and happiness. Then her face fell slightly as she turned to walk back to the beach.
“She misses you.” I took Morgan’s hand as we started climbing.
“She misses who I used to be,” she said softly as we crested the dune.
“I’m not going to tell you how to feel or how to handle this. You tell me what you need me to be, and I’ll be that, okay?”
“I just need you.” She squeezed my hand and surveyed the small gathering. “You know they’re going to grill you, right?”
“They wouldn’t be good friends if they didn’t.”
Knowing that fact didn’t make the next hour any less painful. While Morgan sat with her friends, sneaking glances at me every few minutes, Josh and Jagger fired questions at me from both sides. She was close enough to hear my answers but trusted me to hold my own and didn’t interfere.
I’m twenty-eight. My daughter is five. No, her mother and I aren’t together. Yes, I like Morgan. We met when I pulled her out of her staircase. Yes, I know her contractor. Yes, he gave her fair estimates. On and on the questions came, until I was pretty sure they were about to ask for my social security number so they could run a credit check.
The only thing they hadn’t asked—
“And what do you do for a living?” Josh asked.
Ah, there it is. “I’m a coast guard search and rescue pilot,” I answered.
Morgan’s eyes locked with mine.
“Are you shitting me?” Jagger leaned forward in his chair.
“Nope.” I winked at Morgan, hoping she’d relax enough to breathe. Her gaze flickered between the guys. “Been stationed here five years.”
“Best damn pilot in the Outer Banks,” Sawyer remarked as he dragged a chair through the sand and sat on the other side of Jagger. “Other than me, of course.”
“And so humble,” I quipped.
Sawyer raised his beer in salute.
“You’re all pilots?” Jagger glanced toward the grill, where Moreno and Garrett argued over timing.
“Nawh.” Sawyer shook his head. “Javier is our best mechanic, and Garrett is a rescue swimmer. His job makes us look like chickenshits. And that’s Goodwin over by the water. He’s another swimmer. Hastings—the guy next to him—is a pilot, though. Those are their wives, Christina and Cassidy.”
“And she knows? Morgan knows?” Josh dropped his voice.
“Morgan knows everyone. It’s not like Jackson keeps her locked away or anything.” Sawyer shrugged.
Josh’s eyes narrowed on me.
“That’s not what he’s asking,” I said to Sawyer before turning back to Josh. “Yeah. Morgan knows.”
Appraising the level of tension, Morgan got to her feet and came around the timbers that we’d get around to lighting here in a few.
“And you know—” Josh started.
“Everything okay?” she asked, taking a seat in my lap and resting her arm over my shoulders.
“We’re fine,” I promised, putting my hand on her bare knee. “They were just asking if you knew that I fly.”
“I know,” she said softly. “I don’t like it, but I know. And honestly, once he took me up and I saw him rescue—”
“You got her up?” Jagger’s eyes flew wide. “As in up in a helicopter?”
“Jagger Bateman, isn’t that what I just said?” Morgan fired back, arching an eyebrow. “Don’t you dare go asking questions about me like I’m not sitting right here.”
I pressed my lips in a firm line to keep from laughing.
Jagger sighed but looked properly chastised. “Fine. Sorry. You actually went flying?”
“I did. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time.” She smiled at me, and damn if that didn’t make my chest constrict. “He saves lives. It’s pretty incredible.”
“Who saves lives?” Paisley asked, settling herself in Jagger’s lap while Sam and Ember played with Peyton.
“Jackson,” Morgan answered. “He’s a search and rescue pilot with the coast guard.”
This would have been so much more efficient if we’d just briefed everyone at once.
Paisley blanched. “I’m sorry?”
“Jax is a search and rescue pilot with the coast guard,” Sawyer repeated slowly and at greater volume. “Me, too, and Hastings, over there by the water.”
Paisley blinked at Sawyer, then swung her face toward Morgan. “Honey, you’re okay with that?”
“Whether or not I’m okay with it doesn’t change the facts.” Morgan shifted her legs.
“Well, I know that. It’s just…” Paisley’s worried gaze flickered between Morgan and me. “Unexpected.”
“Everything about Jackson is unexpected.” Her smile was slow as we locked eyes. “And besides, it’s not like they deploy or anything.”
My stomach sank.
“What? Hell yeah, we do. We’re deploying in six weeks,” Sawyer chimed in.
Morgan’s face drained of color, and her body went rigid.
“I’m not going,