Life was good.

Felicia Parks smiled to herself as she reached into the large cage in the back of the vet office to scratch behind the ears of the momma cat, happily nursing her five, week-old kittens all nestled in a pile on her belly. “You’re such a good momma.”

The big, mottled, brown tortie erupted with loud purrs at Felicia’s words.

Her smile widened. This was quite a change in attitude for the stray who’d been brought into the clinic two weeks ago. Back then, the cat would hiss and scratch, leaving her hands and arms bloody.

Her cell phone, tucked into the back pocket of her scrubs, vibrated. She pulled it out, grinning even wider at the name on the screen. She answered, “You’re not calling to cancel, are you?”

“No way in hell,” Steven’s low voice growled. “I have big plans for you tonight.” His sexy tone sent shivers down her spine. “I just wanted to call and make sure there hadn’t been any emergencies today at the clinic to prevent us from going out.”

She closed and locked the momma cat’s cage and did a cursory check of the rest of the clinic’s charges down the row of kennels. Everyone was calm and secure for the evening.

“No, it’s been a quiet day.” They’d been dating for just over six months, and Steven Hardesty had never once complained when she cancelled at the last minute, which happened way more often than she would have liked.

As a general rule, veterinary medicine was less demanding than other medical careers, but since Felicia ran the Valley View vet clinic as the sole veterinarian, emergencies had trumped her social life and had cost her more than one relationship.

Steven was different, though. He supported her and her conviction to her practice. Her stomach erupted with tiny butterflies at what that meant for them. She was forty-two years old. Had she finally found The One? Only time would tell, but after six months, she was beginning to think so.

“Good.” He sounded relieved. “See? Fate is on my side tonight. It’s meant to be.”

Her heart clutched at that word. Fate. She didn’t believe in fate. Not anymore.

But she wasn’t going to think about her history with that word tonight, not when he had been acting so mysterious about this night for weeks.

It’s meant to be. Another flurry of butterflies took off in her stomach as she contemplated what exactly he could mean by that.

“You haven’t had any more trouble, have you?” he asked.

“No. Everything’s fine. I’m sure it was just some kids out pranking.” Two nights before, someone had let all the air out of the tires on her truck. Annoying, but minor in the grand scheme of life.

She glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’d ask for more details about tonight, but you’re going to be here in forty-five minutes, and I’m in danger of running late if we don’t get off the phone, so you get a reprieve...temporarily.”

He chuckled low. “It doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t tell you, anyway. Tonight’s special, and part of that is the anticipation. I’ll be there at six. I can’t wait to see you, gorgeous.”

“I can’t wait, either. See you in a little bit, Steven.” She grabbed her purse off the desk in her office, flipped off the clinic lights, and let herself out of the back door.

At times, she wondered about her choice to live in the small, adobe house behind the clinic just because it made her too readily available to work at any time. But on nights like this when she just had to cross the parking lot and go a few feet up the stone path to her home, it was a relief.

She had forty-five minutes to transform from her ponytail and fur-covered scrubs into a femme fatale sex goddess for their evening out.

She laughed out loud.

Who was she kidding? She’d be good if she simply looked like a real girl again. Feminine had never been her forte, at least not in a long, long time. But she wasn’t going to think about those early medical school days tonight. No, tonight was about her future. A future that she had a feeling was wound up wholly in Steven Hardesty, a major in the U.S. Air Force.

***

GAGE WINSTON CLAMPED his teeth together in an effort to get things under control as he drove up to the main gate of Vandeman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Yelling at his upset, seventeen-year-old daughter on the phone as she followed in the car behind him wouldn’t make any of this better.

He glanced at the Bluetooth system display on the dashboard of his son’s truck. “London, sweetie.” He used his most soothing voice. “I need you to calm down.”

Her sobs rang out over the speakers. “Dad, something’s really wrong with Ralph.”

Gage glanced at his rearview mirror. The twins and their golden retriever, Ralph, followed behind him in London’s car.

“Aww, Dad.” Austin’s voice joined in, disgust ringing through it. “He’s horking again. Oh god, roll down the windows, London. I’m going to be sick.”

He’d picked the twins and their dog in Georgia and had just arrived at their new home at Vandeman Air Force Base, New Mexico. His car had been ordered from his last base in Japan six weeks ago. He should have his new Jeep waiting for him to pick up sometime this week.

If he made it through this day.

The big gate of Vandeman loomed in the distance. “Kids.” He raised his voice over the cacophony of noise coming from the other car. “Let me get us through the gate and to the house. The wing commander and vice are supposed to be meeting us there. They should know where we can get to a vet, but you have to get through this gate calmly. Got it?”

