He shrugged again. "Just a byproduct of a rapid decompression. The air in your system expands. Now that I'm back at regular pressure, all those air bubbles in my joints are shrinking."
"Does it hurt much?"
"Yesterday's incident wasn't bad." He dismissed it with a wave. "We got on oxygen fast, descended quickly. No sweat."
All that stress and pain from something he claimed was a "simple" in-flight emergency? As if there could be such a thing. What other rigors did flight life put on his body?
"But does it hurt?" she asked, already knowing the answer and not sure why she felt the need to push her point. Perhaps she needed him to reach out to her with more than a smile. Any woman with an ounce of nurturing instinct couldn't resist a man in pain.
Gray flexed his ankle and almost suppressed his wince. "I've treated patients with worse."
Lori blinked through a sting of tears that wouldn't accomplish anything. In fact, tears had landed her in that tender kiss the night before that still tingled along the roots of her hair.
When he'd kissed her, she'd considered pulling him into her house and not letting him go until sunrise. Or maybe until several sunrises. But she'd been too emotional to risk an encounter with Gray, and more than anything, she hated weepy displays.
Admonitions from her parents fluttered through her mind. Dry your eyes, Lorelei, sugar. There's a new adventure right over the next border.
She'd always scrubbed away those tears and tackled the next challenge, a small part of her fearful that if she lagged she would be left behind. She couldn't regret her upbringing, as it had made her stronger and independent—skills that earned her respect in her job, and she loved her job.>She'd heard Gray when he'd said the military was his life, but until now she hadn't really understood.
The transient lifestyle, the edge-of-the-seat action, the battle-forged camaraderie, Gray would never give it up. More important, he couldn't. Even if Gray somehow managed to overcome his resistance to commitment, this really was it for them unless she could find a way to accept his life in the military.
The spray slowed and dripped to a halt. Jostled from behind as people raced past, Lori steadied herself. Gray's parents, other uniformed flyers charged toward the plane. Julia dashed forward. Bottle in her hand, arms waving, she sprinted to her husband.
Gray hefted Magda from his father's shoulders and tossed her in the air. Water dripped down his gorgeous face as he caught her. Hooking her on his hip, Gray scanned the crowd. The party converged around him, in-flight emergencies long forgotten by everyone.
Except for Lori.
She didn't feel much like partying.
Chapter 13
"We need to talk." Gray waited for Lori to answer, but she stayed silent, jamming the key into her front door. Streetlamps threw shadows across her profile, or had he put those there?
Some days sapped the life right out of a guy. Magda lay slack against his shoulder, exhausted from the party. He shifted her more securely and waited for Lori to answer.
The celebration had gone off without a hitch—well attended, lasting hours past the schedule. Magda had won hearts as she taught her new friends a mixed English-Sentavian version of "Old MacDonald."
Lori's perfect smile had charmed his friends. He couldn't complain, except he recognized that smile. He'd invented it, after all.
Lori was upset. No one else had noticed. He couldn't miss it.
The trip to base should have offered her closure, saved her from being hurt when he left so he could shake loose the unrest dogging his heels. Instead he'd done the very thing he'd sworn never to do. He'd started an ulcer gnawing in her stomach just like the one his father had given his mother.
Gray had flown countless incident-free flights. Not today, not when he'd really needed to. A damned popped seal had blown his whole plan, and now he needed to fix it.
For two open, honest people, they'd danced around the real issue long enough, and time was running out. "Lori? Did you hear me?"
She spun to face him as the door swung open behind her. "Okay, fine. Let's talk."
The tight pinch to her full mouth told him clearly he wouldn't get anywhere with her tonight. No need to step straight onto the land mine. He would have his hands full dodging the less obvious ones. "Not now. Not while we're both wired. Not with Magda around."
And not with the moonlight caressing Lori's fragile jaw and glinting off golden streaks in her hair, hair he wanted to bury his face in while he buried himself in her. The open door taunted him with an invitation to Lori's room and peach-scented sheets. "Definitely not here."
"Well, Major Clark, that pretty much rules out all the options because I have a child to put to bed."
The marshy wind toyed with her hair, gusting strands over him. Options dwindled until he finally settled on the one place guaranteed to douse romantic thoughts. "My folks are having my brother, sister and their families over tomorrow for a farewell party."
"I know. Your mother invited me. Twice."