Page 14 of Welcome to Forever
She fidgeted with the ring on her finger as she glanced over her shoulder. “A bird,” she said, offering Ben a playful wink. “But it’s also a helicopter.”
Micah knew his son. Although he’d be impressed she knew that much, the vague helicopter answer wouldn’t suffice. And seeing that Micah had been flying an Osprey for the last seven years, Ben knew more about Ospreys than the typical eight-year-old.
“It’s a tilt-rotor aircraft actually,” Ben said.
“Oh.” Kat glanced over at Micah. “Your son is a very smart little guy, isn’t he?”
“They can fly vertical and horizontal,” Ben continued, “which is different from a regular helicopter.”
Kat nodded while he continued to rattle off facts about the military’s V-22 Osprey.
Ben had been begging him to take him up in one for over a year now, which was impossible even if Micah’s father was the commanding officer of Camp Leon—a CO who’d be very disappointed when he learned that his only son wasn’t reenlisting at the end of this contract. Ben needed stability, though. From one parent at least.
Kat pointed to a small one-story house on their left. “That’s me.”
Micah parked and glanced across the seat at her. She didn’t move. Maybe she was waiting for him to get out and open her door, he thought, unbuckling his seatbelt.
“Problem,” she said, looking sheepish and sexy as hell in the shadowed Jeep.
He lifted his eyebrows in question.
“I didn’t even think about it, but my house key is hooked to my car key somewhere.”
“You don’t have a spare hidden under a mat or something?” he asked.
“I did. But my friend Val took it last week and hasn’t been over to put it back. I can call her, though.” Kat grabbed her cellphone and began dialing. A few seconds later, she frowned as she stuffed her phone back inside her purse. “She didn’t answer.”
“I gathered that,” he said.
She chewed her bottom lip in a way that made him want to lean over and nibble at her himself. “Anyone else you can call?”Like your fiancé?
“I’m really sorry. You can just leave me here and I’ll call a locksmith.”
With a laugh, Micah shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He stepped out of his Jeep and began shuffling through the credit cards in his wallet. Finding one that suited him, he walked toward the door. “Be back in a minute, Ben.” His son looked half asleep by now, and Micah was willing to bet he’d be drooling before they even left the parking lot. That meant the bad news would have to wait until tomorrow. He hated letting bad news wait. The sooner he told Ben, the sooner he could start healing.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, following him to her front door.
“I’m going to break into your home.” He grinned as she pulled back in surprise.
“I don’t think that’s possible. I have really sturdy—”
Click.The door opened.
She stared at him with her lips slightly parted and her eyes wide with surprise. “It’s that easy to get inside my house?”
He nodded, wishing he didn’t feel compelled to lean in and kiss her. His gaze flicked back toward his Jeep where,yep,Ben was already asleep. Micah smiled, and then cursed under his breath as he noticed a familiar redhead walking down the neighborhood’s sidewalk.
He hoped to hell she didn’t see them.
“Damn,” he muttered, angling his body closer to Kat’s, as if that would hide his large six-foot frame.
“What?” Kat followed his gaze.
“I used to date her…kind of.” They’d only dated a handful of times in what he could probably chalk up to temporary insanity and his buddy Lawson’s insistence that he needed to “get back out there.” Of course, he’d ended things with her as soon as she’d tossed the C-word at his son. His son had cerebral palsy, but he wasn’t crippled.
Kat inspected the woman. “Pretty,” she said quietly.
“Pretty is as pretty does. Nicole couldn’t deal with Ben’s disability. You get me, you get my son. We’re a package deal.” His entire body tensed just remembering the situation.
