Everyone Loves a Hero

by Marie Force

  “Olivia—”

  “Does this happen often?”

  His face was set in an unreadable expression. “It’s let up some, but I’m still astounded by how rude people can be. I’m clearly here on a date. Does she honestly think I’m going to call her?”

  “I can’t imagine what she’s thinking.”

  “At least she didn’t fake a heart attack hoping I’d give her mouth to mouth.”

  Olivia stared at him, aghast. “Has that really happened?”

  “Three times so far.”

  “Unbelievable.”

  He drew an American Express gold card from his wallet.

  “Let me chip in.”

  “No way. I asked you.”

  She propped her chin on her fist and studied him. “So if I ask you somewhere, I can pay?”

  His grin lit up his face. “Does that mean I can look forward to you asking me out?”

  “Maybe.”

  “We’ll negotiate terms if and when you ask.”

  “Where are you staying?”

  “The Sheraton Old Town. The airline has a deal with them, so we always stay there.”

  “That’s right down the road from where I live.”

  He got up and reached for her hand. “Share a cab?”

  “I don’t normally do cabs, but since you’re pressed for time I’ll make an exception.” She curled her hand around his and followed him from the restaurant. “Oh, look, honeymooners,” she whispered, nodding at a couple across the corridor.

  “How do you know?”

  “Well, I don’t know for sure, but I love making up stories for the people I see in the airport.”

  He released her hand and put an arm around her, drawing her close to him. With his lips against her ear, he said, “What would you guess about us?”

  His nearness made her lightheaded. “With you in uniform and pulling your suitcase, I’d say you picked me up in the bar and we’re heading to your hotel.”

  Abruptly, he steered her away from the exit and up the escalator to the second floor, which was all but deserted late on that Friday night.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Since my hotel isn’t an option—at least not tonight—we’re going over here.”

  “Over here” was a dark corner that overlooked the well-lit runways. Across the Potomac, the U.S. Capitol building lit up the night sky.

  “Pretty, isn’t it?” he asked.

  “I never get tired of looking at it.”

  “Neither do I.”

  But when she glanced up at him, his eyes were set on her, not the Capitol. And then his hands were cradling her face and his lips were gliding softly over hers. Any jolt she had felt before paled in comparison to what she experienced when his tongue traced her bottom lip. Her hands landed on his chest and then found his shoulders under his uniform coat.

  As it was happening, Olivia told herself this was a moment to be remembered. No matter what happened—or didn’t happen—between them, she would have this perfect kiss, this perfect moment.

  She felt his hand encircle her neck as his other arm tightened around her.

  His tongue nudged at her lips, and when she opened her mouth to welcome him, he groaned.

  Never in her life had Olivia experienced a kiss quite like this—a kiss that made her want to tear off his clothes and have him. Right here. Right now. She whimpered under the weight of the need that blazed through her.

  Misinterpreting her whimper as one of distress, he quickly pulled back from her.

  She straightened him out by reaching for him to bring him back.

  The second kiss was somehow more than the first. After several long, hot minutes, his fist tightened in her hair and his lips moved to her neck.

  “Cole…” Her voice sounded huskier and deeper than usual.

  He rolled her earlobe between his teeth. “Hmm?”

  She trembled. “You have to go. The FAA, remember?”

  “Never heard of ’em.”

  With a hand on his chest, she held him back. “Flying, eight o’clock. Ringing any bells?”

  This time he whimpered as she took his hand and led him to the exit.

  The moment they were in the backseat of the cab, he picked up where he’d left off in the terminal. His lips were soft, his tongue insistent, and Olivia gasped when his hand brushed against her breast.

  All at once they seemed to realize they were on the verge of losing control in a cab. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against him for the remainder of the ride.

  “After tomorrow, I’m off for eight days,” he said. “I could catch a hop and come back for a couple of days next weekend—if you want me to.”

  “I want you to.”

  “Will you have to work?”

  “I’ll figure something out.”

  “Remember when you asked me what this is that we’re doing?”

  She nodded against his chest.

  “I’m still not entirely sure, but whatever it is, I’m liking it.”

  Looking up at him, she said, “Me, too.”

  Keeping his eyes on hers, he leaned in for a soft, gentle kiss that packed a greater punch than any that had come before. “Olivia…”

  “Here you are, folks,” the driver said as he pulled up to Olivia’s house on Commonwealth Avenue.

  Reluctantly, she sat up and right away felt the loss of his embrace. “Thank you for dinner.”

  “Thank you for the drawing. My father will be thrilled.” He reached for the door handle and stepped out to give her a hand. “I’ll call you.”

  She nodded.

  With a finger to her chin, he tipped her face up for one last kiss. He watched her go up the stairs and into the house before he got back in the cab.

  Chapter 6

  “Did he kiss you?” Jenny asked the next morning.

  Olivia yawned and turned over to hug her pillow. “Uh-huh.” She held the phone away from her ear in anticipation of the shriek.

  Jenny didn’t disappoint.

