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  Boomer

  The Elite Part Two

  By USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author

  KB Winters

  Copyright © 2016 KB Winters and BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC

  Published By: BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to the brave men and women of our armed services who put their life on the line everyday to protect our freedom.

  Thank you for your service.

  ~ KB

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination and have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Contents

  Boomer The Elite Part Two

  Dedication

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Free Book!

  More From KB Winters

  Acknowledgements

  About The Author

  Chapter One

  Holly

  Leaving Holiday Cove was far more difficult than I’d anticipated. As I drove back down the 101, the sun was overhead, and each bend in the road revealed breathtaking glimpses of the warm sand and sparkling Pacific Ocean below. The weather was perfect and serene. But inside, my heart had never been more dark and stormy. Every mile tugged at me, amplifying my emotions until there was a physical ache in my chest. The problem wasn’t that I was leaving behind the picturesque beachside town that I’d been staying at for the past two weeks. Or even that I’d be back to my daily grind the next day and picking up where I’d left off before hitting pause on my life to take a two-week vacation. It was more than that.

  So much more.

  As I watched Holiday Cove fade from sight in the rearview mirror, the assortment of memories that Jack and I had created there were also fading, leaving me wondering if what had happened was real—or if it had all been some kind of waking dream.

  Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t stay focused on the road ahead or the gorgeous ocean view to the right. My mind remained engrossed in the small beachside house and the early morning goodbye with Jack on the front porch. Surprisingly, those whispered goodbyes had been one of the hardest moments of my life. I’d prepared myself the best I could, but in the end, there was nothing I could’ve done to brace for the impact of the overwhelming sadness of watching Jack drive away.

  Hunter, my chocolate lab puppy, whined from the back seat. The low whimper pulled me from my musings, and I flicked the rearview mirror down to check on him. I smiled at the soulful blue eyes that met mine in the mirror. “Don’t worry, boy. We’ll be okay.” He put his face down between his front paws, his eyes still shifted in my direction. “You missing Princess?” I asked, the sound of her name hitting me in the chest, as a memory of her running beside Jack on the beach the first day we met, popped into my mind.

  Hunter whined again and my heart twisted. “Me too, buddy.”

  I sighed and adjusted the mirror back up and refocused on the road. After a little while, I turned on the radio, in hopes that a little music would ease both of our minds. A few songs in and the radio cut out, a soft beep alerting me of an incoming call. I glanced down at the touch screen display on the dash and smiled at Jack’s name and number in bold print.

  “Hey handsome,” I answered with one push of a button.

  “Hey pretty girl,” Jack’s smooth voice filled the car through the Bluetooth speaker system. My body warmed at the smile that was audible in his tone. “Whatcha doing?”

  “Hunter and I are still on the road.” I glanced in the mirror and smirked as Hunter struggled to sit up on the backseat. He wasn’t opposed to car rides, but he was definitely clumsy when the car was in motion. It was something like the doggy equivalent of finding one’s sea legs out on a boat. “Are you back at the base?”

  “Just checked in with my Commander and getting settled back at home. I have about a thousand things to do in the next two days.”

  I laughed softly. “I hear you. I’m dreading that first attempt to clean out my voicemail back at the office tomorrow morning. That’s gonna be a hoot.”

  “Aww, I’m sure you can handle it,” Jack replied, chuckling. “Maybe you need to hire an assistant?”

  “You want an application?” I asked, smirking.

  Jack laughed loudly and I laid my head back, letting the sound of his voice wash over me. “Depends. Tell me about the benefits?”

  His suggestive tone sent a flash of heat over my skin. I smiled, marveling at how he could make me laugh so much, and then moments later, have me blushing like some kind of virginal schoolgirl. No one had ever made me feel that way before. This was all new to me.

  I laughed. “Well, for starters, I’d imagine you’d get unlimited kisses, occasional back rubs for a job well done, and on top of all that, I only buy really expensive coffee.”

  “Sounds like a sweet gig. I especially like the kissing part, although I’d have to push that boundary a little farther.” I shivered again at his words and the images they stirred inside me. “How about I get back to you in six months and let you know?” His voice was still light and teasing, but my smile faded at the reminder that he was really leaving. Within days, he’d be on an air craft carrier, out in the big blue sea, to fight with his squad in the Middle East, taking on terrorists and keeping our forces safe.

  I still couldn’t get over the timing of everything. The odds that I’d finally meet someone who could even make me consider letting down my guard long enough to get to know them, let alone start to fall for them, was a feat in itself. Then, to have it be Jack, on a vacation a few hours from home, when he was preparing to ship out with his Naval unit for a dangerous deployment overseas.

