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“Don’t ever do that again.”
“Do what? Rescue you?”
She stopped and faced him. “First, you didn’t ‘rescue’ me. Second, I don’t need you to meddle in my problems. I can handle myself.”
He glanced behind them. “Don’t get me wrong, you did great, but I don’t know about you handling two of them.”
Despite herself, she shivered. “You may be right.” She tightened her lips and folded her arms. “Thanks.” Taking a deep breath, she lifted her chin. “But I need to take care of myself.”
His brows rose. “Okay.”
“Just remember that and we’ll get along fine.”
He nodded and held out his right hand. “Mitch McCabe.” He was still smiling, still flashing white teeth and dimples. Despite the danger of what had just happened, his grin snuck past her carefully built defenses.
After a moment’s hesitation, she shook it. “Alex Hughes.”
As soon as she got back to her room, she sank down against the door with her arms around her knees and shook for half an hour.
SHE THOUGHT SHE’D made herself clear to Sir Lancelot then. She didn’t need anyone. And despite her efforts to ignore the guy, it seemed like every time she fell behind on the obstacle course, or had to take an extra minute to get back up from falling down, he was there. Not offering a hand, but…just waiting with her.
She told him not to. To go on, leave her alone. She was fine. Finally, he seemed to get the message. Twelve weeks in, between the rigorous military training, the academic curriculum and the killer athletics program, she was exhausted and almost ready to quit. Though she’d die rather than admit it, the strain was getting to her.
After a worse than grueling day, when she’d failed at everything, she spent longer than usual in the shower, letting the hot water pound her sore muscles. When she got out, she wrapped up in a towel and padded out to the dressing room. She opened her locker and folded neatly in place of her panties was a pair of clean and pressed white men’s boxer shorts.
She scanned the area, but she was alone. Someone had come in while she was showering and left again. Instead of creeping her out, the realization made her feel safe. Whoever it was, if he was going to harm her, he would’ve.
Rumor had it if a female cadet found a pair of men’s underwear in their stuff she’d been officially accepted as one of the guys.
As she unfolded the shorts a playing card fell out. It was the king of spades. But the back was a picture of Elvis. The card was from a Graceland souvenir pack.
Alex smiled and shook her head. The king? Elvis? Memphis?
McCabe.
He was telling her she could do this. She was as tough as any man. And he had her back.
If she hadn’t already, in that moment, Alex Hughes fell hard for Cadet First Class Mitch McCabe.
United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO May 2000
ALEX STOPPED AT McCabe’s door. Good, there was light underneath. She gave a brief knock and then let herself in. “Hey, Memphis?”
“Hughes! Thank God.”
A warm glow filled her chest at the delight in McCabe’s voice and face. To see her.
He sat with his ankle crossed over his knee, banging a pencil on a spiral notebook like a stick on a drum. “Is that pizza?”
“Our favorite, Mexican fajita with extra jalapeños.”
McCabe tossed the spiral onto his desk, shot out of his chair and grabbed some barely used paper plates off the floor. “Let’s eat.” He set the pizza box on top of the spiral and seized the largest slice.
The man was too distracting in a plain white T-shirt just tight enough to hug the contours of his chiseled chest. And was she crazy to find camo pants sexy? She had to stop thinking about him like this. He had a girlfriend.
“You’re studying?” She hopped onto his desk, set the box down and snatched a slice for herself.
He nodded. “Trying to memorize all those dates.” He gestured at the notebook under the pizza. “God, I hate all this history stuff. Who cares about some Roman emperor who ruled a thousand years ago?”
She leaned forward to pull the notebook out from under the box. Trying to read the chicken scrawl on coffee-stained notepaper was a challenge. “Is this Western Civ? I like that class. The stuff about the Hapsburgs…? Totally revealing.”
He frowned. “Hapsburgs?”
“Yeah, women were just a means to gain power to them, the pigs.”
“I must’ve slept through that part.”
From the other side of the wall behind his desk came loud moaning and a rhythmic banging.
McCabe groaned. “My neighbor obviously has no anxiety about getting kicked out.”
She scoffed. “And you do?”
“I have to get at least a ninety on the final exam or I’ll flunk this class. If that happens, I’m out.”
“That won’t happen. We’ll associate each date with something interesting to you.”
He studied the pizza on his lap. “Hughes. If I can’t hack it here, I can’t ask Luanne to marry me.”
She stopped chewing, horrified. “Marry you? You can’t get married while you’re in the Academy.”
“No, but I can the day after we graduate. Why do you think they have that chapel here?” He grinned and excitement sparked in his gorgeous baby blues.
“McCabe. Seriously. You don’t want to tie yourself down at twenty-two. Don’t you want to go off and see the world first?”
