He kept walking and then realized he didn’t even have his truck. Shit. He stopped. The minute he did, she was there, in front of him, hugging him—warm and soft and smelling that special way only she smelled.
“I love you,” she said, her cheeks tear-streaked. “I love you so much, Caleb, and I don’t care who knows. I told my parents.”
His arm wrapped around her waist. “What? When?”
“Tonight. Or my mom, but same thing. I told them tonight, and then I came to find you. They knew, Caleb. Mom said she always knew about us. Caleb, I didn’t tell them because I was afraid if something went wrong, you’d leave again. I know you said you won’t, but it’s hard to put that aside. I’m so afraid of depending on you, and you being gone again.”
He kissed her, drank her in with the news that she’d finally accepted them. “Marry me, Shay,” he said. “That should be proof enough I’m not going anywhere. Marry me tonight. Let’s get on a plane and elope. I’ve waited for you for ten years. I don’t want to wait anymore.”
She smiled, tears welling in her eyes. “So if you leave again, I go with you?”
“Shay. Sweetheart.” He ran his hand over her hair. “I’m not going anywhere without you. Never again. Where I go, you go. Starting with an airplane and an elopement destination. I haven’t heard a yes. Marry me, Shay.”
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, a million times over.”
“Tonight.”
She laughed. “If you can find a place to do it, then yes. Tonight.”
EPILOGUE
SHAY STEERED HER CHUTE to the open ground beneath her, hitting the dirt with an easy tumble. On either side of her, Jennifer and Sabrina landed, both laughing as they all cut themselves loose and discarded their goggles.
“That’s what they get for telling us we have to wait for them to jump,” Sabrina said, eying the second plane overhead.
Jennifer laughed. “And here they come,” she said. “They can’t stand that we went out alone.”
Shay laughed and lay on her back. “I can’t believe I did,” she said. “Only a month ago I didn’t even want to jump.” But a month-long honeymoon after an elopement to Italy had included some amazing skydiving scenery, and Shay was hooked on jumping. Caleb was thrilled. She still couldn’t believe she was officially Mrs. Caleb Martin and a Hotzone woman.
She and her Hotzone sisters rolled to their backs and watched the Aces, plus one—Kent, no doubt—floating through the sky. Two weeks out of rehab, Kent was determined to make skydiving his new diversion. He wanted to become a jump-master.
“You know,” Jennifer said, “Kent and Lori really do sizzle together, but I don’t think they’ve talked since he got out of rehab. Maybe we should arrange something. Besides. I love the idea of opening the flight school.”
Sabrina glanced knowingly at Shay. “See what a matchmaker she is? She agrees with me on the flight school because she wants to fix Kent up with Lori. This is why she’s a vet—she’s very touchy-feely.”
Shay laughed. “She did pretty good with you and Ryan.”
“She tried to fix me up with Caleb, not Ryan,” she said. “That must be a sign that Kent and Lori are completely wrong for each other, because Ryan and Caleb are like night and day, and she had me totally pegged wrong.”
“Hey,” Jennifer said, leaning up on her elbow. “How do you know it wasn’t all my evil plan?” She wiggled a brow. “Make Ryan the forbidden fruit, so you couldn’t resist a taste.”
Sabrina’s eyes lit. “Ryan has a way of making every day feel like forbidden fruit all by himself. He didn’t need any help.”
Shay smiled because Caleb was on the ground now, walking toward her, mischief in his eyes. Her man. Her husband. And he wasn’t forbidden fruit anymore. Though he was certainly good at finding naughty, wonderful ways to show her he loved her. Shay sighed as he tumbled to the ground beside her and onto his back, taking her with him.
He teased her about jumping without him, and they fell into silence, staring at the sky. Shay glanced around, noting the other two couples doing the same thing and contentment settled inside her.
Kent sat alone, staring up at the sky.
Her resolve formed. She was calling Lori.
Caleb laughed and kissed her. “Don’t you even think about getting Jennifer’s matchmaking bug. He needs to rediscover himself before he has room for someone else in his life.”
“I just want him to be happy,” she said. “Like I am.” She touched his cheek and then glanced at the princess-cut white-diamond ring on her finger before her gaze found his. “I can’t believe we’re married.”
He took her hand and kissed the ring. “My wife. My life.” He smiled and gave her a mischievous wink.
She laughed. “Oh, my husband. My life.”
THE END
Don’t miss the first and third books in the Texas Hotzone series—Jump Start (book one) and High Octane (book two)!
BUY HERE:
https://www.lisareneejones.com/texas-hotzone.html
TURN THE PAGE FOR SNEAK PEEKS INTO TWO OF MY WALKER SECURITY SERIES: THE SAVAGE SERIES AND THE ADRIAN TRILOGY!
EXCERPT FROM
WALKER SECURITY: ADRIAN’S TRILOGY
Pri’s point-of-view
I exit the bathroom and halt to find him standing in the doorway, his hands on either side of the doorframe. “What are you doing?
“This,” he says, and suddenly, his hands are on my waist, and he’s walked me back into the bathroom.
Before I know what’s happening, he’s kicked the door shut, and his fingers are diving into my hair. “Kissing you, because I can’t fucking help myself. And because you might not ever let me do it again. That is unless you object?”
That’s the part that really gets me. The “unless I object,” the way he manages to be all alpha and demanding and still ask. Well, and the part where he can’t fucking help himself.
I press to my toes and the minute my mouth meets his, his crashes over mine, his tongue doing a wicked lick that I feel in every part of me. And I don’t know what I taste like to him, but he is temptation with a hint of tequila, demand, and desire. His hands slide up my back, fingers splayed between my shoulder blades, his hard body pressed to mine, seducing me in every possible way.
I moan with the feel of him and his lips part from mine, lingering there a moment before he says, “Obviously, someone needs to protect you from me,” he says. “Like me.” And then to my shock, he releases me and leaves. The bathroom door is open and closed before I know what’s happened. And once again, I have no idea if or when I will ever see him again.
FINE OUT MORE ABOUT ADRIAN’S TRILOGY:
https://www.lisareneejones.com/walker-security-adrians-trilogy.html