It Wasn't Me - Lani Lynn Vale
Blurb
Piper Mackenzie first sees him shirtless, standing in front of the military plane she was about to board, with one rather large wrench in his hand. The fact that he has the plane—the one that she’s about to be flying on for hours—in pieces only minutes before she’s set to take off on it doesn’t faze her. At least not until a flippant joke about dying in mid-air leaves his lips.
The second time she sees him, he’s helping her from the wreckage of her car. The wreckage that he helped cause.
The third, he’s laying across from her in the same bed, and there’s no denying what happened the night before.
The fourth, well that time would be the first of many. Being Mrs. Jonah Crew has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
*****
Jonah Crew sees her for the first time as she stares at him in awe. It’s snowing, the temp is in the negative degrees, and he can’t think about anything but her and the look of horror on her face when he tells a badly-timed joke.
The second time he sees her, his heart skips a beat, but not for the reason that one might think. Mainly, it’s due in part to the fact that his truck smashed into her car so hard that his chest hits the steering wheel and his heart decides to stop working right.
The third time, he’s fairly positive that he’s died and gone to heaven. At least, that’s what waking up next to a beautiful woman like her signifies, right?
The fourth? Well, he’s not quite sure how he got there, but he’s already said ‘I do’ so what’s a guy to do?
Chapter 1
If you’re hungry, never go to the supermarket. You’ll wind up with a bunch of shit you don’t need. ASK ME HOW I KNOW!
-Text from Piper to Phoebe
Piper
“Gonna miss you, Piper!”
I looked back and waved at the only friend that I’d met, and continued to be able to tolerate, at the German Army base.
Jillian gave me a fist raise and turned on her booted heels, heading back toward the front door where I’d been let off.
I continued through the line of people, making my way to where I was informed to wait.
It didn’t take long, and soon I was sitting in the chair next to the large window that looked out over the tarmac.
I shivered slightly and wrapped my arms around myself, hoping that I didn’t have to wait long.
I was joining a returning troops transport back stateside, and the last thing I wanted to do was sit here any longer than I had to.
Then again, I was told that I was lucky to get the transport back home. Had I had to fly commercial, I’d have been waiting until Monday like the rest of the world, seeing as a hell of a snowstorm had barreled through our part of Germany.
“A rare spring snowstorm,” I’d been informed by not one, not two, but fifteen individuals on the way to the transport this morning.
Honestly, I was glad to be leaving.
As much as I loved the weather here in Germany, I was ready to be home. Even more, I was ready to get my thin Texas blood back to where it was acclimated to one-hundred-degree summers. I was certainly not used to dealing with any type of snowstorms.
Pulling out my phone, I began to read my latest book.
It was nearly an hour later when I was finally called to begin boarding the plane.
I saw what the hold-up was the moment I got on the tarmac and close enough to the plane.
The hold-up being a shirtless, beautifully muscled man working on the plane we were literally in the process of boarding.
“What do you think?” I heard one of the uniformed soldiers ask the shirtless man.
“I think that y’all should’ve done this before we started loading fuckin’ people onto the plane,” shirtless man said.
Shit.
Was there something wrong with the plane?
A flash of foreboding started to fill my limbs, and I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to enjoy the trip home very much.
I hadn’t realized I’d stopped right next to the shirtless man, who happened to be standing half under the plane, with bolts and nuts and all kinds of parts on the ground, until he looked over and spotted me.
That was when I saw his eyes.
He looked familiar, yet I couldn’t place why.
And those eyes seemed to penetrate straight into my soul.
“Don’t worry,” he said teasingly. “I’ll make sure to put it all back together. May