A Dangerous Leap

by Sharon Calvin

  The absolute certainty of Matt’s prediction stunned Ian.

  Matt punched him in the arm. “Chill, it didn’t happen. I’m the good guy, remember? Just be thankful her job is more about saving lives than going after bad guys.”

  A stiff breeze popped the brightly colored pennants on the boat masts along the pier and scattered raindrops began to fall with stinging force. Ian held his hand out. “I’m glad to have met you. How long do you get to stay?”

  Matt grinned as he pumped Ian’s hand up and down. “You mean how long before you get to make use of your ‘fun pack,’ don’t ya?”

  Ian made a face. Hell, Matt probably wouldn’t let that one go anytime soon.

  “Don’t worry Coastie, I ship out in the morning,” he added, clasping Ian’s shoulder. “I think you’re all right for Kelly, but if you prove me wrong, I’ll be doubly pissed. Understand?”

  The brief squeeze he gave Ian damn near brought him to his knees. Jesus, what did they teach those guys?

  Matt’s grin widened. “Yeah, you’re all right,” he said. He gave Ian a salute then turned and jogged back to Kelly’s boat.

  Ian rubbed his shoulder while watching Matt’s predatory retreat. He’d have to prove to Kelly he wasn’t going to walk out on her no matter what.

  Maybe then she’d trust him with her heart.

  * * *

  Kelly made it to the air station bright and early the next morning, having dropped Matt at the airport. They’d both promised to keep in touch this time. She never would have guessed her brother cared enough to follow her career, let alone worry about her the way he did. His first night visiting, they’d stayed up until dawn talking about everything. It came as no surprise that his specialty was explosives—creating them and disarming them. From what their dad had told her, he’d been blowing things up since he’d been a little kid. She’d laughed her butt off when she’d learned his buddies had named him Fuse. And considered it her God-given right to tease him about the real meaning of having a short fuse.

  Her new, more grown-up perspective on her parents, her childhood and her brother was still running into opposition from her more entrenched memories. She couldn’t wait to tell Ian about the things she’d learned. Darn it, she’d missed being around the guy.

  As Murphy’s Law predicted, if it could go wrong it did. They had equipment malfunctions, an aborted mission due to miscommunications, and two false maydays, one of which pulled them away from an actual SAR. Fortunately, their backup crew had been available to answer the real call. Kelly was furious when she returned to base.

  “Dammit, why would anyone call in a false mayday? I just don’t get it,” she fumed as she readied their helicopter for the next callout.

  “I don’t know, but I hope they catch the kids doing it and prosecute the hell out of them,” Joe said.

  Kelly stopped what she was doing and squinted at Joe. “You keep agreeing with everything I say and I’ll begin to think you like me or something,” she said. Come to think about it, he’d been damn nice to her all day.

  “Dream on, Fish-Food, I like my women quiet and obedient.”

  Kelly threw her head back and howled. “Do they wear flea collars and fetch your slippers too?” She followed him into the ready room alternating between barks and whines.

  Caitlyn gave her a quizzical look.

  “Joe wants a golden retriever for a girlfriend. I was—”

  “Kelly, Razz called, he wants you to call him on his cell phone. It sounded important,” Tank interrupted on his way out to the hangar.

  “If you need me, I’ll be outside,” Kelly told Caitlyn. She dug her cell phone out of her pocket and switched it out of airplane mode. The message waiting tone chirped as she punched in Ian’s number. She scuffed her boots on the edge of the tarmac, heat still radiating upward. The air, moist and still, formed halos around the runway lights.

  Ian answered on the first ring. “Kelly, are you off Saturday?” he asked before she said hello.

  Her joking protest died immediately. Something was wrong. She’d never heard that tone of voice from him before. “Sure, what do you need?”

  “Come with me to a funeral in Orlando. My aunt died last night and the whole family will be descending on my uncle.”

  Her heart seemed to stall, then plummeted to the ground. A funeral. She followed her heart down as she sank to her knees on the hard surface. Dear God, the last funeral she’d attended had been her daughter’s.

