And I get back to work. Within moments, there’s a second ping. It’s the contact information for the auction in Montana.
For days, I’ve been dodging Kara’s FaceTime calls, though I’ve talked to her every chance I’ve had. It’s been pure torture not to shout the news about the business and the bracelet to her, but I’ve been determined to surprise her.
Now, five days after the darkness never seemed like it was going to lift, I’m about to touch down in the land of the sun.
Twelve hours after I took off from Seattle, I’m impatiently waiting for the tower in St. Augustine to clear me when my headset crackles with, “Cleared to land, runway 2, Juliette Sierra Foxtrot 206.”
“Affirmative,” I acknowledge the tower’s response before I turn in the direction of the runway gleaming in the Florida sunshine. All I want is to do is get out of this plane, get a car, and try to make it to Kara’s school before she leaves for the day. I want to hold my woman in my arms more than I want air. And then I want to hold my son so I can breathe. Then I’ll feel whole again.
Without much fanfare, I taxi the plane to the hangar. Then, after shutting down, I send Kevin a text.
Are you and Mom still at school?
Almost immediately, I get a reply. Hey Dad. Why, are you sending Mom flowers or something?
I answer, Something like that.
Yes, we’ll be here for about another hour.
Would it be possible to get to her classroom if you don’t have an appointment?
Not without a pass, Dad. Why?
Deciding to take him into confidence, I type, Because I just landed at the airport. How do I get in?
Frustration eats at me when I don’t immediately see little blue dots appear. While waiting, I pull suitcase after suitcase down. My phone starts to ring. Seeing a picture of me and Kevin appear, I warn him, “Son, it’s supposed to be a surprise.”
“I’m going to the front office to have you added to the list of people to come up and see Mom. I told her I left a book in my locker. You’re really here?” His emphasis on the last word causes me to pinch my nose. He’s out of breath, but he sounds so happy.
“Just wait until you hear what I have to tell you both.” My voice is choked.
Kevin’s yell might be able to be heard in Kara’s classroom. “It’s a surprise, son,” I remind him, as I fling bags over my shoulder.
“I’m on a different floor, Dad.” I smile at the excitement in his voice.
“Make sure she doesn’t leave. I’ve already checked; my rental is waiting right outside. I should be there in about twenty minutes.”
“You got it. Hey, Dad?”
“Yeah, son.”
“I can’t wait to hug you.” Kevin hangs up the phone.
But I freeze with mine to my ear. Slipping it into my pocket, I stack my bags and make my way into the blistering August summer heat. Unperturbed by it, I quickly locate my rental and throw my bags in before I answer my son aloud. “And I’m so glad to be home, I’m afraid how hard I’m going to hug you both.”
Pulling up my GPS so I can navigate to the school, I’m thankful I’m not in Seattle traffic. It’s time to go to grab hold of my family. And once I do, I’m never going to let them out of my arms.
All the way there, I can hear Jed cheering inside my head.
Kara
“Did you find your book, sweetheart?” I ask Kevin when he comes back to my room.
“Uh, no. I guess I put it in my bag after all.” He digs through his bag in the back of my classroom before pulling out a book thicker than an encyclopedia volume. He sighs, “I don’t know how I missed it.”
“I don’t either considering you gripe to me daily about my classroom not being closer to your locker,” I reply dryly. “But alas, we all have those days.” Something twitches near the region of my heart. I ignore it. Now is not the time to be thinking about the way Jennings has seemed to have pulled back in the last few days.
Sure he’s said the right things, including “I love you,” but I haven’t seen his face in five days. And I feel like I’m moving in a fog. Frantically, I try to concentrate on the planner in front of me, but all I want to remember is the feel of Jennings’s lips on mine. “Why does this have to be so hard?” I say out loud.
Then everything stills: my body, my heart, certainly time and space. Because there’s no way Jennings answers me, “I don’t know. What kind of ridiculous torture are you dreaming up for your students over there, Owl?”
