Page 111 of Breaking Emily's Rules
“Really?”
“As long as you’re with me, I already feel like I’m home no matter where I go.”
That made my heart jump in my chest and my body and feet followed as I went into his arms.
“I love you, too.”
“You make me feel everything, even when I’m trying hard not to feel a thing. You woke me up.”
“And you’re doing so good with the talking.” I buried my face in his neck. When I glanced up at him again, he was smiling widely, his rare double dimples showing. He didn’t smile like that nearly enough. Something I’d have to fix.
“I don’t have all the answers yet. But I do know I want you with me wherever I go, whether it’s in Germany or right here in Fortune. Are you on board?”
“I’m so on board with that, Sergeant Mcallister.” Then I kissed him in the parking lot of The Drip, simply because I was a woman in love.
“That went well. I didn’t know I had so many sweet words in me.”
“You have a lot more in there.” I pointed at his hard chest. “I’ll just have to slowly tease them out of you over the years.”
“Sounds sexy.”
He traced the curve of my jaw, and then my lips. Then he kissed me again, like there was no one else. Like we were the only two people in the world.
Because in a way, at that moment we were.
EPILOGUE
Two months later
Emily
“Don’t worry Mr. Edison, we’ll be there soon.” With two minutes left to my ETA, I went through my check list as I prepared for landing, eyeing the county airport strip below me.
Today the skyline was a heartbreaking rush of aqua blue on this beautiful May morning. I lowered the landing gear. Mr. Edison sat strapped in and rock still behind me as he’d been throughout the entire forty minute flight, not making a sound or false move. I turned to briefly look over my shoulder and found puddles of drool gathering on his seat.
“Uh-oh. My boyfriend won’t be too crazy about that, Mr. Edison. He’s pretty anal about his planes.”
Mr. Edison didn’t care much, judging by his grim expression. Then again, the Rottweiler-Boxer mix had just been rescued by the San Martin Shelter and Pilots and Paws. His forever family would be waiting for him when we landed in Fortune. Maybe he was nervous, hoping for a good fit. That was the important thing, not whether or not he’d drooled a little bit.
The Hughes family, I’d heard. They were coming from Palo Alto to pick up Mr. Edison. “Great name, by the way. I hope they don’t change it.” I landed, possibly my smoothest one to date. I taxied to the hangar named Mcallister’s Charters.
My heart swelled as it had every day, seeing Stone on the tarmac, waiting for me. It had nothing to do with a lack of confidence in my piloting ability, I understood, but only his protective instincts that sometimes worked overtime.
Something I’d learned to live with.
I wasn’t going to see Germany after all, at least not anytime soon. After much discussion, it had become obvious to both me and Stone that we both wanted to be closer to family. Mine—Grammy and George, Dad, Molly, Dylan and Sierra—and Stone’s: his sister, Sarah, and his best friend, Matt.
Stone and Sarah had reconciled and it was a sight to see. I had listened in on some of the talks about their father, and noticed Stone used telling stories about his father to ease some of his grief. He didn’t seem to be aware he was doing it, but every day his eyes were less edgy and strained.
Or maybe that was love.
Two months ago, he’d decided to separate from the air force and pulled out from the sale of Magnum Aviation. He’d started the flight charter business too. It was an idea he said had been brewing the entire time he’d run Magnum. He’d seen a need and filled it. Now, the charter was available for skydiving trips, small vacation hops and pulling banners every now and then. Now I split my time between working for Fortune Family Ranch events and flying as a pilot for my boyfriend’s company.
And spending long and warm nights with Stone, who had moved into my cottage. Even Pookie and Winston were getting along after the initial territorial bark-fests, and were learning how to coexist.
It turned out that while searching for my past I found my future.
That future was with Stone. I felt sure of it, even if we’d never talked about making forever official and on paper. I, Emily Parker, self-confessed control freak, had learned to take life one day at a time. No more self-imposed rules, either for living as a wild woman or just plain old me. That girl had wanted a man to provide safety and security. A solid and unshakable future, even if it lacked the passion I might have hoped for at one time.
