Night Maneuvers - By Jillian Burns Page 0,57

Mitch had been struck by a lightning bolt, everything he’d thought about his life had turned upside down at that moment, just like that F-35. And if he didn’t want to crash and burn, he needed to execute a perfect vertical roll and get his life back in the air and flying right.

A part of him knew deep down that Alex had been telling the truth about her kiss with Neil. He hadn’t really needed Neil’s word to prove Alex’s loyalty. But if he had acknowledged her truth the other night, that she loved him, he would have had to open his heart to trusting her. Like Jackson said, take a chance on someone.

Before he’d seen Alex kissing Neil, he’d been more happy, more—yeah, he needed to admit it—in love than he’d ever been with Luanne. But he might never have recognized it. He’d have gone through life—for as long as it lasted—thinking he could have Alex’s love and still keep his heart safely inside the bunker he’d built around it.

Loving someone, trusting them, scared the hell out of him. It meant opening himself up to pain. He’d been there, done that and barely survived it. But the reason he’d survived it was…Alex. How blind had he been not to see she’d always been there for him? Twelve damn years she’d been there. Always standing beside him, watching his back, giving him her unconditional friendship. Her understanding. Her…love. She’d been his wingman, his buddy, his…everything.

He’d had the most wonderful gift all this time and never appreciated her. All these wasted years. Years of sleeping around, pretending he was the smart one, keeping women at a distance, using them for pleasure to get back at—what? His mom? Or a young girl who’d married too young to know what she wanted? What a jackass he’d been.

And Alex, wasting her time on a jerk like him.

Now it might be too late to get her back.

But he sure as hell intended to try.

Alex hadn’t given up on him. He wasn’t going to give up on her anytime soon.

THE WEEK AFTER her parents left seemed to pass by under a dark, heavy cloud of gloom for Alex. And, as if the weather wished to match her mood, it stayed dark and stormy all week, as well. Some nights it’d been too dangerous to fly, and Alex knew her students felt the same skin-crawling cabin fever she did at being cooped up in the classroom all night.

The weekend finally came and Jordan and Lily ambushed her Friday for a girls’ night out. She knew they were trying to cheer her up, and she appreciated their effort, but…

Note to self: Jell-O shooters and broken hearts don’t mix. Turns out she was a mean drunk. Ugh. She was totally embarrassing. Luckily, her two new friends had ignored her bad temper and self-pity party.

She spent the rest of the weekend in bed with the sniffles and actually called in sick Sunday night. By Wednesday she was forced to admit she needed a doctor and some antibiotics. The good thing about being sick was having an excuse for puffy eyes and a red nose. Someone else had to teach her class, but other than feeling guilty about that, being a contagious recluse suited her just fine.

She didn’t seem to have the energy to care whether she ever left her house again. And she wasn’t in the mood for visitors, either. This meant she might have left some well-meaning friends with the false belief that her house was full of infectious germs.

After another weekend in bed, even she couldn’t stand herself. She’d milked the flu for all she could and it was time for her to cowboy up—as her grandfather would say—and face the world. A world without Mitch.

She shouldn’t miss the clueless jerk.

But she did.

She missed being able to rant to him about her bad day. Or brag to him about her good day. She missed his smile, and his wicked humor. His optimism every day. Always finding some way to make life fun. She missed his kisses and his arms around her at night. Those exquisite moments of connection when he slid inside her and, for a little while at least, they seemed like one person. And she missed those moments of silence when she could look into his eyes and know that he knew exactly what she was thinking.

So, Monday night at the end of her shift, her mind had totally wandered off to thinking of all those