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“What, kitten? What’s wrong?”
“I’m going to miss you, miss us, and we’ve barely arrived, you know? I feel like there’s a cloud over me that I can’t seem to shake.”
Only to see his tender smile as he gazed at her.
“What if I told you that I was planning on coming home… for good?”
“What? How?” she whispered, stunned.
“Well, see, before I left, Reaper gave me a few options because my re-enlistment was coming up. I told him I wanted to think about it, talk to you, and weigh my options…”
“And?”
“It’s a nice chunk of money, but I have it on good authority that there’s this incredibly hot attorney in Ember Creek not too far from the house…”
“Hot, huh?” she interrupted, laughing.
“Oh yeah, smokin’ hot,” he grinned, leaning forward to kiss her tenderly. “She’s got this paralegal that calls in all the time, but this attorney’s husband is an absolute lapdog…”
“Oh my gosh, Max…”
Elana was laughing and wasn’t quite sure where he was going with this, but the man lived to make her happy, apparently. He was explaining this, making blobs of soap bubbles and pointing at them as he talked.
“See – this one is the lame paralegal… and this one is the lapdog,” he gestured and made two big piles of bubbles. “Smokin’ hot attorney…” – and Elana splashed the bubbles, chuckling, only for him to make them again.
“Don’t ruin my display,” he chided, laughing. “I need this, and you need to follow what I’m trying to say. Sheesh, tough crowd. Don’t make me go all lawyer-ish on you when I’m sitting here getting pruney fingers.”
“I apologize,” she mocked, smirking. “Please continue.”
“Finally…” he huffed and winked at her. “As I was saying, this incredibly hot woman has this paralegal that calls in all the time… but her lapdog is there waiting with nothing to do except pout until she gets home.”
“That’s not true…”
Max shushed her, laughing.
“So we should give the lapdog something to do since he’s smart but plays the village idiot very, very well…”
“What?” Elana hesitated, looking at him in surprise, as he smiled at her. “Wait, what are you…”
“What if I came home and worked as your paralegal? I mean, there would be a heck of a learning curve, but I was thinking about going back to school anyhow. I could pick up a shift occasionally at Flyboys, if they don’t mind… and well, I thought maybe I could work on getting my law degree someday. We could be ‘Carpenter and Carpenter – Attorneys at Law.’”
Elana just stared at him, stunned.
“Can I tell you something?” he whispered softly. “And you won’t get mad?”
“I can’t promise that,” she chuckled nervously, still processing what he was saying.
“I knew it was a funeral spray of roses that day,” he smiled sheepishly, “but I also knew that your defenses were up when it came to me – so I lobbed a grenade. Sometimes, you must be clever and put on a show in order to get your opponent’s shield to crack.”
“You… knew?”
She stared at him in disbelief, realizing that he’d fooled her completely, but instead of being mad or irate, she was amazed. He would be an incredible person to be around and learn from. He processed things differently, looked at situations in a different light, and had a way of disarming people when they least expected it.
“Have I given you chocolate poop since?” he chuckled nervously, smiling at her.
“Wait - you don’t want to fly anymore?” she asked, completely taken aback and confused. Was he implying that he wanted to be an attorney with her instead of being a pilot?
“Oh, I love flying… but why can’t I have the best of both worlds?” he replied, smiling. “I could fly occasionally, and I could spend hours annoying my wife or fetching her coffee while studying and learning from her. Then I can go home and bang that hot body every night.”
