Trusting a Warrior (Loving a Warrior #3) - Melanie Hansen Page 0,113

his head. “No.” He watched her carefully. “I’m leaving soon for Langley. After that, I’m not sure where we’re going or when I’ll be back.”

“Aw, shit.” Her eyes showed the merest flicker of disappointment before she smiled. “Well, there’s our first dose of reality, I guess.” She threaded her arm through his as they started walking again. “Okay, listen up. I’m gonna find out, but I swear I will not tell anyone until I tell you first, even if we have to do it over FaceTime.”

“I’ll move heaven and earth to be there if I possibly can.”

The quiet fervor in his voice made her press her cheek to his shoulder. “I know you will,” she said. “And if you can’t, I’ll be fine. We’ll make it work.”

“We’ll make it work,” he repeated softly.

They’d reached his bike by then, and Lani turned into his arms, her own twining around his neck. “Go pack your stuff and then come home?”

His heart so full he could barely speak, Geo kissed her gently. He danced her back toward her car, not wanting to let her go, and leaned in through the driver’s window for more kisses as she started the engine.

“Bye.” Smack. “Love you.” Smack. “Hurry.” Smack.

At last he forced himself to step away with a lovesick sigh, and after she’d driven off, he picked up the I’M SORRY sign that had blown against his front tire, tore it down the middle and stuffed it in a nearby trash can.

As he pulled on his helmet, his phone buzzed with a text. Hey, dude. Meet us for a beer?

Can’t, he replied, then straddled his bike and fired it up, contentment and the promise of happiness stretching his lips into a grin.

’Cause I’m headed home.

Epilogue

Two years later

“Come on, bud. Let’s go wake Mama.”

Some scuffling and giggling at the doorway, and Lani buried her face in her pillow, hiding her smile. She feigned sleep as footsteps toddled toward the bed, little fists grabbing onto the mattress next to her.

“Mama, up.”

With a loud pretend yawn, she rolled to her other side, away from Aidan, who said again, “Mama, up!”

Her shoulders shook with laughter when Geo scooped him from the floor and whispered, “I know what’ll wake her up. Ready?” He plopped Aidan down next to her, and then with a shout did a giant belly-flop onto the bed.

Aidan shrieked as he was bounced several inches into the air. Lani grabbed him to pepper his face with kisses. “You surprised me!” she declared. “You woke me up!”

She hugged his warm little body close while he patted her cheeks and babbled at her, until a loud, ostentatious snore from Geo made her glance over to where he now sprawled on his back, arms thrown over his head.

“Uh-oh,” she hissed. “Daddy’s asleep.”

“Dada up?”

“Right. Dada up.”

She helped Aidan stand, and he turned around and sat down—hard—right on Geo’s stomach.

“Oof!”

Cackling with glee, Aidan did it again, and again, each time Geo letting out a loud, mock-pained grunt. At last Aidan tired of the game, and Geo scooped him up in his arms, saying, “Go on and shower, love. You have a big day ahead, and I have everything under control.”

She knew he did. Since Aidan’d been born, Geo had thrown himself whole-heartedly into family life, soaking it up like a thirsty sponge. Some careful planning, combined with being in the right place at the right time, had opened up an opportunity neither of them could’ve foreseen.

“I’ve been offered a billet with the LeapFrogs,” he’d told her one night, his eyes bright with excitement.

Pulled exclusively from the spec ops community, the Navy’s parachute demonstration team traveled to events all over the country.

“They want to add a K9 handler to the troop to raise awareness of what military working dogs can do.”

He’d get to jump out of airplanes with Bosch, swoop in on a helicopter and fast-rope with him to the ground, and conduct mock searches and takedowns.

At first she’d been worried that he’d be bored, that he’d miss the close camaraderie of deployment or the thrill of combat, but to her surprise and delight, he didn’t seem to miss either. He was still involved in the community he loved, he got to work with his favorite badass dog, and best of all, he was safely stateside, even if sometimes he was gone for a few weeks at a time.

Yeah, life was pretty damn good.

Oh, the joys of a leisurely soak under a hot spray! Lani took full advantage of it, running a deep conditioner