Ripple Effect

by Jerald, Tracey

  “I don’t even drive that fast! Forget being in love with him. I’m killing him the minute we hit the ground,” I declare.

  “Are you always this fun because if you are, I might see if Cal wants to sign you up to get certified.”

  “There is no way you’re getting me back in that damn plane,” I announce to Bruce haughtily.

  “Well, if this is going to be your only jump, let’s make it a good ending. Landing procedures. Remember, lift your legs, Libby. I control the landing. When we glide in, I’ll try to land on my feet depending on the wind. Check?”

  “Check.” I’m seriously paying attention.

  “My feet will hit first. You’ll feel the impact through your body. If you do, put yours down. You’ll be standing, and I’ll capture the chute. Otherwise, you’ll end up between my legs and I’ll cushion you. Check?”

  “Check.” I want to land much more gracefully than I took off. Then, I want to set fire to this rig, steal Cal’s keys, and go home and eat the rest of the coconut pecan cake on my own.

  I see another canopy below us. Pointing to it, I ask, “Is that Cal?”

  “Yep. We’re circling to let him land first.”

  Gee, more time in the air. I’ll be sure to thank him later. I can’t give it much thought because the ground is fast approaching. I feel Bruce’s legs lift, giving me a silent cue to lift mine. I do. Then, miracle of miracles, his feet grab hold. I drop my legs, and we both stumble forward. “Holy crap. We made it! Get me out of this thing so I can kiss your face.”

  “I think someone might have a problem with that, though I appreciate the offer.” Bruce unhooks us, but just as I’m about to turn around to thank him for saving me from certain death, my body is hauled against Cal’s.

  His hair is tousled, like after I run my fingers through it. His eyes are dilated, as if he’s in shock. Immediately, my anger is wiped away out of concern. What could have happened? He’s been on the ground maybe a minute more than Bruce and me. “Honey? What’s wrong?”

  “Not a damn thing.” Cal yanks me into his arms. One hand cups my cheek while the other bands tightly around my waist. It’s so tight, I can feel it through the rig, the jumpsuit, and my clothes I’m wearing underneath in the beautiful November South Carolina day. “I just thought you should know I love you too.”

  “Oh, my God. You heard me? How?” I blush to the roots of my hair.

  “Does it matter? Or does it matter that I’ll love you every night you close your eyes and every day you open them.”

  “No matter what?” I say shakily, not entirely certain if that’s due to Cal’s declaration or the fact I’m alive to hear it.

  “I love you, Libby. I will always be yours.”

  “Good. Then you’ll still love me when I forgive you for making me jump out of that tin can.” Shoving my way past Cal without even a kiss, I storm back toward the training facility. I don’t care that I’m likely being laughed at.

  Never again. I will not experience that hell ever again.

  21

  Calhoun

  Twelve Years Ago from Present Day

  I’m grinning like a fool as Libby’s strides eat up the distance quicker than I’ve ever seen her move. Even pissed as hell, she didn’t deny loving me. And I love her so much, I’m consumed with it. I can’t make it without her anymore.

  God, I don’t know what I did, but help me keep doing it.

  Just as the thought passes through my mind, Bruce tosses an arm over my shoulder. “I didn’t realize it was Libby until she told me to call her by that name right before the jump. Wait till I tell Dawn.” Both Bruce and his wife, Dawn, were team members of Alliance when I was in college. After they retired a few years ago, they opened Sunrise Skydive. While it’s open to the public on the weekends, it serves as a training facility for teams like ours during the week. Even though they retired a few years ago, they still keep their nose in the game, just in a different way.

  During their transition out, they got to know Sam and Iris well, helping them understand the nuances of the job the way only another agent of Alliance can. Oftentimes, our jobs are as simple as gathering intel and providing it to the right agency for them to act upon. Since we have no capability to arrest any suspects, we’re limited on what we can do. Then there are others where we’re the ones sent in, my specialty being kidnap and rescues, and our very lives depend on each other not only for the intel, but the backup.

