AllFreeNovel
Share Us
EGANSATINthe waiting room outside his commander’s office and tried to figure out how to answer Cal’s question.
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about Alana?” Cal had asked.
The question had come on the tail end of a series of brief discussions that had started when Egan and Cal left the ranch an hour earlier and continued on the drive to the base. Some of the chat had been Cal informing Egan of his travel plans. Plans that included Egan dropping him off at the San Antonio airport as soon as Egan was done meeting with his commander, Colonel Phil Joyner. Once Cal was back at his own base in Virginia, he’d try to arrange another short leave so he could return to the ranch in about six weeks.
There’d been more discussion about Egan keeping Cal posted on any medical updates for their dad. From there, there’d been talk about Blue’s possible visit and with Egan reiterating that he didn’t want Cal to consider getting out of the Air Force. Period. Egan hoped he’d made it clear that it’d be unacceptable and unnecessary. He wasn’t sure how he was going to make things work at the ranch and with his dad, but he sure as hell didn’t want Cal throwing himself on the sword.
Thankfully, Cal had steered clear of any mention of Tilly and what had gone on in the park four days earlier, and the steering clear had lulled Egan into believing that Cal wasn’t going to bring any of it up. But the question Cal had just thrown at him proved otherwise.
“Yes, I’m sure I don’t want to talk about Alana,” Egan insisted.
Even though they were alone in the waiting area, Egan still kept his voice at a whisper. The commander’s executive assistant was in the office with him, but Egan hadn’t wanted to risk yet another conversation, or in this case, denial, being overheard, especially since it was a highly personal subject.
It was true. Egan didn’t want to talk about Alana to Cal or anyone else for that matter. That didn’t mean, though, that Egan hadn’t thought about her plenty. And was still thinking about her even though he hadn’t seen her in the four days since she’d come to the cabin.
Or rather she had comeatthe cabin, his dirty mind interjected.
Since the cabin, they’d texted and called, but Alana had stayed away, telling Egan that she wanted to give him time to spend with his brother. She’d even shifted her appointments with his dad so they were virtual instead of in person. Maybe she had done that to give herself some time and space, too. And that gave Egan a far more unsettled feeling than he wanted.
“I just figured you’d want to talk about Alana,” Cal went on, “because you muttered her name a couple of times on the drive here.”
Egan turned toward Cal so fast that his neck popped. He scowled when he saw Cal’s grin to let him know it was a joke. A lousy one. And Cal’s grin faded plenty quick enough.
“Stating the obvious,” Cal went on, “but I hate for either you or Alana to get burned. You two have already had enough burns for a lifetime or two.”
There was no disputing that, and Egan had been thinking the same thing about not wanting Alana to be hurt by this fling. That’s why Egan had stopped her from yanking down his jeans in the cabin, though that was clearly what she’d had in mind. Seconds after she’d come back to earth from her climax, she’d wanted to go after him the way he’d gone after her. He’d stopped it, though, not because he hadn’t wanted that. Damn right, he’d wanted it. But thankfully he’d had a few functional brain cells left, and he’d known this was going to have an effect on Alana.
Perhaps a good effect in the short term.
But the long-term stuff could be a bitch.
As things stood between them now, if Alana got hit with the motherload of guilt and grief, then she would maybe reason that things hadn’t gone so far between them. She could rationalize it all away as a lapse that couldn’t be repeated if she wanted to be able to live with herself.
Egan still wasn’t sure how he was going to reason and rationalize things. Wasn’t sure how he could press pause on the heat, and other feelings, he had for her. Hell, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to pause at all. Sometimes, like now for instance, he wanted her more than his next breath.
If that weren’t a big-assed red flag warning, then he didn’t know what was.
“Dad talked about Alana,” Cal went on. “He’s heard talk about you two, and he thought it was time for you to settle up any unfinished business.”
Egan was sure he looked puzzled because he was. “What unfinished business?” he demanded.
Cal promptly pulled something from one of the many pockets of his flight suit, and the sight of it caused Egan to groan. It was Colleen’s letter again. The damn thing was like a bad penny. Two of them since it was still in halves.
“Dad thought it would be a good idea for you to go ahead and read it,” Cal spelled out.
Egan scowled. “I don’t have any unfinished business with Colleen so there’s no need to read it.”
However, Egan did end up shoving it in the pocket of his own flight suit when the commander’s executive assistant came out of the office. “Colonel Joyner can see you now,” the exec relayed, stepping aside so Egan could enter.
Egan automatically went to put his phone away as well, and he realized he wasn’t holding it. He glanced back and saw it was on the chair next to where he’d been sitting, but since Cal would be there to keep an eye on it, Egan went ahead into the commander’s office.
Even though the colonel wouldn’t have expected it, Egan reported in, anyway, by saluting his superior officer, but his salute wobbled a bit when he saw the woman on the sofa of the seating area.
Audrey.
She was sipping what appeared to be a cup of tea, and while Joyner was standing, he immediately sat down in the chair across from Audrey.
“Phil and I were just catching up,” Audrey said. “We’ve known each other for years. But don’t worry. I won’t be horning in on your meeting.” She set her cup aside on the table. “I was about to leave.”