  The whole thing was inexplicable.

  “Holly?” Jack’s voice pulled me back to reality. “It’s going to be okay. I promised, remember?”

  I nodded, my throat suddenly thick. “Uh-huh.”

  It was all I could manage.

  “I should get going. But I’ll catch up with you later tonight. Text me when you get back to your place so I’ll know you’re safe. Will you do that?”

  “Yeah. I will.”

  “Okay, beautiful girl. I’ll talk to you soon. Be safe.”

  “I will. Goodbye, Jack.”

  I clicked off the call and sucked in a long, slow breath. Doing my best not to give in to the tears pricking at my eyes.
br />   * * * *

  “Welcome home!” Rachel greeted us, her voice loud and celebratory as soon as Hunter and I got inside my condo later that afternoon. Hunter tugged hard enough that I dropped his leash and he bounded over to where Rachel had just jumped off the couch. “Huntey! Oh, how’s my favorite little troublemaker?” She squatted down next to Hunter and laughed as he answered by licking every inch of her face.

  I smiled as I watched their reunion. “You’d think it had been years since he saw you,” I commented, rolling my suitcase inside the door and pushing it against the entry way wall.

  “I guess in dog years…” Rachel answered, still giggling. She patted his head and stood up again. He tried to jump up, but she nudged him down and he tore off down the hall, sniffing everything like it was his first time in the house. “I’d hug you, but I’m pretty well coated in slime here.”

  I held up my hands and laughed. “Yeah, I’m good.”

  Truthfully, living with Hunter meant dog hair was a permanent accessory that went with every outfit. I followed as Rachel went into the kitchen to wash her hands at the sink. She tossed her head as she scrubbed. “Your mail is over there.”

  I crossed to the opposite counter and gathered the small pile into my hands. I flipped through the stack casually. None of it looked pressing. Mostly the same junk everyone gets. Credit card offers, coupon flyers for local businesses, and a couple of statements that still came to me no matter how many times I’d opted for paperless billing. I sighed and set it all back on the counter.

  Rachel flipped the water off and dried her hands on the kitchen towel before turning back around to face me as I leaned against the counter. She smirked and raised an eyebrow at me. “So…?”

  My cheeks heated up, and I ducked to hide my face until I could recover. Rachel was my best friend, and I always told her everything—but there was something awkward about telling her about Jack. I knew she’d be happy for me. Likely, over the moon happy. But, there was some explaining to do, as well.

  The last time I’d seen her, Jack had just driven all the way back to Holiday Cove from his base in Northern California because Aaron, his best friend, had called him after I’d shown up asking for him. After Jack and I reunited, I’d officially introduced him and Rachel, and the next thing I knew, she’d packed her suitcase and cleared out so Jack and I could spend the last night alone together.

  I hated the way that replaying it in my mind made it feel so far away.

  “Holly Marie Parker!” Rachel snapped playfully. “You are gonna tell me what happened with you and your Navy man, right now!”

  I laughed and tossed my hair back. “Okay, okay. No need for middle names. Geez, when did you turn into my mom?”

  “I’ve been waiting here all morning to hear this story! I’ve been out of the loop for long enough,” she protested, still smiling through her whining.

  “Well…it went pretty much as you’d expect…” I started, knowing my answer was beyond cagey. “We spent the night together and it was…” I paused, grappling for the right words to describe the experience. Overwhelming. Intense. Freeing.

  Rachel interjected with a squeal before I landed on an option. “Amazing?”

  I smiled and nodded. “It really was. But—”

  “But?” She repeated, wrinkling her nose.

  I sighed and the smile slid from my face. “It was really hard, Rach. Saying goodbye to him this morning. Knowing that last night was the last time we’d see each other for so long and knowing that he is about to be in a very dangerous position. It was all so overwhelming. Which made it all that much sweeter—but at the same time…it kinda wrecked me.”

  “Oh, honey,” she scooped me into her arms, and held me tight. “I’m sorry.”

  I breathed in her familiar scent and relaxed into her comforting embrace, releasing some of the weight I’d been carrying. “I wasn’t expecting it to be that hard. You know?”

  Rachel nodded, her chin bumping my cheek. “It’ll be okay, though, Holly.” She released me and stared into my eyes.

  “I know,” I agreed, forcing some confidence into my voice. “I mean, we talked about how we could make it all…work.”

  “You don’t sound too convinced.” Rachel wrinkled her nose.

  “Well…”

  She gave me a puzzled glance.

  “I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but there’s a part of me that feels like I’ve already been through this once before. So, as much as I can tell myself it’s different—or, that he’s different—I can’t help but feel like all of it is just words right now. And until I see what happens on the other side of this, I don’t want to get too excited.” I looked down at my hands and ran a fingernail around the cuticle of my thumb. “I want to be prepared this time.”

