Chapter 1
If you’re hungry, never go to the supermarket. You’ll wind up with a bunch of shit you don’t need. ASK ME HOW I KNOW!
-Text from Piper to Phoebe
Piper
“Gonna miss you, Piper!”
I looked back and waved at the only friend that I’d met, and continued to be able to tolerate, at the German Army base.
Jillian gave me a fist raise and turned on her booted heels, heading back toward the front door where I’d been let off.
I continued through the line of people, making my way to where I was informed to wait.
It didn’t take long, and soon I was sitting in the chair next to the large window that looked out over the tarmac.
I shivered slightly and wrapped my arms around myself, hoping that I didn’t have to wait long.
I was joining a returning troops transport back stateside, and the last thing I wanted to do was sit here any longer than I had to.
Then again, I was told that I was lucky to get the transport back home. Had I had to fly commercial, I’d have been waiting until Monday like the rest of the world, seeing as a hell of a snowstorm had barreled through our part of Germany.
“A rare spring snowstorm,” I’d been informed by not one, not two, but fifteen individuals on the way to the transport this morning.
Honestly, I was glad to be leaving.
As much as I loved the weather here in Germany, I was ready to be home. Even more, I was ready to get my thin Texas blood back to where it was acclimated to one-hundred-degree summers. I was certainly not used to dealing with any type of snowstorms.
Pulling out my phone, I began to read my latest book.
It was nearly an hour later when I was finally called to begin boarding the plane.
I saw what the hold-up was the moment I got on the tarmac and close enough to the plane.
The hold-up being a shirtless, beautifully muscled man working on the plane we were literally in the process of boarding.
“What do you think?” I heard one of the uniformed soldiers ask the shirtless man.
“I think that y’all should’ve done this before we started loading fuckin’ people onto the plane,” shirtless man said.
Shit.
Was there something wrong with the plane?
A flash of foreboding started to fill my limbs, and I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to enjoy the trip home very much.
I hadn’t realized I’d stopped right next to the shirtless man, who happened to be standing half under the plane, with bolts and nuts and all kinds of parts on the ground, until he looked over and spotted me.
That was when I saw his eyes.
He looked familiar, yet I couldn’t place why.
And those eyes seemed to penetrate straight into my soul.
“Don’t worry,” he said teasingly. “I’ll make sure to put it all back together. May take a little duct tape, though.”
His joke fell flat when I felt my stomach drop out.
I wasn’t a good flyer.
In fact, on the flight over here, I’d had to take my valium and say a few thousand prayers.
The fact that he was teasing about us dying was not a good thing for me.
Especially since my anxiety was already through the roof, and I hadn’t had time to get a prescription for valium before having to be on the flight.
There was an emergency at home, and though I was already set to leave in four days, my CO—commanding officer—had given me permission to leave early. I’d taken him up on it. The only problem was that came with no medication.
So not only was I freaking out about my emergency back home, I was now freaking out about the fact that this man didn’t know what in the hell he was doing.
Instead of saying a word to him, I chose to board the plane, taking the only seat available, which was scrunched in between a large man that took up a lot more room than he was allotted due to the breadth of his shoulders, and a large box that sat on another seat next to the wall.
Buckling myself in and stowing my gear underneath the seat, I closed my eyes, crossed my arms, and prayed that I wouldn’t die on the way home.
***
Jonah
“That was just wrong,” Hammer said.
I shrugged and said, “You find me a new shirt yet?”
The last one that I’d had on got caught on a bolt, and not only had it ripped the shirt, but it’d also ripped my skin.
After bleeding like a stuck pig, I managed to get the blood flow stopped, a Band-Aid applied, and the problem on the plane fixed. Now I was putting it all back together.
“I have one being brought out to you,” Hammer said. “That girl looked like she was about to puke.”
I hadn’t noticed.
What I had noticed was that she had brilliant green eyes, a head full of blonde hair that was most certainly not put up in the regulation bun, and the way her jeans hugged her thighs.