The Future is in the Air Ch. 04

Eric and Peggy were major stockholders with insider information, but I trusted their sense to not get any of us in trouble by using it.

"You think it's made everyone nervous when that showed up on their calendars?" Eric asked.

"Yeah. Can't be helped."

Peggy excused herself for a few minutes then came back with an incredibly nice bottle of white wine and four glasses. She uncorked, poured, and served us all.

"Okay, you two. Out with it all. What are your plans?"

"Oh, you know. We only want to enjoy the weekend," Leah answered, grinning cheekily, "and some fine wine."

"Stop it, woman! You know what I'm talking about. Wedding plans!"

"We haven't made very many yet other than we plan to have it in Edmond," Leah answered.

"Know when?"

"We're thinking December. A winter wedding."

"Christmas lights and everything? That'll be so beautiful." Peggy dreamily sighed.

"Eric, I would like you to be my Best Man," I said.

"It'd be my honor, my friend. Count on me."

Leah looked at me questioningly. I encouraged her with a little nod.

"Peggy, my foster sister is going to be my matron of honor, and I'd love it if you would stand with me, too."

"Oh! Of course, Leah!" Peggy beamed and rose to give Leah a hug.

After chatting over details, and opening another bottle of wine, Eric asked, "So what are you going to do now that you're not working?"

"Believe me. I'm still working. Leah is, too."

"On what?" Eric asked.

I deferred to Leah because it was her proposition. She cleared her throat before she spoke.

"Lance and I have a little idea we'd like to run by you."

She gave a quick overview.

"That's no little idea," Eric observed. "But … what sparked it?"

She spent an hour outlining most of the details.

"Yeah," he said after a few moments of silent evaluation.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Peggy?" Eric asked his wife.

"You've already got the college on board?"

"Nothing set in stone yet, but we've had lunch with the president a couple of times. I doubt he's going to turn down a grant that big. It'll allow them to develop a full four-year degree program. Bachelor of Aviation Sciences."

"He told me if we're serious about it all, they'll start setting up an ad hoc committee to spearhead the development of the program, do the leg work, and start working with the county to acquire some of the land adjacent to the east side of McKinney airport to build a hangar facility for the planes and maintenance team," Leah added.

"That's so exciting!" Peggy smiled. "Wow. And they're going to name it what?"

"The Marlin School of Aviation Sciences." Eric pouted. "How come he gets his name on a building and I don't?" he huffed at Peggy with his arms crossed and humorously groaned, "It's not fair."

"Well, if you want to plunk down some moolah, they might consider naming one of the hangars 'Eric.'" Leah grinned wryly.

"That's really going to open up a lot of opportunities for underprivileged kids. Peggy and I will talk it over, but we might be willing to kick into a scholarship fund."

"It's exactly what we hoped you might consider," I said, raising my glass for another toast. "To the future Reiter Scholarship!"

"And to the future Dr. and Mrs. Marlin!" Peggy raised hers as well, and we all clinked crystal.

"Gosh, Leah! I still can't believe how gorgeous this all looks!" Peggy beamed, taking in the surroundings as the band played.

Leah grinned. "Thanks. It really was like a dream working with the planner."

We'd said our vows in front of our seventy or eighty guests the hour before. The entire outdoor space was lit with white crystal-looking LED string-lights. Even the ice sculptures had lighting within and around them. Despite the fact it was a chilly forty-seven degrees that December evening, the infrared propane-fired heaters distributed about the area kept everyone comfortably warm.

Mira Echols (Leah's foster sister) and Peggy looked remarkable in their cabernet-colored dresses. Leah looked like a cover model in her figure-fitting lace-adorned knee-length dress. She had teased me when I tuned into a show on TV about bridezillas who wanted to spend a fortune on their wedding dresses. Leah hated the whole concept and found what suited her and probably cost less than a quarter of the cheapest things we saw on TV, plus she looked far better in hers than those self-entitled TV brats did in theirs.

"So where's the honeymoon?" Peggy asked.

"A jet will be waiting at Will Rogers tomorrow morning, all fueled up for Grand Cayman," Leah dreamily said with her hands clasped at her chest.

I smiled because I knew she was sorely looking forward to it. Work had been extremely stressful the month before because a plane went down on the runway. It'd struck what the investigators think was a turkey vulture during short final, causing the right wing to stall, and the airplane to cartwheel into the grass. The single pilot aboard was seriously injured, but miraculously survived.

Since Leah was on duty, she'd observed the entire incident, and became a subject in the investigation. Her manager assured her it was all pro forma , but that didn't relieve the worry she felt, nor the sense of personal responsibility she foisted onto her own shoulders. I remember when she came home from the airport that night ready to receive her in my arms to offer whatever comfort I could.

She needed the time away to sit back and not worry about anything at all. I had no intentions of doing anything other than making sure she relaxed and enjoyed our time alone together.

Leah slept a good chunk of the flight the next morning. She was more exhausted than I figured, though we had stayed up until almost 1:00am to continue mingling with our guests.

During that week, Leah spanked the crap out of me in a round of golf. We had to be rescued by a powerboat when our kayak got too far away from land with winds, and the receding tide, making it impossible to paddle back. Leah was woefully embarrassed, but I thought the whole thing was hysterically funny.

We fished. We sailed. We parasailed. We skied. We jet skied. We surfed, or at least tried. She spanked me again on a different golf course. We danced. We wined and dined. We came close to going skydiving, but I chickened out. We chartered a boat to take us to Stingray City. We laughed a lot and cried once or twice as we shared more of our skeleton secrets with each other.

We talked about the college's agreement to formalize the program Leah pitched.

We made love. We gave guidance in pleasuring each other. I had no idea one of Leah's most intense erogenous zones (other than the obvious ones, that is) was the skin directly under and behind her ears at her hairline. She told me the first time I softly touched her there, which was the first time we kissed, the sensation she felt almost made her pass out in the deli parking lot. I made sure to file that away. No way would I want to desensitize such spots by overusing them, but it is very satisfying to me how her skin erupts in half a second into goose-pimples when I nibble her there. She found spots on me I didn't even know I had.

We are in love. We are husband, wife, and mates. We are partners. Powers above willing, we are forever.

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If you enjoyed this story, check out the sequel of a whole different sort, Sacrifices In the Long Run. Be prepared for a bumpy flight.