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She stood so she was at eye level with Bryce. “Hey, Bryce, can I tell you a secret?”
As Aaron tugged the boa constrictor that was Bryce from around his neck, Sarah held out her arms. Bryce inched toward her with the tip of his finger in his mouth. Tears glistened in eyes that struggled to trust and to understand.
Pulling Bryce close so Aaron could make his escape, Sarah cupped her hand around Bryce’s ear. “Want to help me make a project for your daddy while he’s at work?” she whispered.
An instant smile lit his face. She could imagine any brighter would have caused the room lights to flicker. The kid’s grin pulled a lot of juice. She hoped to see it more often. She’d prayed for God to help the boys adjust and cope with Aaron leaving for work. Thank You for answering.
“Yes,” he said. His dimples reemerged.
“It’ll be fun. I promise.”
“What?” Braden approached.
“Come here,” Sarah said.
“I want to tell him!” Bryce leaned toward Braden and whispered.
Braden jumped up and down. “I know a surprise! I know a surprise!”
“Shh.” Sarah held a finger to her mouth and gave Braden and Bryce exaggerated winks. “It’s a secret plan.”
Mina reentered. After a brief exchange of conversation with Aaron that he initiated in tones Sarah couldn’t hear, Aaron stepped toward the foyer. “See you later, boys. Ladies.” He tipped his head at them and cast Sarah an expression of gratitude. The door closed behind him.
With a quick smile, Mina eyed her watch, slipped from the room and disappeared somewhere.
Sarah settled near the boys. “I’m so excited we get to make a project for your dad while he’s gone.” The more craft items she pulled from her backpack, the wider the boys’ eyes grew. Glitter glue. Bendable pipe cleaners in every color. Scissors with differently shaped blades. Foam shapes. Washable markers and stencils.
“This is gonna be fun!” Braden exclaimed.
“Yeah,” Bryce added with more exuberance than she’d seen before.
Good. Seemed she was winning over the hearts of the little guys. Her eyes veered toward the window, where Aaron’s truck left the long, barren driveway.
What about the big guy?
What a way to win hearts. Coloring pages and crayons. A nanny’s staple.
Now he knew what she kept in that bulky backpack. She’d brought projects and toys for the boys.
“Smooth move, lady. I like you already,” he said appreciatively and eyed his house through his SUV’s rearview mirror.
Aaron had fed the boys an extra healthy meal and, as usual, had foregone any sweets this morning. So they wouldn’t be grumpy from low blood sugar today with Sarah.
Remembering Bryce’s tears tugged and tore at his heart. But Sarah had come to his rescue. Without her help, Aaron had no idea how he would have gone on to work. Unintentional or not, kids knew how to slather on the guilt.
Ten minutes later he pulled into the parking lot of the Refuge drop zone. Joel’s Expedition already sat in the lot beside the rest of the team’s vehicles. Aaron must be the last to show.
Once inside the massive brick-fronted pole barn structure, Aaron pulled Joel and Manny Peña aside. “Hey, be in prayer about this. I know there is a lot riding on whether I can come back to active duty now or not. I found a nanny who I think will work out so I can.”
“Same one you mentioned before?” Joel asked.
Aaron nodded and motioned over the rest of the seven-man team, mostly to avoid Joel’s overly curious undertones.
Scrapes sounded as Manny turned a chair around and sat, straddling it. “So, we going forward with the plans Refuge city hall asked us to participate in to try to boost the town’s morale? It really took a nosedive when the bridge collapsed.”
“Yes.” Aaron said. “We’ll move forward in the planning stages of the water and rope safety classes as well as the wind tunnel idea.”
“But, in order to do that, you need to bring more PJs to the area, right?” And in order to do that, he had to return to duty full-time.
Aaron nodded. “The nanny is with the boys now. She’s agreeable to signing on for an extended time.”
Manny shifted in his chair. “You sound hesitant, Aaron. We understand that you need to put your boys first.”
