Tony Colorosa spouted off about his date the night before as he walked around his first love—the pretty Bell 412 chopper—and did the pre-flight check. John Maitland rolled his eyes from his place at the hatch while he inventoried the med kits stowed in the overhead compartments. Twenty feet away, at the north side of the hangar where a small, impromptu meeting area had been set up, Jake Madigan unrolled a laminated terrain map and pinned it to a wallboard.
Buzz sat at the makeshift desk in the glassed-in office and stared unseeingly down at the chopper maintenance reports in front of him. It was the fourth or fifth time he’d had to start reading the same report, and already he’d forgotten what he’d read. He wanted to believe his lack of concentration was because of the lingering pain in his shoulder. He wanted to blame it on the pain killers the doctor had prescribed. But he knew neither of those things had a damn thing to do with his concentration. First, he hadn’t taken any of the pain medication for almost a week. Second, he was honest enough with himself to admit his inability to concentrate had more to do with a pretty brunette with dark eyes and the kind of smile a man never quite got over. If Buzz figured right, she was on her way to the airport about now.
Yeah, so much for concentration.
He told himself he could handle living without her. As long as she was happy. As long as Eddie was happy. That was all that really mattered. He had his work here and the cabin. Of course, she would have to tolerate him on occasion because there was no way in hell he was going to let Eddie grow up without knowing his father. He didn’t give a damn what that pencil-neck Quelhort had to say about it.
Two weeks had passed since that last day on the mountain. Buzz didn’t want to admit it, but already he could feel her disappearing, as if a little piece of him had been cut out every day he didn’t see her, and an open wound had been left to bleed out.
As much as he hated to admit it, he missed her, damn it. He missed Eddie. Two facts that ticked him off almost as much as they hurt.
Cursing, he threw the pen across the room. He looked up in time to see Colorosa and Maitland standing at the doorway, exchanging knowing glances. The two men pretended not to have noticed the pen caper, but Buzz figured his team had already figured out what was going on with their surly team leader.
Hell, what a mess.
“Can I help you ladies?” Scowling at the two men, he walked around the desk and was in the process of picking up the pen when he heard the outer hangar door open. Straightening, he looked through the glass partition to see an all-too-familiar female figure silhouetted against the bright sunlight beyond—and felt his knees go weak. Next to her the smaller figure of a boy strained to extricate his hand from his mother’s.
Kelly stood motionless for a moment, and in less than two seconds all activity in the hangar screeched to a halt as five sets of male eyes darted toward the hangar door. The tension broke when Eddie, wearing blue jeans, a Captain Kudos T-shirt and his RMSAR cap, darted into the hangar and blinked the sunlight from his eyes.
“Mommy, look! There’s the chopter! Can I go see it?” Even as he asked for permission, he sprinted toward the behemoth craft. “Flyboy! Can I sit in the pilot’s seat again?”
“How’s it going, sport?” came Colorosa’s voice as he started toward the boy.
Buzz frowned when Colorosa cast him a glance over his shoulder, moving his brows up and down like Groucho Marx. Maitland combed a hand through his hair and ducked quietly out of the office.
Idiots, Buzz thought, and braced for what he figured was going to be a very difficult goodbye.
Why couldn’t she have come by his cabin so they could have a little privacy, for God’s sake? How was he supposed to say goodbye to his son with his entire team watching? How was he supposed to let the only woman he’d ever loved walk out that door without making a damn fool of himself by dropping to his knees and begging her to stay?
Vaguely, he was aware of Kelly approaching the chopper and talking briefly to Colorosa. He saw Tony point toward the office where Buzz stood. Kelly looked over at him, and his mouth went dust-dry. He told himself it wasn’t nerves that had his heart pounding, his palms slicking with sweat. But damn it, there were certain things a man liked to do without an audience.
Buzz watched her approach, trying not to notice the subtle sway of her hips or the habit she had of opening and closing her hands when she was nervous. He loved the way she walked. Loved the way her hair fell over her shoulders. She smiled when she got close enough for him to see her face, but he could plainly see the nerves behind it. Damn, this was going to be tough.