Walt’s gaze, though, stayed on him for a few beats, and Leo barely kept from shifting. The experienced aviator likely recognized the falsehood. After all, Walt knew that the money Leo gave him each month to bolster the school didn’t match the income from Leo’s endorsement deals, and Leo obviously wasn’t spending it on himself.
Walt didn’t press the issue, but his next words made Leo nearly as uncomfortable. “Try and see this new opportunity as the adventure that it is.”
Leo glanced at Walt in surprise. Did his old mentor suspect that he’d long lost the pleasure of flying?
“You’re not disappointed we’re all leaving?” Leo asked, not able to shake the layers of guilt smothering him.
“Children grow up,” Walt continued. “They leave home and seek their own opportunities. The boys will be fine. This is right for Mattie, and it’s right for you. I’m just glad you’ll be together.”
“I’ll make sure to inspect Mattie’s plane.”
Walt grinned and gave his head a slight shake. “Don’t try to protect her too much. Be her partner, not her keeper.”
Partner.The word tantalized Leo before embarrassment flooded him at his foolish response. Mattie’s father had clearly only meantpartnerin the platonic sense.
“And, Leo?” Walt said.
Leo jerked, wondering if the man had divined his thoughts. But Walt’s expression remained open, kind. He certainly didn’t wear the scowl of a protective father.
“Have some fun too. Use this opportunity. Let yourself soar again.”
Leo frowned, not sure if he understood Walt’s advice. “I fly every day.”
Walt placed his hand on Leo’s shoulder again, this time keeping it there. “You go up in the air, and you maneuver the plane, Leo, but you don’t soar. It’s high time you started feeling the joy of it again.”
Chapter Four
“Are you ready?” Leo asked Mattie as he swung his knapsack into the passenger seat. He’d never had many possessions. At the orphanage, he hadn’t even owned a second set of clothes. But his most prized belonging was the bundle of letters that Mattie had sent him during his deployment. He had them practically memorized, but he still opened them up and slowly read them on nights he couldn’t sleep.
Mattie swallowed, casting one last glance at her brothers and father. The McAdams men stood like soldiers at muster, shoulders back, chests puffed out, arms down at their thighs. Leo thought he might have caught the faintest hint of mist in Walt’s eyes when he’d hugged his daughter, but Leo hadn’t wanted to look too hard. Unlike Mattie, he hadn’t gone down the line embracing the people he considered his family. They’d just shaken hands as they’d nodded at each other—stiff, economical movements that betrayed no emotion.
“Yeah, I guess I am.” Mattie gave another wave. The row of McAdamses acknowledged her gesture with another jerk of their chins.
“Having second thoughts?” Leo asked, hoping his voice didn’t sound too eager. “It isn’t too late to change your mind.”
Evidently, he hadn’t picked the right tone or words. Mattie shot him a rather withering glare. “No, I am not. Even if I was, I have a ladies’ agreement with Vera. I’m just going to miss Pa and the boys. That’s all. Aren’t you?”
Leo grunted, not wanting to admit how much he would. He’d survived all these years by shutting himself off, not by wallowing in things that couldn’t be helped. “They’ll miss you, too, even if they don’t say it.”
“I know.” Mattie sighed. “Sometimes I wish this family was more open about how they felt instead of being somanlyall the time.”
Leo emitted another noncommittal sound. “Maybe they aren’t trying to be tough—it’s just their way of dealing with things.” Or self-preservation, like it was for him.
Mattie shrugged as she lifted her own bundle of possessions into her Jenny. It wasn’t a big bag, but it was nearly double his. Life had taught them both to travel light. “I suppose, but I still think it would be best to talk about it. Alfred would’ve.”
“He was one for chatting,” Leo said, his voice feeling as rough as a splintered piece of wood with dry rot. He didn’t like discussing his friend in the best of times and especially not now, when he was already feeling more raw than numb.
“Anyway.” Mattie whipped her braid over her shoulder as she started to shove her helmet over her head. “I’ll feel better once we’re in the air. There’s nothing like soaring, is there?”
It was Leo’s turn to lift his shoulders. “It gets the job done.”
Mattie stopped with her helmet still bunched around her ears. Her hazel eyes had grown wide, her pink lips slack. “Itgetsthe job done!”
Leo cleared his throat as he wondered if he’d made a serious misstep. “Well, it does. Gets a body from point A to point B faster than anything else.”
Mattie’s mouth pursed into a circle as she slid her finger under the leather encasing her head in order to straighten the hide. “Is that what you think of flying nowadays? Don’t you feel that thrill? That excitement? That wonder?”
Leo rubbed his neck, wishing he hadn’t triggered this line of inquiry. Heck, he and Mattie hadn’t talked this much since he’d ratted her out to her brothers on the day of Alfred’s memorial service. Leo needed toturn Mattie’s focus away from him and back to herself. “Every flight is like the first with you?”
