Free Blue by You by Rachel Gibson Page A

overgrown weeds, and trees. Cypress and live oak. When he finally pulled the truck to a stop, she was feeling kind of buzzed from downing her drink so fast.
    She got out and looked around. She knew they were on a strip of property between Dahlia Hall and Esterbrook, but she wasn’t exactly sure where. She glanced around to get her sense of direction, but the darkness and vodka conspired against her.
    “Here.” Kasper shoved a small but powerful flashlight at her.
    She took it and followed after him because what else was she going to do. He was acting like he had a right to be angry. “If I lag behind, are you going to hog-tie me?”
    “It’s a possibility. Hog-tying is just part of my skill set when it comes to suppressing rebellion.”
    She glanced about the terrain and the lightning bugs. She smiled at the flits of light that had virtually disappeared after Katrina. But they were back now. Like a lot of New Orleans. Her smile fell when her gaze landed on the outline of the big man in front of her. “Where are we going?”
    “Right here.” He shined his flashlight on a tree. A live oak tree. “You first.”
    Apprehension tightened her chest. “You want me to climb this tree? In the dark?” She hadn’t been at this spot in twenty-two years, but she knew this tree.
    “I’ll catch you if you fall.”
    “Kasper.”
    “I spent all day putting new steps on the tree,” he said, sounding more tired than before. “Now get your ass up there.”
    She had a feeling that if she didn’t climb, he’d throw her over his shoulder and go all Tarzan on her. With her rubber boots on her feet and the flashlight between her teeth, she climbed. Up she went, until she came to the platform that had once been Kasper’s childhood fort. In the middle of the floor sat a battery-powered lantern. Like twenty-two years before, she felt a big hand on her butt, pushing her up. Kasper followed and stood in front of her, staring down into her face. By the light of the lantern, she could see he was frowning. His brows pulled together in one dark line. “Are you drunk?”
    “No.” She was buzzed.
    He stared at her for several long moments, then said, “You didn’t ask why?”
    “What?”
    “Today, in your office, you didn’t ask me why I left early all those years ago.”
    She thought the answer was obvious, but since it seemed important to him, she asked, “Why? Why did you leave Kasper?”
    “Because I wanted to stay,” he said, his voice a low rumble. “And that scared the hell out of me. For most of my life, I’d wanted to be a scout sniper. I’d dreamed of it as I’d picked off squirrels as a kid. I worked hard to get into sniper school, and I worked hard to earn my Hog’s Tooth. The future I wanted for myself was set. I was on my way up; and then I met you.” He folded his arms across a clean white T-shirt and looked off into the darkness. “I’d just moved up in rank and was part of the elite forces that I’d always dreamed about. I joined when I was eighteen and planned to serve my whole twenty. Then I met you, and for the first time, I thought about getting out in four years. I was standing at the door of my future, and that scared the shit out of me.” He laughed without humor. “I mean, who finds the love of their life at a crawdad feed at the age of twenty-one? That’s just ridiculous.”
    “Kasper.” She dropped her flashlight to the floor. It bounced and fell to the ground.
    “Who looks through a bunch of steam boiling out of a pot and falls in love with a girl he’s never met?”
    Tears stung the backs of her eyes as her heart totally melted. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. “Kasper.”
    “I love you, Blue.” He buried his face in the top of her hair. “I’m sorry I was a coward all those years ago. If you give me the chance, I’ll show you that I’m not the man at forty- three that I was at twenty-one. Hell, I am not even the man I was a week ago.” He