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Wingman (Elite Ops) by Emmy Curtis (20)

One year later

“Is it true that you and Colonel Conrad are the ones that the textbook talks about, ma’am?” The young man found the page in their textbook and pointed at it.

The other students groaned. “What’s the matter with you?” he shot back at them. “This is all we talk about when we’re at the chow hall. I just thought I’d cut to the chase.” He turned his attention back to Missy. “People say it was you. That you were the ones who used a supersonic boom to fool the enemy that you were about to drop more bombs when you’d actually run out of missiles?”

Missy smiled at Conrad, who was at the back of the class, leaning against the wall, waiting for her to finish for the day. “Does the textbook have our names in it?” she asked with a smile.

“No, ma’am.”

“Then you should probably assume it’s classified, and you shouldn’t—”

“It was totally us,” Conrad butted in. “And the whole thing was Major Conrad’s idea.” He pointed at Missy. “We were out of weapons, we were running low on fuel and didn’t have much maneuverability, and she figured we had one more attempt at forcing them to retreat so our ground troops could regroup.” Missy rolled her eyes as Conrad used his hand as if it were his plane. The students’ eyes were fixed on him. “So, we banked around the mountain and tripped it up to Mach II, and dropped a boom on them that made them think heaven was dropping in on them. They turned around and ran.”

“Awesome,” the young airman said, nodding. The other students grinned.

“Now, don’t you go telling anyone. That’s our secret, right?”

“Yessir!” they chorused. Any time Conrad stopped by on his way to pick up their daughter from the base day care, he always managed to derail her class. “Okay, guys, it’s nearly four, and it’s Friday, so why don’t we pick this up next week?”

The officers looked so damn young to her. “Have a good weekend, and if you’re drinking…”

Everyone joined in with the instructions she always gave them: “Have a plan to get home.”

She nodded. “I’m not giving up my weekend to visit you in the hospital.”

They filed out, leaving her and her husband alone in the classroom.

“It wasn’t my idea; it was yours,” she said, shaking her head.

“No, it wasn’t. It was you. I remember being skeptical that it would work.”

“You and I have very different memories about a lot of things.” She smiled.

“Not everything, though,” he replied.

She stepped up to him as close as she could without actually touching him, which would be horribly unprofessional. “No, not everything.”

He gazed into her eyes with a warmth and an interest that never failed to weaken her knees. From the moment they’d confessed their feelings to each other, it was as if he’d been given permission to get inside her head. He was always asking her opinion on things and figuring out how she felt. It made her feel loved, more than the words, more than the nights they spent trying not to wake Libby up.

She stretched her arms over her head and sighed. “It’s the weekend at last.”

“And I get you all to myself. Well, me and Libby get you all to ourselves. Beach? Barbeque? Movie and some making out?” he said, slowly making his way to the front of the classroom.

“All of the above, please,” she replied, a pure joy rising in her. If she could shoot rainbows out of the top of her head, she would every day. He had given up flying six months before and become the commandant of the intelligence school at MacDill. They shared a beautiful base house overlooking the bay and had slipped into an easy domestic life filled with laughter and wisecracks. And then their daughter had arrived unplanned and desperately adored.

“Come on. Let’s break for the border. Grab Libby and make a run for it,” she said, closing her briefcase.

“How I wish you were being serious,” he replied. “I’d go on the run with you any day of the week. After we retire.”

“It’s a date.”

He opened the classroom door for her, and they both walked slowly into the late afternoon sunshine, toward the childcare building.

Missy’s heart fluttered as it did every day when Conrad picked up her baby. The delight on both their faces made her day complete. Made her life complete.

This was her family. The first she’d ever had. And they were freaking awesome.

As they left the building and headed back to their house, he motioned down to his pocket. “I forgot. I have something for you. Can you…I can’t…” He was holding Libby with both hands.

She dug in his pocket and pulled out its sole content. Two AA batteries. “Wha…ohhhh,” she said with a giggle. She started speed-walking. She shouted over her shoulder. “Hurry up! Don’t make me start without you.”

The image of him holding their daughter, with the grin he gave, slayed her.

“Right behind you, sweetheart.”