Page 301 of Unexpected Ever After

“Or that Hank’s role in all your lives is diminished in some way because there is no blood connection?”

“No!” I shout. “That’s not it at all. You’re not listening to me. I don’t want you to miss out on anything.”

“And you’re not listening to me, love,” he says gently. “I just want you. However I can have you. And besides, your daughters are a bit wild. They might have reached legal majority but that doesn’t mean there’s not enough time for them to make all of my hair turn gray and fall out.”

“That’s… not exactly favorable, but it’s not untrue either…” I admit.

“And there’s Brenna,” he adds, warming to his cause that the Harris women are all batshit crazy. “She’s going to drive me absolutely mad before she solves world famine with her science projects.”

“That’s also unfortunately probably true…” I reply. I’m a little stunned that he’s remember so much detail of what I’d shared about Brenna Kate. Sure, she’s part of my whole world, but he’s only met her the one short time, and yet, he seems to know her almost as well as I do.

“Let’s just hope she doesn’t make like the movies and bring the dinosaurs back to wreak havoc and slaughter millions of people…”

“Court—”

“Or the mummies,” he says. “Good god, she could bring back the pharaohs! They enslaved thousands!”

“Court!”

“What is it, darling?”

“I’m in love with you, too.”

“Bloody brilliant. It’s about time,” he says. “Let’s go to bed early.”

“Why?”

“So I can make love to you.”

Chapter 11

Court

BRACE FOR IMPACT

“Ready to hit the open skies, Big Daddy?” Merritt asks and Mason snickers while Wyatt looks at his boots as if they could solve the answers to the universe.

“You know I’ve flown thousands of times, right?”

“But you’ve never flown with me.”

“Let’s go.”

“Behave, Mer,” Wyatt warns.

“Butt out, Campbell.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I intercede in their by-play.

Mason looks up and there’s an alertness in his eyes that only comes with our similar experiences in service. Wyatt and Merritt are completely unaware. I subtly shake my head no to let him know it’s ok.

“See you on the flip side,” she says, and I pull my aviators from the neck of my shirt and put them on my face as I follow her out the sliding doors.

I watch as she finishes her external checks and then climbs onboard. We shut and latch the doors and she goes through her panel checks. I buckle in and sit back, watching Merritt in her domain. She’s clearly a competent pilot and knows exactly what she’s doing in the cockpit.

“Here, take these,” she says, handing me a headset and I take it and put it on. It’s not my first time in a plane like this.

“Thanks,” I reply when she has her own in place.

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