Our moment doesn’t seem to last long enough, but as he pulls me into his side I see the sun high in the sky, already past it’s noon position and I giggle into his chest. Time seems to slip away when I’m in Bobby’s arms, but its fine by me.
The muggy atmosphere brings the afternoon bugs out and as they buzz and the birds chirp, I trace the lines on Bobby’s chest; running my finger along his abs and up his sternum, moving across his shoulders to land on his pirate ship tattoo. It fascinates me, this work of art on his skin and I climb on top of his chest, laying my cheek on his peck as I inspect it further.
The stormy seas, the ripped sails and the ‘Refuse to Sink’ emblazoned on the bow giving way to the tiny peek of blue sky and calming land, letting him know safety is near. With my ear on his chest, listening to the rhythmic beat of his heart I drill that little saying into my head.
“You’re that clear sky,” he says with his hand at the back of my head, turning my head so that I’m looking at him. I don’t understand and he clearly sees it. A marvelous smile creeps onto his face. “You’re that clear sky to my pirate ship. You’re that safe harbor, that saving grace. My saving grace.”
“Oh shush,” I say trying not to blush while turning my face away and he holds my head firm, looking me in the eye. The look he’s giving me says he’s not kidding and it sinks in. He really loves me. He sees me as a happy point, a safe point. It scares me because he still doesn’t know my secrets. Will he change his mind?
“Sweetheart you’re all that I want. No matter what, I won’t ever let you go.” He pulls my face to his, kissing me so sweetly that my heart breaks all over again and tears lightly find my lashes. I’m such a mess right now but I’m happy and it’s been far too long since I’ve been happy.
“I love you Bobby,” I say, kissing him again and he hugs me to him, holding me tight and running his fingers along my spine.
As we pull our clothes on a thought suddenly strikes me and I turn to him as he adjusts the suspension sleeve on his leg, replacing the prosthetic after straightening the tan material.
“What if someone came waking down here when we were buck ass naked?” I kind of yell at him and he laughs. It is kind of funny to think about and if someone had, they sure would’ve gotten an eye full so I laugh right along with him, standing and folding our blanket.
He just shakes his head and takes my hand, standing still so we can get one last look at our peaceful scene as we turn back down the trail. He has one of the tulips I picked tucked behind his ear as we make our way down the trail, bumping arms and smiling every now and then.
There is a different pressure on my heart now. A good kind. One that at this moment is making me a little light headed.
When we get out into the open I look up to see his truck and at the opening to the trail, a large orange cone. Cocking my head to the side I try and squint to read the black lettering.
“What the?” I start to say as he starts to chuckle. As we get closer I see that the cone says “Trail closed. Groomers Ahead”.
“Oh really?” I think to myself stopping in my tracks and giving him an incredulous look.
“Where the hell did you get that?”
“Chief gave it to me,” he smiles, dodging my hand as I try and swat him. He wraps me up, kissing my cheek as I try and squirm loose. “I wanted us to have something special.”
“Grooming special?” I scoff, turning my head away from him as he tries to kiss me. His fingers find my chin and hold my face still and I can’t ignore his stare.
“No, you and me special,” he says with a dead serious twinge of desire in his voice. His eyes tell me he’s serious and I concede to his point, getting up on my tip toes and kissing him with my hands on his cheeks, dropping my purse and blanket. I love this man and if he wants to use a cone to make sure we have a special moment, then why the hell not?
“I love you Bobby,” I say with more conviction, putting my forehead to his and hugging his neck. I love this man with all of my heart. It scares the hell out of me and it makes me giddy at the same time. I need him, I want him and he loves me too.
“I love you sweetheart,” he whispers, sweeping me up, grabbing my purse and blanket and planting me in the passenger seat of his truck with another kiss.
This man is everything to me. He’s my clear sky. He’s my safe haven. I hope I can be everything he needs me to be.
CHAPTER TEN:
Bobby
June 23, 2013
“How many times have they called you?” Chief nods towards my cell phone as I silence it, throwing it back in the duffel bag at my side. It’s going to be an awesome day today and as Chad and I sit on the metal bench on the sideline of his old high school’s football field making sure our sneakers are tied tight, I give him a laugh.
