Here it is, y’all! A little reunion scene between the scrumptious Maguire brothers. Enjoy!
*The following has not been professionally edited, so please ignore the grammar and typos. It’s just for fun, folks 🙂
“I don’t know why you were so worried.” Adam Maguire downed the last swig of his beer. “I’ve got this flying thing down pat.”
His gorgeous fiancée, Nicolette, nodded with a smile. “I wasn’t worried about you. Do you want another one? We have time.”
“Are you trying to get me drunk, woman? I thought that was frowned upon before boarding a flight?”
“I’m not trying to get you drunk.” She laughed and tossed her long, dark hair over her shoulder. The streak of pink in her brown locks turned orange in the fluorescent airport lighting. “But a little liquor to take the edge off doesn’t hurt.”
A little liquor? Maybe not. But liquor combined with whatever pill she slipped into his drink when she thought he wasn’t looking might begin to take their toll.
It was a well-known fact amongst his friends and family just how much he hated to fly. He was a simple man who worked with animals. A bagillion-ton machine that defied gravity boggled his mind and wasn’t something he quite yet trusted.
Of course, a head doctor would probably pinpoint his hatred for air travel to the death of his brother Scott who had been shot down in a military drill over the Bering Strait. And if he were honest with himself, that was the exact reason why he had avoided flying.
But being a guy with no aspirations to travel the world, he didn’t think he’d ever have to face that fear, until he fell in love with a girl who had wanderlust in her boots. For the love of his Nic, he swallowed that ball of terror and held it in his gut even though it was excruciating.
Earlier in the week when they were about to head out on the first leg of their trip to New York, he had been half-afraid he was gonna sweat through his shirt and melt to the floor, then she suggested they stop for a drink at one of the bars in the terminal. Much to his surprise, the bottle of beer calmed his nerves. In fact, that one beer had made him so relaxed, when they were strapped in their seats and that big jet plane had rumbled down the tarmac, he hadn’t even batted an eye.
This time around he spotted Nic slip something into his beer. The burly man-side of him wanted to call her out, but the terrified Adam deep down inside won out and he didn’t say a word, grateful for anything that helped calm his nerves.
At the thought of drinking more liquid, he felt a pinch in his bladder. He glanced around, searching for a clock. “When is our flight again?”
“We board in about an hour,” Nic replied, looking at the display on her phone. “I forgot about the time zone changes for this connecting flight. This layover feels like it’s taking forever.”
“I’m gonna search for a restroom and stretch my legs a bit. I’ll be right back.” He dropped a kiss to her lips that quickly turned into a series of little kisses. “Boy, I love you.”
Usually, Nic looked at the world with a sardonic light in her eyes, but at his words, her gaze softened in that dreamy way they did only for him. “I love you, too.”
With one last kiss, he headed off to the little cowboy’s room and did his business. On his way back, he took his time moseying around the terminal of the Dallas Fort Worth Airport.
Not having traveled much outside of little Mission, Washington, he had never realized how diverse the community was inside an international airport. The different accents, the clothes, how modern styles meshed with western classics.
And New York, man, New York had blown his mind. Nic took him everywhere, museums, bookstores, a Broadway play, and Central Park. And the food! He had eaten so much, he had to loosen his belt to the next notch. But after touring all of what The Big Apple had to offer, his skin was itching from mingling in the masses for so long and he longed for the wide-open spaces of home.
He came upon a cluster of chairs and spotted a beautiful redhead flipping pages through the pages of a magazine that rested on her lap. The burnished copper of her hair reminded him of his friend Faith, and the touch of homesickness he’d been feeling the last couple days multiplied. Man, he couldn’t wait to step foot back onto the Sprawling A Ranch.
Across from the women sat a big, beefy biker dude, complete with scruffy beard and leather vest. Tattoos covered his bare arms, and his massive biceps stretched the short sleeves of his gray T-shirt. The man laughed at something he heard on his cellphone and shook his shaggy dark hair as Adam heard him mutter, “Geez. What a dumbass.”
The husky rumble went right to Adam’s ears and down to his boots, stopping him in his tracks. He glanced back over his shoulder at the biker and frowned. Maybe it was from being so homesick, or maybe it was because he was surrounded by airplanes, but Adam had heard his brother Scott call him and his siblings dumbass enough times to recognize the inflection.
Adam squinted, taking in the appearance of the giant man filling the tiny airport chair. While most of the Maguire sons took after their father with blonde hair and fair-skin, Scott had taken after their mother with an olive complexion and a full head of thick dark locks. Staring at the man’s profile, Adam could’ve sworn the man had the same nose as their mother.
It couldn’t be. His brother died on a mission. Him and his entire crew.
Didn’t he?
Scott’s body had never been recovered. And for years, their mother had carried on the hope that he was alive somewhere. Could this man be his brother?
