I don’t say anything because I don’t trust myself. It’s on the very tip of my tongue to beg her to stay with me, but I know that’s ridiculous. She has a job that she loves to do.
When I don’t say anything, she pinches my waist. “Are you going to miss me, Mr. Cannon?”
I grab on to her hand and bring it to my lips. The sun is starting to set, and I’m thankful for the darkness because there’s no way I can hide the emotion from my face. “Yeah, I’m going to miss you, wife.”
Her lips curl up in a big smile. “I still love that.”
I hear the roar of the helicopter, and we stand next to each other as it lands. As soon as it’s safe, I grab her bag, and with an arm around her, I walk her to the helicopter. When I pull the door open, I help her in and stow the bag. As soon as I see her white knuckle grip on the edge of her seat, I remember that she’s afraid to fly.
I’m not ready to part ways yet anyway, so I climb in and shut the door behind me. My brother looks over at me in surprise and hollers over the sound of the blades, “Are you coming too?”
I nod and grit my teeth. I wish I could stay with her. Fuck, a part of me wishes that I could go home with her, but the fact remains she didn’t ask me to come with her, and I don’t know if I’m ready or not.
I clear my throat. “I’m going to go with you to take her home. I’ll fly back.”
Nikki is shaking her head next to me. “No, Ethan. You don’t have to do that, I’ll be fine.”
I give Bobby another nod, and he smiles widely at me before taking us up in the air. Instead of being scared, Nikki is talking to me about it being a waste of my time and she feels bad that I’m doing this.
I encircle her with my arms and bring her against me. I lean over and whisper in her ear, “It’s not a waste of time. I know how you feel about flying. I can’t believe I was going to send you off on your own.”
She shakes her head. “I wasn’t alone. Bobby is with me.”
There’s a pain in my chest, and immediately I know what it is. I don’t want her to depend on another man, even if it is my brother and I had asked him to look out for her. I want to be the man that she calls when she needs something... anything.
But instead of telling her all that, I tell her, “Well, now Bobby and I are both with you.”
She opens her mouth, but I silence her with a kiss. The truth is, I don’t know how I’m going to let her go, but I also don’t know what to do about it.
It only takes a few minutes to get down the mountain, and Bobby gives us a few minutes to ourselves as he walks to his car to wait on her. Nikki looks at me worriedly. “I hate you have to go back by yourself.”
I shake my head and smile at her. “I’ll be fine. I’ll call you when I get back to the cabin.”
She nods and sniffs her nose. “I love you, Ethan Cannon. I don’t want you to ever doubt that.”
I nod and kiss her. Just like every other time, our kissing gets out of hand, and my cock is hurting because he wants to be inside her.
“Fuck. You better go before I take you right here.”
Her eyes light up as she puts her purse on her shoulder. “Oooh, in the helicopter. That might cure my fear of flying.”
Just the thought has my cock leaking in my pants. “Go on before I refuse to let you leave me.”
Sadness fills her face. but she tries to hide it with her smile. She walks away, and I call after her, “I love you, Nikki Cannon.”
She looks over her shoulder at me and blows me a kiss. “I know you do. I love you too.”
I watch as she gets into my brother’s car, and I have to fight with myself not to run after her. I’ve been a fool for so long, and I know I need to get my act together.
Chapter12
Nikki
Ibarely slept last night, and because of that, it’s making it even harder for me to cope today. I’m missing Ethan, and on top of that, I had a flat tire on the way to work this morning. Luckily, I was able to get a hold of Bobby, and he drove me to work with the promise of having my tire fixed and my car delivered to me before the end of the day.
I walk into the breakroom to put my purse away when I realize I left my lunch in my car that is sitting on the highway between Whiskey Run and Jasper.Damn, can this day get any worse?
“So tell me all about it!”