Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (Cactus Creek #3)(54)

“Because he cheated on me. He wasn’t exactly the best boyfriend in the world, but he’s basically like the nicest guy in our grade. He’s never cheated on any of his other girlfriends before. But he cheated on me.”

“He’s an idiot.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone’s saying. But the girl he cheated on me with is super hot, and actually really sweet. She’s smart, funny, and pretty—”

“Honey, you’re all those things and more. You’re special. I’ve always thought so, and I’m always going to think so.” Running his eyes over her adorably astonished face he launched over his last grenade, “The only reason I’m not proving these things to you is because you’re sixteen and I’m nineteen.”

When she just sat there and gaped at him, he steamrolled right along. “After my undergrad, I’m applying for a Masters degree with a fellowship in D.C. that I’ve been informed I’m on the short list for. In total, I’ll be done in five years. Five years, Skylar. Exactly how many years it’ll take for you to no longer be off-limits.”

Those beautiful, expressive eyes of hers widened to the size of saucers.

“And baby, you better believe I’ll be coming back here to see if you still need me to prove those things to you then.”

As he stared down into the stunned face of the girl who’d only grown to become even more of a knockout than she’d been a year and a half ago, Drew wondered over his declaration.

Then he thought about the two folders of information in the hidden pocket of his laptop bag.

One with information about Hudson that he was going to show Lia.

And one with information about Leo that he most definitely wasn’t going to show her.

The latter still had a long way to go before he could show anyone. But he wasn’t going to stop keeping that file close while he searched for the answers he was looking for. He didn’t care how long it took, years even.

He felt the same way about his attraction to Skylar, he realized.

Amidst this revelation, Skylar was still silently processing his earlier statement—he liked how she did that. Even as a freshman, she’d always been a thinker more than a talker.

He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Until then, you’re just going to have to hear me and believe me when I say that I’ve always thought you were more than just smart, funny, and pretty. In fact, ‘special’ is far too mundane a word to describe you, as far as I’m concerned.”

Wiping the last of her tears away, he promised in a rough whisper, “Five years, beautiful. And to be clear, I’m not asking you to wait for me.”

“I’m just letting you know to expect me.”





CHAPTER FIFTEEN


“YOU, SWEETHEART, just made twenty guys crazy happy today.”

Lia cradled the phone against her ear, grinning. “Aw. If I had a nickel for every time I heard that…”

Hudson’s deep chuckle echoed over the phone line. “Imp. I mean it though. The rehab center got your gift this morning.”

“The donation was from both Spencer’s and my shop. It wasn’t just me,” she corrected. “And besides, it’s Gabe who did all the rigging with the bells and whistles.”

“But it was your idea.”

“Inspired by how you said your hand felt after you got a chance to work with rifles again at Yuma that day.”

“Okay, enough with the modesty. If you hadn’t worked with your fabricator and Gabe on this, these new rehab exercise weapon models wouldn’t be half as functional, and the Center’s therapists wouldn’t have had so much trouble keeping all the guys from wanting to push extra hard today.”

Lia was failing horribly at not getting emotional at the image. She knew how frustrating it had been for Hudson not to be able to get his hands to work the way they used to. When she learned there were countless injured soldiers in the same situation, but that only the ones that were being rehabilitated to return back to active duty were set up on rehab simulators with weapons to retrain their muscles, Lia knew she had to at least try and see what Gabe and their team of top-notch fabricators at Spencer’s could come up with.

Each of the seven different combat weapons they’d fabricated looked, felt, and worked exactly like the real things, except with absolutely no danger of being weaponized. Beyond that, Gabe worked his magic and added a ton of other features so each rehab weapon model was also digitized to directly assist the rehab process, using cutting edge biofeedback therapy tools.

And the facility where Hudson was doing his rehab was the beneficiary of their little project.

“I’m telling you, Lia, the therapists were beyond excited. All of them said that never in all their years as therapists, had they ever seen a therapy aid work so effectively in the very areas of rehab that traditional means have seemed to be unable to progress beyond a certain point in.”

Yes. A number of soldiers she’d talked to said the same thing. After Hudson had mentioned that he’d felt the change in his left hand function after working with the weapons at Yuma, sort of like with muscle memory, she’d simply dug further into the research.

“That’s just it. This is so much bigger than muscle memory. With Gabe’s biofeedback rigging, we honestly think we’ve just scratched the surface of what these puppies can do.”