  As teams often do, when the adrenaline high is done and we’re waiting to go home, we share. For Sam and Iris, Libby was a frequent topic of conversation. Hell, she still is. At least with me. But when Bruce and Dawn were on the team, I would sit nearby absorbing any news about her I could. I should have recognized then what she meant to me, but I needed her to show me what it was.

  Love. The kind that will never end.

  “That’s Libby,” I confirm.

  “You’re a lucky son of a bitch, Cal.”

  “Of that, I’m aware.”

  My lips quirk as Bruce ticks off a small list about Libby that doesn’t delve into the depth that I would describe her. “She’s gorgeous, feisty, smart from all accounts, and despite being a terrible diver, she has a direct line to God, ’cause she apparently works miracles. Look at you.”

  I glance down, seeing my own custom rig, and raise a brow in question.

  He goes on. “I’ve never seen you smile until today, let alone laugh. And she tolerates you trotting around the world trying to save it?” Bruce shakes his head.

  I squirm a bit at the last. “She knows I work for a contractor named Alliance, but she doesn’t know the extent of what we do. All she knows is it involves security and it’s classified.”

  Bruce’s arm drops from my back, making me feel like I’ve lost something precious that I never had before. Acceptance.

  “You have to tell her, Cal.”

  “I have to do what I think is right for her.” I stop moving and face my longtime friend. “I have to protect her. That’s my constant mission. You saw her up there.” I jerk my thumb up to the cloudless blue sky above us. “What do you think she would do if she knew I had to do that on occasion?” Walk away. The painful thought whispers through my mind.

  He opens his mouth and shuts it. “Basing your love on a lie is going to come back and bite you in the ass.”

  “I’m not lying to her,” I insist.

  “If you’re not lying to her, you’re lying to yourself. What you’re keeping from her is a large part of who you are.”

  “What I’m keeping from her is what we keep hidden from any number of people,” I retort.

  “She’s not just anyone.”

  “No, she’s precious to me. All I want is for her to just be as happy as she is today for the rest of her life.”

  Bruce looks at me pityingly. “Then keep lying.” He holds up his hand as I start to protest. “Because in the long run, it won’t work. She either accepts you—all of you—or your love is going to wash up on the rocks. She may have trepidation, but your job as someone who loves her is to get her past her fear. Hell, Cal. You could have taken her on that jump today. Why didn’t you?”

  A tick in my jaw betrays me. I don’t say a word.

  Bruce continues. “A woman as unique as Libby Akin has been made out to be doesn’t strike me as the type to waste her time on someone who won her heart through lies. If all the stories I’ve heard about her over the years are even partially true, a woman who has a heart that enormous?” Bruce steps back. “Then it’s you who’s in trouble. Just be honest with her and you’ll never have to wonder if today will be the day she walks away and you can protect her from the world you’re so afraid of hurting her.” With those last parting words, Bruce gathers his parachute in his arms and starts to walk away.

  I stand stock-still for a few moments. I can’t lose the light that Libby has brought to my life. Now that I know I have her love, I’ll do anything to protect it.

  Anything.

  Even if that means
hiding the parts of me I know will send her running away.

  22

  Elizabeth

  Twelve Years Ago from Present Day

  I’m excited Cal will be back from his trip tomorrow. Thank goodness this one was only a few days. I giggle to myself as I type a few notes into my computer. “You’d think he’s taking over some third-world country.”

  “Did you say something, Libby?” One of my interns pops his head in. “Need anything?”

  “No, Leland. Thanks for asking, honey.”

  “Of course. Saw you managed to sell the grandfather clock today?” There’s awe in his voice. “How many more days until that beast is moved?”

  Quickly pulling up the schedule, I announce, “Two weeks.” Leaning back in my chair, I casually toss out, “How would you like to help me rearrange the display?”

  His jaw slackens. “Me?”