While Adam stood there, staring transfixed as his brain tried to process the possibilities, the stranger stood and stretched his arms over his head. He tucked his phone into his back pocket then started to stride in the direction of the restroom.
Adam jolted into action and followed. As the man ambled along, Adam noticed his gait and how he walked with his knees slightly turned out, as if he’d grown up riding horses his entire life.
Coming to within a few feet of the muscular man, Adam stuttered, “Scott? Scott Maguire.”
The man drew up short. After a few heartbeats, he cautiously looked over his shoulder. “Are you talking to me, kid?” he asked in a voice as smooth as broken glass.
His breath stuck in his throat, barely allowing him to eek out, “Scott. Is that you?”
The man’s lips drew into a straight line. “Sorry, kid. Got me confused with someone else.”
“Wait. Wait.” Adam chased after him and ran around his big body, blocking his way.
Holy shit. Up close, this man was a fucking mountain.
Adam looked up, up, up and practically swallowed his tongue as he looked on the face of his long-lost brother.
Whoa. Whatever shit had gone down over the past several years had certainly taken a toll on Scott. Scars crisscrossed his stubbled jaw and forehead, and his nose was more crooked than Adam remembered. There were a series of fine lines around his eyes and valleys of strain around his tightly pursed lips. But there was no mistaking those dark eyebrows and that stark blue gaze that swirled with a pain that cut Adam to the quick.
“Scott?” he asked, still in disbelief.
“Look, kid. I don’t know who you think I am. But I ain’t him.”
“Cut the shit, Scott. Where have you been?”
Scott grimaced and shook his head. “You’re really starting to annoy me, kid. I get told I look like people all the time. I get it. Anyone over 6’3” with big shoulders, we all look the same.”
“We all thought you were dead.”
“I’m gonna tell you this one more time.” Violence glittered in his eyes and his nostrils flared. His voice lowered to a menacing growl. “You don’t know me, and I don’t know you. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave me alone.”
He moved to step past Adam, ramming his shoulder in a not-so-subtle hint to back away with enough force to make Adam stumble backward.
“I don’t understand,” Adam muttered as he watched the stranger with the familiar gait walk away.
He had to be Scott. Didn’t he?
Maybe this stranger was right, and it was a just case of mistaken identity. Perhaps Adam was so homesick that he was finding his dead brother in the faces of strangers? Or maybe Nic had slipped too much of whatever she had used to calm his nerves and now he was hallucinating? All sound possibilities, and all left a hole burning in his chest.
For years, he had grieved the loss of his brother like any young man did. Wistful remembrances whenever he’d stumble across anything that his big brother would have enjoyed or said. But those moments had come fewer and far between. Thinking about Scott had gone from a few times a day to maybe once a month, if that.
It wasn’t until that moment, when there had been the possibility of having his big brother back, that Adam realized how much he had missed the one Maguire son who never treated him as if he were a nuisance. Scott had been the quiet one in the family, the artist in the herd of ranchers. Every year on Adam’s birthday, Scott would draw him a cartoon and post it to his bedroom door. The older Adam got, the racier the cartoons became.
Scott had shipped off to the Marines when Adam was sixteen, and practically fell off the face of the earth when he joined Elite Ops. When he died, the family was devastated, their mother most especially. But even as she mourned, she never gave up hope that somehow someway her son survived the crash. As years passed, they all had come to terms that Scott was never coming back.
Apparently, that hope had rubbed off on her son as he now stood in the middle of a crowded airport terminal staring at the toes of his boots as his eyes filled with tears. God, he was such a fool, and a big baby, blubbering over his brother as the agony of his loss tore him asunder as if he had just been told the news for the first time.
There was a click of footsteps on the linoleum then another pair of cowboy boots entered his line of sight.
“What’s your name, kid?” asked the deep, growly voice.
The stranger had returned.
“Adam,” he mumbled, not even bothering to stop his sniffle. The pain was too raw.
“Adam. This Scott guy that you think I am, he was special to you?”
Adam nodded, unable to get the words to form on his tongue.
“What happened to him?”
“Died,” he mumbled. “Military. Elite Ops. Was killed on a mission.”
The man hummed and from under his lashes, Adam he saw him fold his arms across his broad chest. “And you miss him.”
It wasn’t a question, but Adam answered anyway. “Something fierce.”
The man rubbed his hand over his jaw and folded his arms again. “That’s tough. I was military, too. Came from a big family. I understand how hard it is to go out on missions that you can’t tell anyone about and you don’t know if you’ll ever return from.”
Adam blinked and looked up at the man as the cadence of his voice became almost hypnotic. “Yeah?”
He nodded. “When you sign your soul to Uncle Sam, you’re expected to do things. Lots of things. Terrible things. But you do the hard jobs because you know that in the end, you’re protecting the people you love.” He paused to clear his throat. “You know, I was, uh, in Elite Ops myself. I saw and did a lot of nasty shit. But if your brother loved his family as passionately as I do mine, he wouldn’t hesitate to do anything to protect them.” The blue of his eyes shimmered as they narrowed with intent. “If he were me, he’d do anything, sacrifice everything to keep them safe. Even if it meant losing them forever.”