And I don’t just mean Jennings appearing in front of me wearing a T-shirt clinging lovingly to his body and a pair of worn jeans. I mean the fact I’m obviously hallucinating and I’m still standing. “How is this possible?” I wonder aloud.
“Dad!” Kevin shouts. Seconds later, my son is crashing into his father with such force, he knocks Jennings back a step. “You made it!”
You made it. Kevin’s words ricochet inside my head, fueling my legs to move. “You’re here. You’re really here.” My voice is breaking, but I don’t care. All I care about is becoming a part of the circle of love Jennings is opening his arm to welcome me to.
I crash into them both with the same amount of force, feeling everything wrong slide out of me the minute Jennings’s arm wraps around my waist. But everything perfect happens the moment Kevin’s arm slides over his and squeezes me tighter into both of them.
“I can’t believe you’re here. How did you get into the building?” I babble. Laying my head on Jennings’s chest, there’s nothing but peace when I hear the perfect cadence of his heart. I hear him chuckle, and the first real smile I’ve had in days lifts my lips. Tipping my head back, I wait for his answer.
I’m shocked when he nods to our son. “I had a little inside help.”
I gently accuse, “A missing textbook?” I’m confused about why Jennings is here weeks early, but in no way am I upset.
Kevin shrugs but gives me an unrepentant grin. “It was a good surprise though, right?”
Squeezing my guys, I answer, “The best. The absolute best.”
Jennings clears his throat. “Actually, I think I have one that’s going to top it.” Pulling back, he reaches for his back pocket before pulling something out. “Son, how about giving your mom and me a little space?”
Kevin quickly scoots a few feet away. Jennings wraps his arms around me fully and pulls my body flush against him. “What’s with the big eyes, Owl?”
“I can’t believe you’re here in front of me.” I touch his chest, his jaw, his hair to make sure he’s still real.
He chuckles. “I’d have been here days ago, but I had to fly to Montana over the weekend, and that delayed me getting here.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ll explain everything when we get home.” I shiver when he says that word. I know it doesn’t go unnoticed when his arms tighten around me. But instead of kissing me like I’m aching for him to do, he continues. “After all—” He reaches up behind his neck and pulls my right wrist down. “—I wasn’t coming here without it. No matter what it cost me.”
His head bends as something warm from the heat of his body is wrapped over my wrist. Something impossibly familiar. My other hand drops from his shoulder and rises to my mouth to muffle a sob. “No. It’s impossible,” I manage to get out.
Jennings finishes clasping my grandmother’s bracelet back on before he gathers me close to his body again. “Now, everything’s the way it should be. Oh, except for this.” Jennings lowers his head and captures my lips with his.
I absorb the pure emotion that Jennings sends through every brush of his lips against mine. My trembling arms slide back up his chest and around his neck as his head slants, his tongue briefly licking at mine before he pulls back. “Kevin,” he mutters, regret and amusement in those two syllables.
But if the fire in his eyes and the hitch in his breathing is any indication, I can expect more later. Rising up, I brush a kiss on the underside of his jaw. “How do I thank you?”
“Always.” And his eyes flare as I vow that to him in front of the most important audience in the world—our son.
“Then take me home. I’ll tell you both the rest there.”
Stepping back, I hold out an arm to our son, who rushes back in, for once not giving us any grief about our PDA. I don’t imagine he would considering his own eyes are damp. “Why don’t you head home with your father and order dinner from Napoli’s to be delivered?” I suggest.
Kevin lets out a war whoop. “They have the best pizza, Dad.”
Jennings frowns. I cede his silent point and tack on, “In this area, Jennings. Remember, you’re in the land of humidity. You take what you can get.”
His full lips break out into a smile before he leans down and brushes a quick kiss against mine. “Sounds perfect.”
Now, Kevin gripes, “Are you two going to be doing that your entire visit?”
Giving me a wink, Jennings says, “I think we’ll be doing that a lot longer than you think. How long will you be?”
Twisting until I can see the wall clock, I’m now more determined than ever to finish up the lesson plan and test prep for the rest of the week. “Maybe another hour? But Jennings, Kevin has homework,” I warn him.
