Breaking point, p.13
Breaking Point, page 13
Her pulse sped, and her feet didn’t drag. Hell, she felt almost giddy with anticipation.
When the last customer left, John still sat at the bar.
Collette carried one last tray of mugs to the bar and slid them across to Red.
The bartender tipped her head toward John seated at the other end of the bar. “Blade said Tank had a girl.” Her lips twisted in a smile. “He didn’t say it was you.”
Collette unloaded the tray, stealing glimpses of the man in the process, her chest swelling with warmth at Red’s words. “Blade said that?”
“I didn’t get the whole story, just the digest version. The guys gave Tank hell about it.”
Collette’s heart sank into her shoes. “Do they think I’m not good enough for him?”
Red laughed. “No. Not at all. They take advantage of every chance they can get to poke fun at each other. They’re actually thrilled the old man of the unit is involved with someone. They think highly of Tank and wish him only the best.” She chuckled. “They just show it in peculiar ways.” Red touched her hand. “I’m happy for you both.”
Collette didn’t tell Red that it was news to her that she was Tank’s girl. Tank hadn’t made any declarations or asked her if she wanted to be in a relationship. Shouldn’t she be consulted on such a personal commitment? She stared across the bar at the man who’d waited patiently for her to finish her job and had difficulty stirring up enough anger to chew him out for announcing they were a thing to his friends.
Strangely, she felt warm and fuzzy inside instead of mad. Still, he couldn’t go around telling his friends he had a girlfriend before he told her.
After the floor had been swept and mopped and the tables cleaned, the chairs set to rights, Sarge declared it was time to call it a night.
Collette gathered her purse and headed for the door.
John fell in step with her, walking her all the way to her car, ducking to peer inside the window to make sure no one had stowed away in her back seat.
When he reached out to pull her into his arms, Collette planted a hand on his chest, holding him off.
He frowned. “Is something wrong?”
“I’d say so,” she shot back at him. “Red said you told your buddies you have a girl. Do I know this girl?”
Tank ground out, “Blade has a big mouth.”
“So, it’s true?” Collette shook her head.
“Yes and no.” John pushed a hand through his hair and stared out at the night.
Collette crossed her arms over her chest. “Which part is yes, and which is no?” Like his buddies, she was going to give him hell. She almost felt sorry for him.
“Yes, my friends can’t keep their mouths shut, and no, I didn’t tell them that I had a girl. And it’s woman. Not girl. You’re not a girl.”
Her heart swelled. At least she was the woman he supposedly had. “Isn’t it customary to notify the woman when she’s considered someone’s woman?” Collette demanded.
John shoved his hand through his hair one more time, looked to the night sky as if for inspiration, and then let his arms fall to his sides. “I made the mistake of admitting I was falling for someone. Rucker was the one to say I had a woman. News like that spreads like wildfire through a team. I couldn’t convince them otherwise after that. All I said was I think I’m falling for someone.” His voice softened, and his hands reached for hers. “You might be the last one to know, when you should have been the first. I was having a moment of confusion and needed clarity. I needed to talk to someone, and the guys—though they can be assholes—are always there to listen.”
Collette didn’t hear anything past his confession that he was falling for someone. Her chest tightened and butterflies erupted in her belly. “Why didn’t you talk to me?”
“You didn’t want a relationship.”
“Neither did you.” She squeezed his hands. “And yet, here we are. Two people who aren’t in positions to commit—”
“Who seem destined to be together,” John concluded. “I didn’t want to screw it up and scare you away by saying anything so soon.”
“Am I that difficult?” she asked.
“No. You’re determined and driven.” He pulled her into his arms. “I don’t want to get in your way or derail you from succeeding.”
“And I don’t think I can wait four years for you to retire so we can be together.”
“Deltas deploy,” John said. “I might not be around much in the next four years.”
Collette lifted his hand to press it against her cheek. “A wise woman once told me that if you want something badly enough, you make time for it. She also said that you have to grab for the joy in life. No one’s going to hand it to you.” She looked into his eyes, the glow of the streetlights reflecting in their dark depths. “When were you going to tell me how you felt?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t have a plan. I was going to play it by ear. After all, we haven’t known each other very long. I wanted to give you time to get used to the idea of us.”
Collette chuckled. “Considering you fill my night and day dreams, I’d say I’m getting bombarded by the idea of us, to the point I can’t focus on school.”
John’s fingers tightened around hers. “And that’s exactly what I didn’t want to happen. Your training is important to you and Hope. I don’t want to be the one to distract you to the point you fail.” He shook his head. “I never should’ve said anything to anyone. The time isn’t right. You need your space and a clear mind. Forget what Red said. Forget that I’m falling for you. You do what you have to. I’ll leave you alone.” He tried to pull free of her grasp.
Collette wouldn’t let go of his hands. “It’s too late.”
“Too late.” His eyebrows formed a V over his nose.
