5
After three days of training missions up and down the Gulf Coast, Lance was on top of the world. Wasn’t any place he’d rather be than driving his bird halfway between the ocean and the top of the sky, calling out orders to his crew and feeling the roar of those engines in his soul. Cheri could have her fighters. He wouldn’t trade his C-130 for anything.
He’d also gotten a message on his phone that shouldn’t have been funny or cute or interesting in the least, but which had made him grin so hard he laughed.
He’d follow up on that later though. Tonight, he was headed out with the guys again.Being single was starting to feel almost natural.
Pony and Juice Box were already at Taps. The local bar and grill where Lance had had his disaster of a kiss with Dr. Boudreaux hosted trivia on Thursday nights. Since it was homecoming week for James Robert College, the bar was featuring beer specials, and Juice Box had wanted to check out the ladies. Lance was mildly curious if the students would be the only people out celebrating, but he’d only admit to being there to keep an eye on Juice Box. He settled in at the table with his buddies and passed fist-bumps around.
“Ready for this, Thumper?” Pony said.
“Hell yeah. Got a feeling we’re gonna win tonight.”
The hairs on his arms went up.
“You boys keep on thinking that,”Dr.Kaci Boudreaux said. His stomach tilted whenthat Southern honey voice hit his ears.
He almost smiled.
She’d shown up.
She didn’t look at him, but he knew she knew he was there. “Me and Tara here are gonna whomp your rumps.”
Juicy’s gaze locked on something below a woman’s usual preferred target zone.
Pony glanced between Kaci and her curly-haired friend. “She a doctor too?” he asked Kaci.
“Better. She writes romance novels.”
“Aw, man, that’s hot,” Juicy said.
“Oh, sugar, you have no idea.”
Lance tilted his seat back. She still hadn’t looked at him. It was like she couldn’t see his part of the table.
All the better. This would be fun. “Got your message,” he said.
The tendons in her neck tightened. She kept her nose up, without a hint of a blushtouching her porcelain skin. “Loud and clear, I hope.”
“It was loud,” he conceded.
Her companion, the curly-headed Tara, sucked her cheeks in. But she also gave him a second once-over, which she hadn’t done with any of the other guys.
“And we’re going to kick your ass as soundly at trivia as we did with pumpkin-chucking,” he added.
“You wanna put your money where your mouth is?” Kaci’s blue eyes darted to him, then away.
He had an insane desire to leave his money out of it and put his mouth somewhere it had no business being.
Getting involved with Kaci Boudreaux was a terrible idea.
Butdamn, was it fun to push her buttons. “No skin off my back. I’ll add it to your bill.”
This time, her gaze landed hard on him,and she held it steady without blinking or flinching. “Aww, you poor thing. You go on and keep asking, but I’m not giving you my number.”
He didn’t answer and instead let a wolfish smile creep over his face.
She’d called his cell phone. He already had her number. Which a brilliant physics professor should’ve realized.
