Page 109 of The Moments You Were Mine
Parents. Plural. Because I was going to be right there at Fallon’s side raising the child with her.
I kept waiting to feel panicked by these random thoughts, but I wasn’t. Maybe I never would be, simply because I was making the right choice.
I strapped Theo’s car seat into the spot behind Fallon and took the front seat next to her. I looked back at Theo when the engines kicked, and his face burst into a smile.
We taxied out of the hangar and down the runway.
Fallon spoke to the tower via her headset and then shot me a grin, which she extended to Theo. “You all set, boys?”
Theo hugged Dog, giggled, and nodded. I winked at her.
And then we sped down the runway and lifted off. The little whoosh I always felt in the pit of my stomach when we left the ground greeted me. It felt like new possibilities. New challenges.
Theo squealed in delight, waving his stuffed animal at the window and the view of the mountains as we rose, rose, rose. The sky was clear, not a cloud in sight.
One of the things I loved most as a SEAL was plunging out of a plane, feeling nothing but air and gravity tugging at you. Even in the dead of the night, when I needed night vision goggles to see the landing zone, it was a heady experience. You had to trust the equipment, trust yourself to have examined and packed it correctly. Those few moments of free fall were almost religious. Life. Death. The incongruous fragility and strength of humanity.
More people should experience that thrill. They should come face-to-face with our fallible limitations, as well as the strangely beautiful knowledge that humans had figured out how to best even the very forces of gravity for a few short minutes.
Maybe I could give that to people by offering skydiving excursions for guests at the ranch. Or maybe a prep course for military hopefuls?
Sweeney had mentioned resigning his commission when his current contract was up. Would he be interested in starting a business with me? Could we open a skydiving center here? In Rivers?
My stomach twisted, nauseated at the idea of leaving the teams but also excited at the idea of creating new dreams for the first time in my life.
Theo’s laughter brought me back to him and Fallon. I’d missed something they’d said, and I hated it. I wanted to know everything they said and did and felt. How much more would I miss if I was gone for months at a time? How much would Theo and the baby have grown and changed before I came back to them?
I gave them my full attention as Theo asked Fallon a thousand questions about flying. She answered every one with patience and ease.
“Someday, I’ll teach you how to fly,” she promised.
Pure delight coated the little boy’s face. “Really?”
“Sure.”
I turned to Theo. “You like the ranch, right, bud?” He nodded. “How would you feel about living there forever?”
His smile disappeared. “But I live with you.”
Shit. I’d absolutely screwed that up. “And you still would. What if you and I lived with Fallon all the time?”
Fallon frowned. We hadn’t talked about where we’d live, and once Lauren got out of rehab, she’d move back into the house. Plus, the baby was going to need a room. Fallon and I still had more things to figure out than we’d settled, and I was jumping ahead twenty paces by telling Theo we’d all live together.
“Can I have the masked puppy? And a pony?”
“You’d have to learn to take care of them,” Fallon answered. “Animals are a responsibility. You have to feed and water and clean up after them every single day, even when you’re sick or tired or grumpy.”
“I will! I will!” Theo nodded his head.
“We’ll talk about it. Maybe start with one and see how you do,” I said.
When I looked back at Fallon, her brows were pulled tight.
Damn. Had I pushed too hard and too fast? I’d acted more like her than me, jumping in feet first rather than planning a strategy of attack. But as the miles zoomed by below us, and we drew closer and closer to Vegas, the certainty I was doing theright thing, that we were doing the right thing, only grew stronger.
Fallon would be mine. Theo and the baby would be mine.
We’d be a family. I’d be part of a new team—one I’d never considered being a part of before. And just like free-falling while waiting to deploy my chute, I was excited at the new challenges and possibilities spread out below me. I was determined to hit the ground on my feet. I wouldn’t mess this up for any of us.
