When Love Comes Back Page 8

  He ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Thank you for helping out London tonight. You always were one of the best people. I was just the idiot who threw that all away.”

  He strode back into the building and ran into a very suspicious-looking Steven Hardesty. “Did you see Felicia out there?”

  Fuck.

  “Yes. She’s out on the bench. I was just thanking her for helping out my daughter, London, earlier.”

  Steven’s eyes narrowed a bit. “Yeah, Felicia’s a kind-hearted person, but don’t read too much into it.”

  “Noted.” Gage had to walk away before he was tempted to wipe the smug look off that bastard’s face. But why shouldn’t he be smug? The asshole would get to take Felicia home tonight, and Gage...didn’t.

  FELICIA HEARD FOOTSTEPS approaching. She turned to ask Gage exactly what he meant about regrets, but instead of Gage, Steven approached her. His shoulders were tight and a deep frown furrowed between his blond brows.

  She stood up, alarmed. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  “No, not much. I just found my girlfriend in a dark corner with her ex-boyfriend, who I now have to survive with as my boss. What could possibly be wrong?”

  “Steven.” She brushed her hand over his sleeve. “It wasn’t like that. I came out for a breather. He wanted to check to make sure his daughter was okay.”

  “Sure.” Steven nodded, but his jaw clenched. “Because he’s definitely going to get better information about her by asking you than by approaching his own fucking daughter.”

  Oh, crap. “You’re angry,” she said, and who could blame him? Gage distracted her. It didn’t take a private investigator to figure that out. “I’m sorry, but it really was innocent. Nothing happened. Nothing’s going to happen. I’m with you, and I’m happy with you, Steven. I don’t plan to change anything about that, unless you want it to.”

  The emotions she still felt for Gage were just leftovers from a long-ago crush. A crush that had been ill-fated at the time and had ultimately had broken her heart. She would be stupid to even think about going there again, especially when she already had such an amazing boyfriend.

  Steven wrapped his arms around her. “The last thing I want is for things to change between us. I’m in love with you, Felicia. I want a future for us. But I see you with him, and...” He sighed in frustration. “I don’t even know the whole story, but I can see the depth of the history between you. I’m not sure I can compete with that.”

  “There’s nothing to compete with.” She cupped his cheek. He’d shaved right before he picked her up, so his skin was smooth under her palm, unusual since by this time, he’d have a five o-clock shadow. “Steven, what we have together is incredible. Gage destroyed me. I’m not going to endanger what I have with you.”

  He searched her gaze, and she hated that she’d done anything that might make him doubt her. Having been there herself once before, no one deserved to have doubts like that. “I promise you, I won’t betray you. I’ve been betrayed. I would never do that to another person. Never.”

  Steven’s eyes widened and his lips thinned. “He cheated on you.”

  It wasn’t a question, but she nodded anyway.

  “He was an idiot.” He leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips.

  It wasn’t a kiss of passion. It was better. That kiss sealed his commitment to her, and she adored him all the more for it.

  He pulled back from her, lightly brushing his thumb over her lips. “I promise you, I will never hurt you like that.”

  “It goes both ways,” she said, her stomach fluttering with nerves and frustration over Gage disrupting her life when she was finally getting it back on track romantically. “Are we done here? Can you take me home? My feet are killing me.” She winked at him. “Wearing tennis shoes at my day job has made my arches and ankles lazy. They’re not conditioned to stand on these kinds of heels for hours.”

  “Well, then, let’s get you home, and I’ll give you a foot massage.”

  “Mmm, I do like the sound of that, and then maybe I can rub other parts of you.” She gave him her most flirtatious look, and it must have worked, since his eyes darkened.

  He grabbed hold of her hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They were rushing through the foyer of the club when the voice of Steven’s boss stopped them. “Major Hardesty, I hope we’re going to see you at the roof stomp in the next hour.”

  Steven groaned under his breath, but turned toward his commander, Lt. Col. Lauren Vickers, with a smile.

  To help hide Steven’s erection, Felicia stepped in front of him.

  Lauren had a knowing look on her face, which made Felicia think that she knew exactly what she’d interrupted. Felicia had spent a good while earlier in the evening talking to the beautiful, poised officer about her horses. Personally, she liked Steven’s commander, but could see how she would be tough to work for. Col. Vickers was extremely intelligent and not much would get past her.

  But Felicia had to help maybe divert her from giving Steven a hard time about trying to escape with Felicia before the night was really over. “Roof stomp? This sounds like one of those traditional, Air Force things someone should explain.”

  Lauren laughed. “It’s definitely an old tradition. We go over to the new commander’s house and generally cause a wonderful ruckus as a welcome. There’s usually a decent amount of alcohol involved, which is always interesting when the troops are crawling up on a roof. But it’s all in good fun, and then the recipient invites everyone in for even more drinking and fun.”

  “It sounds like quite a party, but I have an early morning tomorrow.” She turned to Steven. “Do you have time to take me home beforehand? I didn’t realize how late everything would run, and I have the kennel shift overnight.”

  “No problem,” Steven said. “I can take you home right now. Colonel, I’ll be over at the commander’s house in about thirty.”

