Free Hawk (Stag) by Ann B Harrison

Chapter One
     
     
    “Hawk, is that you?” He turned and watched the petite
blonde he’d been hoping to see sashay toward him along the boardwalk in her tourist operator’s uniform.
    “Cassie. Great to see you.” Geoff Hawkins reached for
her, intent on giving her a hug.
    She lifted her hand and slapped him across the face,
hard. “You lousy bastard! How dare you stand me up and never bother to call. I
didn’t know if you were dead or alive or just in someone else’s bed.”
    The sting should have shocked Hawk but in truth he was
kind of expecting it. In his job there was always the risk of pissing off some
poor unsuspecting female. No excuses, no goodbyes, and no postcards with a
‘thanks for the great time’.
    He’d hoped for more from Cassie. They’d gotten on well
since they were kids. She knew he was in the armed forces—just not what part of
it exactly. Nobody knew that; not even his mother. Still, a slap across the
face wasn’t what he wanted. No. Something a little more welcoming would have
been nice. Not exactly a full-on parade to welcome him home after a long stint
overseas but less palm action would have been preferable. He refused to rub the
spot even though it burned like hell.
    “Where were you?” Her eyes misted over and his stomach
clenched.
    Not the tears. Please don’t give me the tears. They
always make me feel like a callous bastard. I’m not. Secretive—yes, callous—no. “I told you
before, I can’t…”
    “…tell me or you’ll have to kill me. Right, I got it.”
She wiped a hand over her eyes; half turned away from him and gazed out over
the ocean, the wind softly blowing the hair away from her tear-streaked face.
“So why are you here then? Going to love me and leave me again?”
    “You mean you’ll give me a chance?” He watched her
eyes for any sign of impending violence, ready to take a step back or do a tuck
and roll off the pathway.
    “Tell me why I should. You promise me the moon, take
me out, wine and dine me and take me to bed, love me like you mean it and then
disappear. I’m not sure I can take any more of that treatment. Why would
anybody in their right mind want crap like that?”
    “Can we go somewhere and talk about this, please? I
don’t need to share my secrets with the local tourists or your work
colleagues?” He reached a hand out to her, inviting her to give him the chance.
    “I don’t know if I want to go there again.” Cass wiped
a finger under her eyelid, sniffed and looked him directly in the eyes. “You’ll
sweet talk me, and after the last time, I promised myself not to get sucked in.
I want more than a part time, roll-in-roll-out-of-bed boyfriend, Hawk. I want a
man who can commit. That isn’t you, is it?”
    He stepped closer, her smell triggering his body to
react as it always did around her. Damned if he hadn’t almost talked himself
into not coming back and trying to make it up to her. When the boss told them
they had Christmas off this year, his well-laid plans to keep his distance had
changed. It was the opportunity he’d looked for. He needed Cass as much as he
needed the adrenaline buzz he got from his job. It was all he could do not to
commandeer a chopper out to Fraser Island to see her. Common sense had won out
and he’d shared the ferry trip across to the island resort where she worked
with a load of wide-eyed visitors, dingoes and four wheel drives. “I have
Christmas off this year. Can we spend it together? It might give us a chance to
sort this out once and for all. I don’t want to lose you, Cass. Please say
yes.”
    ***
    The pleading look in his eyes almost did her in. She’d
loved Geoff Hawkins ever since she was paired up with him for a science
experiment in year eight. They’d become best friends and that was enough …
until he’d started dating other girls. She’d been tempted to tell him how she
felt but always chickened out at the last minute. Better to be his friend than
be laughed at when he