Framed by CP Smith Page B

so, I’d had to ask Michelle Reed to take over the class. I begged off, saying I was under the weather, and then sat off to the side pretending to watch as my mind played back over what had happened in the infirmary. Then I called my dad and begged off work, too, until I could get my head straight. Knowing Kade wanted me was one thing, but actually feeling his lips on mine had sent me into a tailspin. It was like wishing for a puppy and then finally holding it in your arms. The reality was a hundred times greater than the fantasy and I realized immediately if not for my own inaction, I could have been experiencing that kind of passion in my life for years. Which, of course, meant if I had, Kade wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. It was all my fault.
    God, if I’d only gone outside the minute I saw him pull up on his bike, things would be different. I could have spoken with him and found out he was deploying. He would have asked me out, said something like, “I gotta leave on a two-year mission, but when I get back, I wanna take you to dinner.”
    If he had, I would have waited. I never would have dated, let alone married Michael. I’d have written him letters and kept in touch while he was gone. If I had just walked outside and talked to him, he and I would be married by now . . . If we were, he wouldn’t have gone to Fire that night because he would have been home with me having crazy welcome home sex after his mission. “God, this really sucks!” I shouted as I pulled in front of my father’s house after a day of brow beating myself. “It’s all my fault!”
    Throwing my Jeep into park, I grabbed Buttercup out of her carrier and exited. Making my way up the pebbled drive of my father’s house, I turned when I heard a blast from a car horn. Prez and Mickey D’s nondescript silver rental pulled into the driveway followed by a black SUV. I watched as they peeled their large bodies from the small sized sedan. When I’d questioned them about their choice of vehicles their first night here, they said no one pays attention to ugly (silver) cars. They were on a ‘Seek and Destroy’ mission and wanted to fly under the radar. I failed to point out that their size pretty much puts them at a disadvantage no matter what they drove.
    Prez moved towards the SUV and I turned my eyes as well. A man who looked vaguely familiar folded out of the big black vehicle. He wasn’t as big as the SEALs, but there was something about the way he carried himself that I recognized.
    “Harley, come meet Kyle, Kade’s brother,” Prez shouted.
    Of course, that’s why he seems familiar .
    I should have recognized him from all the news reports and newspaper articles, but it had been a while since he’d made the papers and he looked different. His hair was longer than it had been back then and he looked worn out. Dressed in jeans and T-shirt, he looked more like a college kid than a man in his late twenties. He had the same dark brown hair and brown eyes as Kade, but he wasn’t as big.
    Reaching out my hand to shake his as he approached, I had to move Buttercup quickly when he moved right past my hand and into my personal space, wrapping me up into a hug and whispering, “It’s great to finally meet you.”
    Um?
    “Finally?”
    “I’ve heard about the one who got away for years and, I gotta say, he wasn’t exaggerating. I can see why he lost sleep thinking about you.”
    Whoa, whoa, whoa.
    “He talked about me to you?” I breathed out in shock.
    “Hell, yeah, he did,” Mickey D jumped in. “He didn’t think he’d ever see you again after high school. But he always said if he ever got married it had to be to someone who took his breath away just like his mystery girl did.”
    “He said that?”
    “D, maybe you’re letting the cat out of the bag. Kade might—” Prez tried jump in but Mickey ignored him and kept going.
    “I may have cleaned it up a bit . . . Okay, a lot. But that was the gist of it,” he