  “Do you think you could take it down a notch? I haven’t had coffee yet. And why are you calling so early on a Saturday?”

  “It’s ten o’clock. That’s noon in my world. So define ‘kiss’—are we talking a peck or tongue and tonsils?”

  “Option B.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Fine, I’m going back to sleep.”

  “Oh, no, you’re not.”

  “Jenny. It’s my day off. Give me a break, will you?”

  “Not until I hear every detail of what happened last night.”

  Even though she wanted to still be sleeping, Olivia couldn’t help but smile when she thought of the evening she had spent with Cole. She wondered where he was at that moment. His eight o’clock flight was long gone. To where, she had no idea.

  “Olivia…”

  “He liked the dress.”

  “I told you he would.”

  “It was too much for dinner at the airport, but he didn’t seem to care.”

  “He was too busy sticking his tongue down your throat to care about what you were wearing.”

  “Stop. It wasn’t like that.”

  “Then how was it?”

  Olivia told her the whole story. When she finished, Jenny was silent.

  “Hello? Still there?”

  “If you aren’t in love with him, I am.”

  “It was one date, Jenny,” Olivia said with another big yawn. “Don’t go there.”

  “He’s the one. I know it.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud! You haven’t even met him. How can you say that?” Olivia hated the crazy trip of excitement that rippled through her at the possibility that Jenny could be right. As if the thought hadn’t already occurred to her.

  “Just a feeling I have. This whole thing is so incredible. When can I meet him?”

  “He’s going to catch a flight back here next weekend when he’s off. Maybe then.”

  “He’s flying here just to see you?”
/>
  Olivia giggled at Jenny’s reaction. “Yes.”

  “I’m flipping out over here!”

  “No, really?”

  “You guys can come here for dinner.”

  “I don’t know if I’m ready to subject him to you.”

  “He may as well see what he’s getting into right at the very beginning. I come with the package.”

  “That’s true.”

  “Did you talk about what happened in January?”

  “He told me all about it. He’s gotten to the point where he doesn’t like the attention anymore. You won’t believe it, but the waitress actually slipped him her number with the check.”

  “You’re kidding me!”

  “I wish I was. He was super pissed.”

  “I can imagine.” Jenny squealed again. “This is ab fab, Liv. I’m so excited for you.”

  “Don’t get too excited. Who knows what’s going to happen?”

  “You’re already thinking about how it’s going to end, aren’t you?”

  “Not really.”

  “Don’t, Liv. For once in your life, just run with it, will you? This could be something really great. Don’t ruin it by anticipating disaster.”

  “I’m not exactly lucky in this department.”

  “You just hadn’t met the right guy—until now.”

  “Jenny! You’re going to jinx me. I’ve got to get going. I’ve got a paper due in my international business class next week.”

  “Yawn. You just put me to sleep.”

  Olivia laughed. “Cole thinks I should be doing something with my art.” Using his name felt like an acknowledgement that he really existed, that he had managed to infiltrate her whole life in the course of one unforgettable evening.

  “And who has been saying that for years?”

  “You,” Olivia said with a long-suffering sigh.

  “He and I are going to get along just fine. Dinner. Next weekend. Have a good day!”

  Olivia showered, got dressed in jeans and a sweater, and went downstairs to find her parents reading the Washington Post at the kitchen table.

  “Morning, honey,” her dad, Jerry, said.

  “You were out late last night,” Mary said.

  “I had dinner with a friend after work. I told you I’d be late.”

  Without glancing up from the paper, Mary said, “Do you kiss all your friends like that?”

  Olivia made an effort to keep her anger in check. She couldn’t wait to get her own place.

  “Nothing you want to tell us?” Mary goaded.

  “Nope,” Olivia said as she poured coffee into a travel mug.

  “Leave her alone, Mary,” Jerry said.

  Olivia sent him a grateful smile. “I’m going over to campus to work on my paper.”

  “Want a ride?” Jerry asked.

  “Sure. That’d be great.” Since she felt like she spent half her life on the Metro, the ride was more than welcome.

  On the way into the city, Olivia took a moment to appreciate the clear autumn day, the bright blue, cloudless sky, and the colorful foliage. As they traveled parallel to the airport on Route 1, she watched a red-and-blue Capital Airlines plane take off. She couldn’t believe Cole, the man who had kissed her senseless the night before, was capable of doing that, of steering an airplane into the heavens.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” her father said.

  Olivia looked over at him and smiled. He was her anchor in the sea of madness that surrounded her mother. “Promising date last night.”

  “With?”

  “A Capital pilot.”

  “Ah, no wonder why you’ve got your eyes glued to the action on the runway. How’d you meet him?”

  Olivia told him about the fight in the store and what had transpired since then.

  “Well, I’ll be. So you like this guy.”

  She sighed. “Am I that obvious?”

  “No, but I know my little girl.”

  “It’s kind of scary how much I like him,” she confessed. “I’ve only actually seen him three times, and he was out cold for a big part of the first one.”

