Page 16 of Forever Fickle

Sure, he was good-looking… he was actually the most handsome man she’d ever met and those eyes of his drove her nuts. Combined with that gorgeous smile, too?

She was putty… but dinner?

When he would be gone in less than a week?

No.

She wasn’t going to be his entertainment while he was here in town, nor was she going to be another notch on his bedpost. Firefly’s quiet conversation she’d overheard about the team’s favorite ‘Him-bo’coming to help them out, was any indication of Jace’s true personality?

She was out.

“Karen… hey, I’m so sorry,” Alpo began, stepping forward. “I didn’t think and…”

“It’s fine,” she replied evasively. “I’m not quitting – I was just mad and hurt when I said that I was. I get it, you all go by your call signs and his stupid call sign happens to be Hot Cakes.”

“Exactly,” Alpo said weakly, looking at the team. “So, you aren’t quitting?”

“No, but I am clocking out and going home because I have a headache.”

“And you are coming back tomorrow?” Armadillo said quietly from nearby, his arms crossed over his chest and glaring at Alpo as he spoke.

“Yes, you guys need help and I’m not so mean as to just abandon everything. Just please, don’t set me up for failure again like that. Okay? Treat me like you’d treat everyone else… and that means if you need to dub me some stupid call sign to fit in, so be it.”

“You don’t get one until you solo,” Firefly said bluntly – only to be elbowed by Armadillo.

“Think about what you’d like, and I’ll get a new name tag made for you, Karen,” Armadillo promised – immediately agreed to by Thumper in the distance.

“Remember, call signs are forever,” Valkyrie chimed in quietly. “Pick something you aren’t going to regret later.”

“Something that sums up you, as a person, on the inside. Some people go for fierce names while others have a reason behind their call signs… but yeah, you can pick your call sign – and we can work on flight lessons later once everyone is back.”

“That sounds like a deal,” she smiled, extending her hand towards Alpo. “No hard feelings,alpha dog…”

He grinned – and immediately pulled her into a hug, surprising Karen, who tensed realizing that her boss was crossing a line without even thinking about it.

All of the guys suddenly were hugging her, patting her on the shoulder, and making her feel like she was one of them. Karen glanced over her shoulder to see Jace standing there alone, watching her, with this peculiar look on his face.

Karen almost saidhelloor called out to him… but instead, turned away to head inside to clock out on her timecard.

She didn’t want to think about him as a person, the man who’d stuck with his call sign because of Sundays spent with family… not because of his good looks.

She certainly didn’t want to think of the warmth in his eyes as he asked her to dinner – and the way she wanted to say ‘yes’ but was deathly afraid to do so.

CHAPTER7

HOT CAKES

She turned him down…?

Jace was reeling at the sudden realization of how incredibly beautiful and smart Karen Marks was – and the understanding of just what Reaper had said to him back in Ghazni.

“Or maybe you haven’t met the right person,”Reaper had said.“You asked how I knew? It was lightning fast and there was no looking back, it happens – good, bad, or otherwise – and there’s no arguing or fighting it.”

Jace had walked off… only to hear Reaper finish his thoughts regarding his reaction… and facing the bitter truth of those words. Reaper was right – when something became too much, too hard, he quit trying.

“… And maybe that’s why you’re asking? You don’t like something that’s said – and you just leave.”

Jace was here, in Texas.

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