Page 79 of Breaking Danger
She clicked glasses with Jon and Sophie and moved off, cheeks glowing. Lora had insisted six months into reconstruction on starting school again. They barely had enough food at that time and were pressed for every single resource available but she insisted and she was right. That first year there were 147 students of all grades, taught by volunteers, meeting in the mess hall when it was free. They were so eager to learn that each student was more than caught up with their grade level within two months.
Lora then insisted on building a proper school for the kids of Haven and the surrounding communities and she finally wore everyone down. She was going to be the first principal.
Three universities—at Davis, Berkley and Santa Cruz—were going to start lessons in two years, once the campuses were rebuilt.
Sophie took a sip of the champagne. She shouldn’t be drinking alcohol but it was early on and one sip couldn’t hurt. It was excellent—tart, dry, rich.
Stella Cummings—now Stella Ward—elbowed her in the ribs. “Not more than one glass in your condition, honey,” she whispered. Sophie had no idea how Stella knew, but she was more perceptive than most. Stella leaned against her husband, who could be leaned against forever. Lucius had thrown away the walking sticks three years ago and was their acting head of security. He smiled down at his wife and kissed her gently on the cheek.
Jon clicked glasses with her again. He bent his head down to her so only she could hear his words. “Here’s to us, honey. We made it.”
Sophie smiled up at him. Thanks to Jon and the other Ghost Ops men, they weren’t hunkering in caves, eating squirrel brains and wearing bearskins. “Yes, we did.” She used her glass to indicate the brand new school. “It’s a miracle. Our Emma will attend a real school. And she’ll grow up with schools and hospitals and libraries. She’ll grow up in civilization, strong and proud.”
Jon bent even lower, careful not to wake Emma slumped on his shoulder. He used his nose to shift a lock away from her ear, kissed it, and whispered, “It’s all thanks to you.”
For a second Sophie couldn’t grasp his words. Jon knew that her ear was an erogenous zone. Actually, when he was around, pretty much every part of her body was an erogenous zone. Jon kissing her ear gave her goosebumps, quickened her breathing.
She should have gotten used to this after five years of marriage but he could still reduce her to a quivering wreck in no time.
She pulled in a breath, shifted, and kissed him. She could taste surprise and champagne. But Jon was good with surprises, he rolled immediately with them. He deepened the kiss and she felt that familiar warmth, shot through with bolts of desire, course through her.
Someone whistled and, startled, Sophie pulled back, spilling a little champagne down Jon’s back.
“Sorry,” she whispered and he laughed.
“They weren’t whistling at us, love. Look—someone’s got news.”
One of the Haven counselors, Kristin Moore, was running toward them. She was over 65 but she regularly ran marathons and she reached them in a minute.
She stopped right in front of Mac and gave him an ironic salute. “Sir, I bring tidings of the election!”
Mac froze and if Sophie didn’t know better, she’d have said he looked…frightened. But that wasn’t possible. Mac didn’t do fear.
Nick rolled his eyes. “Cut the crap, Kristin. Come on. Put Mac here out of his misery.”
Kristin stuck her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. “What’s it worth to you, Mac? Because we’ve been petitioning the local government here for a bike path for a long time.”
Mac’s eyes showed the whites all around like a runaway pony’s.
“Kristin,” Nick growled.
Sophie glanced up at Jon, amused, and found he was looking at her, eyes suddenly intense. He kissed Emma’s head, his eyes never leaving hers.
She suddenly realized how moved Jon was—at the inauguration of the school, at the first free election of a new President, at how far they’d come, together.
Something in Jon had changed since that horrible moment when he’d been infected. Something in that warrior carapace had cracked open. He loved Sophie and when Emma arrived, he was overjoyed. He often told her he had no idea he was capable of love that deep. There was an ease about him now that everyone said hadn’t been there before. He made friends easily, laughed often.
He was happy.
So was she. Particularly now.
“Okay everyone, listen up!” From somewhere Kristen produced a bell and rang it. Eventually everyone quieted down. “I have official news,” she said and pulled a piece of paper from her jacket. With great ceremony, and very slowly, she extracted a pair of reading glasses, adjusted them carefully on her nose and held the piece of paper up, seemingly translating it in her head from Assyrian.
“So. The results of the election held this day and yesterday in the great Republic of California?—”
“Kristen!” Mac barked and Catherine lay a hand on his arm. It was still amazing to Sophie how such a small woman could control such a large man. But she did. He clamped his mouth shut.
Kristen cricked her neck one way and then the other and widened her stance.
