the case,” he murmured softly. “I would’ve thought you’d have had extenuating circumstances as well. And you being let go from the Air Force dishonorably surprises me. I mean, I would’ve thought that they would’ve fought harder for it.”
Me, too.
That day that I’d been let go, it felt like a rock had lodged in my chest.
But that rock had been well worth it to know that I’d at least been able to vindicate my wife.
I’d never fly for the Air Force again, but then again, neither would Toot.
An eye for an eye.
I hated that Cannel was a victim. And, if I’d been in the position that Toot had been, there was no telling how I would’ve handled it.
However, I sure the fuck wouldn’t have given Cannel to them.
No way. No how.
“It doesn’t matter,” I finally said. “It’s over. I’ll never fly again with them. But Beckham’s safe. That’s all that matters to me.”
“You lost a year of your life,” Foster stated.
I looked at him.
“Worth it.”
Foster stood up, a grin on his face.
“You mind if I get a snuggle of that kid?” he asked. “I know that you haven’t gotten to see him much, but man, neither have I.”
I looked down at my son, placed a kiss to his fuzzy hair, and then lifted my hands so that Foster could get him.
Foster picked him up, and for the first time, I didn’t feel any animosity off the man.
“This is weird,” I admitted. “I have a house right over there still.”
“I know.” He grinned. “I’ve been mowing the lawn for ten years.”
I snorted out a laugh.
“I was going to suggest this place to Beckham,” I said. “It’s far from our jobs, but I think it might help her, having someone close in case she… panics.”
Foster’s eyes went hard.
“I’ll be here.”
Now only to convince my girl.
CHAPTER 25
Out of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my metabolism the most.
-Text from Beckham to Trouper
TROUPER
“You want to move there?” she asked in surprise. “Next to my parents?”
I watched as she stripped out of her clothes and started to toss them onto the floor.
“Having a live-in babysitter next door seems like a great idea to me,” I told her. “Does it not?”
She pursed her lips. “I mean, I guess technically you’re right. Having them close would be great. And if we ever needed to go do something, they’d be right there.”
Then her bra was gone.
“Something like what?” I asked, watching as her breasts swayed.
We hadn’t had sex since she’d had Hiro.
First, it’d been because she had too much going on with her body to even contemplate it. Then, I’d been transferred to the new prison.
But now, there wasn’t anything stopping me. Not one single thing.
I licked my lips.
God, did I want her.
Out of all the times that I’d had Beckham, and sadly that wasn’t nearly as much as I wanted, Beckham had turned me on.
But now, after she’d given me a baby?
It was like I was a man obsessed.
This morning when I’d been released, there’d been two things on my mind as we were walking out.
One was getting to Lynn’s place and establishing some ground rules, finding out what all would be expected of me, and a few other pertinent things that I wanted to know about and needed to be able to explain to Beckham.
The second was getting to Beckham.
That’d been the only other thing on my mind.
Getting to her.
What led after that would be what it needed to be.
The moment that I’d seen her after walking out of that prison?
The last months had all but disappeared like wisps of smoke.
Seeing her, touching her, holding her?
That had been what I’d needed.
Not anything else but having her in my arms where I could hold her and know that she was safe.
“You know,” I said quietly. “It’s a surreal feeling. Being here, able to hold you.”
She paused when I said that.
“Yeah?” she asked.
“I’ve wanted nothing more than to be able to hold you, whenever I wanted, wherever I wanted, for the longest of times. Way before even going to prison. The last ten years or so of my life, I’ve wanted nothing more than to just have you, in my arms, where you were supposed to be. And now I get to have that,” I rumbled.
She threw herself into my arms so hard that I fell backward onto the bed, laughing.
“I’ve missed you so much, Trouper,” she whispered. “Every single day, not a moment has passed that I didn’t think about you. Didn’t want to tell you