  “What? Did you think I brought you on only for your ability to charm the customers?” I tease gently. I stand, working the kinks out of my back from too much time behind my desk. “You have a flair with accessorizing. I’d also love to get your input on my sketches for the holiday.” Even though it’s only June, I have to start placing subtle items throughout the store soon so by the time fall comes around, I’m not completely shutting down for the transformation.

  “I’d be honored, Libby.”

  “Then let’s plan on that once we get rid of Big Ben.” I smirk over the nickname we gave the monstrous clock.

  Leland gives me a charming smile. “You’ve got it. If there’s nothing else, I’m going to go home. You headin’ out soon?”

  I groan. “I should probably catch up on paperwork.”

  Leland frowns. “But I thought you always left on time when Cal got home from a business trip?”

  “That’s why I’ll be out early tomorrow,” I tell him.

  “Hmm.”

  “What is it?”

  “I wonder how his truck got here is all. I went to help my last customer with… Libby?”

  But I’m already racing past him to the back of the building. Throwing open the door, my heart flips in happiness because Leland is right. Cal’s truck is sitting in its usual parking spot.

  “I guess you didn’t know?” Leland comes up behind me.

  I shake my head. “No! I’ve got to go shut down.”

  But Leland just smiles. Handing me my purse and an envelope, he leans down to hug me before saying, “I’ve got it. Have an amazing night, Libby.” Turning, he strolls down the hall toward my office while I clutch the envelope in one hand, my purse in the other.

  Quickly shifting the bag to my shoulder, I use my nail to slit the edge of the envelope open. I slide out the card and gasp. The paper is as fine as any I’ve ever touched. It’s almost fragile beneath my finger, but it’s what’s on the cover that makes my heart pound before I even open it.

  It’s a sunflower.

  With trembling hands, I open the card. “There is no way…” I read aloud. I flip the card over. I peek into the envelope.

  Nothing.

  “Cal, honey. I think you forgot the rest of the message,” I murmur as I pull out my keys to my apartment upstairs. Unlocking the door, I slide through, close and lock it behind me. Turning, I freeze in place before my breath whooshes out. “Oh, my God.”

  Every other step has a card on it, and the ones that don’t have candles on them. “What is this?” I wonder aloud. Dropping my bag and keys, I move over to the first step and pick up the card. It’s a different feel than the first one, which I haven’t let go of. I open the envelope and find another card of sunflowers, this time it’s a photograph of a field of them. “For you to understand…”

  I climb the next two steps and pick up the card. “The depth of my love for you.” My heart sighs. Anxiously, I go up the next two stairs. “I don’t just want…”

  “Today with you.”

  “I want your tomorrows as well.”

  “My heart will always be yours, Elizabeth.”

  My heart is pounding as I pick up the last card. With shaking hands, I open it and read it aloud like I have all the others. “Open the door, honey.” Clutching the cards to my chest, I reach for the knob to my apartment.

  Then, they all fall from my hands as my arms drop to my side in shock. “C-C-Cal?” I stammer out as I look down on him.

  Down.

  Because he’s on his knees in front of me in a room filled with sunflowers and candlelight.

  “Oh, my God.” My hands fly to my mouth.

  His full lips curve in that sexy smile that I know is all mine. “I want to start over one more time with you, Libby.” Cal reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small velvet box.

  “Yes.” The word is out of my mouth before his long fingers can manipulate the hinged top.

  “Honey, I think you’re supposed to wait for me to ask the question,” he teases, but the love in his eyes warms me from my head to my toes and all the places he makes me tingle in between.

  I drop to my knees and scoot forward until I’m within touching distance of him. “Yes,” I repeat huskily.

  “Elizabeth Akin, I should have known when you healed all the cracks of my heart with your smile and your laughter, infusing them with so much joy that I found my own, it had to be love. I’m sorry it took me so long to find my way back to you.” He pauses.