“Luanne and I’ve been going together since our sophomore year. She agreed to wait for me, so I can make something of myself. But I don’t know if she’ll wait any longer than graduation.”
“Make something of yourself? What are you now, chopped liver?”
“Come on. You know what I mean.”
Hughes’s lips flattened. “All I’m saying is you’re a great guy. Your girlfriend should love you for who you are.”
McCabe gave her his cockiest grin. The dimples appeared out of nowhere and hit their target with deadly force. “I’m a great guy, huh?”
She lifted her foot to his shoulder and shoved. “Don’t get your head all swelled up.”
“Nah, that’s the guy next door.” He jerked his thumb toward the wall.
“Ugh.” She tossed the rest of her pizza back on her plate. “Could’ve done without that image.”
He chuckled and there was a comfortable silence while he finished his slice and she hopped off the desk and grabbed a soda from his roommate’s minifridge. “Hey, Hughes?”
“Yeah?” She popped the top off the can.
“How come you’re not out having a good time tonight?”
“A good time? You mean, like, stand around waiting to see if there’s a guy desperate enough by closing time to ask me back to his place so he can get his rocks off, and if I’m lucky he might be good enough to make sure I get my rocks off, too? That kind of good time?”
“Geez, when you put it that way…” He grabbed the soda from her hand and took a swig while he narrowed his gaze on her. “You’d be kind of cute if you’d fix yourself up a little.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Gee, thanks.”
“I’m serious. Fix your hair, wear something nice and put on some makeup.”
Alex bristled. “Why would I ever want to do that? So I can get groped by hormonal cretins?” She was comfortable in her old T-shirts and jeans. Her hair was cut so short there wasn’t much she could do with it, even if she wanted to. The backward baseball cap hid it most of the time anyway. “I have to work twice as hard to get respect around here as it is. And besides, did it ever occur to you I don’t want or need a man in my life? My mother slaves away cooking and cleaning for my dad and brothers 365 and you think they appreciate or respect her? Hell, no. A husband and kids is nothing but an anchor weighing down a woman, keeping her from becoming who she was meant to be.”
McCabe held his palms up in surrender. “Okay, okay. I get it.”
Alex inhaled a calming breath. Wow, that diatribe had been building inside her a long time. And poor McCabe didn’t deserve all her built-up resentment. She let out her breath, feeling the anger leave with it. “Sorry for the rant.”
“Forget it.” He waved a hand. “So…you don’t ever want to get married and have kids?”
She shrugged and took a sip of her drink. “Married maybe. When I’m old. Not kids. How could I be a fighter pilot and be pregnant? Or go into combat?” She shook her head.
His lower lip pushed out as he nodded. “Gotta admit, never thought of that.”
Oh, those lips. Luanne, you lucky girl.
“What about you?” she asked. “I guess you and what’s-her-name want a bunch of rug rats?”
He leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head, “I’d like four. She says two and then we’ll see. I just want my kids to have everything I didn’t have growing up.”
“Four? Geez. I’ve got three brothers. You know how much laundry that’ll take?”
He shrugged. “I can help with that when I’m home.” He spread his hands out to his sides. “Besides, the world deserves to have these genes passed on.”
Alex couldn’t agree more. But she rolled her eyes. “You’re so full of it.”
He reached up and punched her arm. “That’s what you love about me, though, right?” He grinned.
Love about him? What was not to love? Her heart hurt, but she made herself smile. “Damn straight.”
“So, you gonna help me learn all these dates or what?” He grabbed another slice of pizza.
“Absolutely, Memphis. I got your back.”
United States Air Force Academy Chapel, July 2003
IF THERE WAS a place in the ceremony where the minister asked the congregation if anyone knew of any reason why the bride and groom shouldn’t get married, Alex decided she’d raise her hand.
Okay, so she probably wouldn’t.
But she wanted to.
Don’t do it, Mitch! She wanted to yell at him as she helped him straighten his tie. She finished and he turned to look in the mirror.
“Well, what do you think?” he asked, his gaze finding hers in the reflection.
He looked more handsome than a man had a right to in his dress uniform. She shrugged. “You clean up good.” She made herself smile. “Hey, McCabe?”
“Yeah?” He grabbed his black leather belt and scabbard and buckled it around his waist.
“You know, there’s no shame in changing your mind. Better now than after, right?”
He stopped fiddling with the buckle and gaped at her. “You’ve never liked Luanne.”
“I don’t even know Luanne.” Alex swallowed, but soldiered on. “It’s just so permanent. And you’re both so young.”
“Hughes. When you’re in love, you just know when it’s right. And this is right.” He took her by the shoulders. “Luanne and I want the same things. Kids, a home, family.”
Right. All those things she’d rashly told him she didn’t want years ago.
