I laughed softly. “I know.”
“So what’s the hold up? Instead of trying to fill the void with something else and make everyone miserable in the process, why don’t you just go back and re-up your contract? You know the Skipper would flip his shit if you walked back through the doors. You always were a teacher’s pet.”
We shared a wistful smile and I took a drink. “Holly doesn’t want to risk me getting deployed again once we have a family. I put her through a lot on that tour after we got together.”
Aaron nodded. He didn’t need to be reminded which tour. He’d been just as sick with worry as Holly had been at the time. My plane was shot down in some shithole mountain range in the Middle East, leaving me in hostile territory with no communication at all. I’d ended up hiding out in a cave and discovering a rebel base—which I then managed to blow up—but back home, the news reported I’d been killed in action and even though I returned to Holly in one piece, the entire experience had gutted her. There were times I wondered if she’d agreed to go to Germany simply because she knew there was no chance of me being deployed back to the Middle East while I was stationed there.
“I can’t blame her,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to go through that. Hell, I’m worried about the nights Gemma pulls at the hospital. If we had a baby and she was gone the whole night…damn…that’s gonna be rough. And that’s just one night. I couldn’t imagine six months. Nine. A year.”
“I know. I can’t ask that of her.”
Aaron cocked his head. “You can’t throw away your whole life for her either, Boomer. I know you love her. I mean, you’re engaged for fuck’s sake—”
“I’m not sure about that anymore.”
“Well, in either case, you have to be happy too. If being back in active duty is what will make you happy, then shouldn’t Holly at least consider it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to ask that of her.”
He flopped back against his own chair and fiddled with his beer bottle, rolling the bottom of it along the table. “Charters?”
I shrugged. “The money’s good. Benefits. Free access to some insane planes and the opportunity to travel anywhere in the world. Sounds pretty sweet to me.”
“What does Holly think? It might not be months away at a time and it probably won’t have you cruising into red zones regularly, but you’ll still be gone a lot, I imagine.”
“We haven’t really talked about it. I mentioned looking for something else and she shot it down.”
Aaron gave a sage nod. “Where is she now?”
“At her friend, Rachel’s.” Aaron’s eyes registered the name and I remembered they’d met before. “She’s supposed to start her new job next week sometime. So, I’m not sure where she’s going to be staying.”
“If you want to go work somewhere else, I’m cool with it. I’ll miss having you around. It’s more fun to bust your balls than Nick’s, but I’ll make do.” He grinned. “But no more of this sneaking around, high school bullshit, all right? We don’t do that to each other. You got a problem; you come to me.”
I gave him a salute. “Yes, sir.”
He lifted from his seat just far enough that he could lean across the table and slap my shoulder. “Yeah, yeah.”
Gemma popped her head around the corner. “Bromance back on?”
We laughed and Aaron waved her in. “Come in here,” he said. “You can stop shamelessly eavesdropping now.”
Gemma laughed as she poured herself a refill and then settled onto Aaron’s lap. She eyed me over the rim of her glass as she sipped the amber liquid. “Why don’t you guys open a charter service? I mean, we already have an airstrip and a huge number of rich customers. Jack could be the owner and rent the space. That way you two each have your own thing but can keep working together.”
Aaron tore his eyes off his pretty fiancée and shot me a quizzical look. “It’s not a bad idea, Boomer. What do you think?”
I had to admit, the idea of owning and operating my own business was both daunting and exciting. It wasn’t something I’d really given much thought to but had a lot of positives to consider. “I’d have to think about it, map it out. Something like that would cost a good chunk of change. I don’t exactly have the kind of capital needed to go out and purchase some million dollars plus luxury plane.”
Aaron nodded thoughtfully. I could almost hear the gears clicking into place.
“Besides that, right now, I’m not in the right headspace to take on something like that. If Holly is really…gone…I need to consider renting out the house and finding an apartment or condo. I can’t afford that house by myself. Especially not if I open a business.”