Ripped!
Page 15
“You can just drop me off at the curb,” he said in the terse, clipped tone that always let his men know they’d crossed a line.
“I was planning to.”
He should’ve known she’d have to have the last word. Tara pulled over and he got out of the car without a word. Reaching into the backseat, he yanked out his duffel.
“Eli.”
“Yes?”
“I love you. Take care of yourself.”
He straightened and slammed the door. Then he was pissed because he felt like a jerk. He turned and made his way through the automatic airport doors.
What the hell was wrong with him? He was so angry he could…what? He’d never had anger issues, but Tara had pushed him too far…His steps faltered. By speaking the truth.
He’d run like hell two years ago and he was still running, too much of a chickenshit to bare his soul. He could learn a lesson or two in bravery from this woman.
He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number she’d programmed in for him last night. He sprinted back toward the front of the airport.
“Tara, it’s Eli. You’ve got to come back. I forgot something.”
He burst through the double doors and she was standing at the curb where she’d dropped him off. He clicked the phone off.
She dropped her cell into her pocket, her eyes never leaving his face. “I never left. What’d you forget?”
He manned up and stepped forward, bracketing her face in his hands. “The one thing I can’t live without. You. I love you, Tara.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, tears shimmering in her eyes. “It’s about time you figured that out, soldier-boy.”
Epilogue
Six months later…
“HEY, BABY, DO YOU THINK anyone would notice if we disappeared now that the wedding ceremony is over?” Eli asked, his breath stirring tendrils of hair near her ear, setting off the usual three-alarm fire inside her that occurred whenever he was near.
“Since we’re the main attraction, I think they might,” Tara said, leading him to where their guests waited to congratulate them. Eli’s buddy, the tall dark and aloof Lieutenant Colonel Mitch Dugan had served as his best man and stood apart, the first in line to congratulate them. Mitch wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy but he was a nice guy and at least she’d know one person when she moved into her new home at Fort Bragg.
“No regrets?” Eli asked softly. It was uncanny the way they seemed to know what was going through one another’s heads.
All her worldly possessions sat packed in a U-Haul van, ready for the trip to North Carolina. She’d close on her house—the first place she’d ever called her own—on Thursday. She’d expected at least a momentary twinge of sadness at giving up everything, but there hadn’t been even a flicker. She was simply excited to be with Eli.
“None. If home is where the heart is, my home will always be with you.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4083-8
RIPPED!
Copyright © 2009 by Jennifer LaBrecque.
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