But geez, Mitch was both blind and deaf when it came to Luanne. Alex doubted the girl had thought about much past the hearts and flowers and romance. She’d insisted on a huge wedding with all the bells and whistles. The cake, the flowers, the dress. And of course her parents provided it all, except the traditional rehearsal dinner last night. Which Mitch couldn’t really afford. But he’d paid for her entire family, even distant relatives, to dine at the exclusive Penrose Room at the Broadmoor. Mitch was so hopelessly in love he wanted Luanne to have everything she wanted.
And that was what bothered Alex the most. This girl was a year younger than Mitch—only twenty-one, and she’d obviously, in Alex’s admittedly biased opinion, been spoiled. Whatever she wanted, she got. Or else.
Mitch let go of her shoulders and picked up his saber. “Hughes, I think I know what’s really going on here.”
Alex drew in a deep breath. “You do?”
Did he know? She thought she’d hidden her feelings so well. All through the Academy, she’d tried to convince herself it was just infatuation. Besides, she wanted a career and her independence.
Mitch nodded. “You’re afraid this is going to change our friendship. But it won’t. Luanne understands we’re just buddies.”
Friendship. She let out her breath. Right.
He put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “And she knows guys need a night every once in a while to go out with their buddies for a beer and a game of pool.”
Alex tried to smile and Mitch let her go to turn to the mirror and slide his saber into the scabbard. “Well, this is it.” His eyes met hers in the mirror again. “I need you to be cool with this, Hughes.”
She watched him in the reflection for a moment. His eyes shining with happiness and excitement. His heart so full of love and hope. Who was she to assume it wouldn’t work out? Maybe Luanne was exactly what he needed in his life. And, above all, Alex wanted Mitch to be happy. He was one of the good guys. He deserved it.
So, she shoved down the malignant mass of churned-up emotions that threatened to ruin her best friend’s most special day. If this was what Mitch wanted, this was what Mitch was going to have.
“Don’t worry, Memphis.” She clamped her hand on his shoulder. “I’ve got your back.”
Near Randolph Air Force Base, San Antonio, TX, February 2004
ALEX WOKE UP instantly to her cell phone playing Walking in Memphis. “Hughes,” she answered.
“Hey, Hughes, my wingman, come play some pool with me.”
“McCabe?” He sounded drunk, but that wasn’t like McCabe. Alex sat up and checked the time. “It’s after midnight. We have flight training at 0600.”
She heard him curse and what sounded like him fumbling his phone, then he said, “I forgot about training tomorrow.”
“You…forgot?” How the hell did McCabe forget flight training? That’d be like Bush saying he forgot he was president.
“Shit, Hughes. You better come get me. I think I’m drunk.”
“Ya think?” She was already pulling on her jeans. “Tell me where you are.”
She was dressed and out the door in less than five minutes and found the pool hall off the interstate without too much trouble.
McCabe was sitting outside on the curb, his elbows on his knees, his head hanging down. It was cold and drizzly out, and he was getting wet. When she pulled into a parking space he looked up and Alex caught her breath.
She’d never seen such devastation in her friend’s eyes. Even as he gave her a small smile. “Hey, Hughes.” He stood and swayed on his feet and she raced over to catch him under his arm.
“Hey, buddy.” She helped him walk to her truck.
His blond hair was disheveled and his desert camos were rumpled, but he still smelled of that expensive sandalwood cologne he always wore, and it pulled at her senses. She realized she’d been avoiding any close contact with him the last six months—since the wedding.
Contrary to Mitch’s assurances before the wedding, Luanne didn’t understand. In fact, Alex was fairly certain Luanne didn’t like her at all.
“Thanks for coming.” He slammed his door and she went around to the driver’s side.
“No problem.” He’d already put on his seat belt and she snapped hers on before shifting out of Park.
They were halfway back to base before he said anything. She sure as hell wasn’t going to ask questions. “Think I could crash at your place tonight?” He squeezed his eyes closed while he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Sure thing.” He must’ve had another fight with Luanne. But this one had to have been worse than usual.
Alex had gone out of her way to give the newlyweds space. To be on her best behavior. But McCabe’s wife seemed to complain about everything. From what little he’d said, it sounded as if she spent most of her days either shopping for stuff they couldn’t afford or complaining there was nothing to do.
Once they were at Alex’s apartment she gathered up a spare pillow, blanket and sheets while McCabe hit the john. She was making up a bed on the couch when he came out.
She looked up from tucking a corner under the cushion and desire slammed into her like a tidal wave.
McCabe—Mitch had stripped down to his skivvies and undershirt. Black boxer-briefs had no business being on such a hard-muscled body. The combination was just too intoxicating.
Stop it, Alex, the man is upset. She tore her gaze away from his—whatever—and finished tucking the sheet.
“You didn’t have to do that.” He gestured at the made-up sofa.
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