Tate watched Lara’s face as she tried to absorb how close she had come to dying. His own heart raced as they watched the solemn news report.
Neither one of them had bothered to get dressed, and he wore a pair of pajama pants that he’d found in the closet, probably Gabe’s. Lara wore a pair of warm cotton, pink pajamas. He’d hiked to the helicopter after he got up this morning to get her bags.
“Oh, my God,” Lara gasped, her hand over her mouth in horror.
Tate looked at the television in the living room that he’d just turned on, wishing he hadn’t. Lara would have had to find out eventually, but it hadn’t needed to be today. She’d been so happy, so playful. They were still wallowing in the joy of finding out they were in love.
Oh, hell.
“It crashed, Tate. My flight. Everybody died,” she said in a shocked voice, her eyes glued to the television.
He sat down next to her on the couch and wrapped his arms around her to cuddle her against his chest.
“I know, Lara. I know.” Tate was practically hyperventilating himself, imagining how he would feel right now if Lara had been on that plane, and feeling sick for the passengers who had been on the aircraft. He could very easily been one of the people who were mourning loved ones right now.
“Those poor people.” Lara started to cry.
Tate flipped off the news, unable to watch Lara’s horror anymore. “Let’s not watch it anymore.”
Lara nodded, but she still sobbed.
He rocked her body against him, so damn grateful that she was here, alive and breathing. “I owe Travis…again.”
“What happened last time? I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you.”
Tate shrugged. “I can’t say I really believed it either when Trav first told me about his dreams. But a warning from Travis made me hesitate to take an extra mission. I only stopped for a minute because what he said kept running through my mind over and over. But by the time I volunteered for the extra operation, somebody had beaten me to it. Everybody on the mission died.”
“So you understand how I feel,” Lara murmured softly.
Yeah, he knew exactly how she felt: as if it should have been her who died, too. “I know how you feel, and everyone would have died whether you’d been on that plane or not. The fact that you survived doesn’t make a difference to those people, so be grateful that you’re alive and not feel guilty for living.”
“Is that how you felt?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Except it should have been me instead of the other volunteer. It took me awhile to get over that.”
Lara took a deep, tremulous breath. “I have to meet this Travis. He’s amazing. I just wish he could have warned the airline.”
“I’m certain he tried. But there’s no way the airline is going to cancel a flight because some guy thinks he had a psychic dream. Most likely they’ll just think he’s nuts. This has never been a blessing for Travis. It’s been more like a curse. It doesn’t happen to him that often. And I don’t think he’s had a premonition dream since he saved Ally’s life.”
“Ally?”
“His wife now. You’d love her. She can bust Travis’s balls when she wants to, and she used to be his secretary.” Ally could wrap Travis around her little finger, just like Lara could do to him very easily.
“You’re right. I’m sure we could be very good friends. Do you see them very often?” she asked curiously.
Glad that Lara was distracted from her near-death experience, he answered, “Not as often as I’d like. He lives in Florida. But we’re both involved in the charity for abused women that I told you about. His brother Kade’s wife is Asha, the woman who was abused, and started the charity.”
“Travis and Kade Harrison?” Lara asked, her voice slightly awed.
Tate frowned, not particularly liking the fact that Lara sounded impressed. “You’ve heard of them?”
Lara snorted. “Who hasn’t? Kade Harrison was a famous quarterback and a billionaire, and Travis Harrison is a brilliant businessman. I think it’s great that they both contribute.”
“We don’t just contribute,” Tate answered. “We run the whole operation. Jason Sutherland manages the financials and the rest of us do fundraising and other tasks that need to be done.”
She pulled back to look at him. “Is every billionaire in America involved? Sheesh! Jason Sutherland, too?”
“Not all of them…yet. But we’re working on it.” He grinned at her, proud of the organization that all of them had formed to combat domestic abuse.
“I really would like to get involved,” Lara mused.
“I offered.” Tate knew now why she’d refused. “Now that you’re going to be my wife, maybe you’ll feel like you can be involved in any way you want to.” He hesitated for moment before he added, “I don’t ever want to hold you back from anything you want to do. I’d move to Washington if you want me to so you can continue to be an agent.”
Fuck. That hurt!
The last thing he wanted was for Lara to put herself in danger every day as an FBI agent. But he didn’t want her unhappy either. He would stand beside her with whatever she wanted to do, but that didn’t mean he had to particularly like it.
“I like Colorado,” Lara admitted softly. “And we’d have family here.”
Tate’s heart swelled at the fact that Lara was going to consider his family as her family, too. It had been a long time since she’d had family who really cared. “You might find them a little overwhelming at times.” Tate knew he did. In fact, sometimes they drove him bat-shit crazy. But he loved every member of his family fiercely and considered himself lucky to be part of the Colter family.
“Solitude is highly overrated,” Lara told him thoughtfully. “I’d love to have family.”
“Well, get ready, baby, because you’re going to have a lot of it now.” He paused. “So how are you going to feel about giving up your career? Or are you going to just transfer to the Denver office?”
Damn. That hurt, too. But I have to make sure she has all of her options. This has to be her choice.
“Well, I’m actually going to have a very rich husband, so I think I’ll ask him if he’s willing to support us for a while if I go back to school.”
Tate let out a giant whoop. “Hell yeah, he would. He’s loaded.” He kissed her forehead. “I have to admit, I’m relieved.”