The last thing he needed was his upset teenagers freaking out some young airman manning the gate with an M-4 strapped to his chest.

Murmurs of disgruntled acquiescence filtered through the sound system before London disconnected the call. Gage took a deep breath, his nerves more frayed than they’d been when he crashed his F-16 after an engine failure last year. This was not the way he’d imagined rolling through the gate of his new wing. As the incoming wing commander, it definitely wasn’t the first impression he’d hoped for.

He took another deep breath as he slowed and rolled down his window to greet the base gate guard. “Good evening, Sergeant.” He handed over his military ID. The young man’s eyes widened as he examined the information and saluted. “Welcome to Vandeman, Colonel Winston. We’ve been looking forward to your arrival.”

“Thanks. My kids are in the car behind me and their dog is sick. Can you wave them through quickly?”

“Absolutely, sir. My wife has a cat that gets carsick. I get it. Nothing makes a PCS more miserable than traveling with a sick pet.”

“Thank you.” Gage slowly pulled away from the gate, watching the rearview mirror as the guard quickly waved the kids’ car through.

Gage hadn’t been to Vandeman in a few years, but he had familiarized himself with the directions to the wing commander’s house. Luckily, base housing wasn’t too far away from the front gate.

Within five minutes, they pulled up to the front of the large house with a circle drive. Two cars were parked on the street out front, including the distinctive wing commander’s blue sedan with a white roof. The drive had been left empty, so he pulled into it. The twins pulled in right behind him.

He’d barely opened the truck door before the front door of the house opened and three people spilled out, two men wearing Air Force flight suits and a woman in jeans with a tailored jacket...her look casual but still very stylish.

He smiled at Colonel Robert Heller and his wife, Midge. The other man had to be Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel Carter, his new, vice wing commander.

He knew the current wing commander, Robert, from their days as lieutenants when they’d served together for a couple of years at a couple of different assignments. That had been before Midge had come on the scene. He’d never met her, but since it had been announced that Gage would be taking over as the wing commander for Vandeman, they’d been in communication about the twins and the local schools and area amenities available to them. Not that those lists had done anything to convince the twins that they wanted to be here.

Now, all three members of the welcoming committee appeared a bit concerned about the ruckus coming from the twins’ car.

Before Gage had a chance to say anything to their greeting party, London ran over and grabbed onto his arm. “Come on. You have to help Ralph.” Her tears of panic had left smudged lines of black mascara down her face.

Midge turned to him with wide eyes and a frown of worry. “What’s going on?”

Gage smiled apologetically at her and the two men standing with her. “I’m sorry. The kids’ dog didn’t take the mountain descent well. He’s been sick all the way down. I know this isn’t the way...but...I’m so sorry.”

There was a certain protocol to these things that Gage had been trained about for his entire career in the Air Force, but his frantic teen didn’t care one bit. And why should she? She hadn’t lived with him since she was two. She had no idea how the military worked.

London continued to pull on his arm.

“Just let me go check the dog,” he said to them apologetically.

The greeting committee nodded, and Midge said, “Of course. Your kids and their welfare are more important. Greetings can wait. Go take care of them, Gage.”

He jogged over with London to the car. Austin looked up at him with terrified eyes from where he sat in the back with Ralph. The golden retriever had foam dripping out of his mouth as he panted, his eyes glazed in a drugged looking state.

“Oh, hell,” Gage muttered, panic zinging down his spine. Carsickness wouldn’t cause his mouth to foam like that, would it? If their dog died, the twins would never forgive him. “Hang on, kids. Let me go find out where we can find a vet in town.”

He swung around to the group hovering behind him. “I’m sorry. This looks bad. I can’t...” He waved to the kids. “I have to take care of the dog. I think this is more than just carsickness. It looks like maybe he got into something poisonous when we went hiking in Snowcroft.”

London hiccupped out a sob that made Gage wince. Hell. He should know better than saying things like that in front of his emotional daughter.

But Gage just barreled on. “Is there a good vet in town that you know of?”

Carter nodded. “Yes, the doc up at Valley View is incredible. She lives on the premises, so she’s the best for emergencies, and you can trust she’ll keep an eye on urgent cases through the night.”

Gage nodded his head enthusiastically. “That sounds perfect. Where is the clinic?”

“Go back into town just the way you came through. Follow the bypass on Valley View until you get to the space center. After the rocket, you’ll see the clinic.”

“Okay. Valley View, right?” That sounded vaguely familiar, but he shoved the thought aside.

Carter nodded. “I’ll call ahead and let the vet know you’re coming, so she’ll be watching for you.”

Gage grabbed the driver’s door and motioned for London to get into the car on the other side. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Call us, and let us know how he is.”

Gage nodded and jumped into the car, praying the entire time.