Zack (In the Company of Snipers Book 3) (31 page)

Zack tucked sleeping LiLi into her bed while Mei pulled Song’s pink tights off, changed her diaper, and snuggled the baby into her blankets. Rambunctious Song was a different child now. She could climb like a monkey, so her baby bed had been traded for a toddler-sized bed, and both were in LiLi’s room. Not for long. Soon those beds would be in another home across the river in Pennsylvania. Moving would begin within the week. He couldn’t wait.

Alex had insisted they stay at the hotel for as long as they needed. It made sense, but with his upcoming nuptials to Mei in less than a week, Zack was energized like never before. His girls and their mother deserved the best. He intended to deliver.

While their new home boasted marble countertops in the kitchen, crown-molding throughout, walk-in closets, and five bathrooms, it was the fenced-in backyard and the very real possibility of a big dog in their future that sealed the deal. David Tao had volunteered to help install a state of the art security system when he returned home from Disneyland. Harley promised he’d help train the dog, and there would be no more sleepless nights for any of his girls–ever. When Zack paused at the door to watch his daughters, Mei’s hand snaked around his waist.

“I think we wore them out today,” she whispered. “Song didn’t make a peep when I laid her down.”

“Neither did LiLi.” He wrapped his arm around his wife-to-be, burying his nose in the soft fragrance of her hair. “What would you say if these little gals came with us on our honeymoon?”

This was not one of those moments when he had no clue what Mei was thinking. The way her eyes lit up was answer enough.

“It’s just that LiLi isn’t ready for time away from you, and—”

“And you aren’t ready for time away from Song.”

“And you aren’t ready for time away from LiLi.” Zack completed the circle.

He loved that Mei could read him like a book. The power of this woman had transformed him from a mindless playboy whose biggest problem away from the office was how many magnums of wine to pick up for the ladies and how many fifths of Jack for Jake. His life outside work had been one continual party, but he didn’t miss it. Even his prize possession had fallen out of first place and would soon share their new heated garage. Who would have guessed he’d ever own something as mundane as a family van? He almost felt like David Tao. Almost.

Mei’s hand on his chest drew his attention away from the girls. “I ordered pizza,” she said. “Are you hungry?”

She took care of him, another thing he loved. Most of the other women he’d known wanted something, but all she’d ever wanted was her life and child back. And him.

“When will it be here?” he asked, his lips tasting the side of her very delectable and pretty face. With the girls tucked in bed, the possibilities were endless. Making love with Mei had become an insatiable appetite. Just the thought of a few stolen moments triggered his attention. It didn’t happen often enough.

“Forty-five minutes.” Mei turned to face him, her hands still on his chest and her happy heart in her eyes.

Hagatha had disappeared. Zack understood how the instinct to protect a child could transform the softest woman into the fiercest fighting machine. He felt the same way about all of his girls.

“That gives me enough time.” Zack stooped low enough to lift Mei off her feet and into his arms. She came easily, her head soft against his chest and her arm around his neck. Ah, the gentle weight of a good woman enticed and pleased him to his core. The fire that glowed in her eyes glittered brightly. His woman was content. Nothing better in the world.

She trailed tender kisses up his neck and into the sensitive spot on his neck. Mei knew him too well. One tickle from the very tip of her index finger on his ear and he shivered. His damned ears seemed to be connected to his groin. How the hell did that work?

“Now?” she asked, her best innocent face on and seduction in her deep brown eyes.

He nodded. No words would be needed for the next forty-five minutes. He angled the love of his life through their bedroom door and toed it shut. Somehow, they’d find room and time for each other on their honeymoon without excluding their children. The day would come when they might take off for a weekend by themselves, but it was not this day.

Not yet.

THE END

Harley meant to go home. Really, he did, but for some reason his victory-red Jeep pulled into long-term parking at Reagan National Airport instead. It’s not like anyone was waiting for him at home, anyway. Yeah, he could always head over to Alex and Kelsey’s to wrestle with their dogs, Whisper and Smoke. Kelsey would feed him. He could hang out for a while, but for two weeks?

