Racing to Love: Eli's Honor (9 page)

****

“Now don’t forget—“

“Honor,” Mac reached across the console of his truck and grabbed her hand. “Relax, honey. I have it. The trip is paid for. You told me what bills you expected to come in the mail, and you left your checkbook out for me to pay them. You’ve told the Morris’s down the road you’ll be gone, and I’m sure you’ve thrilled that old man to no end, giving him something to do by keeping an eye on your place. I’ll mow. Dawn and Korry will cover all the houses that you had scheduled to clean, and they’ll bring me the checks, I’ll deposit them and pay the girls. Everything is taken care of. Like normal, you’ve covered every base and detail. Just relax, okay?”

“But Mac.” Honor tried to keep her voice light and airy for the boy in the backseat, but inside her nerves had her stomach tied in knots. “I feel bad. Leaving the girls to pick up my slack. You have to take on even more to help me out. Ugh. A month is a long time.”

“It’s a month, Honor. Not a lifetime. Just think of what that boy is going to be able to come back and show me when you two come home. I can’t wait to see the improvements. And on top of that, since I’ve known you, you’ve never missed a day of work unless
Dallas was really sick. You’ve never taken a vacation in the over eleven years I’ve been around. It’s a month, and it’s not even a vacation. It’s riding school for your son.”

He hit home with the three little words that she knew Mac would instinctively know to use in calming her.

For your son.

Honor knew he was right. It was only a month. She had spent the better part of the last hour rattling off directions to Mac left and right. She couldn’t help it. She hated not being in control of everything around her. A shiver went down her spine. The unknown was about to drive her over a cliff. Not knowing where exactly she was staying was the cherry on top. All Eli had told her was that everything was taken care of, and that all she had to do was pack and get on the plane.

The damn man.

She rolled her eyes and placed her hand over her stomach, gazing out of the truck window as they crossed into the city limits. Closer to the airport, closer to uncertainty. Closer to Eli.

Honor wanted to tell Mac to forget it. To turn the truck around and hit the gas, to take her back to the safety of her little ranch house in the country. She let out a shaky breath. When had she become such a chicken? When she was younger, she’d never given a second thought about wanting to leave Tennessee to go to New York City. She hadn’t had one ounce of fear in bringing a newborn baby home from the hospital. Honor hadn’t even been afraid when she sat in her dark living room, alone, sometime around two in the morning, the phone in her hand, listening to the police on the other end telling her that her husband had been killed in a motorcycle wreck.

Yet now, as they pulled into the parking lot of the airport, she was shaking three times worse than a young child on caffeine overload. Maybe not visibly to those around her, but her insides were a mess. By the time they stood in the security line, she was about to turn into a total basketcase. Enough so, that if the men in white coats came, she’d go willingly.

She felt Mac’s strong hand squeeze her shoulder and was thankful he was going to stay with her as long as he could. Although, she had warned him that he just might have to physically push her through the security checkpoint, but hey, desperate times called for desperate measures.

“You can do this.” He whispered, his lips touching the side of her head. His encouragement not meant for
Dallas to hear.

As Honor looked up to her bald giant, his gentle smile was almost her undoing. Mac had been there for her since the day he stepped back onto American soil.

It was in this same airport years before that she’d met her brother-in-law for the first time, him in Army fatigues, her four months pregnant. Mac and Kolby were as different as night and day when it came to brothers. They might have shared the same blood, but DNA was where their similarities ended. Where Kolby’s indifference to fatherhood ended, Mac’s excitement to being an uncle picked up.

Once
Dallas became interested in motorcycles and dirt bikes, Kolby showed a spark of interest, but it was Mac who made sure Dallas was taught correctly. It was Mac who spent hours with him covering the basics over and over until they became second-nature. It was also Mac who was always around for Dallas…
and her
.

Since Kolby died, it was unnatural for her to go more than a day or two without seeing Mac. Usually, when his day at the shop ended, he’d head to their house. He worked with
Dallas, ate dinner with them, and went back home. The comfortable routine had become a security blanket of sorts for her.

The truth sliced through her.

Without even thinking about it, Mac filled a void, and she had let him. Honor was suddenly saddened by the thought of leaving him for a month. The weight on her heart doubled when she stopped to think that maybe he hadn’t pursued anything with a woman because she had been holding him back.

The line was too close to the podium where the security attendants stood to strike up that conversation. Plus there were too many people surrounding them. Not to mention
Dallas was on Mac’s other side.

Mac’s strong, deep voice snapped her train of thought and guilt. Honor glanced at her son. His eyes smiled and he took in every word and direction his uncle gave him.

“I love you, bud. Make me proud, okay?”

Dallas
nodded, smiling up at his uncle.

“You do me a favor. You take care of your mom for me, all right?”

“Oh, Uncle Mac.” Dallas’s cheeks flashed red, and he grinned, rolling his eyes up at his uncle.

“I’m serious, young man. You’re a Graham. We take care of our women.”

Mac glanced at Honor, and she saw the last eleven years flash before her eyes, along with her future in one mixed up ball of confusion. Once again, Mac was picking up and teaching where Kolby should have been. Even when Kolby was around, it had been Mac who did the teaching during those simple moments. Once more, it was proof how little Kolby had actually cared for her.

His words sobered
Dallas for a split second. “Okay. I promise, Uncle Mac.”

Mac hugged him before sending him through the doorway and turned to Honor. She felt him tuck a bill in her hand. Looking down she saw the folded ten.

“I don’t need any money, Mac.”

“It’s not money, it’s a drink. Buy yourself one when you get on the plane.”

“I don’t drink, Mac.”

“I know. But you’re going to need one this time. Just get a glass of wine and enjoy the plane ride. Quit thinking about everything and just enjoy this. Everything is going to be great, and I’ll be here in a month to pick you up.”

