care what anyone else thinks.”
“The time we spent apart might have helped put things in perspective, but I’m pretty done with that now. I never want to be away from you ever again.”
“That might prove to be a little difficult, considering we’ve both got jobs to do and yours requires you being away all the time.”
“Yeah.” I lowered my head and nuzzled her neck. “I’ve been thinking about that, and I have a plan. I’m too young to retire as a pilot, but—”
“I’d never ask you to do that. I was just teasing.” She pressed a kiss to my chest. “I know this thing in here would wither up if you had to stop flying.”
“The only thing that would make it wither up would be losing you.” I said it without any hesitation whatsoever. “There’s a position available as a senior ground instructor. I’ve already discussed it with Steve, and he’s agreed to letting me split my time between flying and instructing. They’ve been on my ass about teaching for a while actually.”
“That’s funny. I thought my department was responsible for appointing people to available positions.” She smiled. “Luckily, you know someone in HR who knows you’ll be perfect for the job. I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you, even if I won’t be able to handle the appointment myself. Conflict of interest and all.”
“Why do you have a conflict?” I asked, my grin already spreading.
She shrugged, her eyes shining as she looked up into mine. “I can’t exactly appoint my boyfriend who swept me off my feet in every way imaginable, now can I?”
“Boyfriend?” I asked the question with my mouth so close to hers that our lips were brushing when they moved.
“Boyfriend,” she said decisively. “Possibly future husband if he plays his cards right.”
“I like the sound of that.” Realizing for the first time since the conversation started that we were still standing in the hallway outside her office, I curled my hands around hers on my chest and cocked my head. “Since we’ve established that I don’t want to be away from you for longer than strictly necessary for us to do our jobs, are we going to your place or mine?”
“Mine,” she whispered. “We can figure the rest out later.”
Chapter 39
LINDSAY
Jaxon’s lips found mine as soon as my front door closed behind us, and feeling them there again was the best thing I’d ever felt. I never wanted to stop kissing him again, even if I knew we’d have to stop at some point.
I couldn’t quite believe that he was here with me, that he’d come after me and flat out told me he was fighting for us. While I knew that everything between us wouldn’t just snap back to the way it had been, I had a feeling things would get even better from here on out.
My heart wasn’t ready to let all its guards down, and I still had to figure out how I would ever trust any man enough to say yes to marrying him, but if anyone was going to get me there, it was Jaxon.
Definitely not now but eventually.
In the meantime, I was going to enjoy having him back in my life and getting to know us the way that we would be together as a real couple. Sure, he’d made a mistake, and it’d hurt like nothing before it, but one mistake shouldn’t steal the chance from both of us to see what we could become.
I’d also realized while he’d been talking that I wasn’t blameless in what had happened. He’d left without saying goodbye, but I hadn’t exactly given him any reason to think that I wanted him to stay.
In hindsight and now that I’d heard his side of the story, I could understand why he’d done it. It actually kind of spoke to how deeply he cared about me that he was willing to put himself through all that for me.
On our way to my place, he’d told me how much it’d hurt him to leave like that. In the end, we could both have saved the other a lot of pain and heartbreak if we’d just communicated our feelings properly. So that was what we had agreed on doing from now on.
No more waiting, no more wondering, and no more making decisions about what was best for the other without talking about it. We were sealing those promises to one another with these kisses, but they were also slowly turning into something more.
I