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...

Jet lag plagued him, but more than sleep, Harley wanted companionship. He wanted the feeling of someone special waiting for him, watching for him, maybe even wishing he was already there with them–wherever that was. And if she couldn’t be waiting for him, at least he wanted to know she’d be back soon, that she’d left a note on the counter, and that she was happy to be part of his everyday life. He knew a pretty little redhead who did those kinds of things. They might not seem like much to most folks. Suddenly, they seemed like everything.

The courage to change the things I can...

So he bought a ticket to the Mid-western state of Wisconsin, and his long distance girlfriend, Judy O’Brien. He’d placed a quick call from the ticket counter just to be sure. Since she’d first introduced herself at Mark and Libby’s wedding, she and Harley had maintained an on and off again relationship of sorts. She was a registered nurse with a full time career, and he was overseas a lot on assignments. All their time apart had made it tough to really get to know each other. So much for good intentions.

And the wisdom to know the difference would sure be nice, too.

Yes, she’d be off at midnight. Yes, she could get more time off if she needed it. A week or two? Yes, she’d see what she could do. When would his flight get in, and did he need a ride from the airport? She’d be there. Fly safe.

With that settled, he relaxed. The irony of flying home from one of the world’s most dangerous countries to nearly die in the land of the free did not escape him. Daniel Peters was right. Post traumatic stress disorder had wreaked havoc in Harley’s life. He was one of those guys, the loser kind, who’d been in too many clinics and rehab centers to count, the kind who protected himself at all cost. Some days he was a waste of skin. Other days he managed. It was a daily struggle. Most days he could deal. Not today.

Those other words Peters threw at him before the shooting bugged him. What did he mean? Sole survivor? Harley knew he’d been injured in an IED explosion in Iraq. That much was obvious, but the sole survivor bit? No way. That implied others died. He’d remember them, wouldn’t he? He pushed the thought away as usual. Too many holes in his memory still haunted, holes he couldn’t explain much less fill. Someday he’d have to break down and read the Army’s incident report to find out what really happened, but not now. No need to go looking for trouble.

The mantra began again.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...

The airport was full of couples and families rushing by with all their noisy chatter and laughter. Husbands kissed pretty wives they’d missed on business trips. Happy little children skipped and danced around fathers come home from wherever they’d been. For the first time since he’d stuck himself in that Texas Rehab and thought he was cured of all his torments and addictions, Harley wasn’t happy. The bliss of others pointed out the lack of it in his life. He wanted more than a twelve-step program.

The courage to change the things I can...

Something was missing, and it wasn’t drugs, booze, or even the camaraderie of dogs. No. Ever since Mark had married Libby, and especially now that she was pregnant, Harley had grown more dissatisfied with himself. Life was slipping away. He hated to admit it because it sounded dumb, but it seemed like his biological clock was running out on him.

Heck, all my clocks are running out on me.

A shudder slinked across his shoulders, like a sick old friend who wouldn’t die. Too many ghosts haunted him. They always would. He pushed them back and faced the truth.

I want Judy.

With luxurious copper-colored hair and soft emerald eyes, Judy was a strikingly beautiful woman, but she was also intelligent and practical, a take-charge kind of woman who supervised other nurses and care-providers at the clinic where she worked. It was no wonder she’d taken the first step in their relationship when she’d asked him to dance. He’d never have done it. Anyone could see she deserved better.

He wandered through the concourse, his mind a thousand miles away. She wasn’t so much intimidating, although Harley was sometimes intimidated. She knew what she wanted, and she wasn’t afraid to go after it. And it’s not like he was afraid of her. Overwhelmed was more like it. Overwhelmed by her beauty, brains, and her love for him. Sometimes all that strength and confidence was more than he could handle.