  Before Miranda, it had been her father, and before him, it had been her mother. That’s what families did—they died, and the survivors mourned.

  No, she couldn’t do that again. “All right,” she heard herself say. The roar of a departing C-130 prevented her from hearing all of Ian’s response.

  “… I’ll pick you up at the marina at sixteen-hundred. That should give you time to get a few hours’ sleep and pack some things for the trip. Tomorrow night is the rosary service and the funeral is Saturday afternoon. Brendan, Penny and the boys will be there.”

  Kelly couldn’t speak for the conflicting emotions squeezing her chest, suffocating her. She wanted to be there for Ian’s sake, but something akin to panic urged her to run, to avoid the crushing pain of being the strong one. The one that laughed when she wanted to cry—the one that held on when her body screamed at her to let go.

  “Kelly, I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need you. Aunt Cara was special. My youngest sister is named after her.”

  God, he wasn’t being fair. No way she could deny him now. “No, I understand. I-I’ll be ready at sixteen-hundred.”

  “Thanks, honey. You don’t know how much this means to me. I love you.”

  The need to respond in kind pushed past her fear of leaving herself vulnerable to new heartbreak. “I-I love you too,” she said.

  Too late, she realized he’d already disconnected.

  * * *

  Ian glanced at Kelly’s slight figure curled up against the door of his truck. She’d looked so exhausted when he picked her up, he’d felt guilty for dragging her out for a two-hour road trip. He’d heard about the oh-four-hundred search and rescue call that ended three hours later with a body bag.

  Now he had the impression she was avoiding him. She had too much tension in her body to be sleeping.

  His guilt increased. Yeah, he wanted Kelly by his side for emotional support, but the real reason, the selfish reason he’d asked her to come along was he wanted his family to meet the woman he was going to marry. He smiled. His mom would take her in like a lost kitten. He’d never met anyone who needed a family more than she did, though she’d probably slug him if she knew he thought that.

  Ian turned down the deeply shaded residential street where live oaks, draped in Spanish moss, brought back some of his best childhood memories. Visiting Aunt Cara’s had been the highlight of his summers since he was eight years old. An outcast in her staunch Catholic family for her outspoken independence, Aunt Cara secured total alienation by becoming an artist, marrying a Protestant, and refusing to have children.

  Despite the family brouhaha, Ian’s mother had never severed ties with her sister, and would happily send any or all of her children to visit, based on Aunt Cara’s wishes. Ian had always been one of his aunt’s favorites.

  He slowed the truck, aware that the cars lining both sides of the wide street belonged to relatives as well as friends of his aunt and uncle. Doubt wormed though his gut. Maybe he should have warned Kelly what he was getting her into.

  She stirred to life. “Are we there?” she asked, sitting up and stretching her folded arms over her head. “Good Lord, don’t tell me all those cars belong to your family.”

  Her eyes rounded as she looked back and forth across the street while Ian drove cautiously through the maze of mostly compact rental cars. Damn, for a black sheep, Aunt Cara had
certainly drawn the family in for her farewell. Then again, it had been Ian’s grandparents who had taken the hard line about her lifestyle. By and large, her brothers and sisters had been more accepting, like his mom.

  “Not all, Aunt Cara had quite a following in the art and literary world,” he said. He spotted Brendan’s minivan parked in the driveway and pulled in behind it. Good, Penny and the boys would help Kelly feel less like an outsider. He hoped anyway.

  Exiting his truck, Ian grabbed Kelly’s hand and started up the brick walkway toward the imposing Victorian home. Her fingers trembled and he tucked them in the crook of his arm. Amazing that she’d jump into twenty-foot seas from a helicopter, go toe-to-toe with a guy who towered over her, and quake at meeting his family.

  The front door banged open and Collin flew out, Aunt Cara’s ancient poodle clutched in his arms. “Kelly, Kelly! Meet Misha, he’s old so we gots to be careful.”

