Iadjusted the stacker for the thinner paper of the next batch of documents I was preparing to feed into the scanner. The new machine made my job a lot easier. It also gave me more time to daydream about the man who rescued me from tripping yesterday.
I’d been so focused on staying within the boundaries of the tarmac that I’d completely missed the most obvious thing and would’ve been in trouble if Keegan didn’t have such quick reflexes. And strong muscles.
It was too easy to remember how his large hands had gripped me. The shiver of awareness that had gone through me.
Not that I blamed myself too much since Keegan would’ve made quite an impression even if we’d met under different circumstances. His dark hair and intense green eyes were hard to forget. But it was his firm lips I kept thinking about, wondering what it would’ve felt like if he kissed me.
I’d actually thought for a moment that he’d been tempted to, which was ridiculous. A guy like him could have any woman he wanted. I was just a boring data archivist. As a civilian admin, pilots often overlooked me. But it hadn’t felt that way whenKeegan caught me. It had felt like he’d missed nothing. And hadn’t been disappointed.
Shaking my head, I forced the inappropriate thought away and focused on the document in front of me. The next batch of files fed smoothly through the scanner. I monitored the digital queue while updating the spreadsheet I’d built to track my progress.
“Already?” my supervisor asked from behind me.
I glanced up to find Jim leaning against the edge of my cubicle wall. “Already what?”
“I just sent that batch over twenty minutes ago.”
“Oh, then yes. Already.” I turned my monitor slightly so he could see the screen. “I haven’t gotten far, but some 2022 logs were mixed in with the batch from 2024.”
“Good catch.” He gave me an approving smile. “You’re fast and accurate. I’m lucky you took the relocation offer. We needed someone who could untangle this mess.”
“It was good timing for me. I needed a change.” I didn’t elaborate because the grief was still too strong.
“How’re you settling in?”
“West Virginia isn’t all that different from Georgia.” I minimized the open windows on my screen and folded my hands loosely in my lap. “And I bounced around a lot growing up. Navy brat.”
“Glad to hear it.” He nodded toward my screen. “Well, keep doing what you’re doing. At this rate, we might actually finish this project ahead of schedule.”
“Will do, sir.”
He walked off, already checking his phone.
I reopened the index and continued sorting. Digitizing records wasn’t glamorous work. It took a lot of patience and attention to detail. Two traits I hadn’t known I possessed until my dad pulled some strings to get me a job as a records assistanta couple of years ago. I wouldn’t have been hired without him, but I’d made myself indispensable and moved my way up to an archivist role faster than anyone expected.
Which had been a lifesaver for me when we lost my brother a year ago. Looking at old flight logs somehow made me feel closer to Carson.
A few hours later, I fed another stack into the scanner and frowned at the one on top.
“That’s not right,” I muttered under my breath.
I pulled the sheet free and shook my head. The one under it didn’t belong with this batch either. They weren’t part of the logs I’d been working on. The headers were from 2025 instead of 2024.
Somewhere along the line, someone had mixed in records that didn’t belong. They should’ve been in the next batch I’d be working on.
I thumbed through the sheets to see how many pages were impacted, stacking them neatly beside my keyboard. Once I dug deep enough to get back to the correct year, I read through the first incorrect document.
My breath caught as a familiar name jumped out at me. A call sign I had memorized years ago from dinner table conversations and forwarded squadron photos. Merlin had flown with Carson.
I wondered if there would be more details about Carson in the files. So I continued flipping through the pages until I reached a flight my brother had piloted. The date stamped beside his name was one I knew by heart. I’d never expected to be tasked with archiving documents related to the crash that cost him his life.
Unsure if I was emotionally prepared to read the details, I set it aside and picked up the next report. Only it was for the same flight.
I’d already caught some duplicate documents, but none that hit this close to home.
The process before destroying one copy was to review the information line by line to ensure it was truly identical.
It was what I’d done when I found that Merlin had two logs for the same flight. I’d found a small discrepancy and set it aside to find out which one to import later.
