And observe,Mattie thought,like Leo always does. On the edge but not really part of things.
“I’ll stay with you.” Mattie looked around and found a table tucked into a corner.
“You don’t need to on my account. I’m fine by myself.”
“Crowds this thick make me feel like a caged swallow,” Mattie said, relaying half the truth. She also simply found herself wanting to be with Leo.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll get us some drinks, and I’ll meet you back here. What do you want?”
“A mint julep.”
“I’ll be back in a jiff,” Leo promised before he, too, disappeared into the ever-shifting wall of human beings. He hadn’t been gone too long when a rough voice spoke near Mattie.
“I’d hoped to see you on my break.”
She turned to find the bouncer standing there. Unlike Crenshaw, he didn’t encroach into her space but stood back like Vera’s aristocratic friend Edward. The two fellows might have been of different social classes, but they were both gentlemen.
“Do you mind if I chat with you?” His gravelly voice carried such an incongruous strain of earnestness that Mattie didn’t have the heart to dismiss him outright.
“Until my friend returns with some drinks.”
The fellow grinned. It should have been devastating. So should have Edward’s charming smile. But neither of the men’s handsome expressions had affected her, not like one of Leo’s slow, shy looks.
“Are you the same dame who flew that airplane yesterday?” the man asked. “I was there. Your hair is different, though.”
“I had it cut today.” Mattie couldn’t help but reach up and touch her wild curls. They felt so different. Light. Buoyant. Free.
“It’s nice. I like it.”
His words were pleasant, but they didn’t explode inside her like Leo’s had.“Mattie’s always bold no matter what she wears, but I think she looks swell.”
The bouncer and she slipped into small talk. Mattie learned his name was George and that he originally hailed from Indiana. She found him interesting enough, just as she had Edward, but she wasdistracted... and not just by the speakeasy’s raucous atmosphere. She wondered where Leo was. He’d been gone longer than she’d supposed, but then it would take a while just to navigate through the crowd.
When the aviator finally reappeared, he faltered. He stood still, and then he started to turn, not angry or blustery but courteous. He was giving Mattie a chance to get to know this stranger better if she desired.
“Leo!” She waved at him, just like she’d seen Vera do when hailing an acquaintance. He shot her a questioning look, and she beckoned again. Slowly, as if letting her have the opportunity to change her mind, he stepped forward.
“Your friend?” George’s voice held a twinge of disappointment. Mattie could have assured the bouncer that nothing romantic lay between her and Leo. But she didn’t.
Instead, she nodded her assent and introduced the two men as Leo drew closer. George stayed for a bit, but the conversation had grown stilted. Finally, the bouncer excused himself, saying he had to return to his post.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to chase him off.” Leo eased into a chair and slid her drink toward her. A sprig of mint cheerfully peeked from the glass.
But as much as Mattie wanted to try the drink Vera had called “simply the berries,” she didn’t reach for it. She had something to say. Something that suddenly felt critically, overwhelmingly important.
“He was sweet, but I didn’t want to get to know him better. I want to be withyou.”
As soon as the words fell from her lips, Mattie realized the startling truth of her statement. This...thiswas what she had been feeling the whole evening. ShewantedLeo. Handsome, boyish, quiet, protective, wonderful Leo.
And when Mattie wanted something,reallywanted something, she never hesitated and always raced toward it, throttle open, caution be damned.
“I want to be with you.”The words threatened to ignite Leo into a ball of burning hydrogen. But he knew all too well the danger inherent in an explosion. How it burst out of control. How it became a force of its own. How once triggered, it became unstoppable.
Surely Mattie did not mean the words romantically. She only meant that she preferred his company. And the cautious part of him, the part that had kept him safe through a life of peril, hoped it was true. Because if she did desire him... then he was truly lost to her.
“You know,” Mattie said, leaning over her sweet-smelling drink, her eyes a molten gold, “I realized something tonight.”
Leo should have glanced away, excused himself, found some reason to flee. Instead, he sat rooted to his chair like one of the ancient gnarled yews he’d seen on leave in France.