Kevin deflates right in front of our eyes. Jennings chuckles. “Grab your stuff and let’s get going. The sooner you both are done, the sooner I’ll explain everything. Deal?”
“Deal!” Kevin proclaims. He sprints over to his bag and shoves in the stuff he needs. “We have to stop by my locker on the way out.”
“Maybe you can get him to clean it?” I tip my head back with a smile.
Jennings presses his lips against mine. Hard. “I’ll see what I can do. Call when you leave?”
“Will do.” The next thing I know I’m being spun around by Jennings, who’s laughing.
“God, I can’t believe I’m holding you.” Putting me down, he grabs Kevin in a bear hug. “Both of you.”
“We feel the same way, Dad.” Kevin hugs him back just as hard. “Mom, we’ll see you at home.”
“Yeah, Mom.” Jennings eyes are sparkling. “See you at home.” They both turn to leave.
“Text me when you get in!” I shout out. After they clear my view, I lift my wrist to the light to stare at the bracelet I haven’t worn in more than sixteen years. Clasping my hand over it, I whisper, “God, Dean. Jennings is here and he brought Gran’s bracelet to me.” I close my eyes. “I don’t know what to do with this much happy.”
“I do.” My eyes snap open when I see Jennings lounging in the doorway. His smile is lazy and full of heat. But his eyes, God, they’re lit with love. “So, get behind that desk and get to work so I can show you when you get home.”
Instead of throwing a smart comment back at him, I let my lips curve and my hips sway as I do what he asks. But by the time I turn around to see his reaction, he’s already gone.
That’s when I sit down in my spinning stool and push off in circles until my head’s as dizzy as my heart. My hands are raised in the air the entire time in sheer happiness. When the stool stops, my head’s still spinning. Better yet, so is my heart, I think, picking up my pen with a smile.
Now, I hurry to get done with my work so I can get home. I need to know every last detail of what happened..
I drop my pizza on my plate with a splat. “You’ve got to be kidding?” I sputter.
When I saw the amount of luggage in my bedroom, I joked to Jennings, “Planning on moving in?” He laughed before pressing me up against the wall out of Kevin’s line of sight and showed me without words how much he missed me before he muttered, “The plans for your new house are too small. We need to do something about that.”
After, I went to the bathroom and yep, whisker burns and a dreamy smile on my face. I didn’t bother to hide either from Kevin.
Jennings saved the big news for over dinner. “Not kidding at all.” Standing, he walks into the living room a few steps away to pull out a folder. Bringing it back to the table, he hands it to me. “It was Jed.” His voice is raspier than it was a moment earlier. “He dared me to bid on the work.”
I flip through the file, but there’s too many pages and my own eyes are hazing over. Flinging it next to my plate, I beg him, “Just tell us what it means, Jennings.”
Reaching over, he takes Kevin’s hand before he reaches for mine. As if I needed another reason to love him. “It means, that”—he nods at the folder—“it’s a big enough contract to open up the southeast division of Northern Star Flights. I’ll be transferring some guys, but I need to hire pilots. For the next five years, we have an exclusive contract with the hotel to fly executives and VIPs from St. Augustine to the Caribbean, St. Simons, well, pretty much anywhere they ask within a day-trip radius.”
“Jennings?” I say it at the exact same time Kevin pleads, “Dad?” The word is a hope, a wish, a prayer from us both.
“It means, we’re going to need a bigger house. I looked up your model online, and there’s no way—umpphh.” Kevin and I tackle Jennings out of his chair at the exact same moment.
We’re laughing and talking over one another, making plans and celebrating. What we’re not doing is letting go. According to Jennings, we never have to do that again.
For long moments we lie on the kitchen floor a tangled heap of family. My head is on Jennings’s chest. Kevin has a grip of his dad’s hand, but he’s rolled off to the side. Amused, I know there’s nothing that’s going to be able to wipe the smile from his face for a long time. And that’s because one of the two men who would do anything for me, did. Squeezing my eyes tight, I pray he can hear me.