  I want to strangle him and kiss him. Knowing I’ll have the chance for the rest of my life to do both is the only thing preventing me from doing either. Trembling, I sit back on my heels.

  “I never want us to end, but it’s time to begin the last part of our lives together.” Pulling open the box, Cal removes a yellow diamond set in a yellow-gold band. Lifting my shaking hand, he kisses the back of it before he slides the ring on. “It reminded me of sunflowers. It reminds me of you.”

  “God, Cal,” I plead. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to hold off crying, and I don’t want to. I want to memorize every moment of this with clear eyes.

  “I love you, Libby. Always. Please marry me?” His deep voice, which normally carries a note of both seductiveness and command, is pleading. “I didn’t know how to love until I found a woman who taught me what it meant. You make me feel everything.”

  Without delay, I give him the word I said to him ever since I stood in the door and found him on his knees.

  “Yes.”

  Cal grabs me into his arms and, standing, lifts me into his arms. He kisses me long and deep, devouring me as he moves us over to the couch. “The bedroom’s not far,” I murmur, knowing Cal’s penchant for taking me more than once.

  He kisses me. “I want you next to the flowers that fade beneath your light, Libby.” Reaching behind me for the zipper to my dress, he falls silent for a moment before a breath hisses out between his teeth when he spies the strapless bra, thong, and garters I’m wearing. “Damn.”

  It’s nice to know that on a night where Cal’s made my heart explode, I still managed to surprise him.

  23

  Present Day

  Elizabeth

  “How long did it take for Cal to talk with you about who he was?”

  Lifting my wrist, I glance down. “How long have we been talking?”

  We both laugh. Dr. Powell shakes his head at my sass. “All joking aside, you’d known each other for years, had been dating a while. He knew your family—some would say fairly well. When did he open up?”

  The light dawns. “You mean about his past. About how he grew up.” Fury begins to crawl across my skin like I’ve just stepped in a nest of fire ants.

  “Yes.” But it’s said warily as if he realizes he’s unleashed something he can’t control.

  “Isn’t it ironic that a man whose life has been so picked apart in so many ways has given his whole damn life to protect the very people who have the freedom to hurl insults at him about our marriage? About his honor? I’m the one wearing his rings; it’s between me, Cal, and God to determine what’s right and
wrong!” I shout.

  Dr. Powell holds up his folder as if that’s going to protect himself. It takes me a moment to realize I’ve picked up the juice at my side. “Oops. Sorry.” I take a moment to calm my temper down.

  “I was afraid I was about to be bathed in apple juice,” he jokes.

  “It’s not as sticky as orange,” I return.

  “You’re an expert on this?”

  I flush hotly. “Well…”

  No longer afraid of flying juice bottles, Dr. Powell leans forward. I acquiesce. “It was actually the morning after Cal and I got engaged. We were talking about kids.”

  “You both wanted them?”

  “I did. Cal didn’t.”

  “And that angered you?”

  “No, what angered me was the reason why.” I hesitate. “This isn’t really part of our story.”

  “But it ultimately affected it,” Dr. Powell counters.

  True. And it’s not like this information isn’t public knowledge by now. “I’d been dating Cal for roughly six months, yet he deflected any mention of his birth parents. He’d mentioned being a foster child on occasion. And I knew the man I fell in love with enough to know when to push and when to bring issues to me on his own time.”

  “And that happened that morning.”

  “Yes. When he mentioned he declared he never wanted to have a child carry on his name.”

  “His full name?”

  I shake my head. “No, his name at all. He didn’t want a child to carry the Sullivan name. Frankly, he didn’t want me to carry a child of his at all.” Smoothing a hand over my bulging stomach, I mentally reassure our soon-to-be blessing that’s not the case now.

  “Why on earth not?” Clearly, I’ve shocked Dr. Powell.

  “Because deep down, Cal was ashamed by his past. He was always so self-assured, I assumed he had moved past it. I was wrong. But it took us having it out that morning to prove differently.”