretty cool moves, weren’t they kids? Okay, now you go back to your tumbling.”

The counselors ushered the children back to tumbling, while Sky took advantage of his baggy flight suit, turning away from everyone and giving it an extra fluff. Maybe he could pretend that was his survival knife in his pocket. Right. He turned to look at Daisy over his shoulder only to see her storm out of the gym.

He chased after her. “Hey, Doc. I’m sorry, but you started that.”

She wheeled on him. “I wasn’t the one calling people names,
little boy
.” Daisy turned on her heel and marched to her car.

Sky laughed, hot on her tail. “Little boy?”

Daisy opened her car door, turned back to him before climbing in. “Now do you see how ridiculous it sounds when you use those belittling names?”

“Yes, ma’am.” It was all he could do to keep from smiling. He was still enjoying the look on her face when she’d called him little boy. “Listen, I have duty tomorrow so you can count on me not bothering you. Okay, Doc?”

“Good.” Daisy climbed into her car and slammed the door. Her dogs leaned over the seat to greet her. She turned on the ignition and opened the windows all the way. “Was there something else, Lieutenant?”

“Yeah. Should I pick you up Saturday or do you want to meet somewhere?”

Daisy’s mouth dropped open. “You expect me to go on a
date
after what just happened in there?” She pointed to the YMCA building.

“Um…yup.” He grinned and reached for the zipper on a flight suit pocket. “I got a contract here that says—”

“I
know
what it says. And you’re going to hold me to it?”

Several children called to him as they walked to their cars. He waved at them. “Aw, now you don’t want to disappoint those children, do you? They want to see my helicopter.”

“And you’re really going to do that?”

“I said I would, didn’t I?” Actually he had no idea if he could get permission to do a fly-in or not, but he’d do his damndest if it meant she’d live up to her half of the bargain.

Daisy huffed out a breath. Seemed to resign herself to the deal. “Okay, go to the kayak pier on Little Talbot Island Saturday morning. If you’re not there at ten sharp, I’m not waiting around.”

“Sounds like a plan. Should I bring solo or tandem? I’ve got both.”

“Bring your solo and I’ll bring mine. There’s no way I’m going tandem with you. I haven’t gone tandem in…” Her gaze drifted away from him. She looked out the windshield as if seeing something that wasn’t really there. A gust of wind caught a lock of her hair. She mindlessly reached up and tucked it behind her ear.

“Daisy?”

She turned back and seemed surprised to find him still standing there. “What?”

All the fight had gone out of her. It was as if her defenses had simply dissipated. He saw vulnerability and downright sadness in her eyes. He ached for her in that moment. Wanted to take her in his arms and hold her.