Thank you, Jed.
I’m surprised when Jennings leans over to whisper in my ear, “I said almost the exact same thing when I got the email,” before he presses a kiss on the edge. Lifting us both into a sitting position with an ab curl that makes my toes tingle, he announces, “Now, let’s finish eating. Kara, you have to work tomorrow, and I’m taking over your kitchen while you’re there. I need to make some calls to some real estate agents for office space.”
“Mom, Dad can come to my swim meet tomorrow night,” Kevin says with excitement, scrambling to his feet. “Can I call Brooks to let him know?”
“Quickly. Then you have to finish dinner and studying for your history test,” I warn him.
“On it.” He starts to dash away but freezes. Turning, he jogs back and captures both of us in a hug. Summarizing everything we’re all feeling, Kevin chokes out, “I’ll always miss Uncle Dean and Uncle Jed, but now I feel like I have everything.” Then he dashes away calling, “Save me some pepperoni,” over his shoulder.
Jennings and I don’t move from our position on the floor. Still cradled in his lap, I whisper to him, “This exact moment was worth waiting my life for.”
Groaning, Jennings drops his head and nips my lips, demanding entrance. His tongue seeks and finds mine, licking and twining against it. I don’t give him passive; I give him everything in that kiss. My tongue strokes over his, seeking the warm recesses of his mouth, relearning the taste I’ve been so long denied due to distance. What had been merely dormant since that last night in Alaska only began to flame out of control between us.
That was until we heard, “Come on. Am I going to have to put ground rules in place?” Kevin stomps back into the kitchen. But as aggrieved as he sounds, his face is shining with joy.
Jennings gets to his feet before lifting me to mine. Then he turns a wicked grin to our son. “Get used to it, kid. Who knows, if I can convince your mother, maybe we’ll give you a little brother or sister yet.”
My womb convulses at the idea of carrying John Jennings’s child while he’d be with me the whole pregnancy. But we’ve had enough excitement for tonight. So, all I say is a mild “We’ll see. Now, what do you mean the new house is too small? It’s perfectly lovely.”
And just like a normal family, we begin bickering about things like three-car garages
around the kitchen table. Because that’s what we are—a family.
Finally.
Epilogue
Kara
“What do you mean there’s no time for an epidural?” I shriek in the face of the anesthesiologist. I reach out and grab his lab coat and yank him as close to my face as I can. “This is complete and utter…”
“Kara.” Jennings comes up on the other side of me and smooths my matted hair away from my face with an ice-cold cloth. My husband says soothingly, “Your contractions are too close together. They expect you to deliver in the next thirty minutes.”
Frantically, I reach up and grab Jennings’s face. “No, that’s not possible. Jennings, I was in labor with Kevin for-ev-er!” I screech the last word as another contraction slams through me. I quite possibly also loosen a few of his teeth, but he doesn’t complain at all. In fact, he’s grinning when it passes, and I release him. “Oops,” I mutter.
“I’m here every step of the way.” His voice is husky. “Whatever you need.” And damn if that doesn’t bring on the waterworks that have flooded both of our eyes every time he’s said those words since we found out I’ve been carrying his second child.
Eighteen years after the first.
Kevin is waiting in the hallway with Brad, Rainey, and their brood. I’m so grateful they’re here on vacation, but— “Where’s Maris? She missed Kevin’s birth. The baby’s two weeks early. And now it’s coming way too fast. How is she going to get here?”
“Shh.” Jennings props me up from behind and rocks me.
It temporarily distracts me from my distress as the pain in my lower back eases. “Oh, that feels nice.”
His beard brushes against the side of my damp cheek. “In a few weeks, I’ll give you a few more things that feel nice.”
“Stop. That’s what got us here in the first place,” I admonish.
“Yeah,” Jennings hums next to my ear.
I giggle as his whiskers tickle my ear like they do every single morning we wake up together.
Return by Air (Glacier Adventure Series Book 1) Page 29