Keeping Gemma (Holiday Cove 2)

I forced a weak smile. “Hey, hey, Holls, no tears. I’m okay.” Jack lifted a brow. “Well okay, I was gutted like a fish, but other than that…tip-top.”

“Player…” Jack knew me well enough to have a permanent bullshit detector on me at all times.

My facade crumbled and I clenched my jaw to keep my own emotions in check. “I’ll be all right.”

“What happened?” Jack asked. He—more than anyone—knew how good of a pilot I was. I could only imagine him on the flight from Germany running through every possible scenario. “I hate to ask this. I know you man, but were you drunk?”

“Boomer, what kind of shit is that? You know I’d never get in the cockpit drunk. Seriously? Fuck, man.” I scoffed. I couldn’t believe he’d just asked me that.

“I know. But I had to ask. Do you think it was just a plane malfunction?”

“I wish I knew. It all happened so fast. Fuck, we were barely on takeoff. I lost all power. Like bam! And there it was.”

Jack waited, silently prompting me to continue. All I could do was offer a shrug. Of course I’d run through it myself. Probably a million times since waking up in the hospital. But I was no closer to getting an answer for myself than I had been in those final moments before the crash with all the lights and warnings flashing at me.

“I don’t know, Boomer. It went to hell, no thrust, no engine, nothing. I couldn’t even steer the motherfucker. Sorry, Holly.”

She nodded. I usually wasn’t so crass in front of the ladies.

“Why were you even up there at night by yourself?” Jack asked, his brows still high. “I mean, did anyone even know you were going up? Come on, Player, I know you. You wouldn’t have—”

“Boomer, back off about it, okay?” Jack’s mouth snapped shut at my harsh tone and guilt rolled over me. I knew he wasn’t trying to point fingers, but everything he said irritated me like nails on a chalkboard.

“Do you need anything?” Holly asked, looking from her boyfriend to me and then back again. “We came straight here from the airport. We could go see Carly and get you some goodies?”

I gave her my best smile. “That would be great.”

She ran a hand over my shoulder and smiled back at me, her eyes still watery. “Okay. You got it. I’m sure she’ll come up to visit you as soon as she closes up for the day.”

I nodded.

“You go ahead, honey, I’ll be right there,” Jack said as Holly started for the door.

She nodded, but not without a warning glance at Jack. Her meaning clear. Be nice.

I really did smile that time.

“Come on, man. How are you? Really?”

I closed my eyes and exhaled. Boomer was my best friend, my brother, my battle buddy. But he could also be a major pain in the ass.

“I got a shit ton of stitches keeping my guts inside my body. My wrist is busted. They got me hooked up to all these fuckin’ machines. How do you think I am?”

Jack looked toward the empty doorway and then back at me, a flicker of something in his eyes. “What about the girl? The news said you were…with someone.”

I dropped my eyes to the thin cover on top of me. I couldn’t hold Jack’s gaze. Not when my insides tossed and rumbled as the thoughts I’d been pressing against all day came bursting forth again. It was like bracing a door closed against a monster. I’d held it for so long, and then, at the slightest release, it flew open and the beast that had been waiting on the other side came roaring back.

“Talia—” I croaked.

“Who is she?”

“It’s a long story, Boomer. She didn’t make it.”

Jack swore under his breath. “Shit, I’m sorry man.” He rubbed a hand on my shoulder and I grimaced at the impact.

“Yeah.”

A long, tense silence stretched between us. I didn’t have anything else to say, and although I would have bet anything Jack had a million questions he wanted to ask—he kept quiet.

Thankfully, Gemma came sweeping into the room with the pretty smile I’d become used to. “Knock, knock. How’s my patient?” She had her eyes locked on me but they briefly flicked to Jack and she stopped in her tracks. “Oh my God! You’re Jack McGuire.”

After Boomer returned home, his name and face had been splashed all over the news, detailing his firsthand account of what had happened in the Middle East when his fighter jet had been shot down, leaving him stranded in hostile territory, until he’d commandeered an enemy plane and taken out a secret cell of terrorists in the mountainside. The entire thing had been all the rage for a few months. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to be recognized on the street, and he handled it with ease.