  She nodded. “I’m counting on it.” There was no mistaking the order in that statement as she strode back to the doorway leading to the ballroom.

  Steven cupped Felicia’s elbow. “Sorry, I wasn’t even thinking about the roof stomp. Rain check on the various massages?”

  “You bet.” A sliver of relief trickled through her. It couldn’t be because she didn’t want to spend time with Steven. It had just been a long night. That’s all.

  As Steven drove her home, they listened to light jazz on the radio.

  “Do you want me to come over when I’m done?” His face lit up as he glanced across the car with a flirtatious look.

  “No, it will be late, and I wasn’t kidding when I said I had an early morning. We have a couple of dogs in the kennels that had surgery today. I told Briggs I’d take over for him at one o’clock in the morning. It would be better for you to go on home. We can catch up on some better quality alone time this weekend.”

  He parked the car in front of her house and tugged her to him. “Okay, but I’m going to hold you to that. Let me walk you up.”

  She placed a hand on his strong chest. “No, I don’t want you to be late. Just watch until I have the door unlocked. Thank you for tonight. I had a good time.”

  He grabbed hold of her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. “Even with me acting like a jealous ass?”

  She smiled and chuckled lightly. “I don’t know. I kind of like you being possessive.”

  His gaze flared, and she gave him one more gentle kiss before sliding out of his car.

  As she unlocked the door to her house, she waved to him. She entered the door, closing it behind her and locking it before wilting against it. She sank to the floor, removed her heels, and thought back over the night as her cat wound her way around Felicia’s bare legs.

  For the sake of her relationship with Steven, she had to stay away from Gage. There were too many emotions that had never been resolved. But if she tried to sort them through, she was liable to hurt all three of them, and she couldn’t—no, wouldn�
�t—do that.

  There had already been enough hurt to go around. Neither she nor Gage and certainly not Steven needed anymore.

  20 YEARS AGO

  Felicia put the last box in the back of the moving truck and brushed the tears from her face before turning to Gage.

  The pain on his face reflected exactly what she felt.

  But she hadn’t fooled him at all. He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head, shushing her. “It’s okay. I know Georgia seems like a long ways away from Oklahoma, but I make enough money that I can come visit at least once a month.”

  “You promise?” She hated how weak that pleading voice sounded, but she was pretty sure that when he drove away her heart was going to explode out of her chest and shatter on the floor. Georgia was so much farther away than the hour drive they’d had between them in Oklahoma...and that had been torture.

  “Promise.” He pulled back from her slightly and wiped her tears off her face with his thumbs. “We both knew this was coming. Pilot training wasn’t going to last forever. Right now, we need to be thankful that I’m still within driving range. Hell, with F-16s, I could have gone anywhere from Japan to Germany. It’s fate that I’m still close enough to drive and see you while you finish vet school, so chin up. Okay?”

  She gave him a tremulous smile and tried to stop her tears. It’s not like he wanted to leave her. This was just the way things were with their careers right now. “Maybe...” Did she dare even mention it? Could she really do it?

  “What?” Gage asked, concern radiating from his love-filled expression. She knew he hated seeing her this upset.

  “What if I dropped out of vet school and moved with you?” Even making the suggestion made her feel sick. She’d worked so hard for this, and her parents had sacrificed so much to help pay for her schooling. Could she really throw that all away for a guy she’d only known for four months?

  “No.” Gage shook his head. “I won’t do that. Fe, I love you.”

  Oh, god, he’d never said those three little words to her before. Her chest heaved under the need to sob, but she couldn’t miss what he was trying to tell her.

  He brushed the tear off her face. “But that just means that we’re going to be fine. Our love is stronger than distance. We’ll survive this, because that love isn’t going anywhere. I may be across the country, but my heart is with you, and I know you’ll keep it safe. We’ll get through this, you’ll graduate from vet school, get your license, and then we’ll figure out how to merge a pilot’s life with a vet’s. Maybe then it will be time for me to grab a cushy airline job.” He smiled at her and winked.

  The tears finally won out. “I love you so much, Gage.” She sank her face into his neck, so he wouldn’t have to look at her tears anymore as she sobbed. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

  “I’ll miss you, too, but baby, you’ll have my heart. Don’t forget it.”

  FELICIA AWOKE ON A choked sob and realized it had just been a dream. A dream that had once been real. Dang. When Gage had left for Georgia, it had taken another year and a half for them to self-destruct, but that had really just been the beginning of their end. They’d both just been too stubborn to recognize it, which hurt them both so much more in the long run. They should have broken up when he’d left.

  Or she should have done what she had proposed...gone with him. But what if she’d done that and had given up everything, and he had still cheated on her? No, that would have definitely been the wrong choice.

  Her cat, Cagney, looked up from the foot of her bed but didn’t seem too concerned about her tears. Felicia wiped at her face. If she wanted sympathy and a friendly animal to empathize with her sadness then she should have brought a dog home from the clinic, not the standoffish cat she currently had. But her days at the vet clinic involved long hours, and that wasn’t fair to a dog. Her cat was much more tolerant of her hours away.