With tears in her eyes, he kissed her cheek and pushed her through the doorway before they could fall.

“I love you, Mac.”

The man was tall enough she could see him mouth the words back over the tops of the other passengers’ heads.

“Come on, Mom.”

Mac nodded and waved once more before gesturing for her to continue on. She let out a sigh, mouthed the word
bye,
and let Dallas tug her toward the metal detectors.

****

Eli paced. Checked the monitors for arrivals, looked at his watch and paced again.

The movements had been the same for over the last half-hour. The plane was due any minute, and Eli felt like a little child impatiently waiting on the word
go
to open a present. When he had spoken to Honor on the phone the previous night, she gave him no reason to think she’d back out, but a piece of him wasn’t going to be at ease until he saw her with his own eyes.

The anticipation of the plane’s arrivals was also uncommon. Most students that came to the academy came for a week. Most students that came were brought by their parents in an RV, hauling their bike or bikes, depending on their financial situation. Most students came with a need to improve on the basics or their parents had the money to send them because of the academy’s reputation.

Dallas Graham wasn’t…
most students
.

Once in a lifetime there was an exception to every rule, and
Dallas was that exception.

So was his mother.

Eli grinned picturing the sweet shock that had swept across her face when he’d grabbed her hand. He’d fallen for the way her violet eyes went wide in surprise at his touch, the tilt of her chin waiting on his reason for holding her hand. Eli melted at the soft surrender he witnessed in her when he’d whispered the one word
please
. In that simple moment, she let out a faint sigh, a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, and she gave a slight nod.

Even with Molly’s words in the back of his mind, he had gone to their home prepared to meet a mother who was going to beg him to help her son. Instead he stood begging her to come to him. Seeing the plane’s nose, he grinned to himself and his heart sped at the sight of the plane slowly lining up at the gate.

They finally arrived.

Suddenly his head went blank, he blinked several times and felt his palms go clammy. If he didn’t know better, he’d think he was having a heart attack, or at the very least a panic attack. He knew differently.

He was nervous.

Excited but nervous. About a girl. Actually a woman, but still, same damn effect. Cruising down the straightaway and getting closer every day to the big three-O, one would think he’d outgrown that by now, but as he watched Dallas come around the corner of the jet way, his pulse quickened with anticipation. Seeing Honor round it just behind him had Eli’s heart pounding double-time.

She looked beautiful. Her hair was down this time and his breath caught, seeing the long, loose waves that reached her lower back. She had worn very little makeup when he’d met her last week, looking very much the
girl next door
, but today she was anything but. She was in nothing more than a simple t-shirt and jeans, but her eyes were killer. She looked amazing.

Unfortunately for Eli, his wasn’t the only head that had turned. He watched as the man behind her tried several times to strike up a conversation just in the short time it took to walk up the jet way. Eli chuckled to himself watching her politely nod then ignore the man, getting more visibly frustrated with each passing moment.

Always one to help a lady out, Eli swooped in.

As she walked out of the secured area with the stranger still on her heels, Eli snaked his arm around her waist, pulled her close and kissed her cheek.

“Hi, honey. I’ve missed you so much. I’m so glad you’re home.” His voice was loud enough for the eavesdropper and laced with the promise of welcome-home sex.

He nuzzled against her, keeping eye contact with the stranger behind her. A little old-fashioned, but he claimed her publically for all to see. He had marked his territory.

Honor’s face went wide with surprise, but quickly relaxed. He assumed she’d caught on to his ploy. Eli nodded to the man not far behind her, tempting him to dare say another word to the woman he still had in his arms. Eli guessed Honor thought it was an act, but in reality he didn’t like the thought of another man around his woman.

His.

That thought would have scared the shit out of him years ago. Hell, even a few months ago. Just like Carter and Molly, then Jesse and Emery, it was the right person at the right time. Eli thought about Honor for days, processed his feelings, and came to the conclusion with absolute certainty. Honor was his. He was pretty sure that she was entirely unaware of the fact, but he had a month to convince her. A month to make her fall in love with him. A month to persuade her to stay in Pennsylvania.

Suddenly the confidence he had in his plan wavered. A month didn’t seem like near enough time.

“I missed you too, Eli.” Her voice was quiet and sweet, not nearly as embellished as Eli’s had been.

His stomach clinched at her admission, reading way more into that she probably meant, but it was music to his ears.

With her back to the stranger, the other man couldn’t see the deep red in her cheeks, but it made Eli’s heart soar. Something about the flush and the embarrassed smile made her seem innocent and young. Poor Dallas had turned his back to keep from laughing, and Eli took a long minute to take in Honor’s presence. The gaze proved to be too much for her. She grinned and broke the eye contact.

****

The three of them quickly headed to the baggage claim, and as soon as they were out of earshot, they all let the laughter go. Dallas apparently had been more aware of what was going on than Honor realized. So much for it being an adult inside joke. She gave a knowing look at Eli and shook her head. It was happening so fast, but she wasn’t ready for her baby to grow up yet.

“Thank you,” she said shyly, nodding behind her, “for that.”

“Trust me, the pleasure was all mine,” Eli whispered near her ear then winked.

Damn the man was sinful.

She pulled in a slow breath to steady herself, not knowing at all what to feel about Eli’s arm still around her waist.

Honor had clued into Eli’s playfulness in front of the other man. She could even appreciate the fact he had, very purposefully, tried to make the man jealous. It was humorous, and although she’d never admit it to another living soul—it was exhilarating being possessed like that by a gorgeous man in front of everyone. Things like that didn’t happen to women like her. She was just a mom from a tiny little town. That had been a move made for a chick flick on the big screen. It was something that happened to beautiful women, not her. But, it was definitely
her
pulse that skyrocketed on contact.