Page 43 of Keeping Zita

“Honestly? I’m just looking forward to next week, when we’re in Fallport for the filming of the rest of the movie. I like being around Zita. She’s smart, and beautiful, and the more I’m around her, the more I want to be around her. I have no idea what’s going to happen after that, but I’m not going to back away from the most interesting woman I’ve ever met just because I’m afraid of being hurt.”

“Wow, that’s grown up of you,” Edge joked.

“Shut it,” Obi-Wan growled.

They were running through the streets of the base; for once, Casper hadn’t made them head to the beach, which everyone was thankful for.

“Casper, you and Laryn okay?” Pyro asked.

“We’re good,” their team leader said. “Finding out she was pregnant was a surprise, but now that we’ve had a bit of time to process it, we’re way more excited than stressed.”

“Good.”

“As you should be.”

“Have you told Nate?”

Nate was Casper’s twin, who was in the Navy. They were as close as brothers could be, having that special “twin connection” a lot of them had.

“Didn’t need to. He knew something was up and called the other night. Wanted to know what was wrong and who he needed to kill.”

Everyone chuckled, knowing the SEAL was probably only half kidding.

“He did ask something we hadn’t even thought about,” Casper added.

“What’s that?” Pyro asked.

“If we’re having twins.”

Everyone went silent for a beat—then as a group, they all burst out laughing.

“Holy shit, that’s right, twins obviously run in the family.”

“Are you?”

“If Laryn was nervous before, she’s probably even more so now.”

“We don’t know yet. It’s still too early. The twelve-week ultrasound is more definitive, so we’ll have to wait and see then,” Casper said, sounding excited about the prospect.

“I take it you wouldn’t be upset if it was twins,” Edge said.

“Not in the least, although it’ll mean more stress on Laryn. Not only her body and the pregnancy, but thinking about childcare and her job after she gives birth,” Casper explained.

He wasn’t wrong. It was scary enough to think about what to do with one child in deployments, but two? No one wanted to contemplate a future without Laryn as head mechanic on their choppers, but Obi-Wan wasn’t sure what the couple was going to do. Zita’s suggestion about a live-in nanny was good, but was it actually viable? He didn’t know. All he knew was that he was glad he wasn’t in his team leader’s shoes. Or Laryn’s. Having to decide whether or not to give up the job you loved would suck.

But if he and Zita wanted a chance at a relationship, wouldn’t she have to make a similar difficult decision? It wasn’t as if he could move. Well…he probably could. If he asked the Army to transfer him to another Night Stalker team. One that was stationed near the naval base in San Diego. It would get him closer to LA, where she’d continue to get film work. But was that something he was willing to do?

He loved his fellow pilots. They’d fought like hell to be together, and to get special permission to be stationed in Virginia. Would he give that up for a woman?

Before meeting Zita, he would have said an empathetic no. But now? He wasn’t sure. And that was a surprising sign that he was already way more serious about her than he was admitting out loud.

The rest of PT went by fairly quickly, although they were all groaning by the end. But working out was a necessary evil to keep their bodies in tip-top shape. They had to be ready for anything, in the air and on the ground. Situations could change on a dime and they had to be ready for whatever was thrown at them.

Obi-Wan had to be back at base by eight for a regular workday, since he wouldn’t be going to a movie set. He had a week before it was time to head to the small town of Fallport, on the opposite side of the state. That was where everyone would be staying for the next part of the shoot. They’d travel about an hour into the woods each day, where they’d film the most intense parts of the movie.

The weather was still a little chilly, which deviated from the original incident the movie was based on. It was the middle of summer when the Air Force pilot had gone down, forced to traverse the jungle to safety. But thankfully the director didn’t want to deal with extreme summer conditions, content to film in cooler weather.

Obi-Wan’s anticipation was high as he drove back to his apartment. It felt…nice to know someone was there waiting for him. He’d gotten very used to being alone.