“A couple of times,” I say standing and making sure my shorts drawstring it tied and the belt with the red flags around my waist is straight. We are waiting on the guys from our SEAL Team, well our old SEAL Team, and we are going to have a nice, rowdy game of flag football.
The callers Chad is questioning me about are private contractors, mercenaries, who have been calling me night and day bidding for my attention. Private ‘security’ companies who are hired by the government to help them out overseas.
They know I still got it. Taking my leg doesn’t take my shooting capability away and all of my doctors say I’m healing faster than they thought I would, which is awesome. With every message these soldiers of fortune leave me, they raise the stakes, offering me more and more money; more perks. One has even gone so far as to offer me a brand new car in return for my four year agreement to employment with undeterminable deployment times.
It’s something I’m thinking about due to the fact that I can’t rely on this countries government to take care of me as they don’t take care of the Veterans now. It’s a shame and it pisses me off, but I won’t let it dampen my mood right now. The day is too promising for that.
Looking down the sideline, I spot my Ellie looking all cute in her shorts and tank top with the blue flags tied at her waist. She’s laughing and joking with Rhea, Rosa and Kendall; all of them playing and cooing over Marisol and Charlie who are crawling around in the grass.
God I love her. I can’t help but stare at her, a goofy smile caressing my face when she bursts out in laughter to something Kendall says.
“Hey! Romeo,” Reno yells, slapping the back of my head and I turn on him, shoving him with both hands and watching him fall over from his precarious position of one leg on the bench tying his shoe, to lying on the ground swearing. Bursting out in laughter my rant is short lived as he gets up, the look on his face causing me to jump up and sprint in the other direction, this angry man on my heels.
“Come on Reno,” I laugh, keeping ahead of him and swerving around the field, dodging his hands and feet as he attempts to tackle or kick me. “What’s wrong? NCIS make ya soft?”
“You have an unfair advantage,” he huffs and over my shoulder I see him stop and throw his hands up. I jog to a stop about ten yards away, turning and winking at him. “You have a robot leg. It’s unfair.” He breathes and I throw my head back, letting out a good chuckle as I throw my arm around him.
“You always got an excuse Reno,” I say, slapping him in the chest and he flinches. In the blink of an eye his arms tighten around my waist and I’m flat on my back, staring up at the sky; a victim of a hip toss with Reno’s smiling face peering down at me.
“Never let your guard down kid,” he says with a smile and a wink, his dark eyebrows waggling. “Especially when you’re around me and the Chief.”
I’m still in a state of minor shock as he walks away and I can hear Chad’s distinctive laugh echoing through the early afternoon air. I’ll always be the ‘kid’ to those two and I laugh to myself, recounting my miscalculations of Reno’s attitude and the moment I knew he was going to retaliate. Next time I’ll get his ass, he just won’t see it coming.
Sitting up and lazily wrapp
ing my arms around my bent knees, I squint in the sun to see my SEAL Team mates getting out of their trucks and Jeeps in the parking lot. Today will be the first day since waking up in the base hospital that I will see any of my brothers. Uclid was the last one I saw as they wheeled me out to a chopper, bound for yet another hospital and that had been only hours after I had woken up and been told what had happened. We have a lot to catch up on and the thought of joking and carousing with them brings me jumping to my feet and jogging across the grass.
“Timmons,” my old LT, Austin French, smiles throwing his hand out and grasping mine tightly, pulling me in for a one armed hug as is the usual greeting. I hug him tight. It’s good to see his dumbass smile and scruffy un-kept beard. “You’re lookin’ good brother.”
“Thanks French. You too,” I say genuinely as his blue eyes roll and he lets out that loud, annoying laugh he’s famous for, making everyone around us laugh as well.
I shake hands and hug Black, Benson and Talbot, joking and laughing with them all, leaving my spotter and best friend, Uclid, for last. His shorter, stockier build is standing here before me with a dumb smile on his face, shaking his head at me.