How could a woman like her really love a messed-up man like him? And yet he’d told her everything, about all the drugs, every needle he’d ever stuck in his arm, everything he’d ever stuck up his nose, and every rehab in between. He’d told her how he’d trashed his parents’ lives until they hated the sight of him, and about those other women too. She knew him inside out. All he had to offer her was the truth, so he did. She still loved him. Go figure.

And I miss her.

When he looked up from his wanderings, he was standing in front of a jewelry store, an eclectic little tourist trap with baubles and bangles galore. The clerk had red hair. He entered, in case that was a good omen for a lost man like him. The case of glittering gems and jewels beckoned.

Wow. So many choices. What the heck would Judy like?

An interesting item caught his eye, a ring with something called a chocolate diamond. The clerk was beside herself, telling him everything he didn’t care about anyway. It did have an interesting fire to it, though.

Does Judy like chocolate? Most women do, don’t they? Kelsey does. Libby, too. Heck, I should know something like that about my girlfriend, shouldn’t I?

Still, it was a nice fourteen-carat, rose-gold band with a round cut, quarter-carat chocolate stone surrounded by a circle of smaller, brilliant white diamonds. The white made the chocolate look darker. He did something almost as impulsive as the time he’d committed himself to that Texas Rehab.

Heck. That turned out to be a good decision, didn’t it?

He bought the ring.

And then he waited for the jet that would fly him to the Midwest to arrive and refuel. Then he waited for the passengers in first class seating to board. At last he was in the air. He dozed away some of his jet lag until the wintery checkered landscape below identified he was back in the dairy state. The weak winter sun cast a golden glow across the Styrofoam-like snow.

I have not been a good friend. I will admit my faults to the woman I...love?

The word warmed him from the inside out.

I love you, Judy,
he told the breeze of the Jetway as he jogged around slower passengers in his way.
I love you so much it hurts.

She stood waiting for him, the look on her face more worried than happy. No big smile lit her green eyes like it had on his previous visits.

He faltered.
I was gonna tell you something, only now....

Harley gulped at the impromptu flight he’d taken. Heck, he didn’t even have a bag of clothes to claim off the revolving carousel, he’d acted so foolishly fast. Maybe his impulsive flight was the result of the shootings in the office. Maybe it was because it could’ve been him as easily as Peters. Maybe because he could’ve lost everyone he loved that day. All he had in the world was his friends.

So many maybes....

Judy looked unhappy. Worried. He knew it then. He should’ve visited more often. Long distance relationships were hard enough for normal folks to maintain. Why’d he ever think he could handle one? Guilt for being dumb pierced his heart. This was the perpetual downside to being a man, the not knowing what was going on in his woman’s mind.

Well, now that I’m here...

She didn’t wait for him to cross the distance between them. With a rush, she ran the last dozen steps and threw herself into his arms. With a breath of peppermint, she planted her lips against his, her tears wet on his face.

His heart started beating again. He held her face to his and met her kisses with equal parts relief and passion.

“Harley. I took the month off.” She came up for air.

“I only have two weeks off,” he said between mouthfuls.

“I don’t care. I don’t want you to leave.”

“I can’t stay. I’m only here for—” He buried his face in the midst of her thick, red tresses and breathed her into his soul. This woman was everything to him. Life. Light. The best damned reason to live.

“Then...I can’t do this any more.” She pulled back, upsetting the calm. With a stomp of her booted foot, she let her temper fly. “Don’t you get it? This long distance dating? This never seeing each other? It’s too hard!”

He held her at arm’s length to see her better. They were both breathing hard. Those green eyes were firing sparks and cinders. He thought he’d read her body language correctly, but somewhere between the first
“Harley”
and the last kiss, the conversation had taken a scary U-turn.

“I mean it.” Tears tracked over her flushed cheeks. She bit her lip. It seemed she was making the biggest decision of her life. “I can’t do it any more.”

