Page 15 of Forever Fickle

Karen ignored him and let the conversation drop, realizing that just being in the same area as Jace ‘Hot Cakes’ Sorensen was a little off-setting.

There was something about the good-looking man that made her awfully aware that he was there. He was probably used to having women fawn all over him, getting his way, and she wasn’t about to be one of them.

No, once he was gone in a week… she would be back to teaching school in less than two months – and everything would go back to normal. This was not a time to think of even being more than business acquaintances for the next week – and that was it.

So why did that make her feel so empty?

* * *

Hours later,as they pulled up to Flyboys, she saw the pilots were standing up front… all of them.

Thumper had left his home to arrive there, Valkyrie was there, Alpo, Firefly, Armadillo… and she saw Thumper shove Alpo to the front pointedly.

Ah ha… the culprit, she thought sadly. He was the one who played the joke on her? That was a little surprising.

“You know, they really aren’t bad guys…” Jace said quietly beside her – as if he could read her mind.

“What would you have me say or do? I already told you I wasn’t going to quit.”

“I know, but they don’t know that, and I guarantee they are freaking out right now. You are probably the only thing that is keeping them from pouncing on whoever…”

“Played me for a fool? Pulled a prank on me?”

“In the Air Force – we go by our rank and last name… or our call sign,” Jace said quietly, looking at her. “We don’t think anything of it. I don’t even know some of their first names – but rather only addressed them as their call signs… yet I would fight beside them in battle any day.”

“So, you think by someone putting Hot Cakes on a sign and me getting harassed…”

“Was a huge misunderstanding,” Jace finished. “And I know, because if they knew the stigma that comes with such a label – then maybe it wouldn’t have happened. I’ve gotten my feelings hurt a few times because of how people perceive me just because of my call sign… but you get a thick skin and shrug it off.”

“So just shrug it off?”

“Look at them,” he offered softly. “Not one man here has a vendetta or is out to hurt your feelings deliberately.”

She turned to look at him in disbelief and feeling a little irate.

“Do you think I need a pep talk from a perfect stranger who just arrived in town?” she asked bluntly. “We are going to work together for a week – and that’s it. Don’t presume to know what type of person I am and…”

“Don’t presume to know what kind of person I am then…” Jace interrupted grimly, looking at her. “It’s no pep talk – it’s called being kind. That’s all.”

“I’m always ‘kind’…” she hissed softly, yanking her keys from the ignition, and moving to pick up her purse off the floorboard between them.

Jace reached down and grabbed the strap quickly, just beside her hand.

“I’m asking you to please take it easy on my friends,” he said softly, his toffee-colored eyes meeting hers, inches away from her face where she’d leaned over to get her purse.

“The last two hours of silence were probably hell on those men – and they are good people. Just get out of the car, tell them you aren’t quitting, and then we can grab dinner together… okay?”

Karen’s mouth dropped open in shock – just before she laughed in his face.

“Are you actually ordering me around… and inviting me to dinner?” she gaped in disbelief, chuckling in amusement, before shaking her head. “No, Jace Sorensen, I am not going to dinner with you – and what I do is none of your business.”

He actually looked almost as surprised as she was – and paled a little under his tanned skin.

“Now, let go - so I can go clock out…Mr.Sorensen,” she began, stressing his name. “I don’t think I’m even going to bother with your call sign this week, because it just doesn’t feel right saying it aloud. I use everyone else’s – but I can’t seem to bring myself to address you as… Hot Cakes.”

Karen jerked her purse strap from his hand and got out of the car, walking forward, leaving Jace in her vehicle. She didn’t even look back, afraid that if she did then perhaps, he would take that as an opening.

She couldn’t believe he’d asked her out so casually – nor the fact that he’d done so at all. Did he think that because they had a conversation that suddenly he was entitled to tell her what to do, how to do it, and she would just fall right into his arms?

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