Page 58 of Forever Flirting

It was big and he could sense it.

Maybe they were getting reassigned? Maybe it was Reilly? Perhaps they were going to be getting new planes? Was there a battle looming that they weren’t aware of?

Alex knew they were going on reconnaissance flights more and more lately… and he hoped this wasn’t the case. If things got hot, then all vacation time and leave would be cancelled due to safety.

Ricochet grabbed him by the arm as he was leaving the exchange and pulled him aside, nearly causing him to drop his calling cards in the sand.

“Hey,” Ricochet began, “I need to talk to you. Do you have a second?”

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“I was checking the calendar and know you don’t go back for a few months, but I am leaving in two weeks,” Ricochet hesitated. “And I don’t want to regret putting this out there – but if you want to…”

“You don’t mind?” Alex interrupted gratefully, jumping the gun as he realized that Everly’s brother would take something to her, from him.

“Nothing mushy, okay?” Ricochet grinned. “She’s my sister and I’m gonna be there for a few days, before coming back. I don’t mind playing courier, and let’s leave it at that.”

“I’ll make sure of it.”

“You really like her, don’t you?”

Alex hesitated as he looked at the other man – and then nodded silently, before speaking.

“It’s just a bunch of emails back and forth right now, but she’s so incredibly kind, funny, and wonderful. I mean, getting those emails are the highlight of my day, and I never imagined something like this.”

“Good,” Ricochet began – and Alex was surprised to see him hesitate this time. “Can I ask you a strange question?”

“Sure.”

“If you breathe a word,” Ricochet began softly, his voice menacing as he looked at Alex.

“I’m not going to say a thing, because you could destroy this with Everly. What do you need from me?”

“Wow,” Ricochet laughed, looking at him, and was a little surprised at the sudden realization that he had leverage over Alex. “Isn’t this how the mob works – by using family?”

“Ha Ha… okay,Godfather,” Alex said tersely. “What do you want?”

“I don’t want anything but an opinion,” Ricochet grinned. “But this needs to stay quiet and between us, or it could blow up in both of our faces.”

“Okay.”

“You know Mallory – Everly’s best friend. Right?”

Alex tightened painfully and hesitated, immediately not liking where this was going, because he was never going to put that screw-up behind him if this kept coming up in his life.

“Did Everly tell you – or was it Mallory?”

“Tell me what?” Ricochet said warily, looking at him. Alex cursed and grimaced before looking at the other man. “Tell me what, Maestro?” he repeated firmly.

“Everly and I met several years ago…”

“Yeah, you told me that.”

“And then I met Mallory.”

“Okay…?”

“Mallory’s son is my kid. It was a one night stand that kind of blew up in both of our faces,” Alex blurted out quietly, watching Ricochet’s face harden perceptibly, before a tense smile touched his mouth.

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