“Well you mother fucker,” he laughs, taking my hand and pulling me into a hug. His smile is a great thing to see and I laugh as he pats my back extremely hard as his usual style. “Lookin’ good bro,” he smiles, releasing me.
“Shut the hell up,” I scoff, slapping my hand on his cheek and squeezing his face. “I’ve missed ya bro. It’s good to see ya.”
“Yeah you don’t call, don’t write,” he says in a fake girly voice, putting his finger to his chin and I push him back, chuckling at him. “Oh wait. I was in fucking hell so you couldn’t write or call, my bad!”
As we settle into conversation, we circle up with Chad and Reno, all of us joking and laughing and I know nuns would be saying a million prayers for us with all of the curse words flowing through the wind right now. Harlan, Garth and Brad join us, flawlessly mingling with the conversation and adding their own quips and jokes and I’m speechlessly happy right now. I’m surrounded by my friends, my Team, essentially my family. Chad had been right; this is something that I need.
“Are we gonna play football or are ya’all just gonna sit there and shoot the shit?” I turn from my conversation with Elliot to see Ellie standing just a few feet away, her blue-green eyes trained on me as her hand finds her cocked hip.
Damn, she is sexy as hell and her presence makes me go from bullshitting with the boys to thinking naughty thoughts about her in a split second. Knowing there is a mischievous look displayed on my face, I stand and make a lunge for her, scooping her up in my arms as she squeals and wraps her legs around my waist.
Just the feel of her close to me brings a smile to my face and makes my heart race, her giggling in my ear making me want to run off and have my way with her in the back seat of my truck and I laugh lightly. Her lips on my cheek and some rousing from behind me make me turn, shifting her in my arms and settling them underneath her butt, cradling her to me and in this second I don’t want to ever let her go.
“I see you finally did it,” Elliot says, smiling from ear to ear and I shake my head, knowing the jokes that are about to follow throughout the day now.
Looking to Ellie she gives me a questioning look with a smile and I laugh, pulling her face to me with one hand while crushing her body along my torso with the other as her legs squeeze my waist tight. As I release her lips she asks, “What is Uclid talkin’ about?”
“You sweetheart,” I grin, kissing her lips one more time, then her nose and then setting her down, immediately missing her weight and presence once her feet are on the grass. “He’s sayin’ how I finally got you.”
“Yeah, after all the belly achin’ and day dreamin’,” French chimes in and all the guys laugh in my expense. Flipping them all off I grab the football off of the bench and throw it as hard as I can at French, causing him to stop laughing and huff as it hits him in the gut and he wraps his arms around the ball to keep from dropping it.
“Is that all you’re gonna do is run your mouth, or are we gonna play some ball?” I taunt, giving the LT my cocky attitude that I know he hates. The commander in him likes his guys to be complaisant and I was never one to reform to that too much. His blue eyes turn into slits as he glares at me.
“Oh, you’re gonna get it boy,” he says, giving me an evil grin as he tosses the ball over to Chad.
All I can do is laugh, adrenaline coursing through my veins at the anticipation of a good game. Jogging backwards out onto the field I watch as my SEAL brothers pull on their flag belts, French purposely picking blue to be on the opposite team from me and I grin, yelling for them to hurry up as Chad and I make it out to the fifty yard line.
Chad hands the ball off to Reno, nodding for him to kick it down the field to the blue team who are congregating and mingling. I can tell French is running his mouth about me as Ellie giggles, telling him to be quiet and I smile. “Oh just wait French,” I think to myself, nodding to Chad when he asks if I’m ready.
“Are you guys ready yet?” he yells down the field as he straightens Rhea’s flag belt, kissing her nose and patting her butt as she walks away and joins Rosa on the far end from me. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks about his displays of affection and hell, neither do I. Let the guys make fun of me; at least I have a woman when I go home.
“Yeah,” French shouts and I see Black and Benson nod along with him. “Bring it.”