“I know. You can’t take it back, and I can’t forget.” She moved closer, raising his hand to her cheek again. “Nor do I want to forget. I didn’t want to get involved with anyone. Not now. But we don’t always get to choose when we will find that person who makes our heart sing. And, trust me, I didn’t think I’d ever find him—until a certain Delta Force soldier moved his camp trailer into the park beside me and saved my daughter from a gang of druggies. I’m not sure what I’m feeling is love, but my chest aches when I’m not with you, and I think about you every hour of every day. If that’s not the beginnings of love, it might be a terminal disease I won’t recover from.”
He raised her hands to his lips and kissed the backs of her knuckles. Then he pulled her into his arms. “For the record, I think I’m falling in love with you, Collette McCallick. You might not be the first one I told, but you’re the only one who counts.”
She leaned up on her toes and brushed his lips with hers. “And I might be falling for you, John Sanders. And you’re right…we need to give ourselves time to get used to the idea of us. And to give Hope time as well. We may discover we’re better as just friends.”
John was already shaking his head before she finished her words. “Not just friends. I want you more than I’ve wanted any friend. I want to share sunsets with you for the rest of my life.”
Collette laced her hands behind his neck and pulled him down to kiss her. “Shut up, soldier, and kiss me already.”
He did, stealing her breath away in the process.
When she finally came up for air, she swayed against him. “You realize we’re still in the parking lot, don’t you?”
He nodded. “We should get you home. Hope will be asleep before you get there.”
Collette nodded. “I’m not ready to tell her anything yet. Does that bother you?”
John shook his head. “No. Until we know exactly what we’re dealing with and where we want to take this, we should keep it on the down low.”
“Except for your team?” Collette said with a twisted smile.
“Except for those dumbasses.” He shook his head. “They mean well, but sometimes, I want to punch them in their throats.”
“If they hadn’t said anything, we’d still be bumbling through the motions.”
John stared down into her eyes, his own so intense. “Do you have any doubt we’d have figured it out?”
Collette shook her head. “No. But we would’ve wasted so much time in denial. At least, now, we can move forward and see if this works.”
John waited for her to get into her car and start it before he got in his truck.
Collette led the way back to the trailer park, her heart so light and full of hope, she barely felt the ache in her feet.
She was John’s woman and, if she wanted, he was her man.
A giddy feeling filled her chest.
They kissed again before she went to her trailer, and he went to his camper. With an impressionable teen in the house, Collette didn’t feel right about John moving in with them. If things progressed to permanence, they’d cross that bridge when they came to it.
In the meantime, Collette needed sleep. She had chores to catch up on the next day and another hard night serving at the Salty Dog.
It was strange to go back to her old routine when that day had meant so much more.
There was nothing like a strong dose of reality to bring her back to ground. Hopefully, she and John would be able to sneak a little alone time together that weekend. Saturday morning might be an option if Hope got out early. If not, they had all day Sunday to make time for each other. She’d make the time to be with him. He was worth it.
Collette went to sleep with a smile on her face and dreaming of getting naked with John.
Chapter 11
John woke early and more refreshed and rejuvenated than he’d felt in a long time. He couldn’t wait to get out of bed and start the day. He went for an early morning run, came back and showered, and then cooked bacon, scrambled eggs and toast enough for three. He made sure he left his windows open so the smell might drift into the trailer next door and wake the two young women he hoped to have over for breakfast.
When the savory scents didn’t do the trick, John scraped the food onto a pan and placed it in the tiny oven to keep warm. He waited another hour and, finally, walked over to knock on the trailer door.
Hope answered, wearing denim shorts and a Dallas Cowboys jersey.
“Good morning, sunshine. Is your mother awake?”
Hope nodded, a frown denting her brow. “Yes, and she’s singing. Please, make her stop.”
John laughed. “I have a pan full of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast at my place. Come over when you’re ready.”
“I’m ready,” Hope said. “I’ll let Mom know. Maybe she’ll stop singing long enough to eat.” The teen rolled her eyes. “It’s just not right to be so cheerful this early on the weekend.”
John chuckled all the way back to his trailer where he pulled their breakfast out of his oven and served it onto three separate paper plates.
Hope and Collette showed up as he was pouring orange juice into plastic cups.
They ate, talking about their plans for the day and evening.
John invited Collette and Hope to go with him to a home show at a convention center in Waco.
Hope shook her head. “Thanks, but I’m not at that stage in my life that home shows interest me. Now, if it was a comic convention or technical trade show, I might go.” She held up her hand. “For me, it’s a pass.”
Collette pressed her lips together and sighed. “If I didn’t have to be on my feet for work tonight, I’d go. I just can’t see walking all over a convention center, and then being on my feet at the saloon.” She turned to Hope. “You have the movie marathon with the youth group tonight, don’t you?”
Hope nodded. “Ryan will be off work in time to take me, so I don’t need a ride or the car.”
“If anything changes and you need a ride home, you can call me,” John said. “I’ll be at one of my teammates’ houses watching the Texas A&M game on his big screen television.”
Hope grinned. “I wouldn’t dream of interrupting such an important game for a mere ride.”
