“You know what I mean.”
Still holding on to her, he untied his shoes. It was a little more difficult for him to remove his oxfords than it had been for Mattie to undo the buckle on her pumps, but he was managing without too much undignified hopping.
“You know, it would be easier to do that with two hands,” Mattie observed, but Leo noticed she made no move to release him.
“I’m not ready to let go of you just yet.” Now that he was finally touching her, he had no idea how he’d had the strength to keep his distance all these years.
Her fingers squeezed his. “To tell the truth, I’m not either.”
Emotion gushed through Leo, rushing into every hollow, every deep, chiseled place that he’d never hoped to fill. At last, his second shoe popped off. Leaving it in the sand beside its mate, he pulled off his socks and then straightened. Mattie’s light laughter mixed with his deeper, rustier chuckle, and together they dashed along the sandy stretch. The water lapped lazily against the shore, the sound rhythmic and soothing. Pearly light danced along the surface, giving a pleasant, magical glow.
Mattie suddenly skidded to a stop, her neck craned upward. “Isn’t the sky beautiful tonight?”
She grabbed Leo’s other hand and twirled them in a mad circle, her chin pointed toward the heavens. He, however, watched her face and the wondrous emotions that flitted across it.
“Yes, it is,” he said.
“The stars are a bit overshadowed by the moon, but altogether it is breathtaking. Don’t you just want to jump into our Jennies and dance among the constellations?”
“Night flying is dangerous,” Leo pointed out, thinking of how Alfred had gotten so twisted during his final battle as the twilight had crept in upon them. “It’s easy to get disoriented and lose your way, and you can’t see to land.”
“It’s what happened to Alfred.” Mattie echoed his thoughts as she stopped their mad whirl. “If only there had been some way for him to know where he was headed.”
“During the war,” he admitted, “I volunteered to perform reconnaissance months after Alfred’s death. It was near the end of the fighting, and a group of doughboys were pinned down under heavy fire. Headquarters wanted to make sure that more German troops weren’t being sent to wipe them out.”
“I didn’t know that,” Mattie said softly.
“By then, I’d grown to be calm in the air—maybe preternaturally so. But it was unnerving being up there in the darkness with nothing to guide you, no landmarks below, your maps useless. Any signal, any hint of my direction other than my less-than-reliable compass would have helped.”
“But you never thought about turning back, did you?” Mattie asked.
“Our boys on the ground needed me. I wouldn’t abandon my mission until I had the information. I was never so glad, though, as I was when I saw the spotlights from my own aerodrome.”
“Home,” Mattie said softly, as if she understood, but then Mattie had always seen his inner thoughts so easily. That is, all the ones except his affection for her.
Leo cleared his throat, the old memories pressing down on him, deflating his elation. He’d never spoken much about the war, not even to Mattie’s brothers nor to other fellow veterans. He supposed it was like any other part of his past. Something he either swept away or hid deep inside.
Yet here with Mattie, on this magical stretch of beach, he found himself able to talk.
“Sometimes when a pilot didn’t return after dusk, we would shoot Very lights into the sky. They would burst in the air, sort of like fireworks or shooting stars. We were all trying to bring lost aviators home, as if those little streaks of brilliance would somehow produce a miracle.”
“I can see why you don’t want to go night flying,” Mattie said softly.
“Mattie, you don’t have to go sailing off into the stars to find excitement.” He stood before her, their hands still clasped in each other’s from their wild spin. Instead of turning their bodies again, Leo gently pulled Mattie close. She could break his grip at any time and stop her forward momentum, but she didn’t.
“Exactly what adventure are you proposing?” Mattie asked impishly, clearly taking his cue to change the mood back to lighthearted. She collided gently with his chest, her chin now tilted up at him instead of the firmament.
“I’m thinking that the best way to soar without ever leaving the ground is to do this...”He dipped his head and pressed his mouth against hers. Having lived as a nomad most of his life, he hadn’t had too much experience in the kissing department. He figured Mattie really hadn’t either. But it didn’t matter. Their lips might have slid over each other’s a little awkwardly at first, but his heart still pounded from the thrill of it all.
He hadn’t felt this alive, thisgood, since before the war. It was like flying for the first time, only better because he was still grounded. There was a rightness at the core of this, a marvelous, wonderful steadiness in all the swirling madness.
Mattie’s lips felt soft and cool, and the gentle friction triggered glorious sparks. Mattie’s body sank against his. They didn’t have too much difference in height, and he loved that fact. Loved how they fit together so neatly, her softness against his hardness. Yet she possessed undeniable strength too. Her arms were strong against the back of his neck. He could feel her muscles, earned from years of fixing engines and hauling parts. This was his Mattie, unique and utterly perfect for him.
His hand touched her curls, and he marveled at their smooth, soft resilience as they bounced back into shape as soon as his fingers brushed over them. They didn’t feel like fire, but they affected him just the same. Warm heat zinged through him, like a thousand incendiary bullets finding their marks. He made a sound, a low groan that seemed to reverberate through him. Mattie rewarded him with a little moan of her own. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, the pressure echoing his own tumbling need.
Leo’s lips moved from her mouth, exploring her cheeks. If it had been daylight, he might have taken the time to kiss each individual freckle. But he swore he knew where most of them were from memory. She shuddered in his arms, her breaths growing shorter and shorter. The sound galvanized him. He traced his lips over her temple and then drew them over her jaw. She uttered another marvelous sound as she allowed him to explore.
Then she lifted her head. The silvery strands of moonlight illuminated her pale skin. He recognized her expression instantly—the thrill and utter glee. Mattie looked this way when she whipped her Jenny through the sky, letting the machine swoop and dance more gracefully than a majestic hawk. Her lips pressed against his mouth with the same focus and passion she exhibited in the cockpit. He felt like he did when in free fall, spinning, whirling, his mind utterly dazed. But for once he didn’t worry about the landing.