  Collin held the dog out to Kelly like a precious gift. She knelt down to his level and accepted his offering, cuddling the woebegone creature as if it were a cute puppy. Her delighted expression squeezed Ian’s heart. It didn’t take a lot of imagination to see her with children of her own. Adopted or biological, she’d make a damn good mother.

  That had been another subject he’d been afraid to bring up. When had he become such a wuss?

  “Ian, you made good time,” his father said from the open door. Still an imposing figure, sixty-three-year-old Val Razzamenti stood tall and lean, his hair more salt than pepper. He stepped onto the porch, his glance softening when he took in Kelly’s interaction with Collin and the dog. He had Riley perched on one hip, where the boy struggled to keep his eyes open, his thumb stuck in his mouth.

  Ian jogged up the steps and hugged his father and ruffled Riley’s hair. “Dad, I want you to meet Kelly Bishop. We work together at the air station. Kelly, this is my father, Valerio Razzamenti.”

  More nervous than he’d been bringing his first date home, Ian slipped his hands in his back pockets to keep from fidgeting.

  Kelly offered her hand, but his dad pulled her into a one-armed hug. “Call me Val, honey, I don’t take kindly to formalities. Goodness, but you are a slip of a girl. Ian, your mother will be pleased.”

  He winked at Ian and slid his arm around Kelly’s shoulders. “Come on in, I want you to meet Moreen, the light of my life. Collin tells me you’re quite brave, jumping in the ocean with sharks and playing with foxes and such. You must tell me all about it.”

  Ian grinned as his father ushered Kelly into the house.

  “Ian, where are your bags? Kelly, I hope you don’t mind bunking with Ian’s little sister Cara. With you in the military and her still in school, we thought you two wouldn’t mind that sort of thing.”

  He ignored her comment about staying at a motel and kept on talking, much as he had all of Ian’s life. Maybe it came naturally to a man used to being outnumbered by children in his own home.

  Like the Pied Piper, Kelly drew the boys into her sphere. Riley woke at the sound of her voice and reached out for her. Val, looking amused, handed his grandson over. She settled the young boy into her hip with surprising ease, then returned her hand to Collin’s shoulder. Her inclusion of Collin, in touch and smile, didn’t go unnoticed. Val gave Ian a nod of approval.

  Ian shook his head. His father had never liked Julie, claiming she had no natural love of children. To a father of eight, that was a high-ranking sin indeed.

  “Lei è una brava ragazza e anche molto carina! Non te la far scappare!,” Val said with another wink.

  Kelly replied in perfect Italian that she didn’t care to be labeled a “keeper”—no matter how nice looking he thought she might be.

  Val’s eyes widened, then he threw back his head and bellowed out a laugh. “Lord, child, you’ll keep Ian on his toes. Moreen! Where is that woman?”

  “Hush, you’ll wake the babies,” Ian’s mother said.

  Her words were directed to her husband, but her green eyes were locked onto Kelly like a guided missile. Ian groaned. Obviously, Brendan had been spilling his guts.

  Moreen’s smile started polite, but grew genuine as Ian watched. With her acceptance, he relaxed. If mom was sold, Kelly had an in with the whole family.

  * * *

  By nightfall, Kelly was exhausted. Moreen and Val had made it clear to everyone they considered Kelly family. She found that concept as frightening as it was comforting. Of course that didn’t prevent family members from scrutinizing her clothes, her looks and how close she stood to Ian.

  She’d been interrogated on her views about child rearing, working outside the home, women in the military and aliens. The kind that arrived in boats as well as the ones beamed down from spaceships. She’d discovered Ian’s family had no compunction about asking the most personal and intimate questions.

  The rosary service had been disturbing, bringing back a bone-deep sadness she couldn’t shake, and dark thoughts she couldn’t escape. Death, it seemed, had been stalking her, striking anyone she dared to love. How could she even think of risking another family, another child?

  Uncomfortable with the light-hearted party atmosphere when they returned home, she sought refuge in the upstairs bedroom she was sharing with Ian’s sister. Too many emotions swirled in her head and heart, confusing her more than ever.