He were me. Sacrifice everything.
Those words penetrated the fog of confusion and disbelief that had held him moments before and the truth began to emerge. Elite Ops had been the best of the best Marines. They did the jobs no one wanted and no one was supposed to know about.
“Sacrifice.” Adam managed to say, half-afraid to hope again. “To protect the family. You think my brother would do that?”
“For the love of his family. I bet my very soul on it.”
Holy shit. It was Scott. A battled-hardened version of his older brother was standing before him with sorrow and regret shining in his eyes.
Adam had no clue how long stared at his long-lost brother. It was only when the cold air from the air conditioner hit the hot line of tears rolling down his cheeks did he blink and wipe at the wetness with the sleeve of his shirt.
“That would-” He coughed “-that would suck. To be asked to do that. But I would understand the choices he made, and what happened, if he felt the family was in danger.”
Scott nodded and blinked away his own tears as his shoulders slumped as if relieved of a great weight. “Good. I hope you’d understand.”
“Do you think I’ll ever find out more details about how he died?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “The military is an interesting beast. For the foreseeable future, probably not.” The corner of his mouth kicked up into a grin. “But who knows what the future holds.”
“Yeah?” Adam let out a slow breath. “I hope so. I miss him. A lot.”
“Well, if I had a brother like you, I’d miss you, too.”
Over the loudspeaker a woman’s voice announced. “We are now boarding for flight 509. Non-stop to New York. All first-class passengers and those needing assistance are welcome to board now.”
“Well, that’s my flight.” Scott held out his hand. “It was good to meet you, Adam.”
Adam latched on to the offered hand and squeezed tight relishing the warmth and solidity of his brother’s touch. “Good to meet you too, sir.”
Scott chuckled and pulled away, although it appeared as if he did so reluctantly as he stared at their hands until their finger parted. “Good luck to you.”
“Thanks. Hey, I just got engaged. She’s a hell of a woman. Gorgeous, smart. And bakes the best cheesecakes.”
Scott blinked in surprise. “Whoa. Congratulations. Don’t you think you’re a little young?”
“Spoken like a true big brother.”
“Ha ha.” Scott clapped him on the back. “See you around, kid.”
Adam stood in the middle of the terminal and watched his brother amble away. It took everything within him not to follow and ask a million and one questions about what it was that had taken him away from his family and why they had been told he had died. But he quickly reconciled himself to the fact that whatever had happened, Scott was doing what he felt was right.
Oh, shit. Nic. She probably thought he passed out somewhere or had gotten lost.
He turned to go find his girl when a voice called out, “Adam.”
Just as he turned, he saw Scott standing behind him with his finger and thumb looped to form a circle. Before Adam could react, Scott punched him hard in the arm.
“Ow,” Adam cried out as the pain shot down his arm to his fingers, making them numb.
If there had been any shadow of doubt who this man was, that sneaky trick sealed the deal. Adam used to play the finger circle game with his brothers. The painful game came to an end the time Scott had come back from basic training. He hit so hard nobody wanted to play the game again.
In this case, Adam didn’t mind that he might not be able to use his hand for days. “Shit. That’s gonna leave a hell of a bruise. I’ll be feeling that forever.”
A sly smile stole over Scott’s lips. “I’m counting on it.”
“Love you,” Adam whispered. His throat constricted.
“Love you, too,” Scott mouthed back, then nodded and turned to quickly disappear into the crowd.
Adam thumped his chest with his good hand before he made his way back to Nic, opening and closing the fingers of his left hand to test his mobility. Damn. That really smarted.
Nic looked up as he approached. “Hey. I was getting worried there. Did you get lost?”
He couldn’t help but chuckle. “No. Actually, I found something.”
“Yeah? What did you find?”
“It’s a surprise. For my mother.” For the future. Although his mother would be relieved to know her son was safe, he sensed that to tell her the truth would do more damage than good.
Instead of taking a seat across from the table, he slid onto the bench seat next to Nic and pulled her into his arms. As she gasped in surprised delight, he took her lips and kissed her slow deep, unhurried, and full of all the love he had in his heart.
“Wow,” she sighed when he pulled away and stared up at it up at him with sex drugged eyes. “What was that for?”
“I love you, Nic. Just know I love you more than anything in the world. And I really can’t wait to take you home.”
“I love you, too, sweetie.” She rested her head on his chest and melted in his embrace. “I like when you say home.”
He liked when she said home, too, because he knew without a doubt that as long as they were together home was always within reach.
Check out Scott’s Story in Elite Metal: Adamantium’s Roar and Adam’s in Sweetest Kisses!
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