Lumber Jacked(21)

“What do you mean?” I asked, totally perplexed. Credit for what?

Jack kissed the inside of my palm and moved a step closer to me before he said, “I thought you didn’t mean it when you said you’d leave. I didn’t want to believe it. I hid in that cabin the second things got tough, but you fought for what you wanted and you went for it, even when you had a chance to take the easy way out.”

The blush returned full force as his praise warmed me from head-to-toe. Not even my dad telling me I was a great pilot made me feel so capable, so strong. I coughed as tears threatened the back of my throat; I would not cry on my own damn plane.

“Damn it, Jack, a phone call wouldn’t suffice?” I bit out as I blinked away moisture. My co-pilot shifted where he stood behind me, obviously listening, but I ignored him. This wasn’t about him, he could just wait.

Jack’s low chuckle rumbled in his chest as he stepped forward to fully embrace me. The second our chests met, the moment my head nestled under his, we both sighed. It was a contented, happy sound.

“When you left me at the cabin, I felt so alone. Like I didn’t know what to do or where to go, but I knew I didn’t belong there anymore. You lit a fire under my ass, princess. I worked the past couple of months on that startup I told you about, but I still felt lost. Like I didn’t have a place of refuge anymore, a place to call home. That’s why I left Seattle in the first place; it stopped feeling like home. But then I met you,” he finished and kissed the top if my pilot’s cap. He started kissing my forehead, my cheeks, and closed in on my mouth, as if that was the end of the conversation. I pulled back, confused.

“What does meeting me have to do with finding a home?” I asked as I leaned back and met his gaze full-on.

Jack smiled sweetly at me, color flushed his face. “You are my home, Anna. Wherever you are, that’s home.”

I stopped breathing as tears flooded my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. “I thought you didn’t want anything serious, I thought we were just—” I broke off and buried my face in his chest.

“Anna, no, we weren’t just anything. I was an idiot and, honestly, so were you,” he added with a laugh and managed to dodge my sucker punch. “But we were destined to be more, don’t you think?”

The raw look in his eyes as his forehead met mine undid me. I kissed him for all I was worth and forgot for a moment that I was a pilot on a plane, that the air traffic controller was talking in my headset.

I just kissed the man I loved with all I was worth... and it felt like home.





Epilogue





Anna




Four Years Later




We sat on the edge of the lawn in our freshly-stained Adirondack chairs as the sun set behind the tree line. We roasted marshmallows, one for Julianne and one for Aaron, both of whom were too small to handle the fiery sticks themselves. Soon, we were all covered in the sticky goo from our S’mores and we laughed as Aaron, who was two and half, smeared chocolate into his hair. Jack sat on the chair with me in his lap, one of his arms banded about my waist.

The summer ended too fast, it seemed, and we were headed back to Seattle in the morning. After we got married and had Julianne, we started spending time at Jack’s old cabin south of Anchorage. I flew us there, of course. Once Aaron came along, we spent full summers at the cabin and soaked up the Alaskan wilderness with our two crazy kids. Jack and I, rejuvenated by memories of our first weekend together, had tried for a third child during our stays. So far no luck, but we both agreed it was good practice.

After we wiped small fingers clean of marshmallow and cracker crumbs, the kids ran off to the porch and grabbed their moth nets. While they tried and failed to catch the moths that flew around the lampposts, Jack and I kissed each other gently in the firelight. The heat and passion of those first days had yet to dwindle with the passing years, and the cabin always stirred those embers up again. As one of Jack’s hands grazed the curve of my ass and the other reached to caress my nipple, I giggled against his lips.

“Jack, the kids…” I admonished.

He turned to face the kids and shouted, “Hey kids, I’m going to kiss Mommy so don’t come over here, okay?”

My jaw dropped but the kids, unfazed, just shrieked, “Ew! Gross!” and continued to play their game.

“Jack, you can’t do th—” I tried to yell, but he just kissed me harder and I stopped talking. His kiss could always shut me up and he knew it. Even after the past four years, he still turned me on and drove me crazy.

Jack broke our kiss abruptly and asked, “Can we go to bed now, princess?”