Page 20 of Keeping It
To this, I smile. “There’s no luck involved.”
“What then?” he asks, backing away.
“Intuition? Practice? Skill? A little bit of elbow grease?” Those things are required for any relationship, surely. I flex my biceps and wink at him. Leif winks back, keen to my joke.
Caroline walks right into the open front door. “Tahoe?” Her small voice echoes in the large space causing a riot of emotions I’m not sure I want my buddy to see.
I shrug at my friend, and call out, “In here.”
Caroline stops short, startling when she sees Leif. We came together in my truck, so she wasn’t expecting to see anyone else here. “Oh, hi,” she says, not meeting Leif’s eyes. “How are you doing?” I know it’s not a question I’m supposed to answer.
I smile at her manners at any cost. Even when she’s pissed. “How was your day?” I ask, walking up to kiss her on the cheek. She sighs a dreamy little sigh, and her breath tickles the side of my neck.
“It was good. Just getting ready for some military men to take over my airport tomorrow. What about you? How was your day?” She meets my gaze first, and then Leif’s. “This place hasn’t changed a bit,” she adds looking around the foyer. “I love it. I wish you saw it back in its heyday.”
My friend has the good sense to look a little embarrassed and I know whatever he says next will be either an apology or something completely inappropriate. “Listen, Caroline. I want to apologize to you for the last time we spoke. My friends and I were out of line, and uh, everything is cleared up now. Obviously,” he warbles out, looking at me and then her again. “I didn’t mean to offend you in any way. I-I,” Leif trails off.
“My friend assumed wrong,” I helpfully explain, because watching Leif make amends is about as painful as you’d expect from a man who doesn’t care about anyone except himself.
Caroline taps her converse sneaker on the floor, and chews her bottom lip. “I want to get along with all of you guys,” she replies, voice light. “I have to be around you now, and we’re in a working relationship regardless of the things you say. Your forwardness was a shock, I admit, but I forgive you.” She goes on to tell him a story about the Bed and Breakfast to take the sting away from his embarrassing moment—erasing the awkwardness in mere seconds. It’s a trait that only some people have. It should be considered more of a skill than a trait—a finesse if you will.
When she’s finished speaking, Leif asks a few questions, makes a joke about me and vanishes out the door. I call out to him to take my bicycle out of the truck bed before he drives home. Clearing my throat, I turn to my beautiful guest. “You’re ready for us tomorrow then?” I ask, trying to keep the conversation on anything except the crackling flame that sizzles between our bodies every moment we are together. We’re alone and as always, she’s this delicious mix of understated grace, dripping sex appeal, and tinged with that shroud of innocence that frightens me to my bones. One bone in particular, isn’t quite as scared as it is blustering hard. I readjust as slyly as possible, which isn’t very.
Caroline blushes as she sets the bag down on the table in the center of the room, averting her gaze. “As ready as I’ll ever be. Your pilot came in today and was checking everything out. Also, the jump master was there checking chutes and unloading a ton of gear.” Aidan. I’d forgotten he was going to be there today or I would have tried to come, too. We all have different responsibilities dependent upon our skill set. Aidan has the qualifications with regard to skydiving. And keeping his dick wet at all costs. Out of the band of merry assholes, he’s the one I trust the least with regard to anything female and mine.
I take Caroline’s hand in mine and bring it up to examine it closer before kissing her warm palm. “How was that? He give you any issues?”
Her gaze is like fire as she looks at my lips on her hand. “Fine. He apologized. It was just as awkward as you’d expect. The pilot was nice.”
“How nice?” I ask, grabbing her other hand and repeating the gesture. “Not too nice?”
She narrows her eyes. “Tyler Holiday. Are you jealous?” Her smile is beatific, and it accompanies my favorite laugh.
“Maybe. Does that turn you on?” I fire back. “My sexy pilot who rides a bicycle.”
She steps closer, but folds her arms across her chest. “Are you teasing a pilot who rides a bicycle?” she whispers. Her tongue sweeps across her lower lip, an unintentional nudge reminding me to take her lips and make her mine.
I circle my hands around her arms, my fingers brushing her chest. “I would never,” I reply, grinning. “It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s status quo for you.”
“If I can’t travel 130 miles per hour, or more, in some of our other planes, cutting through the clouds, I’d rather stop and smell the roses. On a bicycle,” she explains. “A man who is used to a fast and furious life wouldn’t understand that.” It’s easy for her to lump me into a category other than the one she’s in.
Caroline’s cheeks flush crimson and she crosses one foot over the other. Narrowing my eyes, I run my hand up to brush the side of her face, and then finger one of her golden braids in between my fingers. “Fast and furious is behind me now. I’m turning over a new leaf.” Even super heroes need a break. Doesn’t Superman hide in his fortress of solitude for a while? Batman bunker down in his cave while the world falls apart around him? This is my equivalent, my serenity. So long as she’s with me. “How about I’m turning over a new seashell?” Grabbing her hand, I guide her to the back room, past the stairways into a dark paneled sitting room that overlooks the ocean. If you squint hard enough you can see Crick’s Beach and our base fence in the distance. Caroline turns around, neck turned up as she examines the walls, dragging a finger that leaves a trail in the dust. I don’t let go of her hand. I tell her about my plans for the house now that I’m positive it’s worth restoring.
“You like Bronze Bay that much?” she fires back, quirking one brow, trying her best to not look affected by my touch.
Craning my neck, I look around the grand foyer. The dusty wood and the haunting glow from the stained glass makes this place look more like a castle from the 18thcentury. I didn’t intend to like this old house. Didn’t intend to keep it standing. Didn’t think I’d want to stay here in this small town for longer than my punishment allotted. Caroline clears her throat, bringing my gaze back to hers. My heart skips a beat. You get this feeling when you want to keep something. It’s scary and vulnerable. It makes you feel like your skin is flipped inside out. It changes everything. Keeping that quality, keeping it, has to be protected at all costs. You become obsessed with keeping that which you can’t sacrifice. Because the feelings you have right now never existed before. They will never exist again. “I like you that much,” I admit.
She pretends she didn’t hear me—turns her face toward a portrait of someone’s old relative painted in dark burgundy and white.
“You know when you have the same dream over and over again?” she asks.
I grunt, upset she won’t reply to my sentiment. “Yeah.”
“Well I feel like you’re a dream I’m going to wake up from. But you’re here every single day. It’s like I’m dreaming. I’m waiting for the goblin to show up and suck out my brains.”
Raising one brow, that garners a smile. “A brain sucking goblin? I’d like to think I’m a good guy, but I’m probably the proverbial goblin that will turn your dream into a nightmare. I’m learning as I go.”
Her cheeks— are a dusty rose that match the shade of her lips. Tucking her thumbs into the pockets of the overalls, she looks to her feet, but then directly into my eyes. “Will you tell me about Stella?” That name spilling from Caroline’s lips seems so wrong, but on a second assessment might prove to be okay. She’ll be the one to erase her from my heart forever. “I brought dinner from the diner. Well, mama sent it with me. I figured you wouldn’t have anything to eat here. I brought you that burger you like. The one with the onion rings inside it.” She’s babbling to detract me from her ask.