  She loved her life in this little vet clinic. She’d made the right choices, no matter how much pain they’d caused at the time. It could have been worse if she’d made other choices. She had a happy life, and her career was a huge part of that.

  She sat up straighter, realizing what had woken her up from her dream. The dogs in the kennel were throwing a fit, barking and howling. That wasn’t normal. Usually she couldn’t hear them inside her house.

  She shot out of bed, quickly slid some jeans up her legs, and slipped on her tennis shoes. She glanced out the window beside the front door, but didn’t see anything in the yellowed light of the parking lot. She checked the alarm system for both buildings from her phone. Everything appeared to be okay just like it had been when she’d checked the kennels an hour ago at one when she had taken over for Briggs.

  Just in case, she grabbed her bat from behind the door and grabbed her keys. At the very least, whatever had upset the animals would be disturbing the surgery patients. She would need to check on them.

  When she arrived at the backdoor of the clinic, it was still locked. The dogs continued to raise hell inside. Something definitely had them upset. The last time something like this had happened, a mouse had somehow found its way inside. That’s probably what had happened again.

  She unlocked and opened the back door and flipped on the hall light. They kept all the doors that led to the kennels closed at night so the animals wouldn’t be disturbed if there was an emergency. Those doors to her immediate left were still closed, but the door to her office was slightly ajar. It was hard to tell anything with the dogs barks echoing down the hall, but she couldn’t hear anything.

  She lifted the bat, ready to swing if needed as she gently pushed her office door open the rest of the way. The light from the hall filtered into the room. Empty.

  She began to back out of the room, but footsteps ran up behind in the hall, pounding loud enough that she could hear them over the dogs still barking. She turned just as someone shoved her, and blinding pain arced across her side. As she fell, she caught a glimpse of three people barreling out the back door, all wearing black hoodies. She grabbed hold of the wall as she fell to her knees.

  She clutched at her side, just as the distinctive smell of coppery blood filled her lungs. Glancing down, she found the handle of a screwdriver protruding from the middle of her right side.

  Scalding pain competed with the black spots trying to encroach on her vision. Panting out breaths, she struggled to roll. She had to get to a phone. Call for help. The puddle of blood under her was growing at an alarming rate. She tried to stand, but her legs were rubbery and she slipped with a hard jolt.

  She groaned and whimpered in pain. The floor grew slippery as she tried to get to the phone on her desk.

  Do not pass out. Get to the phone first.

  Every movement hurt more than the last. Every single inch she gained felt like she’d run a mile. And there were still at least another couple of states between her and the phone.

  She dropped the bat as she dragged herself across the floor with her left arm. She was trying to maintain some pressure on the wound with her right, although no one shared how hard that was to do when every press pushed her that much closer to passing out. Why hadn’t she grabbed her cell phone instead?

  Tears flowed freely down her face as it grew hard to breathe. Had they hit any vital organs? The pain was excruciating. She refused to die—to bleed out—on the floor of her vet clinic.

  Finally, she reached the edge of her desk, panting out, willing herself to move. Almost there. With the last of her energy, she tugged at the cord that attached the phone to the wall. It fell with a loud clatter but didn’t break. She lifted the handset, turned it on, and dialed nine-one-one, leaving a macabre set of bloody fingerprints on the phone.

  As she fell to the side, she had enough breath to whisper, “Help.”

  The world faded to black.

  Chapter Eight

  After the first hour on the job, Gage sighed as he took in the humor-filled countenance of his vice wing commander. He hadn’t known C
arter long, but he already liked the easy-going man. “Remind me again why I thought this meeting was a good idea,” Gage said.

  “Because all these whiners are your new leadership team, and you need to know where your problems are right away.”

  Gage barked out a laugh. “Okay, you’re right.” His first morning on the job, he was meeting with all the various base group leaders. First up had been the ops group and they’d been full of complaints about the maintenance schedule for the new fleet of F-35s and how the maintenance guys were messing with their ability to keep everyone up to date on training on the fairly new airframe.

  “Who’s next?” Gage asked.

  Carter winced. “Um, that would be the maintenance group.”

  Gage took another deep breath. “Well, this should be fun. Honest opinion...do the ops guys have a valid complaint or is this more of the ops versus maintenance bullshit?”

  Carter thumbed at his lip. “Honestly, I’d guess it’s a little bit of both. It’s no secret that the rollout of the F-35 has been rocky at best. There are a ton of issues with the airplane, and everyone is suffering the growing pains of dealing with a new airframe, but maintenance can always push things a bit harder than they do.”

  “And then,” a biting feminine voice said from the doorway, “we’ll be the ones holding the bag when one of your pilots crashes one of those multi-million dollar buckets and dies because of a mechanical failure.” The maintenance group commander looked like a shark that had spotted a school of fish to consume whole. “Neither one of us wants that now, do we?” Lieutenant Colonel Lauren Vickers asked in her no-nonsense way.

  Gage stood. This wasn’t how he wanted to start off the relationship with his maintenance group. Contention between ops and maintenance remained strained on the best of days, and for this base, there hadn’t been too many days this year that could be considered even passable.