  Sometime later a flash of light woke her and she quickly sat up, disoriented by her strange surroundings. Her heart thudded in her chest, stalling her breath as if unsure what direction to take.

  “Oh, God, you scared me,” Cara said patting her chest with her palm. The young woman snapped off the overhead light “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were in here. I thought you’d be in Ian’s room,” she added softly.

  Kelly hadn’t planned on falling asleep. Confused and a little embarrassed, she squinted at the clock on the nightstand between the twin beds. She converted the digital readout to the more familiar military time of twenty-three hundred.

  She blinked slowly, trying to process Cara’s words. Ian had brought her bag up here when Val had refused to hear of them staying anywhere else. “Aren’t you and I supposed to be sharing this room?”

  Cara giggled. “That’s the official view. Unofficially, we thought you’d want to spend the night with Ian.”

  Kelly could just make out Cara’s figure as she began undressing in the dark. “We? Certainly you don’t mean your parents.”

  “Of course they don’t actually condone premarital sex, but they’re not naïve. Besides, Mom and Dad really like you. We all do, you’re much better for Ian than Julie was. Besides, they know you guys are getting married.”

  Chapter Ten

  Ian searched the crowded first floor rooms and couldn’t find Kelly. She’d been too quiet on the drive back from church and he worried about the emotional toll the ceremony had taken on her. He took the stairs two at a time. Maybe she’d retreated to her room to get away from his too nosey family. Hell, he really should have warned her about them. A little bit of their Irish-Italian exuberance could go a long way.

  In the soft glow of the hall’s nightlight, Ian was practically on top of Kelly before he saw her. She stood outside his bedroom door with arms crossed. Her accusing glare wilted his half-formed smile.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You’re what’s wrong. How dare you tell your family we’re getting married! Dammit, I never agreed to that,” she said in a barely contained whisper.

  Shit, Brendan must have opened his big mouth. Or maybe Penny had said something. He took her arm and gestured toward the bedroom door. “I know that, come in here where we can talk about—”

  She jerked away from him. “There’s nothing to talk about. I’ll make an announcement in the morning. Before breakfast.” Her hand shook when she raked her fingers through her disheveled hair. “That way, there’ll be n
o more misunderstandings. God, now I understand why I was getting the third degree all evening.”

  Her hollow laugh gutted Ian.

  “Can’t you see I’m happy with the life I have? I don’t need a husband and I certainly don’t need children to feel complete. I’m part of a team dedicated to saving lives. I have all the family I need in the Coast Guard.”

  Her voice had risen sharply and her eyes were bright with unshed tears. He was losing her as surely as a patient who had gone V-fib.

  “Are you happy with the way things are between us?” she demanded. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her chest, her hands gripping her upper arms.

  “Yes,” he said, unsure if it was a trick question.

  “If you knew I would never marry you, never give you children, would you still be happy, still want to continue seeing me?”

  Hell, that definitely was a trick question. “Kelly, look, I—”

  Her rapid blinks cleared her eyes and she straightened her back. When he reached for her, she stepped away, shaking her head. “No, Ian, it’s written all over your face. You want exactly what your parents have. As much as I could love your mother, I won’t ever be like her.”

  She took a deep breath and he felt the rift growing wider, deeper.

  “I’m sorry, my timing really sucks. If you like, I’ll arrange my own way back to the air station in the morning.”

  He swiped at his hair, fighting the urge to grab her and shake some sense into her. “No, Kel, this is stupid. You’re obviously upset, hell we both are, given the circumstances. We shouldn’t be discussing something this important right now. I’m sure the services tonight brought back a lot of bad memories about your parents, your baby—”

  Her head snapped back as if he’d slapped her.

  “W-what do you know about m-my baby?”

  Jesus, Mary and Joseph, he’d blown it now. “Kel, honey, don’t—”

  She took a step back. “I never told you about her. Did Caitlyn say something?”

  Even in the dim light he could see she’d gone white. Her flat voice scared him the most. As much as he hated tears, especially coming from Kelly, he’d prefer seeing them instead of this control thing she had going.