Aaron shook his head. “It’s not that I don’t think she’s safe or anything. It’s just that she’s drastically younger than other nannies who’ve applied.” He felt himself blush. By the looks of the team’s sharpening gazes as they crowded around, they noticed, too. Aaron wasn’t trying to be sexist and he hoped his hesitation with offering her the job didn’t seem discriminatory. “Truthfully my mind may just be scrambling for excuses because I feel guilty returning to work.”
Not only was he uncomfortably taken aback by her zest and beauty…“My main concern is she’ll want to start a family of her own sooner than she thinks. Then I’d be out of a live-in nanny. And the boys would have to get used to another stranger coming in and caring for them when it should be—”
Their mom. Aaron clamped shut his mouth but the respect and compassion streaming from the eyes of his men let him know their minds also finished out his thought. None of the men had blamed him when he’d pulled out of the dangers of Pararescue to care for his infant twins when their mother had died.
“Anyway, she’s willing to sign a legal document stating she won’t have another commitment during our contract that will interfere with her priority.”
“So it’s all good, right?” Manny asked.
“You’d think.” You’d also think that if he was looking for someone with no other commitments he’d want someone younger, as they’d be less likely to be attached to their own family. “But it perplexes and saddens me that a young, beautiful single woman doesn’t feel she has a future in sight as far as her own family.” Adorna, the agency owner, had mentioned that to Aaron; Sarah had alluded to it in conversation as well.
“Young?” Chance’s head whipped around.
“Beautiful?” Brock sat straighter.
Vince stepped closer. “Single?”
“So,” Brock said, “when can we meet her?”
Aaron pumped the air with his palms. “Whoa. Down, boys. She’s a respectable girl. A devoted Christian. Not your type.”
“What about your type, Petrowski?” Vince folded massive arms across his black T-shirt-covered chest. And smirked.
Aaron shook his head. “As I said, she’s young.”
“You’re not exactly a dinosaur, Chief,” Chance said.
Manny waved a vague hand in the air. “Yeah, age is a matter of the mind. Long as you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
“Long as she’s legal,” Vince said. “She legal?”
Aaron shot him a withering look. “She’s legal. And off-limits. To all of us. Especially you. End of story.”
“So, back to the business at hand.” Joel rested his forearms on the tabletop.
Pivoting, Aaron faced the rest of the guys. “Here’s the plan. I’ll contact the other PJs I command. See who’s willing to transfer to Refuge Air Base. That way we’re not putting the community programs totally on a back burner when conducting regular pararescue trainings and in the event of being away on missions. Once I get all three teams here, we’ll rotate so that one team will always be in Refuge to man the community projects while another team is on training ops, which leaves the third team for emergency missions. My other two teams haven’t been together as long as you guys. Regardless, my bet is they’ll jump at the chance to have a stationary base of operations. You guys are somewhat of an icon to them. Most of them are fresh, just out of Pararescue and don’t yet have families.”
“So no baggage?” Vince said.
Manny jabbed his arm. “Hey. Watch it. I don’t consider my family baggage.”
Joel straightened. “Me neither. And you’d better hope Celia doesn’t get wind of you calling her a bag.” His mouth twitched.
“Yeah, she’ll slug you, then laugh about it,” Nolan said.
Ben snickered.
Aaron eyed his watch and cleared his throat.
The room straightened up and misconduct ceased.
Aaron grinned inside. He still had it.
Though he hadn’t been in the picture much the past few years, they still respected his authority. The teasing and razzing could be relentless, but these guys wore respect for their superiors as proudly as their crisp maroon berets.
Hard-core honor, uncommon valor and selfless bravery defined every one of them. They’d throw themselves in front of a bullet if it raced toward their teammates or their leaders. Aaron knew that was mostly because the guys knew he and Joel would do the same for them.