“I’ll be at work,” Collette said.
“I’ll come over as soon as the game is over,” John promised.
Collette smiled. “You don’t have to do that, but I’d like that very much.”
John tried again. “Can I interest either one of you in a drive out to Belton Lake? We can take a picnic lunch and fish or skip stones.”
“As tempting as that sounds, once again, I’ll have to pass.” Hope pushed to her feet. “In anticipation of a late-night movie marathon with the youth group, I’m going to go back to bed to sleep another two or three hours.” She gave her mother a pointed look. “Mom, you might consider doing the same. You look tired.”
Collette touched a hand to her face. “That bad?”
“No, but you work too hard,” Hope said. “You deserve a day of rest.” She left the adults sitting at the table and returned to the trailer for her two or three hours of additional sleep.
Collette met John’s gaze. “Would you be disappointed if we didn’t go to the lake?”
John shook his head. “I would rather you caught up on your rest. You were pretty worn-out last night, and tonight will be just as hard.”
“Thank you for understanding,” Collette said. “If you want, you can join me. We can leave the door open so Hope will know we’re not doing anything to embarrass her.”
“You know that sounds better than a convention or a picnic at the lake any day. Give me a few minutes to clean up here, and I’ll be over.”
Collette grinned and hurried to her place.
John tossed the paper plates, washed the pans and cups and left them to dry on a dishtowel. When he was done, he locked up and walked over to the trailer.
Collette met him at the door, pressing a finger to her lips. “Hope is already asleep,” she whispered.
John toed off his boots at the door and followed Collette to her bedroom.
The last time he’d been there, they’d made love into the wee hours of the morning. His cock hardened at the memory. Sadly, he wasn’t there to make love to her, he was there to make sure she got some much-needed rest.
If Hope went somewhere with her boyfriend on Sunday, John hoped to get Collette alone so he could give her a deep-tissue massage all over her body. Then they might make love. Massage first.
Wearing a pair of soft stretchy shorts and a T-shirt, Collette crawled onto her bed, lying on top of the comforter.
John laid down beside her and reached for her hand.
For the next thirty minutes they lay that way, each staring up at the ceiling.
Then Collette rolled onto her side, tucked her hand beneath her cheek and snuggled against John’s chest. A minute later, she slept.
John lay for another thirty minutes, telling himself he could handle being close to her without touching her in a sexual way.
He knew it was a lie.
The longer he lay in the bed where they’d been intimate, the more he wanted to take her in his arms and make love to her. His cock strained against his denim jeans. No matter how much he tried to think of anything else, he came back to the image of Collette lying naked beneath him as he drove deep inside her.
Swallowing a groan, John eased out of the bed and stood.
He stared down at Collette, envying her ability to go to sleep so quickly. He didn’t want to wake her to let her know he was leaving. She needed to sleep and conserve her strength for another night at the Salty Dog.
To burn off the coiled energy inside, John returned to his camper, slipped into shorts, a T-shirt and his running shoes and went for a five-mile run.
When he got back, he washed his truck and prepared a lunch of chicken quesadillas.
By that time two hours had passed, he’d just flipped the last of three quesadillas when Collette appeared in his doorway, disheveled, her hair sticking out in places and her cheeks a rosy pink. “Something smells good.”
The five miles he’d run didn’t keep him from reacting to her all over again. His groin tightened automatically. He was so distracted by her appearance he almost burned the last quesadilla.
After scraping it out of the pan onto a plate, he turned and handed the plate to her. “If you’ll carry the plates out to the table, I’ll bring the condiments. Is Hope awake?”
“Not yet,” Collette replied. With two plates in her hands, she descended the camper steps.
John was right behind her with salsa, a jar of jalapeños and two cans of root beer.
While they ate, they talked about the game that night and the news headlines.
“I saw that a fifteen-year-old girl went missing a week ago not too far from here,” Collette said. “It worries me that Hope doesn’t have a car to drive. I keep thinking I could take a bus to class and work and let her have the car.”
“Between you and me, we’ve got her covered,” John said.
“For now.” She sipped her can of root beer, staring out across the farmer’s field. “The problem is, you can’t always be our backup. If you deploy, we’ll be on our own again. Also, you’re only here until your house is finished.”
She was absolutely right.
He could be in another country, unable to help in any way. “But if I deploy, my truck will be here. You could use it and let Hope use the car.”
Collette looked across the table at him. “You’d do that?”
He nodded. “I would.”
“You’re a good man, John Sanders.”
“Yes, he is,” Hope said as she joined them at the table and nodded toward their plates of quesadillas. “You don’t happen to have another one of those, do you? They smell delicious.”
John leaped to his feet, ducked into his camper and came back out with the plate he’d left warming in the small oven. He’d also snagged another can of root beer.
“Thank you.” Hope took the plate, poured half the bottle of salsa on the quesadilla and topped it with jalapeños.
“Those are hot,” John warned.
Hope grunted, sank her teeth into the tortilla and moaned. “Mmm. So good.”
