“Dude, with the sappy look you had on your face, ofcourseI had to see what sweet nothin’s she was textin’ you.” He slaps my back. “Can’t wait to hear what herdateplans are. Do we need to give you the ‘talk’?” The brat even adds air quotes.
Case dives in, not missing a beat. “Now, Jude. When a boy likes a girl?—”
I shrug him off, which just causes them both to laugh. “I hate you all.”
“No, you don’t. You love us,” Wyatt says.
“Just not as much as youlurvvveyour wife though,” Case muses. “But that’s OK. Happens to the best of us.”
Even though they’re laughing at my expense, I take it. Mainly because I may not be in love with Em right now, but I know I’m heading down that road.
Starting with Em’s date she’s planned for Friday.
“Hey,” I say, sliding into the seat of Em’s SUV outside the B&B which has fast become my home away from home. Five weeks in a row I’ve stayed here.
The owners now know my name and I know theirs. They even invited me for dinner and a game of Yahtzee some time. I said I’d need to check with my wife, which led to a very surface-level discussion about Em and I and how we came to be.
“I thought you might need this,” she says, handing over a travel mug. “It’s the least I could do considerin’ you drove late into the night to get here.”
“Not a sacrifice, wifey.” My fingers brush over hers as I take the cup off her hands and bring it to my mouth for a taste. “Damn, that’s good. Remind me to make you some of Wyatt’s cowboy brew sometime. It’ll make your hair stand on end.”
“That good, huh?”
I take in her bright-eyed, beautiful face. “Oh yeah.” She licks her lips and my gaze drops to her mouth, and I’m suddenly reminded of our text conversation from a few days ago. “Somethin’ on your mind?” I say with a smirk.
Her head jerks and she turns back to look out the windshield, a sly grin of her own appearing. “Wouldn’tyoulike to know.”
“I’m a patient man. I can wait.”
A snort escapes her. “I can too, hubby.”
As we hit the road, we chat about the drive to Palmer and I fill her in on news from back home. When Em turns off the highway, I catch a sign directing us to a heliport. “Somethin’ you forgot to tell me about today?”
“Sure. Do you want the dumbed-down version or can I geek out a bit?” she asks.
I glance over at her, loving the happiness shining in her eyes. “I can handle you geekin’ out. In fact, I insist. If I get confused or lost, I’ll just pepper you with questions until you’re sick of me.”
“Doubt that’ll happen, but you’ve got a deal,” she replies, beaming with excitement. “Part of what we do out of our field office is monitorin’ any and all seismic events.” I nod at her to continue. “Most of the time, we do that from our desks. But once a month, we take turns goin’ out to check any of our remote stations that have had signal dropouts, battery warnin’s, or telemetry problems. We visit them and see if they can be fixed by us, or if more specialized repairs are needed.”
“That’swhat we’re doin’ today for our date?” I say, surprised and thrilled. “Are you evenallowedto take me with you?” My mind is racing at the chance to not only spend the whole date with Em, but to see her in her element doing the job that she loves.
“The answer to both questions is yes,” she says, popping the p before we come to a stop outside a big hangar. “And just in case you haven’t figured it out, we’re goin’ by helicopter.”
“That’s one of my bucket list items,” I confess.
“Really? I never thought to ask whether you liked flyin’ or not. But I love that I get to share this with you.”
My hand flies over the center console to grab hers. “I’ve always wanted to go up in a helicopter but never had the chance.”
Em’s entire body relaxes as a slow-growing smile transforms her features, happiness and relief radiating over to me. “Then I guess today’s your lucky day.”
I stare out the windshield, excitement and anticipation bubbling up inside of me.My brothers are going to be so jealous.“This might just be the best date in the existence of dates,” I say to myself before meeting her eyes again. “I’m never goin’ to be able to top this.”
“That’s the thing, hubby. I don’t expect you to. This isn’t a competition. I just want to spend time with you.” I squeeze her hand, encouraging her to finish. “I really missed you this week. I know it’s weird, and we’ve talked about how we both feel like it feels wrong when we’re apart, but?—”
“I’ve missed you too. From the moment I leave town, every time,” I confess, loving the way we can both be so honest with one another. “At least we know we’re both in this together.”
“Yeah…” she says softly, her gaze dropping to my mouth again. This time I’m the one who licks my lips, but I do it with a small smirk. One that grows when she huffs out a breath and distracts herself by undoing her seatbelt. “You’re a tease, you know that?”