His heart sank. Was she waiting for him to say that elusive right thing lovers were supposed to say to each other at times like this? Heck, he was a man. He had no idea what she needed to hear. And was he seeing things? Was he wrong? Did he not see love shining behind those teary emerald greens?

What the hell’s going on?

“I don’t know what to say,” he confessed, his heart reeling with confusion. He let his hands slip off her arms. If she didn’t love him, it didn’t matter what came out of his stupid mouth next. Peters was right. He was the biggest loser ever.

“No, Harley. No. I can’t do this anymore. This!” She pushed him backward with all her strength, angry and–something else.
What?

He could not for the life of him understand her. She’d gone from sad to angry so fast he couldn’t keep up. Loving someone shouldn’t be so complicated.

What should I do? Hug you? Get back on the plane and leave? Help me out here, Judy. Tell me what you want me to do.

“I can’t keep seeing you just a couple days at a time.” She pushed him back another step. “I can’t keep crying myself to sleep at night.”

She came at him again. He cringed, sure she might shove him again.
I get the point. I’ll just go.

She didn’t. Instead, she grabbed the open zipper of his jacket and pulled him close, all her sweet peppermint breath in his face again. “So I’m going home with you.”

He couldn’t jump tracks fast enough, so he said it out loud. “W-w-what?”

By then, Judy had his tall, lanky body flattened against the beige-tiled terminal wall while she gripped his head with one hand and smothered him in kisses and hugs. The long, delicate fingers of her other hand peeled open the collar of the already too-loose and comfortable golf shirt beneath his jacket. His heart started beating again when her hand smoothed over his collarbone to grip the bare skin of his shoulder. Her hips kept pushing and he kept agreeing with her.
Yeah, that’s the spot. Push. Keep on pushing.

“Do you have room for me or not? Do you want me or not?” Her words tumbled out in a heated rush over his lips. “I love you. Do you hear me? And I miss you too much to keep living so far apart. Would you please take me home with you this time? Would you do that?”

They’d talked about this a couple times before, but leaving her job and family behind seemed such a big thing for a man to ask a woman to do. She had a way of making it sound like the perfect solution all of a sudden.

Hell, yeah.

He lifted her off her feet. She nipped his bottom lip, growling in that sexy, feline way she had. With suffocating warmth, he devoured her lips like he’d never kissed her before.

Oh, hell yeah.

Breathlessly, he backed her against the same beige-colored tile wall, his heart a pounding freight train coming down the Mortimer track. This was the bravest thing he’d ever done, no doubt about it. He was pretty sure there was nothing in all of his past life to compare with the words that were going to come out of his mouth next.

“Judy.” Regardless of the passerbys watching, his hands roamed her body like they were the only two people in the world. Hands that had done so many stupid things in the past finally did something worthwhile when they cupped her ass and squeezed. If love was what she wanted, love was what she was going to get. Right here. Right now. Well, okay, so maybe not exactly right here, but he wasn’t letting her go.

“Yes?” She planted burning kisses in his neck that echoed all the way to his groin, her feet still off the ground and those luscious breasts pushing warm and friendly into his chest. Thinking was getting more and more difficult.

“Sweetheart. Honey. Judy, darling, I have to know.” He kissed her hard, pouring every ounce of promise into her lips that he could without catching a full breath.

“Yes?” she asked, just as breathlessly.

“Do you like chocolate?” Okay, that wasn’t what he had meant to ask. It was important, yeah, but not what he meant. Why did his dumb old brain trick him like this?

“What?” She pulled back, trying to read him like the idiot he was. She had to know by now. He wasn’t going to grow any more brainpower overnight.

But Harley did start over, his forehead pressed to hers, their noses touching. The ring could wait. Chocolate could wait. His heart needed to say its piece first. “I love you, Judy O’Brien, and yes. If you’re willing, I’m taking you home with me. I’ve got two weeks. We’ll load up a truck and get you moved. Is that what you really want?”

The fire in her eyes melted a welding link between them. Something sizzled deep inside. It might have been his soul to hers.