  “The other two times must’ve been anticlimactic after that.”

  “Not really. He’s very… dynamic. In fact, he’s the pilot who landed the plane in the blizzard last winter and then saved the captain who’d had a heart attack.”

  “Is he now? I remember reading about that.” He reached over to squeeze her hand. “Good for you, honey. You need to enjoy yourself more than you do. I hate that you have to work so much while you’re in school. Things are starting to pick up some for me, so maybe in the next month or two, I’ll be able to help you out.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Dad. I’m doing all right.” Left unspoken was the silent truth they both lived with but never discussed—if her mother would quit her obsessive shopping, he would be able to do a whole lot more for Olivia.

  “I just wish you didn’t have to do it all on your own. When the boys were in school, things were more flush, and I was able to help them.”

  “No one’s keeping score. You’ve always been right there for me.”

  When Olivia was five, her mother had miscarried twins late in her pregnancy. Something in Mary had come unglued in the aftermath of her loss, and years of therapy had failed to put her back together. Mary had slowly withdrawn from life, and without her father’s steady presence, Olivia never would have survived growing up in that house. Every ounce of her energy was directed toward the day she would finally be able to move out.

  “Can I ask you something?” Olivia asked hesitantly. They didn’t talk about this. Ever.

  “Sure you can.”

  “Do you ever think about leaving?”

  “She’s my wife, you know? Better or worse and all of that.”

  “You’re a saint.”

  “Nah. You do what you gotta do. That’s life.”

  “I guess.” Olivia often wondered if the drama she’d grown up with had caused her to doubt that it was possible to ever be truly happy. She saw how happy Jenny and Will were and how delighted they were with their baby son. They gave her hope. But both of Olivia’s brothers had failed marriages behind them, and she was wary enough to be afraid of the feelings Cole stirred in her. He made her want things she was better off not hoping for.

  Her dad navigated Ward Circle and pulled into a parking lot by the library.

  Olivia leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Thanks for the lift.”

  “My pleasure.” He squeezed her hand one last time before he let her go. “Have some fun with this pilot of yours, Livvie. Don’t be afraid to give it a shot. You never know what’ll happen.”

  “You sound like Jenny,” she said with a smile.

  “My very wise niece knows a thing or two about love. Listen to her.”

  “She’s already got me married to him.”

  Laughing, her dad left her with a wave, and she headed for Bender Library. She found a quiet corner on the third floor, took out her laptop and notes, and tried to focus on the International Monetary Fund. But thoughts of a dark-haired man with piercing blue eyes kept intruding.

  Before she knew it, she was sketching prominent cheekbones, a straight nose, full lips, and the hint of cockiness that should have been off-putting—and would have been on most men—but only added to Cole’s appeal.

  As he came to life on the page, she was filled with yearning. For what exactly, she couldn’t say. For anything other than what she had. She was tired of waiting for her life to begin and sick of being on her way to some far-off destination where all her problems would be solved. The harder she worked and the more she dreamed, the further away that destination seemed to be.

  She hated business school. There. She’d finally admitted it. She hated the classes about things that didn’t interest or matter to her, the pretentious students who talked about how much money they planned to make after they got their MBAs, and some of the professors who acted like they held the keys to success and would only give th
em to a lucky few.

  Here she was, three-quarters of the way through college, working toward a degree she didn’t want. The realization was devastating. What was she supposed to do? Quit? No way would she leave without a degree. She couldn’t let all the time and money she had invested go to waste.

  All she could think about was Cole telling her she was exceptionally talented, that he felt he knew the people in her drawings. How had she gotten so far down a road she didn’t want to be on? How could a man she had seen just three times finally make her realize that her art had value? Was it possible that if she followed her whimsical heart rather than her practical head she might get all the things she wanted without selling her soul to the devil in the process?

  Touching the space bar on her computer, she clicked on AU’s website and found the link for the studio art program. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one was looking, she felt her heart race like it might if she clicked on porn by mistake. As that thought made her giggle, the studio art page filled her screen. All along, she had known the program was there, but she hadn’t paid much attention to it as she pursued the business degree.

  She devoured the information on the program and then read about the Katzen Arts Center. The center’s website declared, “The Katzen Arts Center stands as a clear statement to the community that at the heart of the city, there exists a place where the arts are honored as the heart of higher education. That place is American University.”

  Imagining herself a part of the art community at AU was overwhelming and exciting at the same time. Before she could lose her nerve, she sent an email to the contact person for the studio art program, requesting an appointment. After she sent the message, she dissolved into giddy laughter.

  “I can’t wait to tell Cole about this,” she whispered.

  Over the next few hours, she ground out the business paper while hoping he would call. She checked the phone twice to make sure she hadn’t missed a call and then felt silly for caring so much. By six o’clock, the paper was done, and she gathered her stuff to leave.

  Invigorated by the fresh air after being cooped up all day, she had almost reached the Metro station when her phone rang. Her excitement was dashed when she saw Jenny’s number on the caller ID.