“Oh hell yeah,” Elliot shouts beside me and Garth slaps him on the back. We are all ready for a little fun and I know my SEAL brothers are going to use this time to get some stress out but I’m ready.
Reno kicks the ball down field and we’re off after it, my focus in on the balls path in the sky. Hearing Ellie yell out that she’s got it I laugh to myself, zoning in on her location and I wave to Uclid to fan out to my right, planning on him circling around beside her in case one of the guys gets in my way.
Now we have a loose rule for flag football. If the girls weren’t here it would be full on tackle, but with the girls we can’t do that so for them we’ll pull the flags. As for us guys, we’re fair game to tackle and that’s perfectly fine with me. I played ball all through high school and we use to play pickup games when we could overseas.
I see Ellie catch and cradle the ball and I’m only a few yards away, smiling when she looks up to see me. She squeals, taking off to her left as Harlan tries blocking for her and takes out Uclid. It was a good, clean hit and as I hurdle over them lying on the ground Ellie is running full out towards the end zone.
“You better run faster Ellie Mae,” I tease as I catch up to her, tapping her on the shoulder.
“Oh no you don’t Timmons,” I hear from my right and am hit with what feels like a train, pushing me to the ground and my breath leaves my chest, hearing French’s deep chuckle from on top of me. Looking up I see his blue eyes peering down at me, a smile plastered wide on his hairy face as he gets up from the grass.
“Told ya you were gonna get it,” he laughs, jogging off as I sit up, seeing Ellie doing a touchdown dance down in the end zone. Her scoring doesn’t make me mad because hell, any guy would love to see his girl shaking it like she is right now, but I grip the grass in anger anyways, mad at myself for being tackled.
A group of motorcycles roar in the not so far off distance and as I get to my feet I see Ellie’s smiling face looking right at me. She sticks her tongue out and shakes her butt some more and all I can do is laugh, enjoying the moment.
“Shoulda snatched my flag when you had the chance,” she taunts as my team joins me, ready for the blues to kick off.
“Just wait sweetheart,” I yell back, waving my hand up in the air when Black asks if we’re ready. Oh just wait.
When the football hits the sky, Uclid and I split from our side by side position making it so that Rhea or Rosa can catch the ball and run with it. It ends up landing in Rhea’s arms and with her right be
side me and Chad on the other; we make our way down the field. I pull one of Kendall’s flags, halting her path for Rhea and she yells at me but I laugh it off waiting for the next.
French’s laugh gives him away before I see him break from behind Black, whom Uclid takes down flawlessly, and I zero in on him. Just like if I was looking through my scope at a high value target, I see nothing but French. I’m adjusting my movements for his and as Rhea scoots off to my right, dodging French’s attempt, I take him out at the waist, wrapping my arms around his back and driving him down into the warm grass hearing his wind gush out.
Bouncing up onto my knees I see my team gathering up and Chad helping Reno to his feet, the ball on the ground and ready to be hiked. I look down at French, smiling my ass off as he flips me off.
“Better get up ol’ man,” I laugh, jumping to my feet and offering him my hand which he slaps his into, grasping my fingers tighter than needed and rising to stand right up in my face.
“I’m glad you’re yourself Timmons,” he smiles, patting me on my back as we turn to join the others. I smile at his words, letting them sink in. I still have my moments, but I’m doing better.
“Yeah I’m glad too,” I say pushing him lightly as we reach the others and rejoin our teams. I’m happy to be feeling better about my life now, being an amputee. I know that I wouldn’t be able to do this without Chad, Reno, Rhea, Rosa and their friendship.
Ellie, well Ellie is my clear sky and as I look over to her roaming my eyes over her dark hair and pretty smile I can’t help but let my heart race to a new beat, ignoring the adrenaline from the game and running on her love alone.
Huddling up with Chad telling us he’s going to throw to Elliot for a possible touchdown, we all spread out on the line of scrimmage. Brad lines up with me, being about the same build and height, and I talk a little smack which he dishes right back, making me laugh.
I Never Asked You To Save Me: Book 3 The Wakefield Romance Series Page 16