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And despite my best efforts—even days later—the taste of Holly’s kiss was still on my lips. I couldn’t get her out of my head. She followed me around everywhere I went and invaded all of my dreams. Every night I went to sleep with her face waiting behind my closed eyes and woke up reaching out for her. It was miserable. Made even more so with the constant reminder that while we were going to have a baby and would always remain connected, things were likely never going to go back to the way they were before. I’d seen her every day since she’d returned home from the hospital, mostly short visits to check in on her. Carly took meals to her and was there with Nick most evenings to help keep her company.
She didn’t need—or want—me. And it hurt like hell.
During the day, I spent my time working with Aaron on the plans for the charter service. He’d lined up a few pitch meetings with some investors and was determined to get our presentation as tight as possible leading up to them.
The numbers were daunting, figures I would never be able to come up with on my own, and even though Aaron was confident we’d find someone interested in investing, somewhere in the back of my mind I was trying to work out a plan B that didn’t involve catering to tourists all day.
Aaron came into his office as I was studying the numbers on the packets he’d printed up. He scoffed at the sight of me hunched over his desk. “Boomer, you’ve gotta stop obsessing.”
I sighed and leaned back in his chair, my back popping and crackling as I stretched. How long had I been working? My bleary eyes shifted to the clock on the wall and I groaned. It was getting close to seven and I’d been in his office since lunchtime.
“Seriously, you’re gonna walk into these hotshot offices and they’re gonna smell the stink of desperation on you. Where’s your confidence, man? Your last military assignment was the commanding officer of air wing A-703, you ran an entire base in Germany. Oh, and let’s not forget you’re a fucking American hero. I mean—the President of the United States hung the Medal of Honor around your neck in front of the whole fucking world. Do you know how many servicemen get a Medal of Honor? Maybe one in a million! These rich fuckers are gonna throw money at you just to get their name beside yours in all the press releases. And for the record, I’m not broke, Boomer. I have quite a bit of cash stashed around.”
Aaron plopped down onto the lone couch along the opposite wall from the desk and I snorted at his certainty. “When did we switch places?” I asked with a chuckle. “Seems to me, you used to be the one flapping around in the wind and I’d be reeling you back in and getting your head in the game. Now it’s like we flip-flopped. You’re this big rich businessman and I’m the one floppin’ around.”
Aaron laughed and leaned back, throwing a small ball into the air and catching it. “Business is a whole different world, Jack. You’ll see. You just haven’t been in it long enough. And whether you like it or not, people will want to shake your hand and take selfies with you forevermore. What you did over there was badass. You gotta get your shit together, my friend, and start acting like the Jack McGuire we all know and love.” Aaron sat forward on the edge of the couch, his elbows resting on his knees. “Look, I never told you this, but maybe you need to hear it now. When I woke up in the hospital after the plane crash, I was scared shitless, man. When I saw you walk in my room, I knew everything was gonna be okay. I can’t tell you how that made me feel knowing my back was covered. So bring back that Jack and watch it all fall into place.”
I looked over at him. Why ya gotta talk about that stuff, man?”
“’Cause that’s the Jack I know!”
“I guess we’ll see in a couple of weeks.”
“Yes, sir.”
I pushed up from the chair and stretched once again, working out the kinks in my back. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I’d spent six plus hours in an office chair. “What are you still doing here?” I asked Aaron, reaching for my jacket I’d tossed over the back of the chair.
“Gemma’s at the hospital so I figured I’d hang out over here. I need to round up some shit to send over to make sure payroll gets done on time. You wanna hang out? We can order take out and get a six-pack.”
I laughed. “Not sure your employees would appreciate their paychecks if you got wasted midway through payroll.”
