Lake Magic (43 page)

All around Jared controlled chaos reigned on the USS
Abraham Lincoln
. Military personnel rushed across the massive aircraft carrier performing their jobs with infinite precision and untiring speed. He paused on the way to the flight line as an F-18 taxied to position. The powerful engines ignited, obliterated any other sound, and intensified the air with the smell of jet fuel. The carrier shuddered beneath his feet as the engines gained power. Moments later, the jet roared and hit the sky.

Jared took it all in: the noise, the smells, the endless blue that surrounded him.
This
was what he lived for.
This
was all he wanted.

Three weeks had passed since he’d left Jenny. Three weeks since he’d gotten his life back. Leaving had been the right decision—the only decision.

Hadn’t it?

He shook off the thought and told himself that the only thing he needed to do was get back inside the cockpit. It was the same thing he’d been telling himself ever since he’d rejoined his squadron. And today he finally would. In less than an hour he’d be back up in the skies, the only place he belonged.

Earlier this morning they’d been briefed on their mission. In direct violation of a treaty, a nuclear facility in Tawaitha had been rebuilt. Jared’s squadron had been given the directive to destroy it for a second time. Everyone knew the target would be heavily defended, just like everyone knew a confrontation was imminent. American fighters would be mixing it up with Iraqi MiGs. Soon the skies were going to be one hell of a fireball.

Jared wasn’t afraid. He had stared down danger more times than he could count. Confrontations like this were exactly what he had been trained for.

He was just about to make his way to his jet when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned and saw Kenny Hart.

Ever since he’d gotten back, Jared had been avoiding the kid. Hart was one chatty son of a bitch, and Jared knew that sooner or later he’d mention Jenny. So he avoided Hart just like he avoided thinking about what Paul had said to him. Both guys were bastards who didn’t know how to mind their own fucking business.

Hart motioned for Jared to follow him.

They reached a place on the carrier where they could talk, though they still had to shout to be heard above the noise.

“What?” Jared asked, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

“That. You’ve been in a foul mood ever since you returned.”

“Mind your own goddamn business.”

“I would, but the guys in the squadron won’t let me. They want me to find out what the hell is bugging you and tell you to get over it. Of course, I didn’t tell them I already knew.”

“You don’t know shit.” Jared turned to leave, but Hart reached out and grabbed him.

“She’s trying to find you.”

He didn’t need to ask who
she
was. “How the hell do you know?”

Hart readjusted his helmet underneath his arm. “Because she wrote to me asking for help in locating your sorry ass.”

Jared heard a roaring in his ears that had nothing to do with the noise from the carrier. He stared at Hart, wanted to put a fist through his pretty boy face. “How the hell did she know how to contact you? And why?”
Fuck all that, and just tell me what she said
.

“Unlike you, I gave her a way to contact me. Since I knew you’d screw it up, I figured Jenny was fair game. I plan on seeing her when we return.”

“Like hell you will.” Two weeks ago Jared had sent Paul an address; he still hadn’t received the papers. He knew it would take some time for them to reach him, and Jared was both dreading and waiting for that day. Until he signed the documents that relinquished any hold he had on Blue Sky, he was still a part of her life. A small part, but it was better than nothing. He’d take whatever he could get.

“Sorry, Charlie. But since you gave her up, you don’t get a say.”

Jared wanted to punch Hart all over again. Then again, he wanted to smack himself. The second night he’d returned, he’d gotten good and drunk. And Hart had been right there, listening to every whiny word Jared had been unable to stop himself from saying.

“So,” Hart prodded. “What do you want me to tell her?”

There were a million things he wanted to say to her. But none of them would change anything, and even if they would, he sure as hell wouldn’t use pretty boy as his messenger. This time when Jared turned and walked away, Hart couldn’t stop him.

Jared reached his jet and threw himself into the task at hand. He had a job to do, and he’d better get his head on straight and do it. He went through the preflight check then climbed into the cockpit. But as he put on his helmet and connected his oxygen hose, he couldn’t stop the memory of when Jenny had picked up his helmet, held it in her hands, and looked at him with those sky blue eyes that tore straight through to his soul.

She didn’t. No one did. He made damn sure of that. If she knew how mixed up he really was, she’d run as fast and as far from him as she could. Instead, he’d protected her by getting the hell away from her.

He motored down the canopy and brought the engine up to speed then completed his primary/secondary and emergency power unit checks, punched in the coordinates, tested the flight-control, brake, and air-refueling system. He cleared his crew chief off the headset and began to taxi. The jet accelerated rapidly, and Jared was airborne in a matter of seconds. As he climbed into the blue sky, he waited for the rush of adrenaline to hit him like it always did. This was it. This was where his magic began.

But this time, there was no adrenaline. No magic.

The roaring in his head grew louder, and his hand slipped on the stick.

Jenny
.

Her grandmother had been wrong. It wasn’t the lake that held the magic, it was Jenny.

Somehow, with that wondrous heart of hers that was as big and open as the sky before him, she’d shown him that he could put down roots. That he could fit. That he could love. And she did know him. He thought back to all the talks they’d shared—all the things he’d shared about himself.

He loved her.

The truth had been before him all the time.

God, what an utter fool he’d been. He could face an enemy head-on, but one look at Jenny’s smile, and he had run away. He’d let the stain of his past muddy his future. And even when Jenny had given him her love, he’d thrown it back in her face, the coward that he was. For so long he’d been running, but she’d seen through every barrier he erected. She tried to show him . . . to tell him . . . but he’d been too stupid to see. He was a guy who could stick—he just hadn’t found the right reason . . . the right person, until Jenny. It had taken him getting back into the cockpit and climbing thirty thousand feet for him to see clearly what he’d missed on the ground.

