She slowly approached the couch and curled into the opposite end. “Suppose I can watch some TV with you. Seeing as how you’d have to put up with your roommate if you went home.”
He nodded gravely. “Nice of you to let me stay.”
He didn’t push for more on why she’d run away, but he was doing thatLancethingagain.
Just being there.
Accepting her.
Acting like he still wanted to know her.
Kaci didn’t have room in her life for a relationship, and sweet baby gingerbread knew Lance probably wasn’t in a love-and-commitment place either, but that just made them fit better.
For now.
Lance showedup in the squadron room Monday morning feeling off-center. He hadn’t slept well, and he didn’t want to pinpoint why.
“Colonel’s looking for you,” Pony said when Lance dropped his bag at his desk.
The commander’s door was closed, so Lance flung himself into his seat and took a minute to log in to his email. “Say why?”
“Need to know, and apparently I don’t.” Pony’s chair squeaked when he swung it around to face Lance. “Heard you got some arrangement with the blond professor chick.”
“Jealous?”
“Want my keg, dude.” He swung back to his own desk. “And your head better be in the game when we leave.”
Lance had four weeks. By then, he would’ve seen Kaci through her fear of flying, let her touch his catapult, they’d have had their date, had sex a few more times, and he’d be fine.
“Wheeler.” Lieutenant Colonel Santiago stuck his head out of his office. “Got a minute?”
Lance dutifully followed him into the standard-issue seventies-style office. Award plaques, signed squadron photos, and a military coin rack hung on the fabric-covered walls. Lance sat on the flat-cushionedchair across from the colonel and propped his flight boot over his knee.
The colonel’s desk chair squeaked when the man sat. He pushed his keyboard out of the way, then kicked his feet up on the desk. “Ready for deployment?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Nice of you to step in for Flincher.”
“Like to think he’d do the same for any one of us.”
Colonel Santiago inclined his head. “Juice Box working out?”
Lance almost smiled. He’d discovered his roommate wasn’t so much horny as eager to fit in, and he thought being amanwould get him there faster. “At home or here?”
“Both.”
“He’s figuring it all out. He’ll be fine.”
“Seems you’re a good influence on him.”
“Kid just needs a friend.”
The colonel smiled a shark’s grin. Thehairs on Lance’s arms stood up.
“You heard we’re looking for a few good IPs,” Colonel Santiago said.
Oh, hell no. Lance’s bags were packed. He wasn’t staying here to babysit kids younger than Juice Box while the rest of the guys went out on the mission.