  “Because of Kenny?”

  I hated to admit that my ex-husband had some power still holding me after all these years.

  “Yeah.” I dropped my hands to my sides and looked back into Rachel’s blue eyes. “Do you think I’m insane?”

  “No. Not even a little bit, Holly. But, you know you have to let that go and trust the process. Don’t judge Jack based on your ex. Everyone is different and every experience is different.”

  “I know.”

  And I did. When my ex-husband had joined the Marines, he’d gone overseas and came home a completely different person. Our marriage had been in trouble long before his deployment, but the issues he’d carried home from war had proved to be more than our relationship could take, and when he’d chosen another woman as his outlet to deal with our problems, I had to walk away.

  The scars of war hadn’t just touched his soul—they would be marked on mine for the rest of my life as well.

  “I don’t even know how any of this happened. It’s like I blinked and poof!” I shook my head, still in disbelief. “I said I wouldn’t date a soldier ever again…”

  “Don’t think of it like that, Holly. You’re not dating a soldier, you’re dating Jack,” Rachel corrected. “And he’s not even a soldier, he’s a sailor—a pilot.”

  “You’re right,” I replied, nodding thoughtfully.

  Rachel masked her expression, but I could see thoughts brewing in her eyes. “So, how did it end then?” She cocked her head. “I mean, he’s gone, so what happens when he gets back?”

  I shrugged. “That’s the part I don’t know. But, unfortunately, there isn’t a way to find out until he gets back.”

  Chapter Two

  Jack

  A few very long days, full of preparation and more meetings than I could count had finally birthed the beginning of the tour, and we landed on board a few hours after the ship pulled away from the shores of San Diego. What should have been a seamless transition, one I’d gone through on multiple other occasions, left me jarred and antsy as I tried to settle into life on board the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt CVN 71. Our squadron began the trip that would ultimately bring us to the Persian Gulf to relieve the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan as they ran OPS in the Middle East. Although it was a struggle to adapt to confined spaces, shared quarters, and life in the middle of the ocean, those things weren’t the source of the pent up frustration that grit against me every waking moment. No, the blame for those irritations lay solely with a leggy blonde that I’d been forced to say goodbye to only a few days before.

  Holly Parker.

  Not a moment had passed where she didn’t occupy the majority of my thoughts and made it impossible for me to fully accept that my life for the next six months was to be spent flying on and off an aircraft carrier.

  We’d had one final phone call the night before I landed on the Roosevelt, and I’d promised to keep in touch as often as I could, but made sure she understood there was no guarantee how frequently we would be able to communicate. I wouldn’t always have access to the internet, and phone calls were few and far between. She’d accepted everything I told her, but I could tell in her tone of voice, that she was even more unprepared for the separation than I
was.

  The first two days on the carrier were too busy to allow for any down time, and when I was able to get to my email, she’d already sent three messages. They’d been very sweet, and supportive, but I hated to think of her waiting for my reply.

  Which was why I was in such a hurry to get back to my quarters after completing my shift at the end of the first week aboard the carrier. As a senior officer in my squadron, I’d been given priority in my accommodations, and rather than being crammed into an open bay with a hundred sailors, I shared a two-man stateroom with Lt. Commander Richard Lions, a fellow officer and pilot in my squadron. Before the beginning of the tour, we’d known each other by reputation, and in passing, and I’d been relieved to find out we’d been bunked together. Lt. Commander Lions was older than me by a handful of years, married, with a pack of kids at home waiting for him. In the few days we’d been aboard the ship, he’d already plastered one of his walls with photos and artwork that had clearly been done by little hands.

  He was a quiet guy as far as I could tell, and whenever we were in the room at the same time, he was usually on his laptop, calling his kids, or reading from a well-worn paperback that had an illustrated cover and a title that had something to do with zombies.

  Usually, when he got a call from his family, I made myself scarce for an hour or so to give him some privacy. On the carrier, it was fairly easy to find something to occupy me for an hour or so. Usually, I’d hit up the workout room or go to the wardroom for a cup of coffee and remnants of whatever food had been served. However, after a long day spent in and out of meetings, my mind was on information overload, and I just wanted to get to my rack, spend the time to write out a proper reply to Holly’s emails, and then close my eyes for a nap.

  “Hey, Lions,” I said, stepping inside the small room. He was reclined against a pillow in his rack, book in hand, and barely glanced up at my greeting. I slid the door closed behind me and went to my own rack.

  Moments later, he laid the book down in his lap, and looked over at me. “Long day?”