Jared rolled into a thirty-degree bank. For the first time he didn’t want to look up; he wanted to look down.

Jenny frowned at the vegetable platter in her hands. “I don’t know. I think you should have put me in charge of chips and salsa. We both know dip is beyond my culinary skills.”

“Believe me,” Anna said, “I wouldn’t have let you make it if I didn’t know it would taste good.”

Jenny laughed. “So true.”

Anna opened the fridge and grabbed the large bowl of potato salad she’d made earlier. “Now come on.” She bumped the fridge closed with her hip. “Your guests are hungry.”

They made their way out of Jenny’s house and across the yard. Under the hot August sun, the lake glistened a stunning silver and blue. Someone had plugged an iPod into a pair of speakers. The Beach Boys were belting out, “And she’ll have fun, fun, fun till her daddy takes the T-Bird away
.
” Jenny paused at the edge of the beach and smiled.

Over two dozen of her friends and family were here, with more arriving every minute. Her dad was manning the barbeque they’d moved down from the house. Each time an unsuspecting guest walked by, he’d snag them and proceed to give a five-minute lecture on the proper way to grill salmon. Jenny shook her head. Right now poor Mrs. Murphy was the unlucky recipient of her dad’s unsolicited advice.

Mom stood a little ways off to the side, talking to a group of friends. She’d recently discovered a new sculptor from Vancouver and was convinced he was going to take the art community by storm. Jenny had no doubt he would. If Catherine Beckinsale said it was so, it was so.

Cody stood on the left side of the dock, a group of kids around him. The sketch he’d drawn last night of a sand castle was taped to a stick he’d pushed into the sand. The paper fluttered in the soft breeze as Cody directed the kids on what needed to be done to build the most intricate sand castle Jenny had ever seen. As she watched, the kids dispersed, ran to various spots on the beach, and began scooping sand into their brightly colored buckets.

Maddy, Sharron, and several other girlfriends of Jenny’s had taken up residence in lawn chairs. While babies slept in portable playpens, the women watched their husbands and boyfriends battle it out at the volleyball net. Even Paul was in the mix. And so was the new lawyer he’d hired, Kara, a tall brunette who was as beautiful as she was smart. Both Jenny and Anna knew it was only a matter of time before their brother fell for her. The only question was how long would Paul take. Jenny had laid odds on a month. Anna had shocked her by giving Paul less than a week. An all-expense-paid spa day was the wager. Watching Paul and Kara, Jenny had a feeling she’d be the one who ended up paying. But she didn’t mind. A day at the spa with her sister sounded like heaven—no matter who ended up paying.

The only people who hadn’t been able to make it were Steven’s parents. They were still in Arizona, but Jenny had called them and they’d talked for over an hour. The phone call had been cathartic—exactly what they’d all needed.

The moment Anna reached the picnic table, she set down her potato salad and frowned. It was the same thing she’d done all day. Jenny wasn’t the least surprised when Anna began to once more rearrange all the platters of food. The perfectionist in her just couldn’t help it. Jenny grinned when she saw Phillip walk up behind Anna and scoop her into a hug. Anna squealed and then laughed, her face aglow. And when her husband pulled her away from the table and down to the beach, Anna didn’t make one word of protest.

Jenny marveled at how much her sister had changed in such a short amount of time. Right after their talk on the Fourth of July, Anna had swallowed her pride and fought for what she wanted. She’d called Phillip that same night and asked him to come home. She told him that she needed him and missed him. And that she loved him. Phillip had been on the first available flight. He’d even made it home in time to see Cody pitch in the championship game.

And just like Anna, Jenny was going to fight for what she wanted. For
who
she wanted. Jared had broken her heart as much as he’d healed it. Now it was her turn to show him just how perfect they were for each other. For three weeks she’d been doing everything she could to try to find him. She grew excited when she learned Jared had sent Paul an address, certain that would lead her to him. After telling her brother in no uncertain terms to forget about drafting up those papers, she set out to find Jared. But the address had proven to be a dead end. So she’d gone back to the drawing board, intensifying her efforts. She exhausted every resource she could think of, and when she was just about to throw herself at whatever high-ranking military person she could find and beg them to help her, yesterday a letter from Kenny had arrived. Jared’s squadron had returned to California. Without a moment’s hesitation, Jenny had booked a ticket for a six a.m. flight tomorrow morning.

She felt a flutter of worry. Not about Jared but about what she was going to say to him. All she knew was that she wasn’t going to let him walk away from what they had. She knew he thought he couldn’t be the type of man she wanted because of his past—but he was wrong. And Jenny was going to do everything in her power to prove just that to him, even if it meant leaving Hidden Lake and following him to wherever his job took him. He was more important to her than anything else.

A deep, throaty rumble sounded from the driveway. Jenny smiled—more guests! She set down her vegetable tray and hurried up toward the house to see who it was.

But what she saw brought her to an abrupt halt.

His big black Harley rumbled down the driveway, sunlight glinting off his aviators. As he parked, Jenny soaked up the sight of him. Instead of three weeks, it felt more like three years since she’d last seen him.

He put down the kickstand and swung his long, white-clad leg over the back of the bike. He took off his glasses and ran a hand through black hair. He looked around the yard, and then he spotted her. For a long moment, he just stared at her. And then with those long, purposeful strides that triggered a
thump-thump-thump
of remembrance in her heart, he walked straight toward her. It wasn’t until he was nearly in front of her that she realized he was in full dress whites. God, what a sight.