While my squadron had the day off from flying, I knew a different unit planned a morning flight.
“We’re here,” I told Aiden when I pulled open the back door of my truck and took his hand. I held onto him as we rounded to the bed of the truck and lifted him inside.
“What’s this?”
“This is the best view from outside of the cockpit,” I replied. “It’s also the spot I brought your mom to on the first day we met.” I hadn’t meant to let that piece of information slip out.
I pointed at the sky right as the thunderous roar of a fighter jet could be heard in the distance.
Aiden looked up, his mouth falling open as the incoming jet rushed over our heads.
“Never gets old,” I mumbled.
“What type of plane is that?” Aiden asked a few minutes later when he spotted a much larger and slower plane.
“That’s the tanker,” I said. “We use those to refuel while in the air.”
That answer prompted Aiden to ask many questions about how we could refuel our jets while still flying.
But as I told Savannah earlier, his questions didn’t bother me. I think I had more fun than he did. I even managed to pull up a video on my phone of a jet refueling mid-air.
I’d seen this very sight hundreds, if not thousands, of times before. But seeing through Aiden’s eyes was like experiencing it for the first time.
“Thanks for bringing me here, Mr. Ace.” He hopped off the bed of my truck to the ground. “I wish we could go get ice cream.”
I stuffed my phone back into my back pocket and lifted a brow, smirking. “Ice cream? It’s like…” I paused to glance at my watch and bulged my eyes. “It’s almost ten o’clock.”
I was supposed to have Aiden at school thirty minutes ago. “I need to get you to school.”
“Aw, man.” He kicked a loose rock on the ground.
“I thought you liked school.”
“I do.” He continued to frown. “But hanging out with you is so much more fun.”
“Are you trying to butter me up, kid?”
He giggled, and it brought me to laugh also. “I’ll tell you what, how about we go and get that ice cream, and I’ll have you at school by lunch?”
He nodded with wide eyes and a massive grin.
I knew Savannah probably wouldn’t like my decision, but I couldn’t deny that I’d grown a hell of a soft spot for this kid. I didn’t want to send him off to school almost as much as he didn’t want to go.
Fuck it. It was only one day of school. Not even a full day, at that.
Savannah would understand, I reasoned as I drove to the ice cream shop.
“Hey, Mr. Ace?” Aiden called as we pulled into the shop.
“Yeah?” I helped him down from the truck and held onto his hand as we entered the shop.
“What did you mean when you said my Mama saved you, too?”
I stopped short and peered down at him. He stared back at me with wide eyes, waiting for me to answer his inquiry. I hadn’t even realized he’d heard me say that.
I thought back to the night Savannah saved me from myself.
* * *
