As soon as he could, he stepped back, pulled Leia up close, and introduced her. The other women immediately wrapped their arms around her and sincerely gave her their thanks. Leia was stunned. She looked at him and frowned, clearly puzzled.
“Dave’s niece and my niece,” he said. Her eyes widened, and she nodded. And just when he thought the world had calmed down a bit, and he felt the emotion of being home choking in the back of his throat, he looked up to see Ice. She walked toward him, with that gorgeous smile that he could never forget. He opened his arms, and she walked into them, and they held each other close. When he opened his arms this time, he turned and wrapped one right around Leia and pulled her up close again.
“Ice, this is Leia.”
Ice looked at her and gave her the gentlest of hugs. “You have my eternal gratitude for saving this man,” she said in that beautiful voice of hers.
Leia looked at her closely and then saw something that made her relax. “No,” she said, “you saved him for me all these years, and, for that, I am very grateful to you.”
Momentarily stunned with surprise, Ice stared and then nodded. “Agreed. Now you have to take care of him. He works way too hard. He won’t look after himself, and he cares far too much about everybody else but himself.”
As he tried to protest, the two women just smiled in agreement.
Leia said, “Not a problem. I can handle that from here.”
Ice nodded and said, “So I hear you’re a damn fine surgeon.”
“Well, I was.”
“You still are,” Ice said calmly. “Just wait ’til you see his medical setup.”
“And you,” Leia asked. “Did you come alone?”
“No,” she said, “my better half is here too somewhere.”
They all turned, and Bullard saw Levi walking outside, talking with Dave, their voices animated, as they were discussing some kind of new techno system. Bullard took one look at Levi and reached out, and the two men hugged.
“Damn it, Bullard, if you ever pull some kind of a shitstorm like that again, I—”
Bullard burst out laughing, his world so damn complete, he thought he had died and gone to heaven. “Man, I didn’t know if I would ever get back here again,” he said.
Dave turned and said, “Your brother, he’s here too. It was a hell of a trip, but he refused to stay away.”
At that, something inside Bullard stilled, and he nodded slowly. “Where is he?”
“Inside, playing with the electronics,” Dave said. “He just got here though. We’ll all need some coffee and a chance to catch up.”
“Indeed,” Bullard said. As they walked inside, he held Leia close, and Ice looked on with a big smile. He knew that she was happy for him, and honestly he could now put that all to rest. Leia was both as different yet as similar as he could possibly have found. And, damn, he had chosen well. He looked down at Leia and kissed her gently on the cheek. “Welcome home.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “It’s not a Pacific island.”
He walked her through the massive stone building out to the big pool and the surrounding areas and said, “It’s not a Pacific island,” he said, “but anything you want to change to make you feel more at home,” he said, “I’m all for it.”
She stared at the big pool and the huge expansive gardens. “This is beautiful,” she said. “Who did this?”
“I designed it, and Dave looks after it,” he said. “It’s actually been the balm for our broken hearts for a long time,” he said, with a laugh.
“It’s stunning,” she murmured, as she walked closer and looked like she couldn’t believe it. She turned and said, “You are a lucky man.”
“I am,” he said, beaming, as he pulled her back into his arms and kissed her gently. “Not the least of which is that you found me and brought me back to health,” he said.
She shook her head. “You’ll have to get over that soon,” she said. “I won’t let you keep touting all that gratitude stuff.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll deal with that but just not at the moment.” He turned and led her to the big command center area.
She stood and whistled. “Wow,” she said, “this is incredible.”
Chapter 17
Leia couldn’t believe it; this place was beyond gorgeous. To think that Bullard had created this for himself was just hard to believe. He was clearly a man of great artistic talents. She knew she’d be quite happy here, particularly if she didn’t have to travel very much. It wasn’t to her liking, as her stomach was still a little on the unsettled side. She walked around the massive room to find another man, looking similar to Bullard, with a big smile on his face. She held out her hand and said, “Hi, I’m Leia.”
“Of course,” he said, “my brother gets shot out of the air and lands on a deserted island, only to be rescued by a beautiful woman.” He shook his head. “Damn,” he said, “a pretty nice way to go.”
Bullard appeared almost immediately, his smile broad, though his gaze was watchful.
“I’m Blachard.”
“Shot out of the air? Is that what happened?” Bullard asked Blachard.
His brother looked at him in surprise. “I thought that’s what you guys said happened.”
Fallon and Ryland immediately stepped up.
“Well, we didn’t say that,” Ryland said, then looked at Dave.
“I certainly didn’t say that,” Dave said, slowly shaking his head. “I haven’t said anything like that at all.”
“My bad,” Blachard said bashfully. “I assumed that’s how they got you.”
“And here we thought it was a bomb on the plane,” Bullard said.
“Well, the small jet didn’t have the ability to track things like rockets,” Ryland said. “But shot out of the air would explain the sudden explosion, wouldn’t it?” He moved ever-so-slightly closer, as Blachard stepped back.
“Hey, hey, hey. It was just a simple mistake,” he said. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“No, of course not,” Leia said calmly, as she studied him for a long moment. “You know,” she said. “When I was out looking around and fishing, I found him,” she said. “I didn’t even think he was alive. So, whoever did this to him really didn’t want to see him live.”
“Hey, don’t look at me,” Blachard said. “I just can’t believe he survived. We owe you our greatest thanks.”
“Sure,” she said noncommittally, but, as she studied one brother, then the other, she realized that Bullard wasn’t comfortable at all. She followed that train of thought but wasn’t sure how she could trick the man into saying more. And then she thought back.
“You know what? A ship was out in the ocean at the time,” she said, “and there was talk about something in the water. I can’t even remember what it was.” She frowned, thinking about it. “I remember. It was almost like an asteroid or something. It didn’t even occur to me that it was a rocket.”