Aaron pressed his hands on the table. “I’ll contact non-Refuge team members one or a few at a time, have them check out the facility and observe the programs we’re instituting. Decide if they want to transfer. Until then, move forward with objectives we mapped out in the last meeting with city officials.”
“So in short, proceed as planned?” Joel asked.
“Yes.” Aaron eyed his watch. “I have another errand to run. We still on for Saturday evening at your place, Joel?”
“Need you ask?” Chance grinned. “Dude always has us over on weekends.”
Joel rose. “Yep. Same time. Same place. Cookout, my house. Six o’clock.”
“What about when you and Amber go overseas?” Nolan asked. “We’d feel weird meeting and greeting at your place without you there.”
“Not to mention Joel’s having renovations done to add bedrooms for all the kids they want to adopt,” Manny said.
Joel rose. “I’m sure you guys will find an alternate place to meet while we’re gone. Until then, we’re on for every weekend like usual. As always, everyone bring a side dish and a two-liter of soda. We’ll take care of the meat.”
“Okay. See you at six on Saturday,” Aaron said, wishing he hadn’t let his yard go. If he got it cleaned up, he could have the guys over. Plenty of space and stuff for kids to do.
The group started dispersing.
“Yo, Petrowski. You should invite the new nanny.” Brock smirked all the way to the counter, where Vince grabbed his motorcycle helmet.
“She’s not the new nanny yet, Brock.” He turned to go. “But if I do decide to get a wild hair and invite her, mouths shut. Eyes and minds off. Do I make myself clear?”
“What about hands?” Vince asked in baiting undertones.
“You so much as think about touching her, even accidentally, you’ll lose flesh courtesy of my favorite lethal weapon, Reardon. You hear?”
“Yeah. Loud and fifty-caliber clear.” Uncharacteristic humor resided in the tall PJ’s normally brooding eyes.
Brock grinned. “We get it. You just want her for yourself.”
Aaron laughed because a smile danced in Brock’s eyes when he said it. But as Brock’s declaration rang in his head, heat flashed under his skydiving jumpsuit collar.
Teasing subdued, the guys triggered fully-loaded looks at one another in semiautomatic sequence.
Aaron didn’t have to wonder why.
They’d all tried to set him up numerous times in the past several months. Manny’s fiery, outspoken wife, Celia, known for aggressive matchmaking, had gone as far as telling him Donna wasn’t coming out of the casket so he should get his heart off its broken duff and date.
But he’d always adamantly repelled their attempts at steering him toward another romance.
He didn’t want to ponder why he didn’t feel so inclined to strenuously resist, evade or negate their efforts this time.
Chapter Five
After overseeing PJ training a week later, Aaron cleaned up in the DZ shower hall and headed to Mayberry Market on his way home. Moments later, he wheeled the buggy to the meat section. An idea struck. He punched in his home number. “Yeah, Mina? Ask Sarah if she has plans for dinner. Tell her I’m asking.”
After what sounded like a scuffle, Mina came back on the phone, a little more breathless than before.
“Everything all right there?” Aaron asked.
Female shrieking sounded in the background.
Aaron paused his cart. “Please tell me the boys don’t have her locked in the coat closet.”
Mina laughed. “No, no. We’re playing hide and seek. Sarah has no plans for dinner. I tol’ her you invited her to stay and she said yes!”
“You sound entirely too enthused about this, Mina.” And the fact that her excitement caused her accent to thicken both clued in and amused him.
Aaron bit back a chuckle at another female shriek and the sound of his twins’ exuberant laughter.
“I have to go! Must move tables and chairs back before you get home, then I’ll cook for us, something nice, okay?”
Move the tables and chairs back? Never mind. He didn’t want to know.
“Mina, listen, don’t cook. You’ve worked overtime as it is lately with the boys. Take the night off and simply enjoy dinner on me.”
“You serious?”
“You bet.”
“Ah, you grilling I hope?”
“Planned on it.”
“Chicken? Shrimp? Steak? What?”
